About Us

Bethany Rydmark  
Sustainable Food for Thought Co-Founder & Editor
Landscape Architect & Kitchen Tinkerer

An eighth generation Oregonian, Bethany grew up on her family's farm on the French Prairie of the Willamette Valley, an oldest sibling to five younger brothers, home educated with a passion to learn.

She expanded her appetite for equitable, sustainable, and meaningful food through university studies in landscape architecture, land use planning, local food systems, and resource management.

Sustainable Food for Thought is her outlet to share stories of late-night kitchen tinkering, bulk buying, community gardening, and Food Group hosting. After finding her cupboards overloaded with experiments-gone-right, Bethany co-founded Portland’s first Food Swap in December of 2010 as a way to diversify her pantry and mingle with neighbors.

{A note from Bethany: I spent 2012 fulfilling a crazy dream of traveling the world with my husband, Ted, and recounting adventures at www.twoOregonians.com. More of my blogging happens there these days...}

While I was overseas away from home and kitchen comforts, I asked some terrific friends and writers to share their real life, real food encouragements and experiences.

2012 Contributing Writers

Rebekah Pike 
Rebekah is happiest with her nose in a book and enjoys making the most of her pint-sized, apartment kitchen. After leaving work in media production to become a full-time mommy, she began exploring the sustainable living movement, reconnecting with the back-to-the-earth ideals of her hippie parents. She met her husband, Darian, in 2005, working as a camp counselor in Oregon's rugged outdoors. Most of their time is spent chasing after their daughter, Ashlynn, and doing serious “research” at Portland's restaurants, coffee shops and markets.

Lindsay Strannigan
@rosemarried
www.rosemarried.com
Lindsay is a Portland-based food writer and event coordinator who shares her love of whole and healthy foods, wine, and cooking on her blog and in the company of friends. She creates delicious recipes, often highlighting local ingredients from the Montavilla Farmers Market where she serves as Board Member, and she brings her culinary savvy and event planning skills to our mix, running our seasonal PDX Food Swap.

Charlotte Smith
@champoegcreamry
www.champoegcreamery.com
Charlotte passionately believes in the health benefits of a traditional foods diet, especially dairy products from grass-fed cows. She loves sharing time honored traditions of transforming milk into delicious and nutritious cheeses through her classes which are also teeming with nutrition facts and wisdom. Charlotte owns Champoeg Creamery, a pasture based raw milk dairy in St. Paul, Oregon, and is the mother of 3 and a certified Nutrition Wellness Educator.

Genevieve Cruz
www.pokrovfarm.com
Genevieve and her family moved to a 35 acre farm in Sandy, Oregon to improve their health and begin providing others with good food, too. They specialize in grass fed/finished beef and raw milk. She is a stay at home mom who began researching health and nutrition about eight years ago which led them to become farmers in 2008 and begin selling raw milk in March of 2009. She's learned many things while living on a farm and hopes to continue learning more. She loves having people over to visit and cook for them!

Jesse Buck
Jesse is Bethany Rydmark's {big} little brother. He is a junior in high school and lives on the family farm in St. Paul. He is a video game playing, combine driving, movie watching teenager who also may be found planting the garden, harvesting fresh veggies, snapping food photos in Hipstamatic, cooking dinner for special occasions, and spending an afternoon watching Julia Child episodes and cooking through stacks of recipes with his favorite sister.
www.lifeatthewillards.blogspot.com
Kelsey is a firefighter/paramedic with Clackamas Fire and a dedicated homemaker who has successfully tackled health issues through alternative cooking. Kelsey shares her love of wholesome food with others through small scale health food courses and friendly conversation. She is dedicated to living well and staying fit, and she and her husband are in excited preparations to grow their family through adoption.

Michelle Felt
@meeshfelt
www.feedyourskull.com
Michelle is a graduate of the Raw Gourmet Institute in Chicago, Illinois. Having grown up in the suburbs of Chicago, she has recently relocated to Portland, Oregon, where the produce is crazy fresh abundant and the culture is as thick as the Midwest’s humidity. She loves raw foods and advocates for eating with realism and relish. "Approach each eating experience as an opportunity to nourish your body, eating the best you can, in the moment."


Sustainable Food for Thought Co-Founder & Past Writer

Emily Pastor possesses an energetic passion for learning about and incorporating nourishing foods and holistic household management practices into everyday life. In summer of 2011, Emily transitioned from life in the Pacific Northwest to Chicago, Illinois. She now shares her life and writing at www.milkthistlethoughts.com.






Sustainable Food for Thought also accepts submissions of real life, real food stories. Please be in touch if you are interested in sharing your writing with friends.

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