Whidbey Gardening Workshop shows how to cook what you grow

The Whidbey Gardening Workshop, Saturday, March 19, at Coupeville High School, features seven classes on cooking and preserving food you grow. Noted Chef Vincent Nattress will explain “Great Greens for Dining.” Nattress, recently relocated to Whidbey, was executive chef at two award-winning properties in Napa Valley, Roux and Meadowood Napa Valley. “In my five years at Meadowood,” Nattress said, “one of the things I’m proudest of is the development of a large, year-round garden.” He worked closely with the gardeners and chefs to assure that menus prominently featured produce from the garden. As a chef, he always looks to local sources for fresh vegetables, meat and fish.

March 15, 2011 5:37 pm

The Whidbey Gardening Workshop, Saturday, March 19, at Coupeville High School, features seven classes on cooking and preserving food you grow.

Noted Chef Vincent Nattress will explain “Great Greens for Dining.” Nattress, recently relocated to Whidbey, was executive chef at two award-winning properties in Napa Valley, Roux and Meadowood Napa Valley.

“In my five years at Meadowood,” Nattress said, “one of the things I’m proudest of is the development of a large, year-round garden.” He worked closely with the gardeners and chefs to assure that menus prominently featured produce from the garden. As a chef, he always looks to local sources for fresh vegetables, meat and fish.

Responding to rapidly increasing interest in locally grown, nutritious food, the workshop offers “Plan Your Garden Nutritiously” with Val Hillers and “Eating From Your Garden Year Round” with Linda Bartlett.

Want to add savor to your home cooked meals?  Take in George Sasso’s “Cooking With Herbs.”  To show how to care for your harvest to eat well all winter, Vivian Smallwood presents “Basics of Food Preservation” and “Can It, Freeze It, Dry It.”

The workshop offers 59 instructional sessions. To register go to http://islandcountymastergardeners.com/wgw_2011. To register by mail, call 360-240-5527. Register in person at the WSU office in the Island County Courthouse complex or on site the day of the workshop. Cost is $35. The workshop is a program of the Master Gardeners of Island County.