Plants lean toward light, we turn toward love—both exhibit instincts to optimize life-giving energy and growth. Consciously tending to our inner and outer gardens reveals an innate tendency toward self-sustenance.

Seeking simpler, vibrant nourishment has become a personal practice that resonates easily with a drive to thrive. For those of us that focus on personal and planetary health and social responsibility, eating has evolved into a movement for sourcing locally grown and seasonal foods.

Emerging from the deep freeze of our past few months here in the Northeast, hints of returning warmth and light are a welcome and nurturing transition into the beautiful green hues of springtime. Our Food and Garden issue is full of innovative strategies for carefully stocking our pantries, purifying our diets and reducing toxins in our world. “Fresh Food Trends,” by Melinda Hemmelgarn, p. 17, introduces the latest term on the scene, “hyperlocal”, to refer to the way that family and school gardens promote true sustainability by shifting the paradigm one more step closer to home.

Our community’s progress in cultivating a deeper relationship with each link in the chain has created a powerful ripple effect of caring for not only the fields and farms that feed us, but also our neighbors and ourselves. This month’s story on Roaring Brook Market, in downtown Lancaster, exemplifies a passionate plan for interdependence and ease between customers and suppliers, one that provides a model for efficiency and freshness.

An entire local network has laid the foundation for awareness in food choices, illuminating the wisdom in attending to detail from the ground up. Beginning with seed purity and soil quality, empowered dietary strategy carries up through the cycle for a keen understanding of unique, individual needs. As nature’s edibles have provided “food as medicine” for countless ages, the potential for healing through the art of nourishment is endless.

Here's to a delicious month!

    ~Jacqueline Mast, Kendra Campbell & Lois Schultz, Co-Publishers