About

First off, thanks for stopping by!

My name is Shelly, and I’m a 35 year old Chicago native living in the southwest suburbs. If you’d like to know why I started this site, check out the Welcome to Epic Organic post. If you’d like to know more about me, read on!

I’ll get out of the way right now that I’m not a chef or a cook. I’m not a nutritionist, and I’m not a farmer. That said, I’m working to better my skills in the kitchen, and studying foods and how they’re grown and made. Heck, I might even grow a cucumber or a tomato someday.

I’m a concerned citizen, and I’m voting with my wallet and choosing natural and organic foods and avoiding factory-farmed meats and genetically modified foods and produce.

I’m an omnivore – I eat both plants and meat – but I’ve added a handful on non-meat days to my routine. Scratch that! From December 2009 through February 2010, I ate as an organic omnivore. On March 21, 2010, I took the next step in what I feel is an evolution of my personal truth; I embarked upon the path of a vegetarian (with the intention to go fully vegan).

I’m an animal lover and I’d like to think I can play a tiny role in saving the planet.

All of these things contribute to who I am and why I do what I do.

Aside from this “food thing,” I’m a web developer and a photographer. I teach web design at a local college, and when I’m not working or blowing up my kitchen, I enjoy bird watching, playing poker, watching hockey, obsessing over Dave Matthews Band, reading, writing, and playing Ultima Online. And if you’d like to see me jump up on my soap box over a topic other than food, just ask me why I switched from Windows to a Mac.

That’s about it! If you find yourself at the end of this page with some sort of burning question about me, I can be reached via email at shelly [at] epicorganic [dot] net. Feel free to write or comment on my posts. Have a nice day!