Alum Profiles

David Buchanan has found his niche. A founding member of the Portland, Maine, chapter of the slow food movement, he recently purchased a small farm in Pownal, where he intends to collect, raise, and experiment with rare foods. He laments the poor selection of apples available in most grocery stores, selected primarily for their tolerance for diverse growing conditions, storage, packing, and shipping. Maine farmers, he claims, once grew more than 400 varieties of apples. This year, Chelsea Green published his reflections on heritage foods in Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter.

In a March 2013 profile in Maine, David summarizes his vision: “It’s my hope that regional seed businesses, farms, and gardens will continue to evolve in new directions, and especially that plant breeders will team up with growers and seed savers to develop flavorful new foods well adapted to our land and changing climate…This is what I believe, and what motivates me to continue my work: that even the smallest garden can express something nearly forgotten, become a pocket of diversity in a world that looks and tastes increasingly the same.”