Style Icon: Erin Gleeson
The creator of The Forest Feast shows us how she wears creative, bold jewelry.
Erin Gleeson is one of those women that you just wish you could spend more time with. Every time you see her. She’s also one of those women who is always smiling. I’ve known her since 2004, and I can’t remember a time when she wasn’t just joyous and shining. I think right now, we could all use a little joy and a lot of smiles, as well as some great recipes for meals to make with our families.
Necklace: Kuikui Nut Lei from Erin’s Grandma Winnie. Earrings: Zara. Bracelet: from Erin’s husband’s Grandma Audrey. Engagement and Wedding Rings: ABC Carpet & Home.
Erin’s got a lot to smile about – she’s the mother of two amazing boys (with a daughter on the way!), and she’s the creator of The Forest Feast cookbook series (well, let’s face it, the vegetarian-recipe-beautiful-photo-watercolor-entertaining empire that is The Forest Feast).
I caught up with her at her lovely cabin in the woods and talked to her about food, fashion, and of course, jewelry. She had just submitted the final files to her publisher for her fourth cookbook, The Forest Feast Mediterranean. She is already working on her next one, a California road trip cookbook!
So, how did The Forest Feast begin?
In 2011, my husband got a job in California, so we left Brooklyn after several sweet years. I had been working as a food photographer in NYC and was hoping to start a new project upon arriving west. By chance we found this little cabin in the woods in the northern Santa Cruz Mountains and I started shooting food outside to post on a new blog I called the Forest Feast (because we were living in the forest and I was always cooking up a feast!). I went to art school, not culinary school, so the recipes were very simple, California produce-focused and I displayed them online using a combination of my photography, watercolor illustrations and hand lettering. The blog sort of took off and within about a year, I got a book deal.
You are currently working on your fifth Forest Feast cookbook, this one shot in cabins in California. Did you ever imagine it would come this far? Tell us about the new book!
Not at all! When we first moved to California, I was hoping to shoot other people's cookbooks and started the blog as a way to make a new portfolio to try and get that type of work. This was the early days of blogging and social and I had no idea what I was doing, or how powerful it could be. Being in Brooklyn as a freelance creative was always such a hustle for me, and once we got to California, I was suddenly alone in the woods while my husband was at work and I had time to really let go and be creative with my new Forest Feast project. I think the quiet time around all those trees was really freeing for me and allowed me to create something more authentic. I didn't have any editors to please, I was just making something I thought was fun, and somehow that translated and people who saw it wanted to follow along.
The books are all vegetarian. The first 3 were shot at the cabin, and now I have turned to travel for new inspiration! The most recent book, The Forest Feast Mediterranean, was shot in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal during my husband's 3-month sabbatical. We took our two little kids along and I gathered recipe ideas as we went. This next one will be a California road trip cookbook where we take the idea of cooking from a cabin in the woods on the road! I'm featuring cool places we stay in all over the state on road trips over the course of a year, and I'm getting recipe ideas based on what we eat and what is grown in the different regions of California.
I personally love the corn and cauliflower tacos and the polka dot focaccia bread recipes in your original Forest Feast cookbook. What is one of your favorite recipes, from any of your cookbooks? If someone hasn’t yet made one of your recipes, where is a good place to start?
Thank you! The recipe I hear people say they have made the most is the Asparagus Tart from my first book. Lately, I have been making the Gnocchi Cauliflower Casserole from the new Mediterranean book a lot. It's great to feed a crowd and comes together very quickly with few ingredients. It's healthy comfort food.
How would you describe your jewelry style?
Colorful, eclectic, bohemian, but sometimes classic. I prefer gold and warm colored pieces.
What jewelry do you wear on a regular day?
I wear (and sleep in) my wedding rings and a simple gold band bracelet. My wedding rings are both from ABC Carpet & Home in NYC and were made by small New York designers.
On a special occasion?
Big earrings or a long necklace.
Do you have a philosophy on how to accessorize? Do you plan the clothes first or the accessories first?
I plan the clothes first, then add accessories. I usually pick bold earrings or a bold necklace, not both. If the outfit is especially colorful, I might just opt for simple earrings.
What are your go-to jewelry brands?
I don't have any! I buy most of my jewelry on trips, often at tables on the street or small shops. Jewelry is a small (and perfect) souvenir to come home with... a sweet reminder of the trip when I wear it.
Necklace: Purchased in Lisbon. Bracelet: H&M. Earrings: H&M. Engagement and Wedding Rings: ABC Carpet & Home.
Stores you shop at? Both online and brick and mortar?
I don't really have any go-to stores that I shop at consistently. I often find things at antique stores or vintage rummage sales. Last year on a trip to Spain I got some fun, red, dangly earrings at Zara to wear to a party. I was recently gifted a paper-thin rose gold ring from Ariel Gordon Jewelry which I have been wearing a lot. I have a long necklace I love from Ink + Alloy. And a few of my favorite earrings are from Anthropolgie.
Can you tell me a story about a time when you discovered an amazing piece (either at a store, flea market, your mom’s closet)? Tell me about the hunt.
Last year in Portugal we were traveling with another family, good friends of ours. In Lisbon, my friend Meckenzie and I popped into a small shop while the dads watched the kids outside and I found this fun, colorful tassel necklace. I really liked it but kept debating buying it, and when I turned around for a minute, Meckenzie had purchased it for me and handed me the bag with a smile. Such a sweet gift! I wear it all the time and think of her and that trip.
What is the most special piece of jewelry you own and why?
Apart from my wedding rings, I have some hand-me-down pieces from grandmothers that I cherish. I have my great grandmother's platinum wedding band, which I used to wear it a lot before I got married. It's special to me because my middle name is Nellie Mozeé, after her. I also have my grandma Winnie's bloodstone ring, a rust-colored sparkly oval stone set in gold, which I wear occasionally. When my husband's grandmother, Audrey, passed away, I was given one of her bracelets which I love so much. She had a great sense of style and I got to know her so well that I consider her my grandmother, too. It's a large, chunky, dark brown bracelet with gold detail and when you look up close you can see it's made out of old circuit boards.
Necklace: Vintage. Engagement and Wedding Rings: ABC Carpet & Home.
Do you wear jewelry when you're working/cooking/shooting? Is it different from your jewelry at other times?
I often wear long necklaces but have to take them off when I start shooting, as they get in the way when photographing food overhead!
How do you store your jewelry?
On big hooks and in a wooden jewelry box that Grandma Audrey gave me.
For your last cookbook, you traveled all over the Mediterranean to research and photograph. Did you notice a distinctive Mediterranean style when it came to fashion, and specifically, jewelry?
When we did our 3-month trip, we took very little (2 carry-on roller suitcases and 2 backpacks for 4 people!). With such little space, I brought back jewelry as souvenirs. Plus it was a fun way to dress up the same outfits I was re-wearing along the way. I think tassels must have been in then, as I brought back some fun red tassel earrings from Madrid and a long multicolor tassel necklace from Lisbon.
For many people, jewelry can oscillate between being something worn and valued for being decorative and something worn for its cultural or personal history. For you, is food the same? How?
I love Italian food since I studied art for a year in Italy in college, so that cultural nostalgia always pops up for me when dreaming up new recipe ideas. In terms of personal family history, while I make some holiday family recipes, in general I am more interested in creating new and interesting dishes and I often want them to be pretty on the plate, with an emphasis on color...so I guess that is, in a way, a decorative preference!
Necklace: Ink + Alloy. Engagement and Wedding Rings: ABC Carpet & Home.
A few years back you made a necklace out of thyme and succulents to wear to a friend’s rehearsal dinner. I love the ingenuity of this, and also how this piece will always be tied so memorably to this event, because you could only have worn it for a brief time before it fell apart. Could you imagine making more jewelry from edible materials? What would be some other great spices or flowers you could imagine wearing as jewelry?
Oh that was a fun one! I loved the fragrance it put off throughout the evening-- a sort of edible/herbals/floral perfume. I also hosted a party once where I strung kumquats on pastry twine and passed them out to all the guests. Again, that light citrussy scent, plus the absurdity of it, made people smile.
Thank you, Erin! Can’t wait to see the new cookbook!
