In Our Summer 2019 Issue

Editor's Note plus all of the Summer 2019 Issue.
 

I want to take a moment and thank the land. We take her for granted, don’t we? For without her none of what we do at Edible Columbus would be possible. And none of what the people featured in our summer issue do would matter to you. There would be no stories to tell or good food over which to savor those stories.

So I want to take a moment while I have your attention to thank the land here in Ohio, the Midwest and beyond for sustaining life. From the soil to the sky, I want to say thank you for the water, air, plants, animals, sunlight and moonlight that keep us connected, healthy, whole and content.

From Lake Erie to the hills of southern Ohio, I say thank you for allowing us to work with you to grow food and raise animals for the continuation of humanity. From the center of Central Ohio, I say thank you for allowing so many to grow food amidst the concrete of Columbus. Thank you for the flowers and bees, the buckeyes and yellow perch, the ginseng and the shade of a sycamore. Thank you.

Our summer issue digs deep into stories about farmers and the land as this is the season for catching the tales as they come off the sun-infused summer breeze so we might humble ourselves and perhaps pay our respects to the land by shopping at a farmers market, joining a CSA or growing some of our own food.

Yet as evidenced in these stories you’re about to read, life offers challenges. Some of us have to immigrate to a new country to make a life. Some of us are diagnosed with cancer in our 30s. Some of us have a dream and—against all odds, and despite what people say—we dare to dream it into being. Some women become the first woman in a leadership role our mothers never had the opportunity to know. Some of us grew up in a city and love the land so much we decided to devote our lives to understanding how she thrives. Read our stories and see the threads that connect one restaurant to a farm, one immigrant to a local chef and his take on a classic Ethiopian spice. Despite life’s challenges, I believe we’re all holding each other in good stead from a fundamentally true, good seed in each one of us.

We have few recipes in this issue, and it’s intentional. We want you to get out this season and visit the eateries that make Columbus a destination for local flavors and true heartland community. We want you to visit someone else’s table and sample their way of cooking to experience a new land and listen to stories embedded in hearts made of gold. We want you to join hands with this local food community with your dollars and show the people who work with the land in all their various ways why you want them to keep going.

I want to thank the land because she has sustained so much over the last 10 years as Edible Columbus has grown and changed. She is all we have and everything we love about food, culture, environment and sense of place. She is our guardian and gift. She is we. Let’s not take her, or each other, for granted anymore.

Eat Well, Love Well, Live Well, 
Colleen Leonardi

SUMMER 2019 | CONTENTS