In addition to regular updates from the Confluence team, we welcome and encourage submissions by anyone and everyone moved to write about food, farms, gardens, social change, or anything in between! Our vision is that this page can be a place of inspiration, reflection, and sharing. If you are growing food in Moab, if you are eating local in Colorado, if you believe that planting a victory garden is a step toward building world peace... then please feel free to email us with your ideas. We would love to hear from you and post your thoughts here in the blog!

That said, I'd like to introduce myself and tell you a bit about why I'm excited about Eating The West. My name is Beth, and I will be posting regularly as we prepare for Confluence this fall. Two years ago, I moved from Seattle to Moab, deciding once and for all that I could no longer tolerate year round rain. Besides the weather, the traffic, smog, and anonymity of city life were crushing my spirit. Moving to a small town in the desert might seem like an extreme change, but the transition was easy. The landscape captivated me from the beginning, and and I was charmed by the fierce independence of Moab's quirky and diverse residents. At first, I thought the move might just be for a few months, but two years later I'm still here and have put down roots in more ways than one. Now the floor manager of Arches Book Company, I spend my workday matching locals and visitors with the perfect book. When I'm not in the store, I'm probably at home plowing through stacks of books or working on what I call "the homestead."

The Moab Valley is blessed with fantastic soil and a 9 month growing season, so this winter I decided to follow in the footsteps of so many Moabites to break soil before me. I planted a garden, and now I am growing every vegetable I can think of. I'm also raising a small flock of chickens, in the hopes that this summer, I won't have to buy as much food from the supermarket. Growing food at home has brought me no small bit of satisfaction, and I have found that the process brings me great inspiration as well. I hope to share my thoughts with you this summer as we grow, read, and write together! Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Confluence updates.