Barb Tholin

Editor Barb Tholin is a Chicago area native who remembers fondly her frequent trips back to the family farm east of Grand Rapids. "Those visits to Grandpa's farm brought to life the stories my mother told of her childhood--churning butter and butchering hogs and making sauerkraut in the crocks in the cellar." These traditions left an imprint: Barb later went off to northern Vermont to study agronomy and rural resource management, along the way working with sheep, dairy cows, draft horses, and organic market gardening and farmers' markets. Managing a coop's fresh food sales in the burgeoning natural foods business was the perfect way for Barb to share her passion for foods and farming with others. "I am delighted that now, through the pages of Edible Grande Traverse, I can support our farming community by spreading the word on how great and accessible the foods in this region are!"