Welcome to my blog. I write about whatever piques my interest.
contact me:
sashadavies (at) gmail.com
I am greatly inspired by the well-crafted sentences, thoughtfully curated publications, and emotive images of others. Here are the places and publications that have honored my efforts as a creative contributor by including my works in their pages.
These guides evolved from the belief that a small amount of sound information and encouragement goes a long way toward improving everyday affairs.
At first blush, the topics covered in these booklets may look scattershot, but they are tied together by the kind of loneliness that lurks around the day-to-day challenges of life. They’re about stuff you think maybe you should know more about but don’t. These guides create opportunities for connection and conversation and offer proof that you’re not the only one who could use a little help. (shop)
Published in the fall of 2012, the Cheesemaker's Apprentice was a dream project that allowed me to reach out to many of my heroes in the cheese industry and interview them about what they felt was important within their areas of expertise. This book was a collaborative effort with avid home cheesemaker David Bleckmann who wrote and tested all of the recipes, and Leela Cyd who contributed the majority of photographs.
Published in 2010, the Guide to West Coast Cheese is an encyclopedic work documenting the breadth of artisan cheese being produced in California, Oregon, and Washington at that time. This project provided a fantastic opportunity for me to visit cheesemakers throughout the coastal states and to expand my cheese description vocabulary!
In the summer of 2006 I coerced my husband into taking four months to travel around the United States visiting nearly forty artisan cheesemakers. This project was born from my desire to understand the people behind the incredible cheeses I was selling in volume to restaurants and consumers from my post as a cheesemonger in a busy cheese shop in NYC.
Hand-crafted cheese made in the U.S. was finally attracting attention not only at home but also in European markets. While the Europeans had volumes of history defined around their food traditions- especially regional cheeses- and in America, if cheesemakers had anything at all (and that's a big if) it was a single page of marketing material on their website. So I went in search of answers to the questions I had about who these people were, what motivated them, and why did they make the cheeses they made.
We kept a blog throughout the project and also created podcasts (which you can find on iTunes) from our recorded interviews with various cheesemakers we visited.
Read and listen to the archives HERE