Tabitha Alterman, Contributing Editor
Tabitha Alterman has maintained a lifelong interest in
living lightly on the planet while soaking up all its glory, in both work and
play. She revels in fresh air and sunshine, music with a soul, uninhibited
dancing, long bouts of travel, growing flavorful food, celebrating the seasons
through cooking and — above all — good times with the good people she holds
near and dear. She values wit and beauty, but neither above compassion. Her
favorite words are bunk, sagacious and smarmy.
Tabitha considers cooking with high-quality, artisanal
and homegrown foods to be one of life’s greatest joys, and it’s a joy she
relishes sharing with others. She believes sustainability and self-sufficiency
are the keys to better-tasting food, not to mention a richer life. Her kitchen
is usually full of interesting foodie science experiments. She does her best to
grow delicious, healthy veggies and herbs via tiny bits of space here and
there, including a little patch in Kansas and her fire escape, windowsills and
a community garden in East Harlem. She is grateful to the red wiggly worms on
her fire escape that happily turn kitchen scraps into free, healthy fertilizer.
She is also grateful to the good food folks of the Hudson Valley who provide
her with an infinitely interesting collection of ingredients. She enjoys
tracking down food experiences with fascinating stories all over the world, and
feels lucky that she gets to tell stories and promote the valuable work of good
food folks everywhere.
Tabitha also maintains a fun and challenging post as
Food & Garden Editor over at our sister magazine, Natural
Home & Garden. She is
studying the interesting urban food systems of New York City, and expects
to be doing so for a very long time. In addition to taking classes at the New School, the Natural Gourmet Institute and the Astor Center, she learns a heckuva lot about food artisans,
traditions and community by volunteering for her community supported
agriculture (CSA) program and for the education department at Murray’s
Cheese. She also participates
in her local Slow Food chapter and
New York state’s food policy council, the Food Systems Network, and has served as a civil society delegate to the
United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, where her focus was on sustainable agriculture.
Tabitha studied English literature at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., aka The Natural State, where she
misses the pecan grove and Petit Jean Mountain the most. She has also lived
under the grey skies and shimmering spires of Oxford, England; the
massive magnolias and wraparound porches of her hometown of Memphis,
Tenn.; on the side of a volcano in Hawaii’s Kona Coast; in a bungalow in hip,
crunchy Lawrence, Kan.; among the last stands of tallgrass prairie in the Flint
Hills; in the shadow of South Mountain in Phoenix, Ariz.; and in her vibrant
and diverse neighborhood of West Harlem in New York City.
2008: Alterman enjoys an organic 'Mother Earth
Brews Alt,' a scrumpdidlyuptious beer in the brews
alt style that she brewed with Davin Bartosch, a good
buddy of hers who makes beer at Rock Bottom Brewery
in Chicago.
2005: Alterman's display of heirloom veggies from
her editor's and her own organic gardens in Kansas
won Second Best Display at the annual heirloom
plant festival at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in
Mansfield, Mo.
2004: Alterman at her favorite mostly untouched,
still-wild place, which is a secret, and she plans to
keep it that way!
Alterman also enjoys a fun and challenging post at Natural Home magazine. She’s inspired by the home design principles of wabi sabi that she’s learned from Natural Home’s past editor-in-chief, Robyn Griggs Lawrence, and is thrilled to be on board as the team’s Food Editor.