Shop Local for Gourmet Gifts

As published in Ojai Quarterly magazine, Winter 2013

Shop Local for Gourmet Gifts

Let’s face it, some people are impossible to shop for. I’m not very creative when it comes to gift giving, but one thing I know for sure is that tasty gifts are always welcome. What better way to celebrate Ojai’s bounty than to share it with friends and relatives. And you’ll be shopping local, too, which is great way to give back to our community. Here are a few delicious ideas:

Rains

218 E. Ojai Avenue

646-1441

Established in 1914, Rains is Ojai’s answer to the department store, with clothes, shoes, jewelry, housewares and hardware. The gourmet kitchen section has fully-stocked shelves of their own private-label sauces, dressings, salsas and mixes. Their featured local product offering includes the full line of Ojai Olive Oil’s locally-grown and processed extra virgin olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars bottled in gorgeous cobalt blue glass. An added bonus: Rains offers complimentary gift wrapping while you wait.

Rainbow Bridge

211 East Matilija Street

646-4017

Tucked behind the downtown arcade, Rainbow Bridge is a natural foods grocery market with an extensive selection of produce, meats, dry goods and an apothecary. A wide range of local edible gifts include Ojai’s own Zhena’s Gypsy Teas package in colorful tin canisters, Ojai Cook’s Lemonaise lemon mayonnaise, Bee the Bee Apiaries’ raw wildflower honey and Ojai Chocolat’s raw, organic dairy-free and sugar-free confections.

Made in Ojai

323 E. Matilija Street

646-2400

A few doors down from Rainbow Bridge, this artisan mercantile, as the name indicates, sells only locally-made products, include original works of art, books, jewelry and edibles. Their food section includes Lori’s Original Lemonades in ginger and lavender flavors, Ojai Jalapeno and Habanero Jelly and Highway 33 Foods’ hot sauces. Cards designed by local artists will add a personalized touch to your gift.

Ojai Beverage Company

655 E. Ojai Avenue

646-1700

            With over a thousand bottles from all over the world, the OBC has an impressive selection of local wines, including Casa Barranca, Ojai Vineyard, Old Creek Ranch, Vino V, Ojai Ridge, Noble Oaks and Boccali’s. Sip while you shop; they have 20 beers on tap, wines by the glass, spirits tastings and a full menu.

Ojai Coffee Roasting Co.

337 E. Ojai Avenue

646-4478

            This coffee shop and café is a true local hang-out best known for their freshly-roasted coffee. Though the beans are not locally-grown, the café’s own roastmaster custom roasts the world’s best beans in small batches and packages them either whole or ground in half and one-pound bags. Gift cards and shipping are also available.

Whether you’re shopping for holiday or hostess gifts, Ojai’s got you covered with some of the tastiest treats that deserve to be boxed and bowed. To be honest, though, many of these items are staples in my pantry at home. I’m guessing they will soon be in yours, too.

Aerial Exercise: Fly your way to fitness.

As published VC Reporter’s “Fitness Guide,” January 2014

Aerial Exercise

Fly your way to fitness.

Courtesy photo provided by AIReal Yoga ™

Move over pole dancing and boot camp, the newest fitness craze will have you flying through the air like a circus acrobat.

Kathy Lopez of V-FIT Studio in midtown is teaching what’s known as AIReal Yoga ™, fully accredited by the Yoga Alliance and created by local Carmen Curtis of Airealistic Circus and Flying School, whose background includes gymnastics and work with Cirque du Soleil. Using a thick and tightly woven red silk fashioned into a hammock swiveling freely from a single point in the ceiling, the luxurious fabric molds to your body comfortably, allowing you to perform yoga poses unencumbered mid-air.

Safety is given top priority with this exercise. Fear subsides, giving way to trust in self and the professionally-rigged equipment. You’re never far from the ground since the straps are customized according to your height plus a few inches to make you hover over the floor from a safe distance. Carabiners keep the straps safely anchored, and the hammock acts as a built-in spotter, but still allows you to challenge your balance while building strength.

Using the looped silk just like the trained professionals you see in the circus, the assistance and resistance provided by the hammock helps you find muscles you never knew you had and takes advantage of deeper stretches than you ever imagined. When was the last time you did a handstand? With the help of the silks and a creative intertwining of your legs, that handstand that seemed impossible becomes a reality. It’s one of Lopez’s clients’ favorite exercises.

“They love the inversions – hanging upside down,” says Lopez. Leveraging the strength and safety of the silk straps against the weight and support of your own body makes these gravity-defying moves a cinch. Another simple pose on the hammock allows for a deep backbend with arms wide open and floating. These inversions take away joint pressure, decompress the spine, bring blood-flow to the brain and allow tension in hips, back and neck to melt away.

More challenging moves get the heart rate up and build strength, like the handstand pushup, which targets chest and shoulder muscles a simple floor pushup can’t begin to tackle. Core work is central to most of the choreography, building tighter abs and a strong healthy back. For some, yoga can seem boring and nondynamic, but yoga suspended up in the air makes for a thrilling and fluid workout.

All fitness levels can experience the pure grace and freedom of movement of a professional aerial ballerina. But make no mistake, sore muscles the next day will remind you this is an intense workout.

Go for it:

V-FIT is located at 4561 Market Street, Suite C. For more information visit www.vfitstudio.com.

Airealistic Circus and Flying School is located at 4476 DuPont Court, Suite B. For more information visit www.venturacircus.com.  

Edible Ojai: Watkins Cattle Co.’s butcher shop to spotlight pasture-to-plate

As published in Edible Ojai, Winter 2014

HAVE YOU HERD?
Watkins Cattle Co.’s butcher shop to spotlight pasture-to-plate

After five years of making the rounds of Ventura County’s farmers’markets with their coolers full of pasture-raised grass-fed beef, Watkins Cattle Co. is planning a March opening of their very own butcher shop in Meiners Oaks, in the heart of the Ojai Valley.

“We’ve always wanted to open one,” says Shane Watkins, 43, who co-owns the company with his father, John. “We should have done this in ’08, but we just didn’t have the capital.”

What started with just a few head of cattle has grown to an annual herd of 250—most coming from their 3,500-acre Cañada Larga Ranch in Ojai—and a seemingly insatiable demand for a product many meat purveyors can’t boast offering.

“Everything we are harvesting is grown by us or grown to our standards,” says the younger Watkins.

After numerous books and documentary films have focused public attention on the horrors of modern factory-farming of meat, and more than a few health crises attributed to the overcrowding and pharmaceutical practices it entails, many customers are abandoning mass-produced, grain-fed meat in favor of a healthier and more

humanely raised product.

“It’s always been the way we did it … no hormones, never any antibiotics and open pasture. We feed grass

hay and supplement with vitamins.” The animals are never confined in a feedlot, Watkins added quickly.

Despite a population that leans heavily toward vegetarianism, Watkins says getting started in Ojai wasn’t difficult at all.

“We’ve actually changed a lot of vegetarians!” he says with a laugh.

His tone quickly becomes more serious, though, to drive home a point: “We’re not in the business of killing animals; we’re in the business of bringing good healthy meat to the table.”

Healthy animals move around and aren’t confined. Cattle are meant to eat grasses, not the grains used by factory farms as a fast, cheap way to fatten livestock. Grass-fed beef is lower in saturated fat and higher

in omega-3s (healthy fats). And it should come as no surprise that healthier, happier animals taste better.

The Watkinses have discovered that aging the meat 20–23 days also gives it a distinct flavor and tenderizes it, which is especially important in a drought year, when the cattle are moving more to get to a water source—using muscles that would never get a workout in a feedlot.

As a third-generation butcher and rancher, Watkins knows meat and is passionate about old traditions. His grandfather was in the ranching business in Temecula, and in the early ’60s established a slaughtering and cutting facility at the Lompoc Penitentiary. Shane’s father, John, worked the retail side for nearly 40 years, finally retiring from Scolari’s in 1998.

He remembers the days when you’d go to the market and head back to the butcher counter, where you would see hanging carcasses—something you just don’t see nowadays.

“Butchering is a dying breed. It’s an art to break down and cut meat,” he says.

With the butcher shop, Watkins looks forward to providing a more customized experience than they have been able to provide at the farmers’ markets. And you can bet you’ll see a few carcasses hanging in the cooler.

“The butcher shop is going to be fun. We’re going to experiment with jerkies and snack sticks. We’ll have bacon-wrapped burgers, pork and beef burgers.”

The Watkinses have been raising hogs and chickens, too, which have steadily increased the variety they are able to off er. (Forty percent of their business is with more than a dozen local restaurants.)

Watkins also looks forward to doing customized orders at the shop and cutting steaks on the spot to any thickness. As for the locavores wanting to know more about where their meat comes from, no problem: “We love to talk about our product. We can even show you a

picture if you want.”

The new shop will be able to handle game processing for local hunters, too, which Watkins says has been a growing business.

As for what’s next, Watkins and his father have lofty goals: “I’m on horseback six or seven days a week and Dad’s in the plant. It’d be nice to have a point where it’s our full-time business.”

Hearing Watkins talk, it’s clear Ojai is just a first step.

“My future is to give Harris Ranch a run for their money! Maybe have a shop in Thousand Oaks, Malibu, Santa Barbara.”

“But,” he says, slowing down and turning serious again, “I don’t want to lose the personal touch.”

In March, look for the new Watkins Butcher Shop at 105 E. El Roblar Dr., Meiners Oaks. More info at WatkinsCattleCo.com.

For photos and recipes pertaining to this feature and more from this issue, click here: http://digitaleditions.sheridan.com/publication/?i=190824

Edible Ojai: The Ojai Vineyard Grows

As published in Edible Ojai's "Notes" section, Winter 2014

THE OJAI VINEYARD GROWS

Ojai Vineyard wine enthusiasts now will have plenty of elbowroom

to swirl their glasses as the vineyard opens its new, larger tasting room

in January. It will feature the award-winning Central Coast wines of

Adam Tolmach, who has made wine in the Ojai Valley for 30 years.

Immediately adjacent to the original 300-square-foot tasting room

on Montgomery Street in downtown Ojai, the new space is 1,500

square feet, with 70 linear feet of bar space, newly stained and polished

concrete floors, and an expanded patio area with table seating out front.

Tolmach wants the focus to be on education, so visitors can expect to

see displays that will highlight the region, the winemaking process and

the winery’s history. Wine education classes and wine club events will

be offered, and expanded tasting options will include opportunities to

taste library varietals.

Ojai Vineyard: new downtown tasting room

109 S. Montgomery St., Ojai

OjaiVineyard.com

For more from this issue, click here: http://digitaleditions.sheridan.com/publication/?i=190824

Edible Ojai: Sipping the Central Coast's Green Wine

As published in Edible Ojai, Spring 2008.

SIPPING THE CENTRAL COAST’S GREEN WINE
Taking drinking responsibly to a whole new level.

Whether you prefer red, white or rosé, make sure you give green a try. Green wine is the eco-friendly derivative of winemakers who champion efforts to be good to the land while also delivering a palate-pleasing product to discerning wine lovers. Whether employing biodynamic techniques, certified sustainable practices or rigorous organic standards, green wines are steadily becoming de rigueur here on the Central Coast.

Sustainable Vine Wine Tours

A year ago, Bryan Hope realized his dream of starting a business that would take advantage of his background in the green building field while also giving visitors to the Santa Barbara wine country a unique experience. Sustainable Vine Wine Tours shares the award-winning wines made by local winemakers engaging in sustainable agriculture with would-be wine tasters turned eco-tourists.

“People tend to talk more about green than they actually do, but that is starting to change,” said Hope, a member of 1% For The Planet, who walks (rather, drives) the talk. His biofueled nine-passenger van provides an environmentally conscious alternative to other tour vehicles.

Among the vineyards Hope tours are Alma Rosa, Ampelos, Beckmen, Demetria, Sunstone, and Presidio. These vineyards are either biodynamic, organic or certified sustainable.

Beckmen Vineyards

One of the vineyards Hope visits is Beckmen, where 100 percent biodynamic grapes are farmed at their Purisima Mountain Vineyard. Biodynamic farming was first pioneered in the 1920s by scientist Rudolf Steiner, who wanted to offer a proactive and holistic approach to farming. Biodynamics respects the natural cycles of the land and has been found to naturally build soil life and vitality, while defending against pests and disease.

When owner Steve Beckmen first started trying this approach to farming in 2001, he was skeptical but soon noticed that the vines grew straighter and the leaves were richer in color and health. In addition, the soil was healthier, retained more moisture and showed an increase in sugar and tannin quality. Wine produced from these grapes expressed what Beckmen felt Purisima was truly about—rich, ripe wines that were balanced and elegant. 

“Our goal,” said Beckmen, “is to always get better and better. Biodynamics allows us to achieve the purest possible expression of our Purisima Mountain Vineyard terroir, which is at the very heart of our winegrowing philosophy. Since we’ve gone biodynamic, we have produced some of our best wines ever.”

Herzog Wine Cellars

Further to the south, in what has been hailed as the gateway to the Central Coast wine region, is Herzog Wine Cellars, the largest producer of kosher wine in the world. With praise from “Wine Enthusiast” and “The Robb Report,” all wine lovers—not just those seeking kosher wine—are taking notice. And with a dedication to the observance of sustainable practices, eco-sippers are nodding their approval as well.

“Herzog winery has made a commitment to be responsible stewards toward our environment and our resources,” said winemaker Joe Hurliman.

Herzog has made long-term contractual agreements with select growers to ensure sustainability, including good neighbor practices (such as putting mitigations in place for dust and noise) and how they deal with pests (like using falcons to control rodents). They partnered with the Watts family in Lodi, one of the first to be certified sustainable by Protected Harvest, and decided to bottle a product exclusively using those grapes.  The result is their 2006 Herzog Special Reserve Zin Gris, Lodi, which carries the coveted certified emblem right on the label. 

“Sustainability, and working with these certified growers, is for us a rewarding and effective balance between protecting finite resources and maintaining family farming,” said Hurliman.

Casa Barranca

Right here in our own backyard is Casa Barranca, an elegant estate with a vineyard and winery nestled against the foothills of Ojai. Owner Bill Moses touts his proud distinction of being the only certified organic winery on the Central Coast with a certified organic vineyard.

In order to receive the designation, Moses says that certified organic grapes must be used and the wine must be made in a certified organic facility without the use of toxic chemicals.

“I believe that grapes properly farmed and organically grown exhibit a truer expression of the terroir, and the organic fertilizers are better for our earth and body,” Moses said.

Moses supplements the grapes produced by his small vineyard with grapes from other vineyards, using Laetitia and Sanford for Pinot Noir, Wulf for Viognier, Haulier and Sunstone for Syrah, Sunstone Merlot and French Camp for Cabernet.  As at his vineyard, all the grapes are certified organic and Moses assists in the farming. 

As organic winemaking has become more advanced, so, too, has its reputation. “Historically organic winemakers were unsophisticated players in viticulture and failed to pair the right grape varietal with the terroir/soil, nor did they have the vineyard management sophistication, resulting in marginal grapes with very high pH,” said Moses, adding, “Today some of the most respected vineyards in the world are certified organic.”

Moses’ wines have been awarded 90 points and higher from “Wine Enthusiast,” and he has won gold medals in several wine competitions, going head-to-head against “conventionally made” wines and some very big names, while, he says, “…busting the paradigmatic belief that organic wines are inferior.”

Movino Wine Bar [SIDEBAR]

Swirl a glass of green wine with eco-enophile, Suzy Johlfs, owner of Movino Wine Bar in downtown Ojai, whose newest menu item is all the rage.

“…I always felt that organic wines were misunderstood and were not given the respect from wine connoisseurs that they deserve. ‘Go Green’ is our contribution to bringing awareness to the community about organic wines and supporting these wineries’ planet conscious efforts,” said Johlfs.

Movino’s “Go Green” wine flight trio consists of two-ounce pours of Bonterra Chardonnay, Casa Barranca Syrah and Sunstone Merlot, and is priced at $13.00.

***

With so many tasty wine choices available in our region, why not raise a glass and toast the choices that reduce our carbon footprint?
[SIDEBAR]

Contact Information:

Sustainable Vine Wine Tours, Santa Barbara

There is a three-person minimum for all tours.

(805) 698-3911

www.sustainablevine.com

Beckmen Vineyards, Los Olivos

(805) 688-8664

www.beckmenvineyards.com

Herzog Wine Cellars, Oxnard
(805) 983-1560

www.herzogwinecellars.com

Casa Barranca, Ojai

Tasting at Local Hero Bookstore in the Arcade

(805) 640-9250

www.casabarranca.com

Movino Wine Bar, Ojai

Also in the Arcade

(805) 646-1555

www.movinowinebar.com

Lisa Snider is an award-winning freelance writer living in Ojai with her husband, Bill, and their Labrador retriever. Lisa’s documentary, The Price of Paradise, was recently screened at the Santa Barbara and Ojai Film Festivals. 

As originally published, with photos:

http://edibleojai.com/files/pages/articles/year2008/spring08/pdfs/sipping.pdf

WordFest Turns 4 and Waxes Poetic

As published in the Spring 2013 Ojai Valley News Visitors Guide

WordFest Turns 4 and Waxes Poetic

            In its fourth year, Ojai WordFest is once again reinventing itself. The four-day literary festival, a celebration of words, ideas and stories, runs from Thursday, April 10^th through Monday, April 13^th, and this year plans to shine a lyrical light on poetry.

           “We’re refining our festival. We learn something every year, and we’ve learned what the community wants,” says festival founder Sequoia Hamilton, who created the festival to establish Ojai as a literary destination for new and veteran writers of all ages and genres.

With grants from the local Rotary Club, the City of Ojai and private donors, Hamilton has finally gained some financial freedom with this event.

“This is the first year we have a budget,” says Hamilton, who had in previous years operated on a shoestring. “We’re putting that generosity back into the community by putting the festival into the schools.”

Since April is National Poetry Month (Hamilton says it’s the largest literary celebration on the planet), Hamilton saw that as the driving inspiration for the festival’s schedule, and looked to the schools to serve as venues for some of the events, with their students as participants.

“We’re putting a poet into each school,” says Hamilton, who has invited teaching poets to partner with a local school where they will speak to classes about their experiences with the genre and lead short writing exercises for the students.

Among the poet mentors is local poet and Ojai native Akka B. On Friday, April 11^th, she will present at Oak Grove School where her 14-year-old daughter is a student.

Akka says she is enthusiastic about being a part of the festival and connecting teens through the written word.

“I’m passionate about that process – of kids feeling comfortable to access their words,” Akka says. “When they are given the opportunity…it’s so immediately empowering. There’s nothing like seeing a kid come alive.”

Akka says she vividly remembers what it was like to be a teen struggling to communicate those new thoughts and feelings that are a difficult part of coming of age.

“As a kid I was so afraid to speak,” she says. “We all recognize the struggle…that child is still in us.”

            Later that evening, Akka will meet up with the other poet mentors to put on a

poetry showcase featuring youth and teens reading their work.

Serving as the unofficial bookends for the festival, local novelists Doc and Zoe Murdock will kick things off on Thursday, April 10^th at 5:30 p.m. by showcasing their regularly-scheduled weekly creative writing workshop at the Ojai Library.

“We’ve been teaching this workshop every Thursday for the last 10 years,” says Doc, a retired writing professor and competitive runner who has published five novels.

Though they maintain a steady core group of 12 to 20 members each week, in total they have had about 450 fledgling and professional writers from college students to retirees come through the workshop. Some have been there since day one.

Doc and Zoe first met at the University of Utah’s creative writing program and made their way to Ojai in 2004 when they retired to pursue writing full time. They decided to hold the free weekly workshops because they missed the student interaction.

The workshop typically includes instruction on specific writing techniques followed by readings and critiques. The focus is squarely on fiction, and the critiques, given by the students as well as the Murdocks, are honest but never sugar-coated.

“They (the participants) learn very quickly that everyone has their best interests at heart,” Zoe says. Her novel, Torn by God: A Family’s Struggle with Polygamy, has clung to the top of the Amazon charts in its category since it was first published four years ago.

            On the final night of the festival, Monday, April 13^th, Hamilton will honor the Murdocks with a “Literary Legends” award for their contributions to Ojai’s vibrant writing community. The evening will start off at 7:00 p.m. with readings of Ars Poetica, which are poems about poetry, and will feature a presentation by Ventura County’s first ever Poet Laureate, Mary Kay Rummel, a writing professor whose award-winning poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. The evening’s events will be held at the Ojai Arts Center, in celebration of its 75^th year in continuous operation. 

Since its inception, the festival has attracted attendees with a passion for words from all over the world. Other events over the festival’s four days include a happy hour with books, a day-long spa writing retreat, various writing workshops and a late-night spoken word slam at Bart’s Books. For more, visit www.ojaiwordfest.com.

At Home in the Underground: Private Chef Robin Byle

As published in Ventana magazine April 2014

At Home in the Underground

To build the perfect restaurant, chef Robin Byle and her woodworker husband Eilam hardly had to leave their house. Welcome to Table 18 and the rise of pop-up restaurants.

Photo by Gaszton Gal

When I bought my ticket to Table 18, I felt like I was going to a speakeasy for foodies. Billed as a pop-up restaurant, I had to be vetted first and wouldn’t get the address until the day before. Other than a teaser description of a few choice menu items, including a fresh organic celery and lemon gin martini, citrus-marinated yellowtail crudo, and Watkins Ranch grass-fed beef with preserved lemon chimichurri, I had no idea what I was in for.

Charmed by savory aromas swirling through prayer flags hanging from the “restaurant’s” front porch and a shabby-chic front door flung wide open, the home on Rice Road in Ojai was nondescript and seemed tiny. I stepped over the threshold and down into an intimate gathering of exactly 18 well-dressed hungry guests.

I was instantly taken with the home’s interior design, a wide-open space of just 1,100 square feet flooded with natural light and full of colorful abstract artwork and intricate wood carvings. Rustic picnic-style tables rested on stained concrete and bordered an open kitchen, where I met host and chef Robin Byle, whose restaurateur parents and grandparents influenced her career choice.

“Because of my exposure to fine dining as a child and my grandmother cooking everything from scratch, I was drawn to unique foods and cooking at a very young age,” Robin says.

After graduating from New York’s prestigious Culinary Institute of America in 1984, Robin headed west to pursue her culinary ambitions. She cooked in some of the best restaurants in Los Angeles before she found her dream job as a private caterer to the stars (she can’t say who). She later moved to Santa Barbara, and eventually to this home in Ojai where her private catering operations are now based.

It was a walk in 2010 with her now-husband Eilam that set the wheels in motion for buying the house and getting married—even though, as Eilam recalls, the couple had only been dating for a short time. “When we used to walk by here, we were new to each other and just trying to learn each other. We would walk by this lot, and we always loved it. But it was not about the house; the house was pretty worn down,” he says. Rather, it was about a “feeling,” recalls Robin. “We always felt it when we walked past.”

Soon, the couple, both in their fifties, noticed a for-sale sign. They told the realtor they didn’t want to pre-inspect the house, built in 1947, because they knew they would see its many faults and change their minds. After escrow closed, they finally got a look, and it was worse than they imagined. Fortunately, Eilam is a master woodworker, furniture craftsman, and painter. “It’s all the same skill,” he says. “It’s all hands and patience.”

Without touching the exterior footprint, he tore the house apart, opening up walls, floors, and ceilings, converting the tiny chopped-up five-room house into a more spacious-feeling two-room home, bathroom included. A small second unit on the property has yet to be renovated and currently serves as the family’s sleeping quarters (between them, they have four children ages 11 to 19 who live with them part-time).

“A lot people say that when you work on a house, it’s one of the things that either makes or breaks you. For us, it definitely brought us together,” Eilam says.

Six months after escrow closed, the couple married, and Eilam tackled designing the kitchen while Robin scoured Craigslist ads for a commercial-grade oven appropriate for her business and their small residential space. She finally found her dream range: a stainless steel FiveStar six-burner stove with double oven. “It was sitting in someone’s garage for 12 years,” Robin says.

It was so big, though, she had to sacrifice having a dishwasher. But she was happy to do it. In fact, with such a small space and a desire to entertain, a lot had to be sacrificed and downsized, something the couple is pleasantly philosophical about. “Owning a lot of things carries a cloud of weight,” Eilam says. “Everything has value, and you kind of feel responsible for it.”

Eilam made the custom kitchen cabinets out of beech, a sustainable hardwood, and Kirei, a recycled straw. Opening up the ceilings, he fashioned exposed beams out of Douglas fir, hand selected for the grain, and finished with iron accents. He pulled up the wood floors, revealing the concrete foundation below, which was then polished and stained. The floor planks were hand-distressed and repurposed as picnic tables—one seats 10, the other eight—and in 2013, Table 18 finally became a reality.

Doors, cabinets, and other furnishings are also Eilam’s creations, always sustainably sourced. “Most of the furniture that I make, it comes from fallen trees in the valley or recycled sidings of old houses,” Eilam says.

Each piece has a story, even his carved art pieces. A dead old tree. An old house with layers of paint colors. The local tree trimmers and builders know him well. “Sometimes we come home, and there’s a big stump in the driveway!” Robin laughs.

All of the doors have glass insets, some made with vintage shower doors, which, along with the addition of skylights, bring in ample sunlight. Light fixtures made of vintage glass telegraph insulators pinpoint Eilam’s pieces and provide task lighting for Robin’s kitchen countertops. The house is a true reflection of both of them, minimalistic yet with all the necessary comforts and charm.

Eilam nods in agreement when Robin says, “I just feel very at home here.”

Pop-up dinners, cooking classes, recipes, and more:privatechefrobin.com

The woodwork of Eilam Byle: eilambyle.com

For more photos, click here.