As winter yields to spring, the land and water surrounding the Culinary Vegetable Institute are teeming with activity. It is a precise, seasonal point in time when nature offers precious and plentiful gifts to seize and savor before the special moment is gone.
Culinary Vegetable Institute mixologist demonstrates a flip cocktail with house-made bitters created from farm fresh herbs, edible flowers and vegetables from The Chef's Garden. Bitters are making a resurgence among creative mixologists who are designing their own tinctures, infusions and bitters to balance and flavor bespoke beverages.
At The Chef's Garden, fresh asparagus is the epitome of what it means to eat seasonally. That's where we are right now ─ in the abundance phase of the season. The spears are popping up fast and furious, and we're growing four amazing varieties in white, pink, purple and green.
Uchi Austin Chef Blake Luecke has traded his chef's coat for a green bucket slung around his hips with a length of orange rope. Instead of cooking with snow peas, the accomplished chef is harvesting them at The Chef's Garden.
Shedding their winter coats in the summer-like greenhouse tunnel, The Chef's Garden's team of harvesters comb through rich sandy loom in search of oca. The marvelous Peruvian oca tuber is a small winter vegetable with a big history, grown in the Andes for centuries.
Hocking College ornithology professor Bob Scott Placier started bird watching while in college. Years later, Placier stumbled into the scientific research method of bird banding and started catching, banding, and re-releasing birds all the while recording specific data about the birds during his free time on his property in Vinton County, Ohio.
Becoming the Change is a short documentary film about Kip Rondy, a local farmer in Amesville, Ohio dedicated to supporting positive change for the environment and economy in his community. After having a heartbreaking personal experience with the extractive industries in West Virginia, Rondy strives to prevent the Appalachian region of Ohio from seeing the same fate with activism and sustainable agriculture.
JUST SETH: A family copes with the loss of a son by creating a foundation to raise awareness about issues surrounding mental illness. By: Jilly Burns Best Video, First Place, 2017 Ohio AP Media Editors Awards.
Bird Nerd
A podcast mini-series entirely directed, produced, edited and hosted by Jilly Burns highlighting northern Ohio's unique spring migration of songbirds.