Photograph by Jeff Etheridge
Special thanks to the Dekalb Farmers Market A World Market, Decatur, Georgia
Dodging fast-food fries and Chilean cantaloupes, Auburn Magazine’s omnivorous associate editor tries to eat only local food.
Veggie Tales
Written by Suzanne Johnson
Photography by Jeff Etheridge
Art Direction by Shannon Bryant-Hankes
I’m hungry. It’s 8:30 p.m., and I’ve spent nine hours at work, grabbed lunch at my desk and attended a two-hour workshop. Dinnertime came and went.
Hunger’s a primal need—straight from Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy, right next to water and breathing. I wonder how the famed psychologist would feel about the food options on my route home: two supermarkets, six fast-food spots and a half-dozen restaurants, most serving that ubiquitous Southern delicacy, the chicken finger. I suspect Maslow’s mind would boggle; in his day, chickens didn’t have fingers waiting to be battered, fried and dipped in ranch dressing.
A few years ago, after reading Michael Pollan’s groundbreaking The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I vowed to buy only organic food. Smug and virtuous, I lasted two weeks before my monthly food budget disappeared and I realized my organic grapes had barely survived their plane trip from Ecuador. It’s hard to feel virtuous when you’re out of money and creating a carbon footprint only King Kong could fill.
Auburn alumni are in the house as the crew of ABC-TV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” changes the life of a Montgomery family.
A New Home for the Jordans
Written by Christian Boone
Photography by Jeff Etheridge
Monica and brady jordan emerged from a Ford Excursion limousine after a weeklong vacation in February and stared as an oversized network production bus slowly pulled away from the curb, giving the couple a first look at their new home in Montgomery’s Southlawn neighborhood.
Like a tornado, the hit series “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” had descended on 5336 Ira Lane, wreaking its destructive force on the Jordan’s old ranch-style house and—with the help of thousands of volunteers and several key Auburn University alumni—rebuilding it from scratch in a mere seven days.
Before the Jordans left town, the home they’d lived in for 32 years had become a victim of neglect. The bathroom pipes leaked. The kitchen countertops were rotting. Outside, walls were missing some of their siding. For more than a decade, the Jordans had other financial priorities, including sending youngest daughter Brittany to college, raising their three grandchildren and opening their home once a week to anyone in the community in need of a hot meal—all at their own expense.
