About Me

Hi Friends, I’m Leah.

Welcome to my little corner of the internet – thanks for being here!

This space was born out of an unexpected freedom to take a 90-day furlough from my job and answer the question, “If you had the time and space, what would you CHOOSE to do?” As the clutter and noise of my day-to-day grind faded, as my free fall toward burnout reversed, and as time stretched out before me, clarity came. I followed the joy. And here we are – Rooted – a space devoted to cooking and eating with what we have, from where we are and what’s around us.

Feeding and nourishing those I love is simply one of the greatest joys of my life. It’s a thread I can clearly trace through my life. That joy is forever fueled by the turning of the seasons, each one bringing its special bounty of food that miraculously meets us exactly where we are. You’d think it would get old, but year after year, I am giddy with anticipation at the start of Spring, as delicate peas and asparagus emerge right when I need them. Summer is downright jubilant and frenetic, each week bringing a new harvest, full of the most rich and bright colors and flavors perfectly matched to the sun-filled days. That June strawberry? August tomato? There are few things as perfect. Fall comes around just in time – the chill returns and we’re ready to wind down into soups, braises and slow-roasted, deep flavors that carry us through Winter.

The wonder of it all is never lost on me. Riding the temporal wave of seasons never disappoints. Celebrating the farmers around me and what they cultivate from this Earth is a truly virtuous cycle. It’s as close to religion as I’ll probably ever get.

So what is the “Job to be Done” here?

In my day job, I design and build products. I get to deeply understand my customer, the root of the problem to be solved, and from there build a product they need. When I’m doing my job, I usually have Clayton Christensen (author of The Innovators Dilemma) and his “Job to Be Done” theory in the back of my mind. It’s simple – in our day-to-day lives, we have jobs to be done, big and small. Deciding what to wear, passing the time while in traffic, squeezing in a workout between meetings, finding a new job. We hire products to do those jobs. And if the product does the job well, we’ll hire it again.

As I started to create this passion project, I had to ask myself, “What is the job to be done here?” The answer took a while.

Each day you take on the job of nourishing yourself and perhaps others. Each day, you make decisions about what to buy and what to eat. I want to inspire you to cook seasonally and locally and help you understand all the reasons it’s better that way (and an imperative for our planet). I want to better understand the barriers that prevent us from supporting our local farms and maybe figure out some solutions along the way. And in the meantime, I want to give you plenty of ideas and resources for cooking and cherishing the abundance that each season has to offer, in simple ways. Finally, I want to remind you to say goodbye to our seasonal friends until they return next year. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

All good things come from the root

After debating names for this site, Rooted came from the idea that it should be personal. And Don’t Buy Tomatoes in Winter wasn’t rolling off the tongue. So I asked myself, “What am I really about?” I immediately and instinctively answered – getting to the heart, to the root. It’s how I show up in my life – as a friend, mom, cook, wife, leader. I get to the root, understand it deeply, and build a way forward.

At the root of my life is my family. They’ll show up here from time to time. My husband, Andy, is my favorite person, supreme taste tester, and great love of my life. Our passion for food has always been a shared one and we sure have fun living this life and enjoying it together. We rack up wins and losses daily as we try to teach our twin boys, Miles & Sam, the joys of eating and an appreciation for the source.

I hope you’ll join me on this ride. Have questions or an idea? Want to connect? You can reach me here.