Randi Donahue

WRITER & EDITOR

The Good Trade •

Good Chop Review: Responsibly Sourced Meat & Seafood For A Family Of Four

We’ve been an environmentally conscious household for quite some time, and our food is no exception. For philosophical and environmental reasons, we’ve considered a switch to an entirely plant-based diet several times. But both my husband and I have found a plant-based diet that incorporates meat and seafood a few times a week works best for our personal health and energy levels. And in all honesty, our daughters love a good flank steak. We do our best, however, to eat in a way that is kind to o
The Good Trade •

What Is A Chronotype And How Do I Find Mine?

Confession: I do not like to sleep. And I’ve never followed a consistent sleep schedule. As a teenager, I hated going to bed but was excited to get up and start my day before the rest of the household. As an adult, I must drag myself to bed, even when I am drained, and know I could really use some rest. I fall asleep quickly, but I am roused by a pin drop. Thankfully, the littlest bit of shut-eye allows me to wake up before my alarm starts screaming. Most days, I feel rested enough to thrive unt
The Good Trade •

How Important Is An Air Purifier To Your Health?

As much as I love to be outside, I’ve always found my air-conditioned home quite comfortable after an outdoor adventure—especially during the hot, buggy, and rainy months. Unless I caught wind of a yucky smell wafting from a full trash can or was trying to air out the new furniture or fresh paint smell, I’d never really given much thought to the quality of the air we breathe inside our house.

The other night, however, as my family sat down to eat under the hanging light fixture above the table,
The Good Trade •

How Harmful Are Microplastics To Our Environment And Health?

If you’re in this space, the thought of large quantities of plastic strewn about the natural world makes you cringe. You feel distressed about floating plastic islands, birds feeding plastic to their babies, and turtles getting stuck in plastic can rings. In coastal Florida, it’s now commonplace to see plasticware, straws, cigarette butts, and single-use wrappers washed ashore, dotting our white-sand beaches.

Single-use plastic like water bottles, tampon applicators, plastic bags, food containe
The Good Trade •

What Are PFAS And Do We Need To Worry About Them?

Our family maintains a high level of awareness regarding a non-toxic home, food, and personal care environment. Safe cleaning and personal care products? Check. Stainless steel lunch boxes? Check. We own mostly glass storage containers and never microwave food plastic. Ever. We even recently retired our 13-year-old high-end, chipping non-stick pots and pans, replacing them with stainless steel. But if someone asked me the “why” behind that latest decision when it happened, my answer would have b
Edible Sarasota •

High Hopes. A feature on Dr. Margaret Lowman, arbornaut

Dr. Margaret Lowman is among the most impressive women I’ve ever met.

Her determination has earned her the titles of biologist, educator, mother, ecologist, author, fundraiser, conservationist, public speaker, and National Geographic explorer. She holds an undergrad in biology, a master’s in ecology, and a PhD in botany.

Lowman has decades of experience as a published field scientist who's worked in 46 countries across all seven continents. She’s launched nature research centers and run nonpro
Costco Connection •

Costco Connection Flavor and function / Supplier Spotlight

Costco sauerkraut supplier Wildbrine hits the mark with taste and nutrition

Mother Nature is a key element behind the sauerkraut from Costco supplier Wildbrine. The Santa Rosa, California-based company sources organic cabbage via partnerships with local California farmers, chasing the sun to ensure they can use the freshest produce year-round.

“Once it arrives, we inspect each head of cabbage before hand-processing it to remove the outer leaves and core,” says Hannah Lewis, Costco member and c
The Good Trade •

The Sustainable Compression Sock That Gives Back (Bombas Review)

The Good Trade editors endorse products we’ve personally researched, tested, and genuinely love. Learn more about our methodology and business model here.

Few people would consider socks an exciting topic in mainstream fashion. But if you are one of many fortunate enough to have drawers full of socks, you may be blissfully—and understandably—unaware of the portion of the population with no access to even one pair of socks, let alone a good pair.

Bombas believes wearing clean, comfortable cloth
Morning Shift Breakfast & Lunch •

Web Copy & Brand Story for new restaurant

In Charles Rohling’s family, growing up here in Kennesaw, if you cooked you didn’t have to clean.

One of five siblings, that motivated him to start cheffing it up as a preteen. Rohling gleaned the basics via food mags but by his senior year at Marietta High, his culinary creativity took hold as he started developing his own recipes. After college – and time a spent as a Georgia Tech track athlete – he picked up restaurant marketing and management experience in the big leagues, holding several c
The Good Trade •

How Alcohol Affects Our Bodies As We Age

Consistent alcohol consumption in large quantities can adversely affect physical and mental health, especially for those with addiction or heavy drinking tendencies. But for much of the population, enjoying the occasional cocktail, beer, or glass of wine with friends is a common and harmless socialization practice.

As a freshly minted legal drinker during college, I admit to having my fair share of such hangovers. Attending the number one party school in the nation meant I while excelled in my
Edible Sarasota •

Minding the Source

When you consider the food on your plate at a restaurant, ingredient sourcing is generally not top of mind. But consider this: At Grove Lakewood Ranch, that meal took immense planning, time, and physical energy. Each whole ingredient that makes up the carefully crafted cuisine was researched, sourced, procured, and prepped by Executive Chef Greg Campbell and his team.

This process didn’t come lightly. After 30 years of experience in food procurement, Campbell says it seems to get more challengi
The Good Trade •

How A Year Of Lifestyle Medicine Empowered Me To Manage My Own Health

I’ve been invested in personal health since my early teens. Whenever I veered toward poor health (ahem, college), I always seemed to recenter, finding my way back to what I considered a health-conscious lifestyle. Then, somewhere north of my 40th birthday, I started feeling subtle physical changes and a heightened sense of anxiety about aging. I wasn’t sick by conventional medical standards; I just felt a bit off. With active, young daughters and a family love of the outdoors, It became my prior
Edible Sarasota •

How Sweet They Are

In a world full of #fancyfood, how refreshing it is to tune in to the #authentic aroma and taste of freshly baked traditional cookies.

“It doesn’t always have to be glamourous,” says Clare Jerome, namesake and co-owner of Clarabell Cookies, whose flagship store opened in Gulf Gate last August. “Something is charming about a cookie that just looks and tastes homemade.”

Clarabell cookies are beautiful, BTW, just not in an In-sta-obsessed way. These cookies transcend any pleasure one might feel f
Edible Sarasota •

Salt My Life

I felt a sense of relaxation the moment I walked into Salt of the Earth Wellness Center. While waiting for a word with owner Dianna Manoogian, I perused the goodies for sale at the front, which included jewelry, body oils, candles, salt lamps, crystals, and herbal tinctures. Although the potential for gift perfection was a definite perk, it was not the purpose of my visit. I was here to learn more about the salt therapy offered.

Before arriving, I’d read up on dry salt therapy, otherwise known
Edible Sarasota •

Just Ginger

“We took a piece of ginger and planted it to see if it would grow and it did,” says Darcy, co-owner of the farmers’ market business Just Ginger. “When we harvested the root it was just so delicious, so fresh.”

The husband-and-wife team started growing more, until one day they decided to bring their surplus harvest to St. Pete’s Saturday Morning Market. The response was so positive they found a supplier of organic rhizome stock in Hawaii and kept expanding. Two years later, the Presnells now gro
Edible Sarasota •

The Solorzanos La Famiglia

From brick-oven pizzas to sonorous family banter, a dinner with Italian cuisine restaurateurs the Solorzano family is everything I imagined it to be.

The moment I walk through the wrought iron gate into Franca and Carlos Solorzano's courtyard I am no longer in a deed-restricted Gulf Gate neighborhood. Instead, I am in an Italian garden complete with fountains, lush greenery, and pergolas, a continuous oasis that serves as the frame for the Solorzano home.

Matriarch and second-generation Italia
Edible Sarasota •

Blueberries, Albritton Fruit Farms

Last March, Albritton Fruit Farms opened its fourth blueberry season under different circumstances than seasons past: the start of a global pandemic. While this could have turned out to be detrimental to the business, instead it presented John and Sarah Albritton’s U-pick blueberry operation with a boom in sales for the season.

According to Sarah Albritton, who manages the U-pick operation, the 2019 season had brought—maybe—100 cars during the busiest day. During the 2020 season, the car line e
Edible Sarasota •

With Open Arms

When Darrin and Emily Campbell built their dream home on five acres just east of I-75, they stayed close to their Christian faith and honored an intention to offer open arms to all who entered.

“We value people and relationships above things,” says Emily. “We wanted a place where people would lose track of time and just keep talking.”

Since its completion in 2014, the Campbell home has been THAT place—hosting game nights, weddings, birthdays, and many other occasions with and for extended fami
Edible Sarasota •

Rise Up

Knick’s Tavern and Grill co-owner Knickole Barger felt the same pains as most local restaurant owners when the pandemic hit her operations full-force in late March. Yet the resilient Sarasota native’s reaction to the unpredictable situation was to rise up.

As she quickly shifted her business to curbside pickup options at the restaurant, several regulars had already reached out, asking how they could cover the cost of feeding hospital staff through her restaurant. Barger’s ingenuity kicked in as
Edible Sarasota •

Beacon of Growth, Natalia Levey

“It is important for us to learn to be kind to ourselves so we can project that to other people,” says Levey, the founder of Hi Hospitality Group, which operates Kojo, Speaks Clam Bar, and the upcoming St. Pete Food Hall project. “I say become a beacon and spread positivity as much as you can within the industry and keep learning!”

Levey’s mindful approach is holistic, all-encompassing, and focused on the well-being of the entire “ecosystem” of an establishment— not just the menu. Each componen
Edible Sarasota •

A Day at Dakin

The cows of Dakin Dairy Farm seem quite content. There is no prodding going on as the ladies stroll to their milking stations. As they exit, it seems as if they are chatting around the water cooler—er, water trough. Some chew their cud and observe farm tourists while others gladly accept a little pat on the head. Dakin cows also have something many other dairy cows do not: access to fresh grass year round.

“When people come here I want them to see the green stuff—that fresh grass that we’re cut
Edible Sarasota •

Earth's Thunderstorm in a Bottle

These days the bottled water industry tends to make it a little bit easier to check “drink more water” off our health to-do lists. Options include water with added electrolytes and minerals; water infused with fruit juices; even water kicked with a bit of caffeine.

But what started out as a science experiment in chemist and mechanical engineer Rob Gourley’s Myakka Valley Ranch workshop might just be the consumable water industry’s best-kept secret. It’s called Watt-Ahh (say “water” with a Bosto
Edible Sarasota •

Human Bee-Ing: Hands-on Pollinating Helps Garden Thrive

Wendy Bradshaw offers me a glass of cold lemonade as we sit at the dining room table in her beautiful lakeside home in Bent Tree. Surrounded by the lake to the south, the neighborhood’s main street and golf course to the west, and a friendly neighbor to the east, the lot seemingly offers no space for a large, productive kitchen garden. But as we make our way to the back patio, I notice it’s abundant with produce. Bradshaw, a nurse at the Meckler Admissions Center at Sarasota Memorial Hospital fo
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