Why she’s interesting … When Knorr got a job at the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy in 2007, she was working part time, but it was soon apparent that the position required full-time dedication. In September she won Ohio’s first Local Food Hero award for her efforts to make healthy and locally grown produce available to low-income people.
Local food, local people … Knorr grew up in Canton, and food has always been a passion. “Even in high school I was really interested in natural foods, and I liked to make things from scratch even though it drove my mother crazy.”
An unlikely start … Knorr majored in Japanese studies at The Ohio State University and even lived in Japan for four years. “Everybody has a garden if they have the space for it … even if there’s a little 5-by-5 plot.”
Romance on the farm … Knorr’s husband, Tim, was a farmer at Crown Point Ecology Center in Bath when she went there as an intern in 1998. “He actually proposed to me in the chicken coop.” They held their wedding outside at Crown Point, and Knorr grew her own flowers for the ceremony.
Local Foods can simplify life … Let the peaches, peppers and tomatoes plan meals for you. “Go to the farmers market, buy what looks great, and kind of create your menus around what you find there.”
Favorite dish … The gnocchi with roasted fennel from the Greenhouse Tavern. “That’s one of the foods that I would love to eat on my deathbed.”
Beth Stallings
Carly Toyzan
Jim Vickers
Colleen Smitek
Erick Trickey
Kim Schneider
Christina Ipavec
Brittany Moffat
Emily Garvey
Katie Dragga
Lauren Hennen
by Jennifer Bowen
Meet your neighbors and the faces behind some of Cleveland's favorite haunts through the curious camera lens of the Cleveland Public Library's chief of special projects and collections. By John Skrtic
