Letter From the Publisher “We’ve Come a Long Way Together”

IT IS WITH mixed emotions that I announce my retirement after 17 fulfilling years at Edible Phoenix. Little did I know as I paged through the first issues of Edible Ojai (the original Edible publication) that I would embark on a second career touting the wonders of local food and drink here in the Valley and that we’d be traveling together on this journey for such a long time.

I am eternally grateful for the support I’ve received from all of you over the years as we’ve built our Edible community. We’ve been blessed with many long-term advertisers, the lifeblood of our publication. Five of them were in our first issue: Arizona Community Farmers Market, Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market, Essence Bakery Café, Farm at South Mountain/Quiessence and Queen Creek Olive Mill. Our talented writers, photographers, copy editors and designers have brought to life the stories we tell. And you, our readers, have always been a source of encouragement, especially rallying round as we faced uncertain times due to COVID.

What does the future hold? I see both cause for celebration and cause for concern. At one level our food and drink community has never been more vibrant. (I remember the first time the Arizona Republic published an “Edible-type” local food story and my colleagues wondered if I was upset. “No,” I said, “It just means we’ve been doing our job.”) All the positive trends I highlighted in the publisher’s letter in our 10th Anniversary Issue continue on (with one of the few positive outcomes of COVID being additional support for the food-insecure). See ediblephoenix.com/10years.

At another level, we’ve lost most of the battle to preserve local farmland, the impacts of climate change have never been more noticeable, events are just restarting and some of our best and brightest young culinarians have left the Valley.

On the personal side, I’m looking forward to celebrating my 65th birthday with many of my wild women friends, traveling (Portugal and Belize are up first), tackling recipes from my extensive cookbook collection and enjoying the fact that I no longer have a schedule to adhere to.

As for the magazine, as of press time we are looking for new owners to continue to celebrate the abundance of local food and drink here in the Valley. If you’re interested, contact us. We’ll keep you posted.