about

I am eternally curious about food. Not just the eating part, but everything about it from ground to fork, plus the surrounding context and history.

So, I read a lot of cookbooks. And by a lot, I mean I have overflowing shelves of them, there are stacks of them all over the house (including some from the local public library since I can’t own all the cookbooks…), and I almost always take a few with me to read in bed. I cook pretty regularly, but I probably read about cooking more than I actually cook.

To me it’s sort of like an armchair travel experience, as I like to read about cuisines from all over the world–both close by and far away. One of the best parts of this type of virtual traveling is that I can create the food I’m reading about in my own kitchen.

I always love when I come across an ingredient, particularly a spice, that I haven’t used before, and always take it on as a personal challenge to track down ingredients that are hard to find. At this point, it happens so rarely that I feel like I’ve won a prize when I find something new.

Equally as exiting as new-to-me spices is cooking with foods local to me. Living on the edge of the Boston MetroWest and Central Mass, I can easily head either way to find local farms and producers for all kinds of delicious food, grown and produced with pride and care.

I do realize that I am fortunate to have the resources to be able to choose what I eat and to decide where I want to purchase it–and the luxury of time to search out specific ingredients and cook them. With that, I view my food dollars as a chance to support my neighbors and as a vote for what’s important for my family, the local food system (including the people working hard to grow/produce that food), and the environment. I like to really know what I am feeding myself and my family as much as possible. “Know your farmer, know your food,” as they say. (“They” being a bumper sticker I sometimes see–and I agree!)

To that end, I spend a lot of time reading about the local food scene in Massachusetts (and the rest of New England, too, since we’re such a small region). There are a lot of farms around here, active year-round, even though we have long, cold winters in this part of the world. And a lot of people doing things like making bread, vinegar, hot sauce, and responsibly sourcing spices, too. There is so much that it is difficult to keep up and keep track, sometimes. A good problem to have, I think!

As a result, I am making the information repository that I wish already existed. I’m starting out small, with an audience of zero, so it’s ok–no pressure. This is especially good since I do have an actual full time job that has nothing to do with food. For now, I just have a few simple lists; eventually, it will have fancy filtering and maps. My aim is to grow into a rich resource for my little corner of the world.

I recently read a quote from Nicola Lamb of Kitchen Projects (if you are into baking with dough, check out her amazing substack):

Be unashamedly obsessed with whatever you are into.

So, here I go.