During these years, I also worked as a farmer. I worked in the Adirondacks, a mountain range in New York, as both a vegetable farmer and a butcher. We raised animals, grains, fruits, and vegetables at our farm. I worked with all kinds of people: chefs, engineers, Amish folks, and high schoolers. I loved where I lived because I could bike from the farm to the lake and swim every day after work. While in college, I also worked at a CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm that donated half of our harvest to people who couldn’t afford food in the city. Most recently, I completed a cheesemaking apprenticeship in Wisconsin, where I made two different types of cheese: one a hard, alpine style, and the other a small, soft cheese wrapped in spruce bark so the inside doesn’t melt out! I love the hard work that goes into food production and the sense of pride it gives me to feed others. I think it’s very important to understand where our food comes from and how we can uplift our communities by ensuring everyone is nourished.
This year, I’m studying food and agriculture in Italy at the University of Gastronomic Sciences. The work of a gastronomer is to highlight and communicate the value of food beyond its nutritional context. Food is a fantastic entry point for understanding all aspects of history, culture, science, pleasure, and art. At my school, we have students and researchers from over 26 countries! Everyone brings something meaningful and unique to our lessons and research because each person is an expert in a different area. Unlike traditional schools, my master’s program has a new professor every two weeks, which allows us to cover a wide range of topics and sample the vast variety of niches in Food Studies.
