Introduction

I guess the best place to start is to discuss the tipping point. The event that caused me to go from a casual foodie to someone willing to cook goat stew, tap maple trees in my backyard, and drive all over central Mass to find farms who supply this and that. Well, if you believe my wife (which is a pretty safe bet... since she is almost always right), the sea change occurred when I read Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma." The book was great, but more than anything else, it made me think about where my food comes from. It's hard to explain why it did this, but when I discuss the book with others who have read and enjoyed the book, they don't seem to think my behavior is all that strange (of course I haven't started hunting wild animals or gone mushroom foraging yet... so I have some room to grow.)

I guess what it boils down to is that when you start with a great question like "Where does your food come from?" with the personality of someone who loves to search out answers to questions, and the fact that we need to eat every day, slight obsession occurs.