All Things Local

“Life Moves Pretty Fast.” Fifteen years go by pretty much in the blink of an eye. It doesn’t seem that way when you’re stuck in the middle of it. Everything seems pretty well in focus. But when you look back, some of it certainly looks blurry.

Sarasota has always had a vibrant food community. It might not be cutting edge, but it can hold its own and measure up against cities that are similarly sized. When it comes to food, we’ve got a pretty good game.

The Sustainability Spotlight. Founded back in 2002 in Ojai, California, the first Edible magazine sought to shine a light on local farmers, sustainability issues, and other significant food-related matters that generally weren’t yet being covered by the traditional food media of the time. In the subsequent decades, sibling Edible magazines would sprout in about 100 other cities all across the U.S. and Canada.

We would have to wait another eight years for Sarasota to get its very own Edible publication. 2010. That’s the year that four Freemans (Tracy, Tina, John, and Matthew) would launch Edible Sarasota.

All Things Local. Since that 2010 launch date, they have been pushing local farming, aquaculture, and farm-to-table issues forward. It’s fair to say that these critical pieces of our local food chain have had a true champion for the past decade and a half.

I’ve been writing about the Sarasota food, restaurant, and dining scene since 2002. Back then, all local food coverage seemed pretty vanilla. Edible changed all of that.

A Magazine that Stands Out from the Pack. With gorgeous, vibrant, and “real life” images, this publication looked and felt different. And it was. Through its coverage, issues that generally percolate under the industry’s surface were now thrust into the light of day.

Armed with a roster of talented local writers and photographers, Edible was reshaping the way we think about where our food comes from.

Faces that until then had been largely in the background of the trade (farmers, fishermen, and chefs) were now the story itself. It was a BIG change. And that change was for the better.

Those stories deserve to be told, and for the past 15 years Edible Sarasota has been telling them. And doing so in a way that personalizes an industry that, at times, can seem very impersonal. This is the story of where we get the food that we eat. It doesn’t get much more important and personal than that.

15 years. It sure doesn’t seem that long (though it might seem longer for the four Freemans than it does for you and me). But, in a publishing industry that moves so quickly and changes so rapidly, it is a LONG time. Congrats on a job well done.

Cheers to 15 more!!