Sharing a Red Tomato moment with Grandma
Laura discusses a recent trip to Trader Joes:
Like many non-profit staffers, I sometimes have a hard time explaining what I do. I often use short hand like “I write articles that teach people about where their food comes from.” Or “I help family farmers.” Many people are hip to the buzz about local food and launch right into their own thoughts on the topic, rescuing me from trying to further define my professional life. Others, like my grandmother can’t imagine a world where people don’t know where their food comes from. Never mind that her fridge isn’t necessarily replete with homegrown goods, her life started on a family farm and to her mind food systems should be as simple as they once were. She doesn’t want to read about “food issues.” My grandma simply wants to go berry picking in the summer, make apple pies through the winter, and muse about the beautiful farm of her childhood. Fine by me – her memories fostered a passion in me that doubles as a career.
When I started working at Red Tomato (happy day!), I took some time to practice my new response to that oh-so-defining question “what do you do?” I’ve got my A, B and C answers pretty much down – carefully tailored to fit the interest level, age and attention span of my audience. But this past weekend, I discovered my D answer, which is easily my all-time favorite.
I took my grandma grocery shopping at Trader Joes. We navigated the produce section to its wintertime north star: the Eco Apple display. There were Macoun, and Empires from Clark Brothers, McIntosh from Sunrise, and Red and Golden Delicious from Rogers. A light bulb went off and I exclaimed “that’s what I do! Those are Red Tomato apples and I helped!!” It’s not shake ‘n bake but it did the trick.
“That’s nice, Laura!” Sometimes, one really good apple says a thousand words.
More about the author
Laura Edwards-Orr recently joined Red Tomato as the Communications Associate. Laura is a writer, researcher and consummate foodie. With half a brain in the kitchen and the out in the land of sustainable agriculture activism and education, Laura will be working closely with the Red Tomato staff to help tell the wonderful, and sometimes quirky, story of good food, the farmers who grow it, and how it travels from farm to plate.
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