In Our Fall 2019 Issue

Dear Reader,

Listen and learn—it’s what we like to do here at Edible Rhody. It’s how we bring you the stories of the chefs, farmers, fishers and local purveyors who live and work in the Ocean State. We listen to learn about the challenges of working in food and what motivates or inspires a person to choose a life on the line, on the water or in the field, or how sharing an old family recipe brings someone’s life joy and purpose.

In this issue, we’ve doubled down by listening and learning about storytelling; a storytelling forum called Tender Table that centers around food, identity and community. Its founder wanted to create a welcoming space for women, trans and nonbinary people who are black, indigenous or otherwise of color to tell their food stories and share their prepared dishes, with the idea that bringing people together around food inspires memory and creates a sense of community through shared connections.

In another story, we sat down to listen to the chef, author and food entrepreneur behind Plant City for a Q&A about his new plant-based food hall in Providence. Just across from the city’s new pedestrian bridge, the multi-concept restaurant and retail shop is the first of its kind both here in Rhode Island and beyond.

If you listen carefully enough, you can almost hear the waves lapping on the shore as we visit Newport’s Brenton Point and learn how briny saltwater goes from reef to table with Newport Sea Salt. Making a handcrafted sea salt takes time and patience plus a lot of heavy lifting whilst wading into swift-moving ocean water, in both winter and summer. And that’s only part of the story.

We venture to Warren to listen to a new producer of hard cider while visiting his orchard filled with heirloom apple varieties that have been chosen for the purpose of making “a great American cider.” The hard cider is produced at his nearby cidery, Warren Cider Works, where hard-to-find heirloom apples are also for sale in the fall season.

Then it’s up to Pawtucket to sample the spirits at Rhode Island Spirits. Nestled alongside the Blackstone River, the newest distillery in the state is producing gin, vodka and other liquors and liqueurs. They are infused with locally grown and foraged botanical ingredients that give each spirit a flavor that is uniquely Rhode Island.

We also find out why copious amounts of locally landed seafood aren’t being eaten by us Rhode Islanders. The dearth of Rhode Island–caught fish in local markets gained new attention in a study by Eating with the Ecosystem, a nonprofit that promotes a place-based approach to sustaining New England wild seafood. They had help from citizen scientists who shopped and cooked their way through months of market research to get to the truth about finding those smaller fish from the sea.

As you turn your thoughts and your appetites from summer into fall, I hope you’ll keep listening and learning, cooking and sharing.