BackSpoon Cooking Show promotes farm-to-table meals

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

MARBLE FALLS — The “Kitchen Diva” and the “Garden Guru” are teaming up again to show you how to pick fresh vegetables from your garden and whip them up into something great to eat.

“Jen and I just make a great team,” said Jessica Robertson, aka the Garden Guru, of Backbone Valley Nursery. Kitchen Diva Jen Cayce of Noon Spoon Cafe makes up the second half of the team.

The two are hosting the BackSpoon Cooking Show on April 25 at the nursery, 4201 FM 1980 between Granite Shoals and Marble Falls. The event is 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Admission is free.

But get there a bit early to make sure you get a good seat. The show continues to draw a good crowd as attendees learn the best ways to harvest their fresh produce and create delicious table fare.

Robertson will explain the best methods for gathering vegetables from the garden as well as cleaning and preserving them. The good handling methods help protect the flavor of the fresh vegetables.

The event centers on in-season vegetables or those getting ready to come into season as summer approaches.

Both Cayce and Robertson promote the farm-to-table movement, which basically espouses the practice of growing the produce — such as in a backyard garden — as close to the final destination of the grower’s or buyer’s table. The idea promotes people planting their own gardens or participating in community farming or agriculture.

Robertson explained that growing your own veggies offers several benefits.

The first simply being freshness.

“When you buy vegetables in the grocery store, you really don’t know how long they’ve been sitting there or how long they were in storage,” Robertson. “So right away, you get fresher vegetables by growing your own. And that means better flavor.

“That’s one of the other big benefits. Fresh vegetables just taste better.”

Another big reason for growing your own vegetables comes down to pesticide use. Robertson said when you grow your own garden produce, you know exactly what — if any — chemicals went on them.

“You don’t know that when you buy from a store,” she said. “And if you have kids, they take such pride in growing things. And they’re more likely to try something if they grew it themselves.”

So Robertson will focus on growing vegetables and harvesting them.

But now that you have this bounty of fresh vegetables, what do you do with them? You can only eat so many salads, right?

This is where Cayce comes in.

Cayce is the owner and head chef at Noon Spoon Cafe in Marble Falls. The restaurant focuses on fresh, healthy meals. And Cayce is known for her menu.

During the show, Cayce will demonstrate ways people can incorporate their fresh vegetables into meals — and not just salads.

“She’s been known to give out a few of her recipes,” Robertson added. “Any time you can get a hold of one of her super-secret recipes is reason enough to come.”

The event is open to kids and adults. Robertson said there even will be an opportunity for some taste testing.

Call (830) 693-9348 for more information.

daniel@thepicayune.com