Michele Metych

Michele is an encyclopedia editor, a chef, an urban farmer, and a chicken keeper. As the Heritage Gourmet, her passion and borderline obsession is integrating old-school farm-to-table techniques with modern life. She has grown and milled her own wheat, made huitlacoche quesadillas with homegrown corn smut, and recreated George Washington’s eggnog — all from the comfort of her 116-year-old farmhouse on the Southside of Chicago. Her 1/100th-of-an-acre garden boasts a winesap apple tree, pear trees, hazelnuts, warty pumpkins, purple basil, four colors of carrots, and 16 varieties of tomatoes. She is thinking of building a beehive.