This country superstar has been working a second job: breeding cattle, stewarding the land and cultivating dung beetles. Lots of them.

East Tennessee Wheat.That's what Erik Zilen, co-owner of Niedlov's Bakery & Cafe, is calling it.

Here's a thought exercise: travel anywhere in the US, walk into an Indian restaurant, any Indian restaurant, and odds are pretty good that wherever you go, the experience will be mostly the same.

A few Fridays ago, something really special happened in Sewanee, Tennessee.Gathered around five or six round tables inside a Methodist church, a group of regional farmers, growers and producers met with buyers and grocery store owners.The day's goal: to plan out next year's growing season.

In 1965, Wendell Berry left a teaching job in NYC and moved with his family to a farmhouse in Henry County, Kentucky. There, he began his abundant writing career: more than 80 books of essays, novels and poetry, all of which seem to revolve around naming both what's been lost and the path back to it.

Instead of asking what can go wrong, what if we asked a different question: what can go right?

When you know where Bryan Slayton was, you'll know where he's going.

Listened to my first Taylor Swift album a few days ago. My very first. I know, I know. Half the world adores her. I'm a little behind the times.

Imagine bread, beer and whiskey made from grains grow locally. From Niedlov's to Sequatchie Cove Farm to Red Clay Farms.

Can Chattanooga become a Blue Zone city, where people are living longer, healthier and happier lives?

Within American capitalism, I can only think of one other class of laborer whose livelihood – day in, day out – exists in such a vulnerable, trusting and insecure position.Servers.

Not long ago, I was outside Aldi talking with a friend headed to a meeting where folks were asking a most intriguing question.

The Palestinian-Jordanian chef has a rare vision for what his restaurant can accomplish. People across the US are noticing.

We're constantly stumbling into one very hard truth: growing food for a living is tremendously difficult. We marvel at those who do it well.

There are 17 items offered. Mushroom grits. Blackened trout. Cheesecake. Okra with beet hummus, bee pollen, pickled onion, honey, cilantro and naan.And nearly all the ingredients are locally-sourced.

One month ago, we launched Food as a Verb, telling local food stories you can’t find anywhere else.You responded with open arms, supporting and subscribing in such generous ways.

The summer sun rises above us at Sequatchie Cove Farm in Marion County, Tennessee. The flock of 2,000 Novogin laying hens is protected by a series of strands of moveable electric fencing. A white Pyrenees moves through the flock with authority of soldier guarding the wall. Full of summer freedom, a boy rides by on an electric dirt bike followed by a pick-up carrying a flat bed of garlic harvested earlier that day.

Chattanooga – twice named Outside's Best City – is known coast to coast for our outdoor identity. Name any outdoor sport – minus skiing – and we offer it in gorgeous abundance.

Over the last year, Ian “Sully” Sullivan has served some three thousand bowls of oatmeal to Chattanoogans. He’s the owner of The Oatmeal Experience, a food truck that specializes in specialty oatmeal he says “aren’t your granny’s oats.”

My best friend is working on a Toyota with a malfunctioning alarm system. Every time you put the key into the ignition, the car alarm blares and won’t stop. It's an awful sound and paralyzing: you can't drive the car with a blaring, honking alarm. But, to fix the car, you must start it, which triggers the alarm and makes working for more than five minutes unbearable and crazy-making.

Get to know Spencer Perez – founder of Coffee Machine Service Co. and our city's espresso machine repairman – and you'll see the world – and coffee – in brand new ways.

Here at Who Knows Why Farm, there’s a very wide gap – a maddeningly, comically wide gap – between my vision for growing vegetables and the reality of what actually happens.

"One of my goals of moving here was to help open hearts .... that we can come together as a community.”

Three of us were harvesting milky oats on Cagle Mountain, swish-swishing through the grain, white clouds floating in a blue summer sky, when we all just stopped speaking. 

She also shares the origins of Alleia's Baked Creste Rigate with Veal Meatballs and a fifth-generation recipe for buttermilk pancakes.

Welcome to Food as a Verb.

The landscape of Chattanooga food is arguably the best it's ever been.