My Grandfather’s Garden

As a child, I spent many summer hours in my grandfather’s garden. Pure heaven…picking fresh fruit off the vines and trees.

In spending so much time around plants, I grew up understanding the importance of our connection to the earth and how dependent we truly are on one another. But most of all, I grew up witnessing how tiny seeds can transform and feed our bodies.

Resilience and Discovery

It’s hard to remember a time in my life when food was not at the center, my sun and my moon. Children of larger families often know what it feels like to go to bed hungry and to constantly dream of food. Intuitively, I also longed for flavors and spices beyond my exposure of childhood foods. This longing sent me on a lifelong journey to uncover the art of spices, textures and layering.

The Culture of Food

After countless hours teaching in school classrooms and kitchens as well as my scholarly pursuits into the field of food studies, my love of food is still center stage. Whether I am researching the historical and cultural lineage of America’s root beer or actually brewing the roots and berries to ferment, I am in love with the culture, history and practices of culinary arts.

Along the way, I have been humbled by the transformative power of food in nourishing not just the body, but the mind and the spirit as well. And one of the greatest gifts has been watching the way food brings people together and cultivates community connections.