In Our Spring 2015 Issue

Dear Reader,

I promise not to talk too much about the weather but I have to say, this particular spring issue of Edible Rhody has never been a more welcome sight!

Through the depths of winter with all the snow it dished out (again and again . . . and again) I was busy getting the magazine ready for production and printing for its arrival around the spring equinox. The pleasure of poring through the spring stories with their vibrant-colored photos was surely the reason I didn't resort to hibernation.

Seeing spring on my computer monitor was a stark, almost laughable, contrast to the view out my window: a frozen world blanketed by white, encircled with icicles. Most of the photos you'll see in this issue were taken last spring when the earth was green and fresh foods were poking out of the ground. The stories themselves are accounts of renewal, rebirth and, in one respect, the way I think of the spring season itself: full of determination.

Determination is what it takes to extract clear sap from a tree and turn it into an amber elixir, as you'll read in the story about sugarmaker Bill Tabor. It's what it takes to run a successful farm, the large and small, as you'll find from the stories on Baffoni's Poultry Farm and Indie Growers. It's what it takes to run an independent food business, whether it's a restaurant or a food artisan start-up, like those you'll read about in the story on Hope & Main.

It was in our winter issue back in 2011 when we first covered the story of Hope & Main in Warren. At that time founder Lisa Raiola's dream of starting a food business incubator was in its infancy. Through the ensuing three years and the sheer determination of Raiola, her board of directors and other key supporters, Hope & Main has become a beacon for Rhode Island's economic renewal centering on food and agriculture. At the ribbon cutting ceremony last October you could feel the excitement shared by the first class of Hope & Main food entrepreneurs, local chefs, farmers, builders, teachers, politicians, government and community leaders who filled the standing-room-only space.

The enthusiastic crowd could clearly appreciate the future benefit from this much needed (and much anticipated) addition to our local food community. We are excited to share stories with you of some of Hope & Main's first food entrepreneurs in this issue and we look forward sharing more accounts of the good food being cooked up in its community kitchens for many seasons to come.

While this spring may take a little more time to shed the cloak of winter, it is indeed here at last. I know we will all be savoring its mouthwatering flavors with an extra helping of appreciation this year.

Dig in!

Genie McPherson Trevor