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by Tamara Jo Hicks (Author), Jessica Lynn MacLeod (Author), Katie Newburn (Photographer)
From the famed Toluma Farms and its award-winning Tomales Farmstead Creamery: an irresistibly lush, illustrated collection of seasonal farm-to-table recipes paired with advocacy, education, and delicious inspiration.
Welcome to Toluma Farms, a 160-acre goat and sheep dairy and educational farm in Marin County, California, just a few miles from the Pacific Coast, stewarded since 2003 by Tamara Jo Hicks, her husband, David Jablons, and their two daughters. In partnership with writer and illustrator Jessica MacLeod, Feasts on the Farm is a gorgeous cookbook organized by the seasons that captures the nourishing, creative, and positive approach taken by the entire Toluma team. Through 60+ tantalizing recipes ranging from starters to mains to sweets, this book makes it easy to bring Northern California living into your home, sharing practical guidance on how to:- Take advantage of your local farmer's market's springtime bounty with a Farmers Panzanella Salad.
- Graze on the Perfect Summer Cheese Board on a lazy summer evening.
- Whip up some Pumpkin Muffins with Maple Goat Butter to kick off an early Autumn morning.
- Create a winter feast with a platter of Roasted Dungeness Crab with Herb Butter.
- And much more.
Filled with full-color photographs, charming illustrations, and short informative essays on topics such as slow living, agritourism, and raising happy goats and sheep, this sumptuous volume will instantly transport you to beautiful Toluma Farms and inspire you to embrace a year of seasonal, sustainable, cheese-filled eating and living! FOR CHEESE LOVERS: Tomales Farmstead Creamery is known for its prize-winning artisanal goat and sheep cheeses. In these pages, decades of cheese knowledge are poured into the recipes, which go well beyond what you might imagine a cheese-y dish would be. Decadent, yes, but also fresh, plant-based, filling, and wholesome. A CELEBRATION OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING: Tamara and the Toluma Farms team have spent over twenty years learning and practicing sustainable farming. Sprinkled throughout are stories about their journey on the land and the unique people they've worked with along the way. Perfect for:
- Home cooks who focus on local and seasonal ingredients
- Anyone who loves to eat and cook with cheese
- Vegetable-forward but not exclusively vegetarian eaters
- Foodies who collect regional cookbooks
- Fans of regenerative/farm-to-table approaches
- Armchair travelers who dream of visiting the California farming coast
- Readers who enjoyed Six California Kitchens, The French Laundry Cookbook, and Alice Waters' We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto
Author Biography
Tamara Jo Hicks grew up in rural San Diego County and Oklahoma, so when she moved to the Bay Area to pursue her Clinical Psychology degree, she gravitated to bucolic West Marin. In 2003, she, her husband, David Jablons, and their two daughters, Josy and Emmy, purchased the 160-acre Toluma Farms property, and in 2007, restored the land's dairy operations to transition it to a goat and sheep dairy. In 2012, thanks to a grant from USDA Rural Development and capital from the land trust with Marin Agriculture Land Trust, and after several years of intensive land restoration, Tomales Farmstead Creamery was born.
Jessica MacLeod is a writer and illustrator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She began volunteering at Toluma Farms when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. At the time, she was running a non-profit that matched tech workers with government agencies in need as the crisis unfolded. While Jessica continues her career at the intersection of technology and social good, her visits to the farm and cooking delicious meals for family and friends keep her connected to the community, land, and abundance of Marin County.
