I arrived in Marcola, Oregon yesterday afternoon, which is right outside of the university town of Eugene. There are plenty of organic food companies around us here- Mountain Rose Herbs, Mycological Mushrooms, and Yogi Tea are just a few examples of local companies.

We are at Emma’s house, growing food and filming our Summer season. We are so excited for our lineup, but there is a lot of work to get done along with the filming. Emma arrived a few weeks ago and has been weeding and planting away. Today I got my fingernails dirty planting eggplant, peppers, herbs, and squash. Emma has tomatoes, potatoes, onions, beans, and plenty of herbs growing already (she will update you tomorrow with her garden journal). The food is going to be so good, because it is grown right here out the back door. Just now, we dug up some baby onions. We briefly sautéed them before seasoning them with some special truffled salt and they were out of this world. They might just have been onions, but they were sweet and fragrant and full of flavor. That is the difference that you can taste in your food when you eat local- there are little nuances that surface in the ingredients.

I am looking forward to exploring the taste of "here", meeting new people, and discovering fun recipes. Tomorrow night: carbonara-style pasta with black truffle salt and market greens. Enough said.