Peachy the Magazine August September 2014 | Page 64
Photo: Valerie Rice
On the Go with Valerie Rice
We entertain often; it’s my favorite
hobby! Friends wanted information
about about my recipes, where I
found that cheese, the trick to getting
my kids to eat broccoli and radishes
or how I pulled the table together
(the garden informs not only what
we eat but how I decorate the table,
too). I launched eat-drink-garden in
late summer 2009. What started as a
way for me to share information with
friends about what to do with all that
zucchini you harvest and what wine
to pair with spicy food has blossomed
into a blog community that reaches
way beyond Santa Barbara.
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Is there someone who has influenced your
cooking and gardening?
My mother is Belgian, so as a child I
was lucky enough to travel and eat my
way through Europe in the summers
with my family. My grandmother was a
wonderful inspiration. She had an abundant vegetable garden behind her house
in her tiny village. I remember pulling
carrots, picking bush beans and turning
the most delicious red currants into jam
for our breakfast toast. For an Orange
County girl who had only gotten vegetables from the local Ralphs, this was
a total culture shock and the start of
my garden love affair. Remembering