What Is Greenblade
Mission Statement
Greenblade strives to heal the human relationship with Creation by integrating faith, justice, and joy into the production, distribution, preparation, sharing, consumption, and disposal of food.
Through teaching, advocacy, hospitality, and a spiritual practice grounded in Anglican tradition, Greenblade builds a network of mutually supportive communities inspired to see the Eucharist as a meal and all meals as sacred.
Greenblade promotes a way of life that respects God's abundance so that the whole created order may share in the Feast.
The Greenblade project is a part of the Diocese of Central New York.
Primary Contributers to the Greenblade site
Andrew Chignell lives in Ithaca, NY and teaches philosophy at Cornell. He grew up in the midwest among meat-and-potato evangelicals, but has since become an episcopalian and also started to wonder about that meat part. His blog is devoted to ethical and economic issues surrounding food and faith, and also contains the occasional note about local restaurants in the Ithaca area.
Susan Dixon learned to garden from her grandmother and learned to stretch a dollar from her mother. She is a Southern Ex-Pat living in Ithaca, NY where she came to complete her Ph.D. at Cornell in medieval art history and forgot to leave. She is an almost-lifelong Episcopalian, a website designer, and a writer. Her favorite sentence, which causes her friends to run for cover, is "I have an idea." Her blog, Greenblading, sees creation, faith, and justice as aspects of hospitality.
Giffen Maupin is a lifelong Episcopalian, a native Cincinnatian, and a poetically-enamored Cornell graduate student and teacher who has (almost) never met a burrito she didn't love at first sight. Most of her days go something like this: write words, read words, chop, stir, measure, knead, whisk, saute, sleep; lather, rinse, and repeat. She feels blessed to call Ithaca home, and not only because she has learned to identify kohlrabi, celeriac, and romanesco since moving here almost four years ago. Giffen is grateful to our ever-growing community of Greenbladers for providing her with daily energy, creativity, laughter, and joy. She wants to remind you that if you are registered on the Greenblade site, you, too, can post Greenblade-y media stories and recipes (that are made with as many local, seasonal, organic, and responsibly-raised ingredients as possible, and are also cost-effective, easy to prepare, and delicious).
In the midst of the never-ending doctoral dissertation about iron deficiency and child behavior in West Africa, Stephanie Ortolano enjoys taking some time each week to write about what else is going on in her life: children, music, food, and garden. Prayer is woven throughout, sometimes even at a conscious level! Who thought voluntary simplicity was simple?
LiZ Richards is a 26 year old Episcopalian tree-hugger who lives with her cat in Providence, Rhode Island. She began her work for Greenblade when she spent one snowy year in Ithaca, NY, working for the site and for The Episcopal Church at Cornell. LiZ's work, in all of its various forms, centers around education and social justice, and she is currently employed by the Rhode Island Department of Education. A vegetarian and mostly-locovore, Liz's writing explores her efforts to live out her values (Christian, foodie, and otherwise) in the midst of a gloriously-busy small-city life.
LiZ Richards is a 26 year old Episcopalian tree-hugger who lives with her cat in Providence, Rhode Island. She began her work for Greenblade when she spent one snowy year in Ithaca, NY, working for the site and for The Episcopal Church at Cornell. LiZ's work, in all of its various forms, centers around education and social justice, and she is currently employed by the Rhode Island Department of Education. A vegetarian and mostly-locovore, Liz's writing explores her efforts to live out her values (Christian, foodie, and otherwise) in the midst of a gloriously-busy small-city life.
Craig Swan, inspired by memories of his grandfather's huge vegetable garden, and the large amount of land his parish church sits on, found his way to Greenblade filled with the hope to help feed the elderly of Camillus, NY. Through it all he has begun to find a sense of attachment to the land and an awakening to God's call to all of us to live within the context of creation and not as mere onlookers. A cradle Episcopalian, Craig came to Central New York via a circuitous route that has included four years of frozen academics in the North Country and then many years studying and working near the shores of Long Island Sound before being called by God to be ordained to the Episcopal Priesthood. Today he continues to serve as the Rector of St. Luke's Episcopl Church, Camillus, NY and as the Dean of the Finger Lakes District of the Diocese of Central New York. He holds degrees from St. Lawrence University and Yale University Divinity School. His most pressing life's work is to convince his two teen-age daughters that one can live to shop and sustain creation at the same time.