Jody Hall, the royal highness of cup-sized cake (you can tour her newest Cupcake Royale headquarters here), recently drove a combine to help harvest her own wheat while visiting Fred Wagner’s farm over in Spokane. Wagner’s outpost is part of a Northwest co-op of 30 family farms called Shepherd’s Grain. Like Hall, these farmers believe in sustainability practices. ’Cakes with a conscience make for loyal Royales.

Here, Jody shares her favorite foodie finds (read: puts her money where her mouth is.)

Ingredient of the moment
I would definitely have to say huckleberry. It’s our cupcake of the month right now. Huckleberries are more tart than a blueberry, but with our buttercream frosting it’s an awesome mix. We’re using wild blue mountain huckleberries from Foraged and Found.

Cookbook
Right now I’m really in love with Alice Waters’s The Art of Simple Food. She explains things so well, and she’s got some really great tips. Like the other day I made a blackberry pie and used her crust tips. I’ve improved my cooking so much from her book.

Restaurant
It’s so hard to choose! I really love The Corson Building. Matt Dillon is the chef there, and I just really love what he’s doing. Smith is kinda my neighborhood hangout. And I also love La Spiga, Boat Street Café, and Sitka and Spruce.

Market Stand
Oxbow Farm, located in Duvall, is a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm. As an investor in Oxbow, every week I get a veggie box from them depending on what’s in season. They are at the farmers market in Madison Valley. My partner, Kelly Ring, used to work on that farm, and I just really like them.

Coffee drink
My favorite drink at Cupcake Royale is an espressso macchiato with two shots of espresso and a dollop of foamy milk in a demitasse cup. If I were going to go to another café, it would be Stumptown. Stumptown is our roaster, and we were their first customers in Seattle before they even opened here—they’re a really good roaster, and they buy all their coffee at fair trade prices.

Previous Tastemakers: Mark Klebeck and Craig Serbousek