The Intrepid Herbivores

I've tried to imagine thirty year old Sadie Bowman in her Voracious Herbivore kitchen in Portland, Oregon, but I can't seem to imagine her anywhere but at the Greenville Public Library in Ohio.

I can barely get passed the fact she's thirty!

When did that happen, Sadie?

We first met at the library and became friends in 1992, which seems eons ago. After all, we both assisted library patrons with the Dewey Decimal system not with a keyboard, but via use of a card catalog that actually had paper cards.

I always thought of her, and still think of her, as the little sister I never had so when she moved from Ohio to Oregon to pursue her culinary dreams in July, I was terribly excited for her but also sad to see her go.

Once upon a time, Sadie was active in the Dottie's Olde Tyme Players and The Versailles Towne and Country Players, in Darke County, before she headed off to Edison Community College in Piqua where she was active with The Edison Stagelight Players.

She eventually moved to Minneapolis where she co-founded the educational theatre company Matheatre and toured nationwide as part of the production team for Calculus: The Musical! from 2006-08.

Sadie also spent a month in Montreal to study French, a month in Florence for Italian and a month in Buenos Aires to study Spanish. (She lived Eat Pray Love years before Elizabeth Gilbert!) She's also back-packed through Europe, and visited Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, France, Italy and Ireland, as well as, South Africa, Japan and Costa Rica.

Now she has a domestic kitchen processor license so as to make various vegan goodies, such as her specialty, Hazelnut Buckeyes, for the local coffee shops and grocery stores in the Portland area.

Not that being in the kitchen has slowed her down!

Oh goodness, no, she started her own vegan cooking, catering, and baking business, The Verocious Herbivore, in October and is about to pursue her biggest and possibly grandest adventure yet.

And that's where cameraman, Joe Bourguignon, comes into the picture.

Joe, originally from Toledo, attended Indiana University in Bloomington where he got his film degree. He worked for a time in the film industry and solar energy in San Francisco before he came to Portland where the two met over the summer. They quickly discovered a similar interest in vegan food and an idea for a documentary.

Now this industrious duo call themselves the Intrepid Herbivores who are about to embark to Thailand to film the pilot episode of their travel/cooking show that will be geared towards vegan and vegetarian travelers.

Their first stop will be to an organic Thai Farm cooking school where the owners show guests how to shop for and prepare their very own fresh Thai meals. From various curry dishes, to soups, rolls and salads. All located on a farm that grows many of their own culinary ingredients such as rice, coconuts, eggplant, chili, beans, ginseng, papaya, lemongrass, and mango, to name but a few, and boasts an astounding 1000 trees.

Course, Sadie and Joe will visit many different locations around the world to tour farms and markets so as to help viewers navigate language barriers as they read menus and ingredient lists. Their ultimate goal is to get the word out to vegans and vegetarians that love food that there are wonderful options to be found and created across the globe.

Eventually Intrepid Herbivores would like to have a companion series of books, website, reviews and recommendations and references from other vegan and vegetarians globetrotters.

But first they've got to get to Thailand!

If you would like to help former Greenville resident, Sadie Bowman aka, The Intrepid Herbivores, on their grand adventure to Thailand you can make a donation at: www.kickstarter.com search for The Intrepid Herbivores or visit http://kck.st/eOzIZ6.

You can also order fabulous confections from Voracious Herbivore at http://voraciousherbivore.com.

* First published January 5, 2011, That's my Opinion.

The mother of two munchkins, Bethany J. Royer is an independent contractor and writer currently studying psychology with Florida Institute of Technology. Who wishes she could cook without having to include the local fire department every time she turns on an oven. She is actively seeking a publisher for her first completed novel and blogs prolifically at motherofthemunchkins.blogspot.com.

She can be reached at themotherofthemunchkins@yahoo.com.