Southern Season partners with Vivian Howard

If you can't make the three-hour (or so) drive it to Kinston for a dinner at The Chef & The Farmer, you can get a taste of chef Vivian Howard's favorite things from Eastern North Carolina. A Southern Season, the specialty food store based in Chapel Hill, plans to open a Vivian Howard shop in its stores in Chapel Hill, Charleston and Richmond.

Howard is currently appearing in the second season of her PBS show, "A Chef's Life."

Southern Season's Howard section will happen in a couple of stages. First, there will be several collections in handmade wood crate of items chosen by Howard. The items will include products and cooking tools from her area of the state. The crates will range from $44.49 for a cornbread gift set up to $289 for Ben's Birthday Gift, with hand-forged tools and a number of artisan food products from around the Carolinas.

Those will be available later in October. You can find the catalog listing here.

Then, in early 2015, A Southern Season plans to add products inspired by Howard's recipes. Howard will make appearances in the stores in December: Dec. 11 in Richmond, Dec. 12 in Chapel Hill and early 2015 in Charleston.

And yes, that raises the question about the long-awaited Charlotte location of A Southern Season. Sources with A Southern Season say to stay tuned: There will be more news on that very soon.