About Edible Kentucky & Southern Indiana
Welcome to edible Kentucky & Southern Indiana Magazine
Over the past 10 years, Louisville has experienced a significant increase of interest in local food. Whether it’s the growth of farmers markets, the increased use and promotion of local products by the city’s many outstanding chefs on their menus, or the increasing presence of local specialty and gourmet products on the shelves of local merchants, we are experiencing a major shift in thinking about the food we consume.
We at edible Kentucky & Southern Indiana want to celebrate and promote the people and products that are making this happen. We welcome you to join us.
Edible Kentucky & Southern Indiana is a community-based publication that promotes the abundance of local foods, season by season. Edible Kentucky & Southern Indiana transforms the way our community shops, consumes and appreciates beverages and food that is grown and prepared in the local region. Through our flagship publication and our website, we connect consumers with local growers, retailers, chefs, and food and drink artisans, enabling those relationships to grow and thrive in mutually beneficial, healthy and economically viable ways.
Meet the Team
Steve Makela, publisher
Inspired by the writings of Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben, Steve started publishing Edible Louisville and the Bluegrass in the spring of 2010. Their writings provide the theoretical inspiration while Martha, his wife, provides the practical - both in shopping and cooking. Read Steve's stories...
Chris Valentine, co-publisher
Chris has spent the better part of his life in one form of agriculture or another. While the bulk of his career has been spent in the commercial seed industry, his current more agrarian pursuits have been inspired by Wendell Berry. Chris has kept bees on a small place in Michigan for about ten years, and finds that avocation at once fascinating and challenging. A former dairy operation is slowly being transformed into a bee friendly enterprise, with crops such as wheat, alfalfa, vetches, and buckwheat being planted in rotation without the use of herbicides or pesticides which might harm the bee yard. The pleasures of good honest food, raised and prepared in a manner which is healthy for both the planet and humans, produced, served, and savored in families and communities is the pursuit which brings Chris the most enjoyment. Read Chris's stories...
Ann Curtis, managing editor
Ann enjoys bringing attention to the many people and organizations working hard to develop and encourage local economies. She co-hosts The Local Life radio show Saturdays at 1pm on WCHQ 100.9 FM (and via podcast) . She also serves on the board of Slow Food Bluegrass, and the Smoketown Family Wellness Center. Read Ann's stories...
Leslie Friesen, art director
Leslie is a full-time faculty member teaching graphic design in the Communication Art & Design BFA program at the University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. She has been the designer of Edible Kentucky & Southern Indiana® since its first issue in 2010. In addition to her passion for design, Friesen and her husband enjoy cooking and being able to incorporate both produce from their garden and purchases from local their farmer’s market. See Leslie's stories...
Steve Coomes, writer
Steve is a Louisville restaurant industry veteran turned award winning food and spirits writer. In his 28-year career, he has edited and written for dozens of national trade and consumer publications including Nation's Restaurant News and Southern Living. A past restaurant critic and feature writer for Louisville magazine, he now pens features for Edible Kentucky & Southern Indiana®, Bourbon Plus, American Whiskey and Whiskey magazines, as well as USA Today. He also serves as corporate ghostwriter for multiple companies in the restaurant and spirits segments. He has authored and ghost-written four books, including “Country Ham: A Southern Tradition of Hogs, Salt & Smoke.” Read Steve's stories...
Lois Mateus, writer
Lois is chair of the advisory board for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. Read Lois's stories...
Jeneen Wiche, writer In the Garden
Jeneen is a farmer and professor at the University of Louisville. She writes a weekly farm and garden column that is published in community newspapers across Kentucky and Southern Indiana in addition to writing for Edible Kentucky & Southern Indiana®. She teaches American Indian Studies and Food Studies courses including Food and Body Politic which addresses the evolution and consequences of our industrial food system. She also directs students as they navigate the emerging Real Food Challenge- a student driven campaign for healthy, humane and real food on campuses nationwide. She farms with her husband, Andy Smart, in western Shelby County. Swallow Rail Farm is Animal Welfare Approved for its high welfare standards growing and selling Kentucky grazed lamb, poultry and eggs. Read Jeneen's stories...
Sarah Fritschner, writer Cooking Fresh
Prior to being a writer for Edible, Sarah worked as a food writer for the Louisville Times and Courier-Journal for 24 years. She works with Organic Association of Kentucky on connecting consumers with local farmers. Read Sarah's stories...
Doug Adrianson, copy editor
Doug handles copy editing for about 30 of the now-80 Edibles, from San Diego to Manhattan to Louisville. A 25-year newspaper journalist (mostly with the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times), Doug lives in Ojai, California, where the Edible Communities seed was first planted. He believes the Edible publications and the whole locavore movement are among the most significant and positive trends of our time, and is deeply delighted to be involved.
John, E.S. Bruhmann, photographer
After 25 years of newspaper photography, in 2012 John left journalism to establish and operate a commercial photo studio for a local furniture manufacturer. When not photographing food for Edible, usually prepared by his wife, contributor Sarah Fritschner, he's walking the family retriever on trails through Cherokee Park or driving his car at track days on race courses in the surrounding states. See John's stories...
Tomese Buthod, writer
Born in Tulsa, OK, Tomese was raised on her family’s farm where she hated her gardening chores, but always loved eating what came from the garden and pasture. Her formal education is in business and health administration, and she worked in public health for more than 20 years. She has always loved cooking (and eating) and after she moved to Louisville, she discovered the joys of vegetable gardening, much to her mother's amusement. A self-taught cook, she loves to share her appreciation of good food any way she can. Read Tomese's stories...
Andrew Hyslop, photographer
A native Louisvillian, Andy is an alumni of St. Francis High School and The University of Colorado Boulder. When he isn’t taking pictures in his spare time he is wrangling his 3 young sons, sometimes doing both. His work has also appeared in Garden & Gun, The Local Palate and Imbibe magazines. See Andy's stories...
Jason Thomas, writer
Jason is a Louisville-based writer with more than 20 years of experience in newspaper journalism and public relations. Follow him on Twitter: @ScoopThomas. Read Jason's stories...
Lindsey McClave, writer
Also known as foodie-girl, Lindsey is a food and travel writer, co-host of The Farmer & The Foodie on KET. You can take a peek into Lindsey's ever-growing recipe box and read her travel logs on her website, LindseyMcClave.com. Read Lindsey's stories...
Norma Taylor, Bluegrass Region advertising representative
Norma has 25 plus years of business experience, including executive level human resources management; sales, marketing and distribution in the food and appliance industries; marketing and advertising in publishing and general business areas. Norma has worked in politics, the real estate and home building industries, importation and sales of appliances and food products, general business, marketing and human resources consulting for large and small businesses. Read Norma's stories...
Jere Downs, writer
Jere Downs writes about food, health and the sustainability movement. The Detroit native was most recently the food writer for the Courier-Journal and the USA TODAY NETWORK. Downs is a graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Read Jere's articles...
Meagan Jeanette, Louisville, Bluegrass & southern Indiana
After receiving culinary arts training at Sullivan University, Meagan worked for several Louisville restaurants and as a chocolatier for Amore di Mona Couverture Chocolat Speciale. She began curating Edible's Dining Guide in 2015. Now fully transitioned into the culinary sales environment, Meagan enjoys cooking for friends and family at her home in Audobon Park.
Catherine McBride, writer
Catherine is a former professional chef who enjoys writing about food, and loves to cook with fresh ingredients from local farms and businesses. Read Catherine's stories...
Tyrel Kessinger, writer
Tyrel is a freelance writer. He currently writes the “Sonic Breakdown” column for the LEO Weekly. Read Tyrel's stories...
