hello. I am erin torgerson.

I am a slightly taller than average, vegetable grower, Slow Food trained cook, and current dweller of Durham, North Carolina. For me, the best food is generally called “Peasant Cuisine” — recipes born out of a necessity for sustainability — a few simple ingredients combined with deep, generational knowledge of the land, resulting in something really delicious. Nowadays, we have a responsibility for sustainability — a responsibility to our environment and to those who grow our food. My goal as a farmer-cook is to use the culture of Peasant Cuisine as a north star for seasonal, home cooking. 

I watched, possibly too much, PBS growing up. Personalities like Julia Child sparked in me a love for cooking, and more so, a love for learning about other cultures through food. This passion followed me into college where I studied documentary filmmaking — consistently finding food as the focal point. But, as I spent time filming on farms and in kitchens, the less I wanted to be behind the camera and more I wanted to get my hands dirty. After graduation, I farmed and cooked my way through Denmark, England, and Italy, eventually finding my way to  The University of Gastronomic Sciences, aka, “The Slow Food Uni” in Pollenzo, Italy, where I received a Culinary Masters in The Theory and Practice of Sustainable Gastronomy.

After Italy, I moved to Steamboat Springs, CO, to be near my brother and found a home at Elkstone Farm, where I was able to join the team as farm chef and assistant grower. In addition to helping around the farm, I managed our value-added goods production, and, along with chef Chereen Leong Schwarz, developed an agritourism program centered around cooking classes and farm lunches.

Growing a wee bit tired of snow in June, when my friend Michelle Aronson of Farmbelly, said she had bought a farm in North Carolina, I said, “I’ll be right over!” I have spent the last few years in North Carolina fully submersed in learning the trade of farming — spending most my days farming at Red’s Quality Acre — and it was here that the first salty seed of this project was planted. Seeds & Salt is a way for me to invite you along on this winding, food-focused, anthropological, and agricultural journey — to create a space to encourage and celebrate a hungry curiosity for learning more about the world through food.