Ms Cook is enthusiastically committed to the discovery and enjoyment of locally grown and crafted foods. As a child, she would take on an alter ego and pretend to be “ms cook”, appreciating farm to table meals in her Grandparents’ kitchen or chatting with her parents over a bowl of homemade ice cream. As an adult, she awakened to the fact that locally initiated sources of meat, eggs, dairy and produce had all but been replaced by massive shipments from very far away. The outcome – “Ms Cook” lives again. She researches the sparkling flavors of foods that are produced nearby and are prepared as soon as possible. Ms Cook shares the food sources around her that have enriched her life in community and serves up adventures with local food producing friends who are committed to that same quality she celebrated back in the days of little “ms cook”. She tells a tale of real food with recipes that will benefit the health of the family and the community. Ms Cook writes a weekly food column for The Columbia Daily Herald and teaches seasonal cooking classes: Loco for Local, at Columbia State Community College. She also contributed in the development and production of Provisions and Politics, a national winner of the Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards.

Wright Sanders – the fourth of seven children – stoically bears the burden of the ‘invisible, middle child’ while working full-time on his family’s farm in Dogwood Mudhole, Tennessee. Amidst the constant demands of caring for pigs, chickens, sheep, goats, horses, and cattle, he still carves out time to carefully cultivate his skills in the sarcastic arts and apply them to his descriptions of his charges on the farm. Wright enjoys macramé, long, shoe-removing chases in muddy pens and removes his dirty carcass to nearby Lodi every evening where he lives with his wife, Jena, and their 2.8 children.

Justin Sanders is the second of seven children. Wright’s older brother, convinced that he knows everything, Justin daily strives to redefine the phrase ‘the blind leading the blind’. Justin enjoys domineering lectures and restarting nearly completed projects. He lives on the farm with his wife, Ellen, and their four children, who he affectionately refers to as “cheap labour”.

Lisa is the owner/founder of Local Table and an obsessive/passionate gardener and lover of the outdoors. She and her husband Dale live in beautiful Smith County and are in the livelong process of restoring an 1870s farmhouse and bringing the farmstead back to life. They share their place with numerous cats, dogs, chickens, guineas, milk goats and two rescued Quarter Horses.

Lizzy is a Nashville newcomer by way of Pennsylvania and Texas, but it hasn’t taken her long to find some good, local eats and drinks in the Music City. She loves food more than most things, probably even more than bike rides, reading and music. Lizzy enjoys exploring and discovering new hang-out spots and she can’t wait to share them with you.