Dinner and a book is supported by the Rex and Alice A. Martin Foundation of Elkhart, celebrating the spirit of Alice Martin and her love of good food and good friends.

Helen Rebanks is a first time author whose book, The Farmer's Wife My Life and Days, paints a detailed portrait of the joys and hardships of running a small family farm in the English Lake District.

I'm so happy to be sharing the kitchen with local, small scale family farmer Jodi Klinedinst of Oh Mamma's Cheese Shop and Deli to talk about this book and a life she understands so well.

Welcome, Jodi.

Thanks for having me, April.

So, you have met the author.

Tell us a little bit about how you, how you know Helen Rebanks.

I have met Helen, and my family and I were privileged to visit her and her family in the Lake District at their home.

When we arrived, they were moving the sheep.

Right when we turned on the road, they were running toward us, and it was an introduction to their family farm.

Oh, that's a great introduction to the book as well.

So when I read this book, I immediately thought, I got to do this show with you, and you have this great idea of doing a picnic that you could, do for your family for a lakeside fireside, depending on the season.

So we'll talk about what we're making for the picnic, and then we'll talk about what we're getting started with.

So what will you be contributing to the picnic?

That sounds good.

So I am contributing a farmhouse frittata as well as a fresh raspberry jam.

Okay, wonderful.

And then you'll be making some sausage in the sausage, right?

Definitely inspired by the English countryside.

We ate a lot of sausage rolls during that trip.

All right, so that's great.

And I'm going to be making shortbread three ways.

So starting with some cheddar cheese coins.

And then I'll be making some lavender shortbread and some cherry pistachio.

We'll have some warm to olives sort of herbed olives.

And then fennel salad from Edible Michiana.

That will be part of our whole picnic together, plus some cheeses that we'll talk about.

So tell me what you're getting started here with the frittata, which is kind of an open recipe.

It is an open recipe.

A lot of different interpretations on this.

The farmhouse, frittata that we're doing today is farm fresh eggs.

We've got some nice cream that we're adding in, and these are literally farm fresh.

They are literally farm.

Yeah.

So third day farm.

They're not too far from where we live in Walker ten.

And I just picked these up the other day.

All right.

That looks fantastic.

Yes.

And I'm getting started here with some, shredded cheddar.

This is a Berkeley cheddar from J2.

K. So I had not known about what what Berkeley means.

So Berkeley cites a couple of things.

And it is, an English cheddar inspired cheese made from raw cow's milk.

And again from our farm in Walker.

Ten Berkeley means rind less, because it doesn't have that natural earthy rind that a lot of our cheeses have from the cave.

But it also is an English term that means good things to come.

And so it seemed like the fitting name for our new cheese.

I love that, and it's like sharp and crystalline.

Wonderful.

So that's a little salty.

Yeah.

Yes.

Wonderful.

So I'm putting that in, in a Cuisinart here with a little bit of flour and salt and paprika and cayenne.

And this makes a pretty simple shortbread, dough here, along with some butter.

And I'm going to pulse this and then turn it into a log that you can, you know, either French for a little while and cut into coins or freeze so that you've got it handy whenever you like.

So I'm going to get this started and you're, so what I am adding it to, of course, is this omelet slash quiche.

If you will, though.

Crustless.

I'm not adding any additional salt because, as I mentioned, the cheese itself is salty.

We had the cream in there.

One of my favorite add ins is, day old pasta.

I was astounded by this.

And it's a tart.

It adds a little volume, and texture to the dish, but it's just one of those things.

Any add in works with this.

So whatever you have in your refrigerator, it's a great way to use it up.

So that is one of the themes of the book is, making use of everything on the farm, making use of everything in your refrigerator.

And the, the subtitle of her book is My Life and Days.

And I do think it's, not a high level book.

She really purposely wants us to understand the texture of daily life, especially for a woman and especially for a mother.

And so the recipes that are in the book, sort of interspersed throughout and at the end are not kind of highfalutin recipes.

Right?

We can talk about that a little bit.

What kinds of, so she's using what is readily available, what is in-season.

That'll be super nutritious for her family.

Flavorful, and sustainable.

Okay.

Yeah, absolutely.

So.

And I wondered, as I was reading it, how well you thought she captured kind of the, the daily moment to moment, of, of running a family farm.

So I thought she was really brilliant.

A lot of what she talks about just seems kind of like Monday, a day to day things, but that is the glue that holds a family together, a business together.

You know, without that role, none of it's going to happen.

But it's not always the recognized role.

Yeah.

One of one of the points she makes is actually the, you just have to believe that the dough is going to come to you.

I believe in you, dough.

She talks about how undervalued lots of those tasks are.

Is, not the big meal that, you know, company, is over for.

But figuring out what am I going to make for breakfast?

Or I have, you know, three kids, and the baby is just starting solid foods.

What am I going to make?

So did that resonate with you in terms of trying to balance a family life?

And, I've gotten really fluid in my kitchen.

Right.

So that requires maybe a little less planning, but it's better for us overall.

Real quick, what I've done is just a little bit of onion and garlic and then I'm going to go ahead and you could add whatever vegetables, all kinds of different things could go into that part.

It's fantastic.

And you should saute them a little bit just to soften them before you add the egg mixture.

Okay.

So we're just going to let this kind of set up a little bit.

And while we do that yeah I have great respect for her.

So it's not easy.

But it's very fulfilling and rewarding.

And you know, your, your ego kind of takes a blow a little bit to begin with.

And there's a lot to do with your own self-confidence.

And the way maybe you see things into the future.

Yeah, I think she's she's pretty, unabashed about the mixed emotions of running a running a farm life.

And see if I can get this to hold together a little bit.

This is, I think I think I might But this will, Just for the sake of time, I want to show you what it looks like when it's, when you roll it into a log.

But you can, press that into a log and then, cut it for a cookie sheet.

So I'm going to show how that is done.

And then you've got a chill.

It's a little, little wild.

And then if you like, you know, you can cut just enough of these for, you know, a few queen cheddar coins to have a long side for your picnic.

I've got a little roll here, and I'll just show you you can, you know, you make a little sawing motion.

Let me get a couple of these here.

And what I'm watching here is to see that this is kind of setting up on the edge.

And it usually bubbles a little, and then we'll put it in the oven to finish it.

Okay.

Oh, it just smells so good.

What is it that you put?

I did use a little fresh sage, from my own garden.

And then at the beginning, we just did a little of the garlic and onion.

But any vegetable would be lovely in there and all kinds of different cheeses.

And, of course, it could have meat and ours had the pasta, which is a great way to use up leftovers sometimes if you've just got a cup of something and a quarter cup of something else, you can fold it into something bigger.

And even as things are not turning out exactly as we may have planned, our family loves us and appreciates that we made this for them.

Yes, what a nice thing I say, I still believe in this.

In this, shortbread.

So I'll show you.

I've also, I made a little rounds of, from a neighbor's recipe.

It's pistachio, and it's got dried, cherries from Michigan.

And then a little bit of lavender.

So you can see I'm just going to do a few of these.

You cook them at 350 for about, you know, 13 minutes and, culinary lavender.

Very English, I would say.

And these, can be made really kind of fancy with a little, a little fun edge here of finishing sugar.

Mine's taking a moment longer as well.

So I think I'm going to start with just a fresh, raspberry jam that we can do with the sausage rolls later.

And this is fruit, from Jeune and she's Sunny Acres.

I love to visit her.

The kids and I have been visiting her for years, and she picked these, and made them available a couple of days ago, but now they're ripening, beyond just being maybe table worthy.

So that's a great way to save everything.

Make this quick little sauce.

I'll put these, in the oven.

Now, actually, we'll get those time to, And then while those are baking, we're going to take a little break.

We'll put the frittata in the oven, and you'll have a chance to look at some of the really sweet, illustrations in the book that capture the fine grain life.

That Helen Banks is, is living.

We'll be right back.

I'm here with Jodi Kleindienst as we're making a picnic inspired by Helen Banks's The Farmer's Wife.

My Life and days and.

Tell us what you're contributing to the picnic now.

A very British sandwich, I believe.

So we are going to put together some sausage rolls, and we have a little puff pastry here that will roll out a little bit thinner.

And then we'll bake it, for about 20 minutes.

So we have some farm fresh sausage, as well as a little bit of freshly ground sausage from Bob's Country store in North Liberty.

I picked that up on the way here today.

And then just some different, herbs.

Spices, of course.

Mustard that will, give this a lot of flavor.

And also, a great texture.

All right, we're gazing on the the beauty of your frittata, which came out of the oven, and it smells absolutely divine.

And the beautiful raspberry jam there.

I've got a little, main large of olives here.

Olives are delicious, but if you want to use them a little bit, getting some really nice, olives with pits in them.

This is a nice mix from the cheese shop, actually, that I'm, added a little olive oil to some from my garden, some, fresh thyme and a little bit of fennel, which is a very, nice Italian sort of flavoring.

And then, a couple big peels of orange and, you know, like, sort of like your frittata.

This isn't a scientific recipe.

It's, whatever sounds delicious.

And I put this in here, and we'll let that stir around a little bit.

And I put in a little bit of olive oil and a little, a little bit of extra spice, and we'll just let that warm a little bit for the second part.

So I'm kind of elongating this sausage onto the puff pastry, and we're going to fold it into in a minute.

It's almost like a meatball, if you will.

So a little water can come in handy.

I'm wearing the gloves today, but it's very easy.

So we're going to do three of these.

And then we're going to fold it and then we're going to cut.

All right.

That looks.

Yeah.

Beautiful super pastry is something that you can, you can, Make a lot of different things with.

And this will be new, new, to look at for me at least.

So when I'm doing, using the mandolin here to make the base, the onion base of a fennel bulb salad that's got mint and mozzarella from Edible Michiana.

So, so I'll return to that in a second, but I wanted to just read a few lines from from the end of the book where I think she really pulls together, what it is she wants to accomplish in this book because James Ree Banks, her spouse, they're very much partners.

We've talked about a couple of his books here on the show, A Shepherd's Life and English Pastoral.

She brings a different lens to that partnership.

And she says, I know lots of brilliant people, but there's always a team of hidden, hard working souls around them making it all possible.

I know that the small domestic things matter.

They always have.

My mum taught me that learning that the word mundane has its roots in the Latin word mundane.

Us of the world made me see everything through a different lens.

To me, caring for my family is and always has been, the most important work in the world.

So it's through that lens that she reminds us of.

And she actually quotes George Eliot to Middlemarch at the very beginning.

It's all of this sort of behind the scenes things that make, so much of this possible.

And I grab a little spoon here and stir this.

So you had a chance to, to visit the farm there.

And maybe you could talk a little bit about what that time was like.

Just seeing the similarities, maybe in your own experience of a family farm.

So Helen's book was an excellent choice because it does parallel my life.

Pretty well, except that, of course, she's 4000 miles away, and has sheep versus goats.

But the the children, working alongside her husband, her own aspirations.

But also, you know, holding the family together, so to speak.

Yeah.

There's, the small business, is tricky for anyone, and I think there she really shows how much is.

Depends on the weather.

How much depends on sickness.

There's there's a lot to to keep track of.

So I'm going to be wrestling with a, This almost looks like an alien, doesn't it?

Hello, Jodie.

Here's my fennel.

So fennel bulb, an underappreciated, root, I would say maybe.

Maybe that's a good parallel to the to the book.

A nice light licorice flavor.

Super crisp.

Almost.

If licorice married celery, this is what you'd get.

So I'm just going to show you how to how to, wrestle with this a little bit.

I've cut a few of the fronds off the top, which are going to be part of the, part of the salad, and then I'll show you how to, Oh, this is smelling.

Absolutely.

I'm getting close over here as well.

So now I'm just kind of brushing on this wash that actually has a little bit of the cream in it.

Again with, farm fresh egg.

And then we're going to dress that with, sesame seed and sea salt.

Okay.

That looks fantastic.

And for some of the reasons I mentioned in, the first part, because there's salt in the flavored sausage and also with the sesame seed, I omitted adding salt.

So a good reminder that these recipes, you got to know your ingredients and the ingredients differ.

Yeah.

So and maybe, can you tell us a little bit about the beautiful cheeses that are coming to room temperature here.

And I just scored the taking a the tough core here out of the fennel.

And I'm going to.

So under the cloak we have the king of English cheeses Stilton.

And that's the blue cheese pasteurized cow's milk.

Lovely.

Then we have a small piece of what's called Tintern.

It's an English cheddar with shallots and chive.

And it's something that could have easily been added to this sausage mixture, to elevate a little bit, but we'll have a bite of that.

Oh, these are so cute.

Yep.

So these.

I'm just cutting.

I've seen them half this size.

I've seen them a little bit longer than this.

There's no wrong choice.

It's probably based on how many people you're trying to serve.

So you could freeze something like this.

And.

Nice.

Yeah.

The last cheese on the plate is the Berkeley.

And we use that two ways.

And the first segment and that is one of our cheeses from G2 okay.

So for us we do goat's goat milk cheeses.

And then we do some other animals.

For Helen, it's more, sheep, they're doing breeding stock.

Of course meat and fiber.

Yeah.

So yeah, when we went there, we could see a lot of that work being done.

And it's it's a daily thing all day, every day.

Yes.

And I think she talks a little bit about, I wouldn't call it a struggle, but yet, the time that is allotted to the animals, and then of course the family and then her husband and then herself in there somewhere, too, is really a challenge.

And she takes us through some of the, I would say, the early years that are particularly challenging.

They're trying to find a, you know, a, to make their home to rehab this very beautiful old stone farmhouse.

But it should be said, they are really successful now.

They've become, both of them very public voices advocating for family farmers, small family farmers.

They're rewilding, portions of the land that had been neglected.

So they're public educators a lot like you.

I think they're dialing it back a little bit to an earlier time.

And their youth, their land.

Yeah.

I'm gonna pop this in the oven.

It's going in at 400 for about 20 minutes, but you'll want the pastry to be golden brown.

So nice and occasionally so festive.

Love it.

So I'm making a dressing here out of, lemon and capers and olives, a little bit of salt, a little bit of olive oil here.

And then I'm going to layer the freshly shaved fennel with some, some oranges and torn mozzarella and pour the dressing over it.

It is going to be beautiful.

It is going to be beautiful.

It smells beautiful.

Home.

Yeah.

When I think about Helen and some of the similarities, with my own farm and, family life, it would definitely be the amount of work, that's involved.

Yes.

And sometimes that might be something you complain about, but many times it's something you take pride in.

And at the same time, you're always still looking to the future.

So as you're saying, you're doing all of these things, you're still planning the next great project.

Yes.

Or adventure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And much the same.

We are trying to be very sustainable too.

So a lot of things we did here today, it's things that are readily available in season, not letting anything go to waste, reimagining it in other ways.

And of course, I would love to meet them in Australia to talk about small scale farming.

Yeah.

Yes.

Note to self.

So, so as I put this, I'm going to finish putting this together and we're going to take a little break here and you'll have a chance to see some, beautiful photographs of Helen's family, the gorgeous countryside where they live, and some of the realities of farm life.

We'll be right back.

All right Jody and I have made a fabulous picnic suitable for fireside or lakeside.

What did you tell us?

What you've made here.

Which smells fantastic.

Thank you.

April.

So we have this wonderful farmhouse frittata.

We have the English style sausage rolls.

Fresh raspberry jam.

Beautiful.

And this toast that's coming up with an elderberry lemonade spritz and some sparkling lemon water.

Gorgeous.

And tell us about the cheeses here.

How can I forget about the cheese?

So we have this plate here with two English cheeses and one American English inspired cheese from J2K Caprio.

So a cheddar style, the blue Stilton.

And then this lovely condiment cheddar here so we can have a sophisticated ending to the meal there along with shortbread.

Three ways one savory, two sweet, some marinated olives which will go great with the cheese, and a beautiful fennel, orange and torn mozzarella salad to go with it.

So, what do you think Helen gets right about small fire, small farm life in this book?

I think Helen gets right expressing, the day to day.

Yeah.

In and out of what it's like to live on a farm that seems like, kind of a minute thing, but what holds the fabric of it all together?

Yeah, it's a wonderful read.

Anyone that lives on a farm, actually, whether you do or don't.

But people that live on a farm would truly understand where she's coming from and relate, and even people that do not.

Obviously, it's interesting to learn absolutely their families and inspiring.

So I think we should have a toast to Helen read Banks's book, the, Farmer's Wife My Life and Days to you, Jodi Kleindienst, for joining me.

Thank you, April, and to all of you for joining us for dinner and a book.

We hope we'll see you next time.

We'll see you then.

Bye bye.

This WNIT Local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Dinner and a book is supported by the Rex and Alice A. Martin Foundation of Elkhart, celebrating the spirit of Alice Martin and her love of good food and good friends.

I. Helen Ree Banks is a first time author whose book, The Farmer's Wife My Life in Days, paints a detailed portrait of running a small family farm in the English Lake District.

Fittingly, I'll be sharing the kitchen with local family farmer Jody Kleindienst of Obama's cheese Shop on this week's dinner and a book.

The sausage rolls in the oven.

It's about 20 minutes.

Can somebody do a timer?

Okay.

And then I'm not doing anything in the oven.

I'm just going to try not to cut off my fingers.

So are you ready?

Ready.

11 minutes on this thing.

So we have a little a tiny bit more time.

It's okay if I tip this.

Will that be visible or near.

Yeah.

Towards this camera.

So you'd have to pull that off.

Am I looking at you?

When it comes on, am I looking?

Oh, it doesn't matter.

Work?

Yeah.

We'll just be, you know, we're in the kitchen.

Smile at my.

Yeah.

This part, this part is off.

He took it unscripted.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Standby.

Yeah.

She wants you.

Okay.

I forgot the name of the book.

What are we talking about?

I'm making popsicles coming out, and it.

It's good.

The toss.

Okay.

Right.

She wants you to add a little fennel to the bowl and then do that toss up.

Okay, so let me on.

This is off now, okay, I right.

So, that's what I think.

That's what you were doing at the end.

So you're going to add a little bit of the fennel and then do the toss.

So do you want me to.

She wants me to talk about doing it a little bit more or actually just that and that.

That's okay.

Okay.

So thankfully yes okay.

Leave that to let me.

Okay.

Because we want to see it still.

Yeah.

So you can just leave all that okay.

What I didn't have is a spoon to to scrape.

Well, what can I hold on?

Actually, yes.

That would be is.

Oh, that's where they were.

Just check something like oh no, that's a scoop.

This is to the I just like at home.

I would have just stuck my fingers in here.

But I think yes.

Let me hang on a minute.

Where's my mint.

Okay.

So do I to do this in like 20s or something pretty fast.

Okay okay okay.

Yeah.

And.

So I'm going to add a, just layer here a little bit more of the fennel, some of the mint, little bit of torn mozzarella.

And you make a couple layers of that with this beautiful beautiful dressing.

So while this, masquerades a little bit, we're going to take a little break and, you'll get to see some images of the beautiful countryside where Helen lives and some photos of her family.

We'll be right back.

This thing though.

Yeah.

I'm just kind of moving in the direction here.

Okay.

So I'll.

I'll ask you what she captures.

Well, about small farm life.

Oh, okay.

Or why people.

What would be?

I don't want it.

Doesn't matter.

Something that's feels like, you know.

Or why?

Why might people who aren't small farmers want to read this?

Maybe that's a little better.

Oh.

No.

You know, like carrying your food work in your own damn kitchen.

So the bespoke knife is like an English style knife.

Oh, it's a beautiful knife.

But anyway.

So we'll take it.

I'm going to ask you what you made first.

And feel free to just, like, talk as much as you like about stuff.

And I'll ask you for the other book, The Shiny One.

You said other.

Okay.

I wonder, like there's a hole right there.

This one we're right.

The book that's highly overdue from the library.

We keep checking it out, but now they don't have science anymore.

I know it's bad.

It's beautiful.

I mean, it is nice, but.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm gonna put this down here like that.

So how about that?

If I say, why might somebody who's like, you recognize things in this book?

But why might somebody.

I'll just.

I'll do mind.

I'll just do what she captures so well.

Sorry.

Oh, she got them both right here.

Wow.

That is a lot of product placement.

Read books, eat dinner.

That's why we call it dinner.

And a book.

Dinner and a drink.

And then we'll do.

If I think about it, I will.

Let's make sure that you say what's in here?

I don't even know if I know what's in there right now.

Well, you may have the elderberry lemonade.

A little fix here.

Your mike here, here.

Oh, that's me again.

We have some Italian sparkling lemon water.

Here you go.

And our cute little nonalcoholic spritz.

Fun.

Okay.

And then we'll do a little toast.

At the very end, you know, here's the viewers here so we can be drinking as we.

Sign off.

While the frittata just looks fan freaking tastic.

I've got hair.

Hold on.

Okay.

Okay.

You'll have 2.5 minutes on us.

Okay.

We.

We're done.

I hope you've enjoyed this time together.

Thank you for having me.

So we'll just start fast.

We've made a beautiful picnic suitable for Lakeside.

Your fireside.

It was inspired by her recipes.

Great.

It was inspired by her recipes.

Tell us what you've made and what the drinks are.

I'll quickly do mine.

And, what does she capture about farm life?

And then we'll have a little toast to you for joining me to the viewers.

We'll see you.

Time for dinner.

And, your tips are crooked.

Or maybe it's like you're fighting or sucking in.

Okay.

Oh, wait, wait, what came out again?

Emergency.

Emergency.

Tape on the left.

A Tenshi no!

Touch your knee.

It's not going to stay, I don't think, but it might.

Do you need it for I don't know, do I need it or.

I mean, does moving around?

Oh, cause it looks white.

Yeah.

Oh, because it's holding the microphone.

It's not just got it.

It's holding.

So these insiders, they know all the things.

Well, I'm ashamed to say, as a vegetarian, your sausage rolls smelled very good.

Am I looking at April or am I looking at you now.

Well you're going to be I, we're, I mean we're just going to get very quickly started and you're going to talk about, you know, this company and what you made.

Oh this is going to be really fast.

By did a great job.

We got cheesy.

We forgot to say that we got cheesy okay.

We have fun ish coming up in three.

Oh.