Someone Else's Adventure

Today I received the email below from my friend, Cheech. He is a teacher in St. Augustine, Florida, a world traveler and a real character. He is embarking on an adventure across America. As someone who loves to cook, eat and travel, I am jealous. Check out his email below and track his progress across the U.S.

Dear Friends,

I am very excited to share with you the news that I have been selected to receive the Geoffrey Roberts Award for 2007 and with it a prize of $6000 with which to finance a road trip across the United States in search of endangered American foods. I will be visiting small family farms, farmers’ markets, and chefs that produce or utilize traditional local ingredients, some of which may be produced in such little quantities that their very existence is now in jeopardy.

I have created a website to track my road trip: www.eat-american.com.

On it you will find information about the trip, such as the people we meet and the foods we discover along the way, as well as recipes, photographs, and links to websites that are related to this cause . I will be interviewing some famous names in the world of food and hope to share with you some of my adventures!

I have already been interviewed by NPR and the St. Augustine Record. I will post those interviews on my website as they become available online. For those of you in the Jacksonville listening area, my interview will broadcast on 89.9 FM tomorrow, Saturday, 23 June, at 7AM and 3PM.

My hope is that this road trip will generate enough interest about our threatened foods that farmers, chefs, and indeed the American public, will be sufficiently informed and moved to grow, cook with, and buy them before they are gone forever. In this way, we can help small family farmers and these national food treasures survive, while preserving a part of our nation’s heritage.

Our first stop is right here in my hometown of St. Augustine, FL where I will be highlighting one of our local treasures, the Datil pepper.

On Monday, 25 June, we will head for the Carolinas to investigate stoneground grits, Carolina Gold rice, and a few other items that are being artisanally crafted there.

Check our website frequently (www.eat-american.com) to get updates about our whereabouts and humorous anecdotes from the road. Also, please forward this email to anyone you know who would be interested and help us get this message out!

cheech