Review of gardenfork.tv

Inspired by his love of cooking, gardening, and general do-it-yourselfness, Eric Rochow created Gardenfork (garden + fork = gardenfork) after many failed attempts to pitch his own cooking/gardening cable television show. He runs his own multimedia company, Choplogic, as well as a blog about general media news. Gardenfork was launched in June of 2006.

Eric explores a refreshingly interesting variety of topics in his particular field, including how to transplant plants, what to do with garlic scapes(and what they are), and how to change your disc breaks. He also films experts like Patricia Hulse from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, who showed Eric how to build cold frames (miniature greenhouses). The videos can be a bit lengthy, sometimes over 10 minutes long, and often feature Eric chewing food into his microphone or messing around with his Labrador Henry (the dog’s super cute), but the lessons are thorough, shot surprisingly well for just a guy with a camera, and teach all you need to know about the task at hand. 

What separates Gardenfork from other cooking/gardening sites is how close the viewer is to Eric. For instance, he takes us into the home of his friends at Thanksgiving to give us lessons on how to carve a turkey and make gravy. Never mind that he has had four glasses of wine and that the kitchen is a little dark and the camera a little shaky. We get to watch a turkey being carved and gravy being made right before our eyes by real people in a real kitchen (and a real turkey-shaped soup tureen!), not in a sterile studio on the Food Network.