Lyndsay Green Transcript
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Hi, everyone. You're listening to The Future Of Food Is You, a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Abena Anim-Somuah, and each week I talk to emerging talents in the food world and they share what they're up to as well as their dreams and predictions for what's ahead. As for me, I'm the founder of The Eden Place, a community that's all about gathering people intentionally around food. I love this new generation of chefs, bakers, and creatives making their way in the worlds of food, drink, media, and tech.
Today's guest is Lyndsay Green. Lyndsay is the award-winning dining and restaurant critic for the Detroit Free Press. She recently won the James Beard Award for emerging voice in journalism and was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. Lyndsay and I chatted about how she got into the world of food journalism after working in beauty editorial, her green thumb, and love of home setting, and how she hopes to inspire writers as one of the only black female food critics in the country. Stick around for this chat.
Thank you to Kerrygold for supporting The Future Of Food Is You. Kerrygold is the iconic Irish brand famous for its rich butter and cheese made in Ireland with milk from grass-fed cows. I was recently in Ireland with Kerrygold and got to meet some of the people behind their signature butter and cheese. I spent an afternoon with Kerrygold's cheese tasters to learn how classic cheddars like Dubliner and Skellig are aged. I visited the Ballymaloe Cookery School and watched Rachel Allen make some champ, which is basically an Irish take on mashed potatoes filled with scallions and Kerrygold salted butter in the gold foil of course. We also spent an afternoon with the Grubb-Fernow family, the cheese makers behind the Kerrygold Cashel blue farmhouse cheese perfect for any cheeseboard or salad topping. It was wonderful just to see how Kerrygold is such a big part of Irish culinary culture. We even got to meet the famous cows. The Cleary family in County Waterford introduced us to their herd, and I learned so much about what goes into producing the best milk for Kerrygold's butter and cheese. Be on the lookout for some cow selfies on my Instagram. Each time I reach for my favorite unsalted butter or yummy cheddar, I'll be thinking of those cows and their dreamy pasture. Look for Kerrygold butter and cheese at your favorite supermarket specialty grocery store or cheese shop and visit kerrygoldusa.com for recipes and product information.
Some Cherry Bombe housekeeping. Don't miss the newest issue of Cherry Bombe's print magazine. The theme is the Future of Food and the issue was inspired by this podcast. Inside you'll find great stories, recipes, and our Future of Food 50 list of rising stars, many of whom you've heard on the show. You can buy a copy of the issue or subscribe at cherrybombe.com. You can also find a copy at one of our amazing retailers like Kitchen Arts and Letters in Manhattan and Vivian Culinary Books in Portland, Oregon. Check out cherrybombe.com for a complete list of shops that carry our magazine.
Let's check in with today's guest. Lyndsay, thank you so much for joining us on The Future Of Food Is You podcast.
Lyndsay Green:
Thank you for having me.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Well, we always like to start off by asking our guests, where did you grow up and how did food show up in your life?
Lyndsay Green:
So I grew up in New York. I'm from Mount Vernon, which is right outside of the Bronx. It's Westchester County, but for me it was like last stop on the five train. Food showed up in a few ways. Obviously being from New York, I feel like I had the typical New York experience of pizza and lots of takeout for me. So lots of Chinese food, lots of Caribbean food. I did a lot of Jamaican restaurants with my dad. My parents were divorced and so I grew up really with my mom, but every other weekend I was with my dad and he was in Queens.
So we did a lot of Jamaican restaurants out in Queens. When I'd see him on the weekends cooking at home, my mom, she'd do some... Well, she'd do some Puerto Rican food every once in a while. I'm half black, half Puerto Rican. I remember being at my grandmother's house and needing a lot of Puerto Rican food there. I had a lot of food.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. I think New York City is such a great city to build your relationship to food. Obviously other cities have great cultures, but you can truly get everything here at its best.
Lyndsay Green:
Growing up, not only did I have the bodegas and the bacon egg and cheese, which I love and the more casual things even just like Jamaican takeout and all of that. We also have the fine dining experience because it's a huge food city. And so I remember for celebratory events getting taken out to Michelin Star restaurants, you get that high low kind of well-rounded experience in New York. That's really cool growing up.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah, it's really refreshing for sure. So you are the restaurant critic at the Detroit Free Press and the first Black restaurant critic for the newspaper. Can you tell us a little bit about the current state of the Detroit food scene for our listeners who aren't quite versed?
Lyndsay Green:
Yeah. Detroit's food scene has grown so much just in the past. I've been living there now for six years and it's grown tremendously just since I've been there. My husband, who's from Detroit is also... I always say he's just as much a newcomer as I am because he's like, what is this place? It just feels almost like a new city. It's thriving. Just this past week, Ladder 4, it's a wine bar in Detroit, was named as one of New York Times 50 Best. We see that all the time. Bon Appetit also named them recently in their package. Year after year now we're seeing more Detroit restaurants that are getting this sort of national recognition, which is really cool to see.
But I mean, I think similar, I know it's weird to say it, but similar to New York, I think you do see that dichotomy in Detroit where you're getting that high, and I don't want to say low, because I don't want to say that casual or mom-and-pop restaurants are low end, but I think you're seeing that there's lots of culture there. We have a huge Middle Eastern population. We've got lots of diversity. We've got more African restaurants now. We've got quite a few African restaurants-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's beautiful.
Lyndsay Green:
... which is really nice to see. But then you are getting that fine dining experience too. So it's growing in ways that's not linear. We're really getting a diverse scene, which I love.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I really love that you said it's not high because I like to say like $2 sign, $4 sign.
Lyndsay Green:
You're right.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Because I feel like that goes to show the value, but doesn't necessarily degrade the experience if anything because those places are establishments just as anything.
Lyndsay Green:
Exactly. And sometimes you get the best food at those kinds of places.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh, let them know.
Lyndsay Green:
And they have staying power. They've been there for years and years. Yeah, that's definitely not low end. What they do is art.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
It's really nice to see that you feel a good sense of diversity. Well, also considering that Detroit is 80% Black, one of the Blackest cities in America.
Lyndsay Green:
Exactly.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And it's amazing to see that there's prominence and range in the types of food that you're seeing.
Lyndsay Green:
Exactly.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I think the restaurant critic is a very fascinating character in the food landscape because it's gone from the anonymous critic to really paying attention to which byline certain critics get to the whole scene about it all. How do you think about your critique process as it pertains to writing about restaurants? And then how do you think about that process, especially for the audience that you have in Detroit?
Lyndsay Green:
I'm thinking a little bit less of the audience because surprisingly this is what people don't realize. Yes, it's the Detroit Free Press, and yes, I'm based in the city, but we're still in Michigan. And so what you see is a lot of subscribers and longtime Free Press readers are not necessarily based in Detroit. They're based in metro Detroit, which can be anywhere from nearby, which would be like a Ferndale or a Royal Oak to-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Dearborn.
Lyndsay Green:
Yeah. To-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Ann Arbor.
Lyndsay Green:
... Ann Arbor, exactly. Which is about 45 minutes out in some places. So I'm not always necessarily writing for the reader. What I see my role as, or what I see my responsibility as, particularly as the first Black restaurant critic is that I need to be true to my perspective. I need to really tell the perspective that nobody else has been able to share. So if I'm noticing that I'm the only Black girl in the dining room, I think that's my responsibility to say in this city where outside of this dining room, I'm a part of the majority and I stepped through the threshold and I'm now the minority. Let's look at that. Why do I feel like this in this dining scene and should it be that way in one of the Blackest cities in America?
So I think I'm thinking of it more of that. It's more like looking at it through my lens as opposed to trying to write for the reader. Because the reader might not look like Detroit.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I'm curious to hear what the process is of when you're critiquing a restaurant, because I know some critics go three times anonymously, some go anonymously. How do you think about your process when you get an assignment to write about a particular restaurant?
Lyndsay Green:
So it's really interesting because I've only been at the Free Press now for... I'm going on two years in November. In the first year, and I wrote a story about my experience not going in anonymously, but feeling like I was largely unseen and unrecognized to now a year later feeling like now I've had some recognition and also just more face time with people in the restaurant industry. I've had to change my process because now I am walking in the door and being recognized. Now, I do have to change up whether I'm using my name or my credit card or things like that. So my process, it's always evolving, I think.
It also depends on the restaurant that I'm going to, but I guess the one constant is that, "Yeah, I try to go at least three times." I try to go at different times. If they offer a brunch service or lunch, I try to do it all. If there's a dish that I either love or hate, I want to make sure I'm having it multiple times just to be able to fairly critique it. I think those are the common practices of most restaurant critics, of any city. But yeah, I'm still trying to find a little bit of a groove because things have changed for me.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Something I really enjoy too is you are doing so much for the Detroit food scene as well. You have your packages with the Restaurant of the Year, and you have some select best restaurants that you've visited as well as events that you do. So you have your top 10 takeover.
Lyndsay Green:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Can you tell us a little bit about the top 10 takeover and how do you think the newspaper is shaping food culture within the Detroit area?
Lyndsay Green:
Yeah. Every year we do the Detroit Free Press and Metro Detroit Chevy dealers, 10 best new restaurants, and we also do the Restaurant of the Year. And so Restaurant of the Year is just exactly that. It's the one place that... And it doesn't have to be a place that opened that year, but in that year had a particularly excellent year. So whether that's a new chef or whole new menu items, whatever that is. And then the 10 best new restaurants. So typically in the past it's been just a roundup of traditional restaurants.
This year I did something a little different where I included more than just restaurants. And so we had three cocktail bars on the list. We had a best new popup. We had an emerging chef. And so for me, it just is like this is our one time of the year to celebrate the best in the city. I really wanted people to realize that the city is more than just restaurants now. If we're going to scream it from the rooftops, they need to know that we've grown so much that now it's beyond restaurants. We have a dining scene that's thriving in so many different ways.
So the top 10 takeover series takes that list and the restaurant of the year, and it gives diners an opportunity or readers an opportunity to experience the places on the list. And so this year it was really nice because we had a chance for the emerging chef, for example. She has a pop-up called Indigo Culinary Company, and she co-owns a farm in Detroit also. And so we had the opportunity to have a dinner out on her farm, which was really, really amazing.
She does storytelling, so she tells stories about the African diaspora. And so it was really, really nice to see something that was different than just a traditional dinner in a restaurant. And same thing with the cocktail bars. Getting people to come and just mingle and have some drinks was really nice. It's nice to have all those options in Detroit.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And for those of you listening, Indigo Culinary Co is run by Josmine Evans, who is the educator, cook and farmer for that. So you have a few accolades under your belt. You recently won the 2023 James Beard Award for emerging voice in print journalism.
Lyndsay Green:
Yes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Congratulations.
Lyndsay Green:
Thank you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
How did it feel winning the award?
Lyndsay Green:
It felt surreal. It felt amazing because again it just was after my first year on the job, and so it was entirely unexpected. Coming from a different background, I was originally a beauty editor, so this all feels new to me. So to be recognized just as something you see maybe down the line or hope for down the line, so for it all to be happening so quickly has just been hard to catch my breath.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah, definitely.
Lyndsay Green:
But it feels amazing to be recognized and to be in a city like Detroit and to be recognized feels really special because I'm not in a city that you feel like people are really paying that much attention to. So it feels nice that they saw me all the way out there.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. I know we have a lot of aspiring writers who listen to the podcast and are trying to get bylines. How do you build your writing process to make sure that you feel like you're producing great work?
Lyndsay Green:
That's a good question. It's painful. Writing is really hard and I know that I'm not alone in saying that, so sometimes that brings me some comfort. But yeah, it depends story to story, what the process looks like. I find that I'm a huge procrastinator, which is-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Due today, due today.
Lyndsay Green:
Oh, literally. So yeah, it's just about gathering all the data. Typically, I spend... Again, depends on the story, but I'll gather all of my reporting and do all of my interviews early on in the week. And then when it's crunch time to just bust it out. That usually looks like an all-nighter. I do my best work at night, so sometimes 3:00 is the magic hour, and then I'm going into midnight or past that and waking up early and thinking I can do it early in the morning to finishing touches. So yeah, it looks a little crazy.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. No, I'm the same way. I'm a night owl. So you were also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in criticism, and you were one of only four food critics to ever be nominated for the award and its very long standing history. How do you hope being recognized at this stage changes audience perspectives on food writers and restaurant criticism at large?
Lyndsay Green:
Yeah, it's crazy. It feels really, again, just humbling, honoring to be in that category with Jonathan Gold who's the only food critic to win a Pulitzer Prize which was years ago. So it feels like I'm really honored to be in that class. When I look at the history of that category of criticism, what we see is there's a lot of finalists and winners that are in fine arts, right? Fine arts, you see film, you see theater, you see, even I think architecture is in there. I don't know if the reason is that there weren't that many food writers who were applying. I don't know if it's lack of application or if it's just lack of recognition.
I don't know if it's that the prizes just hasn't seen food writing as serious as these other genres. I hope it's the most recent step forward toward being taken seriously as seriously as fine arts.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. That's so beautiful. You are one of the only Black female restaurant critics in the country. How do you think about your role, not just for Detroit, but in the food world at large, and how do you think about your role inspiring other Black female writers and female writers of color to start thinking about entering the world of restaurant criticism?
Lyndsay Green:
Yeah. The way that I think of it is I hope it just is a moment for people to say, "I can do it too." I hope that it's just confirmation that restaurant criticism doesn't have to just look like a straight white male. It doesn't have to only be that perspective. And I hope I'm just confirmation again that, yeah, it's possible that you as a person of color can speak on food even in a way that's different than what's come before us. I hope that I'm just an example that, "Yeah, our voice matters. Our voice is important, and it's important for people to hear our perspectives that just don't get shared."
I also think that there's two other thoughts that I have when I think of how I can inspire other people. I think one way is that if you're in a different beat, or if you're not even a writer right now, if you're in a different industry, I hope that I'm an example that it's never too late to switch. I started this food writing career really officially as a dining editor in 2020, January of 2020. So I hope anyone who's thinking about making the switch to food can see me and say, "Yeah, I can do it. It's not too late or it's not impossible."
And even also just the trajectory of, again, having a background as a beauty editor and it being a completely different career, I hope that there are people that also can see that and say, "Yeah, I can make the jump."
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter over at cherrybombe.com. It's the best way to stay up to date. You'll get podcast news details on all Cherry Bombe events and ticket sales and the latest on Cherry Bombe magazine. Look out for it every Friday in your inbox.
As someone who values mentorship and community, I think it's so beautiful how you love up on people, how you share the work of others, how you think about community, who are role models or mentors to you in the food writing world?
Lyndsay Green:
I have people who I really look up to. I think there are people like Sophia Rowe who I look at and I'm inspired by her because she talks about really important topics in food, but she does it in such a fashionable, beautiful way. To me, I just find that aspirational approach, but also, again, talking about really serious issues is really cool to me. I look up to her in that sense. And also Joanna Gaines is someone who I am really inspired by for a couple of reasons.
But one, I think what's really cool about what she's done is that she's always been forthcoming about her faith. I've read her books and it seems to me that she's really driven by that. She's really guided by her faith, which to me, I'm Christian and for me that's really important and it's nice to see when people are open about that. And also coming from a place like Waco, Texas and putting it on the map-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
On the map.
Lyndsay Green:
... for something different than what it was years ago is really cool. And being in Detroit, I look up to that and say, "You don't have to be in a bigger city to get that." It's not even about that attention, but doing big things in smaller cities is really cool to me.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Outside of the newsroom too, you're also very invested in food sovereignty and advocacy. So it's not just about telling people stories about what's happening in the food web, but also changing the infrastructure in the system of food. How would you define food sovereignty for our listeners who are just getting to know more about that particular field?
Lyndsay Green:
To me, food sovereignty means you're reclaiming your power over your food. Especially in a place like Detroit where we talk about food apartheid a lot, and we talk about food insecurity and lack of food access in a lot of neighborhoods in Detroit. To me, food sovereignty is a way to say, we're not waiting for the grocery stores. We're not going to wait for corporate systems to come and save us. We'd be waiting forever if we did that. So it's really about getting back to the land and saying, "We have power over what we eat, what we put into our bodies."
Because also, when you get those grocery stores, or sometimes when you get those, if you get the dollar store or you get in Detroit, there's a lot of liquor stores where people are getting their food from. You're not getting healthy food necessarily. You're getting chips and you're getting sodas and you're getting all of these things. So to me, food sovereignty is about reclaiming that power and saying, "I am going to be responsible for how I nourish my body and I'm going to do that with the land that is..." Well, it should be because in many cases it's not, but the land that should be a birthright. So for me, that's what it means.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
When it comes to your involvement, you're on the board of Crane Street Garden as well as a supporter of Keep Growing Detroit. What have you learned about the state of food being a part of these organizations?
Lyndsay Green:
So Crane Street Garden is a new garden on Detroit's east side. They just really started activating the land a year ago, and this year they're in their harvest mode, which is really cool to see. It's run by an incredible woman named Rachel. And what they've done has just been really amazing because they've done it in such a quick time activating the land and now already feeding people in the community. It's in a neighborhood where there's a lot of vacant land, but there are also a lot of longstanding residents and they have not had a major grocery store anywhere nearby or access to this kind of fresh food at all.
So it's really nice to see what they've been doing. And so for me, it's like every Wednesday I go and I am harvesting with Rachel for their farmer's market, just having discussions on ways that we can get more visibility for the garden and more ways that we can just educate people on how to grow, how to eat, how to harvest, all of these things. And it's been really cool to be a part of that.
And then Keep Growing Detroit, so they're a really amazing organization that are... They're dedicated to making Detroit a food sovereign city, which I think is... I'm so aligned with what they do, and they're so powerful. They are providing resources to not just community gardens and local farms, but also to just homesteaders. So I want to say it's something like 2,500 or 3,000 or something. There are like however many gardens across the city of Detroit that they help provide resources to, which to me is just, that's what I want to see more of. Yeah, they're just doing incredible, incredible work.
I'm a small supporter. I've done some volunteer with them, and I am a part of their Keep Growing Detroit program, but I would love to be involved even more with them.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
What are your hopes and aspirations when you are connected to these industries? What do you hope will come about from these organizations helping to create a just and more equitable food system in Detroit and in the country as well?
Lyndsay Green:
When we're talking about food sovereignty, I hope that we can find a way. It feels like a really... I don't know, it feels like a pie in the sky idea, but I really hope that we can find a way to make urban agriculture not just sustainable, but I want people to see the value in it. I feel like urban agriculture is not supported in the way that I think it should be, and there's so much power in it in changing just our health in so many ways, physical health, mental health, spiritual health, all of it.
And I just wish that we could get to a point where that idea is just supported and it's going to take a long time because obviously, there are other incentives out there that would steer people away from this kind of work, but I think it's important and I would love to see just power behind it.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Well, speaking of home setting, you've got a bit of a green thumb, you're home gardener, and you just bought a new place. Congratulations.
Lyndsay Green:
Thank you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You've been sharing some plans about what you want to do there. Based on your work as a writer, based on your work with organizations committed to food equity and food sovereignty, why was it important for you to also have a connection to food by growing and harvesting?
Lyndsay Green:
And I don't think this is the reason why, but something I've thought about lately is that for a lot of food writers, their trajectory has been either they went to culinary school, or they were cooks, or they had hospitality experience, they worked in restaurants. That was not my experience. I've never worked in a kitchen. I didn't go to culinary school. And so for me, what I'm learning is that my education in food is coming from the garden.
I really am learning about food in its purest form. And for me, I'm loving that education, knowing what an ingredient smells like when it's fresh, what it looks like in the soil, what it takes to make it its most beautiful, nutritious, ripest state. It's helping to inform my writing, I would say, and my critique of food. But it was important to me. I was one of those people that during COVID developed this.
I'm from New York, so it's not like I grew up on a farm, so it's pretty new for me for sure. I think we all kind of did that. We all just went back to what I believe is nature. We just went back to our simplest, I don't know, most natural state. And that for me was getting my hands in soil and getting more connected with nature.
I would like to rewrite our relationship with the land and realize that it really is reciprocal or should be reciprocal. We are planting these seeds and nurturing these crops, and they in turn are nourishing us and our food. And so for me, it's been a joy to be in the garden.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
How do you think about the community that you're finding with other home setters and how do you think about representation as it relates to creating your garden? What types of crops you have? Because again, what crops you go is based on what food you eat and vice versa.
Lyndsay Green:
Yeah. I'm such a newcomer to this. I don't want to seem as though I'm doing the work that a lot of these farmers have been doing in Detroit for years. There are a lot of really brilliant Black farmers that have been around for a long time and I don't even compare to them in any way. What I think about, and this is sort of what I was saying with Sophia Rowe being an inspiration, I want everyone to see that they can be interested in fashion, they can be interested in beauty, they can be interested in pop culture and all of these things and be interested in farming.
I think that's sort of what I want to project, that you can farm in a cool way. You can garden in a cool way, and you don't have to, again, be in those overalls. You don't have to be crunchy granola. You don't have to be that. You can be anything and still have control over your own food.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Well, what does the dream look like? For the new garden, the green garden, I should say? Yeah. You have the perfect name for it too.
Lyndsay Green:
Yeah, right?
Abena Anim-Somuah:
It's so spot on.
Lyndsay Green:
It's nice, the Green House. It's like I also want to paint the house green. I'm like, in all ways.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yes.
Lyndsay Green:
The Green House.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I'm living to my name. Yeah.
Lyndsay Green:
The dream would be... Are you familiar with Flamingo Estate?
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I am obsessed with them.
Lyndsay Green:
I don't have a fraction of the money that they have, but-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
But sometimes you don't need the money, you need the spirit within you.
Lyndsay Green:
Right? And the vision. I would love to do something like that on a smaller scale. I think without the beauty products and things like that, I would love to just be able to live in my home, provide food for the community, and do it in a really beautiful, sort of fashionable editorial even way. That's the dream for me.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
For those of you listening, Flamingo Estate is an LA-based food company that offers CSA boxes, sells some food and beauty products as well, and was founded by Richard Christofferson.
Lyndsay Green:
Yeah, and he lives there. As far as I understand.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
It's his home.
Lyndsay Green:
It's his home. That's what's amazing to me. It's, again, this concept of homesteading that we think is farming, and we have this vision of what that looks like, but then you see something like a Flamingo Estate and you see how beautiful that can look. And you're like, "Oh, that is different."
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Lyndsay, you just are on such an incredible trajectory. Where do you hope to see yourself in the next five to 10 years, and where do you hope to see the food industry in the next five, 10 years?
Lyndsay Green:
That's a good question.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's a big question.
Lyndsay Green:
I know. I think in five years, I would love to obviously still be writing, still be writing about food. I would love to be writing more about urban agriculture on top of restaurants and the dining scene in Detroit. I would love to be further along in this house and this little project of mine and finding ways to feed the community out of my own garden, encouraging people and empowering people to grow their own food. I'd love to start some sort of foundation potentially that offers resources to people who are interested in growing their own food, whatever that looks like.
I'd love to band together a little collective of people who can help to offer these resources to folks in Detroit. Yeah, I just want to be doing more of what I'm already doing, doing it well, and eating well.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Lyndsay, we are going to do our future flash five. How are you feeling?
Lyndsay Green:
I think I'm ready.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Okay. Let's do it. The future for food writers.
Lyndsay Green:
Is bright.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
The future for local writing.
Lyndsay Green:
Is honest.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
The future of food fashion.
Lyndsay Green:
Is exciting.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
The future of home gardens.
Lyndsay Green:
Is powerful.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And finally, the future of Detroit.
Lyndsay Green:
Is rich.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Amazing. Lyndsay, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. If we want to continue to support you, where are the best places we can find you?
Lyndsay Green:
You can follow me on Instagram @ladyluff, L-U-F-F like Frank, and you can follow my work at the Detroit Free Press at freep.com. That's freep.com. I think that's it.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Awesome. Thank you so much.
Lyndsay Green:
Thank you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Before we go, our guest is going to leave a voicemail at The Future of Food Mailbox just talking to themselves 10 years from now. You have reached The Future Of Food Is You mailbox. Please leave your message after the beep.
Lyndsay Green:
Hey, girl. I can't even begin to imagine what life looks like for you right now. I've learned that our own visions and plans and wildest biggest, most inconceivable dreams pale in comparison to the experiences God can offer us if we use him as our north star. If you've done that, I can only imagine how beautiful your life is. What I do know is that there are times when you'll wonder if you deserve any of this, if you've worked hard enough, if you're smart enough, been disciplined enough. But remember this, 10 years ago, you didn't pray for fame or fortune, you prayed for a confirmation that you were on the right path, that writing is your gift, and that your idea to empower others to grow their own food, reclaim food sovereignty, and forge a more reciprocal relationship with the land around us was a philosophy worth sharing. And you got that confirmation. So remember, everything you have now is the fruit of that one prayer and the intentional steps you took to hone your discernment and follow that very path. Continue to heeded your instincts and consider every success validation that this is your ministry. Try not to get distracted by the shiny objects and free yourself from societal confines. You can do anything. You can do everything. Chase the big dreams, keep writing, keep growing, growing food and growing in life, and most importantly, keep praying.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's it for today's show. Do you know someone who you think is the future of food? Tell us about them. Nominate them at the link in our show notes, or leave us a rating and a review and tell me about them in the review. I can't wait to read more about them. Thanks to Kerrygold for sponsoring our show. The Future Of Food Is You is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. Thanks to the team at CityVox Studios, executive producers Kerry Diamond and Catherine Baker, and associate producer Jenna Sadhu. Catch you on the future flip.