A forest feast: vegetarian recipes from a cabin in the woods

In the woodlands near San Francisco, blogger Erin Gleeson has found her niche creating vegetarian bites to tempt the eye and the appetite

I grew up in an apple orchard in Sonoma County, California, in the Eighties, next to a mini-commune and some goat farmers. As a family we were vegetarian, had no television and spent a lot of time outside or in the kitchen, where in summer we picked blackberries for pie and in autumn made everything imaginable with apples.

After taking years of watercolour classes, I studied art at university and, upon graduation, told my family I was moving to New York to become a photographer. I had no job, little money and a short-term sublet flat in Manhattan, but what I thought would be a one-year adventure soon became eight as I discovered the New York food scene. I volunteered as a photographer for the James Beard Foundation, a non-profit organisation devoted to the culinary arts, and started shooting food for different publications and books, working with some of the best chefs in the world.

In 2004 I met my husband, Jonathan, when a friend took me to a party on his roof deck on the Upper West Side. I was instantly smitten, especially when I realised he loved hosting parties as much as I did. Some years later we moved to Brooklyn together and our backyard became a hub for gatherings of family and friends – dinner parties, cocktail parties, costume theme parties, outdoor movie screenings. We hosted constantly, which is where many of the recipes in my book were born. And since I didn’t often have much time to prepare, the recipes were ideally quick, easy, affordable and pretty.

In the summer of 2011, Jonathan accepted a job in California. The thought of leaving New York was devastating, but it was a great opportunity and I was ready for a change. Even though I was busy as a freelancer and teaching at the Fashion Institute of Technology, I was not terribly passionate about any projects I had going.

As we prepared to leave, I remember saying to Jonathan that I was worried my biggest career successes might be behind me. I couldn’t imagine what my life as an artist would look like if I moved to the suburbs, where I knew no one.