About

Hi. I’m Karen.

Thank you for visiting my seed-to-table cooking, whole foods, nature-loving, crunchy-evolving, gardening-addicted blog.

Or, rather, I’m all of those things. My blog is just where I write about them.

It’s hard to change — so very hard — but over the years, despite a career elbow-deep in technology, I’ve found myself drawn to the natural world. More, with each passing year. (Oh, I still love technology — me and my iPad: BFFs — but I want it to recede to be a tool of life, not life itself.)

I’m not a hippie, nor a hipster. Nor a prepper or doomsayer.

But I’m not ruling anything out, either — I like to keep all my options open.

If I had to pick one word to describe myself, it would be gardener.

“Gardener. Vegetable Gardener.”

I grow food. And then I cook it (although it’s often just as fabulous raw), and eat it. And grow some more. It’s amazing that someone like little ole me can do that. Nature is amazing.

I also love DIY projects, so those will be making their way to this blog, too. Who knows what creative muse will hit me? It will be tied to the natural world, whatever it is.

I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: flyover state. But Cincinnati is actually quite the place to be. A thriving, evolving city surrounded on all sides by rolling farmland. It’s the best of all worlds, I think. The conveniences of the city, affordable suburban homes with yards, and access to fresh, organic food, right from the farm. We have world-class chefs and restaurants, more farmers’ markets than Walmarts (I love that statistic), and a progressive, determined slow food movement.

I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

To pay the bills, I dabble in a variety of things. I build eCommerce stores for a publishing house, and before that, a different publishing house, and before that, various catalog companies, including The Republic of Tea and J. Peterman (yes, Seinfeld fans, there really is an honest-to-goodness J. Peterman. He’s a hoot — a rugged Lexington, Kentucky horseman with a wicked sense of humor, an eye for unusual finds, and an obsession with quaint illustrations).

But, closer to my heart, I’m also a writer. In a former life — before the Interwebs — I was a technical writer, with over 50 bylines in tech magazines and journals (all sadly now defunct, made obsolete by the free-flowing information on the Interwebs. I kept every single issue that ever contained an article penned by me. I figure they’ll be collector items one day. Not because of my articles, but because tech pubs on paper are practically extinct).

These days, I write about gardening and food. Among other projects, I have a really enjoyable gig writing for Edible Ohio Valley magazine, part of the Edible family of James Beard award-winning publications. There, I’m doing a year-long series on the four-season home vegetable garden. And I was recently asked to join the blogging network of my hometown newspaper, the Cincinnati Enquirer. I love that these local connections have been made through food and gardening.

Anyway, I don’t want to hold you up. I hope you enjoy your visit, and that you’ll like it enough to come back again. And maybe leave a comment now and then. I love to hear from folks.

P.S.: Tomatoes. I adore tomatoes. I grow lots and lots of heirloom tomatoes every summer — they make my heart sing. Here’s a photo from one day of my 2012 harvest. One day’s worth of August tomatoes. (Like I said, Nature is amazing.)

Leaf + Grain on the Interwebs

• Featured on Greatist.com: 50 Healthy Recipes Using Sriracha Hot Sauce (Feb. 6, 2013)
• Featured Chef on Noshon.it: Gluten-Free Sunday (Jan. 13, 2013)
• Featured on the Yummly blog: Healthy Cooking with Quinoa (Jan. 10, 2013)
• Featured on Buzzfeed.com: 37 Colorful And Healthy Winter Salads (Dec. 20, 2012)
• Pinterest: See what folks are pinning from Leaf + Grain
• Foodgawker.com: Leaf + Grain Photo Gallery
• Tastepotting: Leaf + Grain Photo Gallery
• Healthy Aperture: Leaf + Grain Photo Gallery