A big week for us here at Food as a Verb, which, of course, means you, too.

• Sunday, we unveil our new website.
• We announce our upcoming party.
• We celebrate our first year of Food as a Verb.

In August 2023, with shaky fingers, we clicked "publish" for the very first time, sending out an email to a few hundred of you.

Our first story included this photo with the headline: Something Takes Root.

Now, one year later, we've taken root, all right, having published more than 100 stories to more than 1000 direct subscribers and 2000 followers.

This Sunday, we'll look back over our shoulder at the last year while also raising the largest mug we can find in your honor, our beloved readers and partners.

This Sunday, we'll send our regular 8.30-ish email, but this time, it will include a link. Please click the link, which will carry you to our new site where you can enjoy Sunday's story. (And all our past stories and some new surprises.)

If you see Alex, give her a much-deserved standing ovation. She's worked her talented magic to design and build this site. As they say across the pond: it's brilliant.

From the beginning, so many of you stood with us.

And, along the way, we've made new friends, supporters and partners.

We'll say this loudly Sunday, but also today:

We love and thank you and couldn't do this without you.

We also owe a very overdue thank you to Alysse Parris, one of our biggest, most steadfast fans. It's hard to go wrong when you have friends like Alysse.

Before we close with a wonderful return to Food in our Phone series, we have one announcement and two recipes:

• The Chattanooga Area Food Bank hosts its first-ever Nooga Hunger Run/Walk on Sunday, Sept. 8. The 5k begins on Riverfront Parkway with a goal of helping reduce food insecurity in the region.

"No one should go hungry," our city's food bank declares. "Food is a basic human right."

• A few weeks ago, our hens stopped laying. It was the height of summer, but zero eggs. The girls had gone on strike. Or, so I thought.

"You need to jump start them," one friend suggested. "Put a little cayenne in their food. Give them a little kick-starter."

Turns out, I needed to kick-start my own noggin'.

The hens were laying, just not where I was looking.

Tucked behind a pine tree ... all the eggs I was missing.

There's some wisdom here, maybe boiled into this:

Just because you can't see it doesn't mean things aren't happening.

In honor of our newly found clutch of eggs, here are a pair of recipes – each requiring a half-dozen eggs – from Letty Smith and Circle S Farm's Good Grazing cookbook.

Remember: you can get many ingredients from Main Street Farmers' Market this afternoon. Hissing Possum will have arugula, both Pig Mountain Farm and Quail Run Farm are selling sausage and multiple farmers offer eggs.

Finally, a welcome return to Food in our Phone.

See you all Sunday!

Food in our Phone

weekly nibbles and encounters

1. Found Hutton & Smith at a tiny market in Mobile, AL! Love to see a (favorite) local product sold in other states. Go Hutton!
2. Anyone else eating tomatoes like apples these days?
3. Only a half-local plate this week. Delicious roasted potatoes from Circle S farm! They are set up every Wednesday at the Main St. Farmers' Market.
4. Petit fours for an event from Federal Bake Shop in Hixson. Completely drool worthy, highly recommend!

All photography by Sarah Unger (sarah@foodasaverb.com)

All design by Alex DeHart

All words by David Cook (david@foodasaverb.com)

Story ideas, questions, feedback? Interested in sponsorship or advertising opportunities? Email us: david@foodasaverb.com and sarah@foodasaverb.com

This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.