The Perennial Plate comes to Durango

Stephanie Colgan

Daniel Klein is filming an episode of his web series in Colorado.

Now he's producing The Perennial Plate, a weekly web series about sustainable eating. While the first season focused on the kitchen, for season two Klein and cameragirl Mirra Fine are traveling around America, capturing how some people are catching and raising food responsibly and creatively. And they're currently in Durango.

Klein, who has family in the area, hopes to get a few days off so that he can enjoy southwestern Colorado. The Perennial team have been working for a month straight, and he'd like to "find time to just go walking in the hills or something," he says.

But first, they'll film at Turtle Lake Refuge, a non-profit whose work emphasizes the relationship between health and wild spaces through sustainable food and alternative energy; Klein will be talking to Katrina Blair, who founded the organization. The Perennial Plate is a lot about people, and a lot of people said we should talk to her," Klein explains.

He'll also make a few public appearances around Durango. Tonight he's preparing a four-course dinner at Cocina Linda (tickets are $45; call 970-259-6729). At 6 p.m. tomorrow, he'll be at Durango Natural Foods demonstrating such recipes as grassfed beef tartare.

The Perennial Plate combines punchy music with food expertise and serious action. On the most recent episode, a Mississippi man caught a giant fish with his bare hands -- and yes, there was blood involved. On another episode, Klein went hunting frogs in Arkansas.

Watch all the episodes at ThePerennialPlate.com.