Ten Years of Food and Community
Look how far we’ve come in 10 years—and not just at Edible Dallas & Fort Worth, but the entire North Texas locavore landscape. That includes what we eat and drink and how we grow our food and come together as communities. In the following pages, we look at how the region has grown and changed through Edible DFW’s first decade. And lest anyone forget, we stand on the shoulders of giants—people like Paula Lambert, who single-handedly pioneered local cheese-making at the Mozzarella Co., and iconic farmer J.T. Lemley, a fixture at the Dallas Farmers Market for a generation (now selling closer to home in Canton). Also chefs like Stephan Pyles and Dean Fearing, who paved the way for farm-to-table dining— now the standard, rather than the exception. So proceed and savor the stories of the momentum propelling us forward.
ABOVE (clockwise from top left): Stepping out in front of Local Yocal, a McKinney mainstay; a harvest hatful at Deep Ellum Urban Gardens; a curious goat greets visitors at Rehoboth Ranch near Greenville; a garden grows at the Austin Street Center, which serves Dallas’ homeless. Photos (clockwise, from top left): Melinda Ortley, Joy Zhang, Kelsi Klembara, Kelly Yandell
KIM PIERCE is a Dallas freelance writer and editor who’s covered farmers markets and the locavore scene for some 30 years, including continuing coverage at The Dallas Morning News. She came by this passion writing about food, health, nutrition and wine. She and her partner nurture a backyard garden (no chickens – yet) and support local producers and those who grow foods sustainably. Back in the day, she co-authored The Phytopia Cookbook and more recently helped a team of writers win a 2014 International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award for The Oxford Encyclopedia for Food and Drink in America.
