The Foodshed Network initiative is dedicated to my maternal grandfather, Peter (‘Pete’) Joseph D’Elia, a first generation Italian-American. His parents, Dominic D’Elia and Rosina Mottelese, immigrated to Steamboat Road in Greenwich, Connecticut from Puglia, Italy at the turn of the 20th Century. My great-grandparents built their home of stone and granite, raised four children, and cultivated their plot of land to produce food: vegetables, grapes, figs (and we think rabbits were in the mix). They supplemented their garden produce with foraged wild greens, asparagus, mushrooms and seafood from the Long Island Sound. Family members pressed grapes from their vines with their feet and shaped pasta with their hands. When raising his own family, my grandfather did not depend on foraging and growing food for sustenance. However, his love and appreciation for food always lived within him. He took pride in his home-grown tomatoes, enjoyed fishing and clamming in the Long Island Sound, and mostly, he loved gathering around the table with his family to share good food and a salute. 

DEDICATION