One Wilde Year

 

To track our menu tells a story.

Kiah built the Summer 2017 menu as a collection of her personal food story. It was influenced by her farming, a hospitable Greek family, a small kitchen in Mexico City, Montessori gardens in Nashville; different comfort foods learned in home kitchens that had welcomed her in and taught her how to tinker and cut and improvise and salt. She developed her first menu from food she loved.

She shared it with her friends.

They made art out of her initial ideas.

The seasons changed, and so did the menu. Leaving behind sun ripened fruits for the warming flavors of her Czech roots, she adapted the menu to fit around what was seasonally available.

The truck played it’s roll, we learned it’s powers and limitations and eventually mastered our tiny kitchen. We were able to make food better, and more of it.

Then spring brought freshness, and with that a new menu again.

If summer was a chipotle chickpea based falafel, and winter was a borsht inspired rice ball, well, then spring was the evolution, the marriage of the two, to form our fried tabouli balls.

And so it goes.

It would be daft to narrate this story without the characters in it. And while food and our truck played a roll in defining and creating Wilde Thyme, it couldn’t have happened without our dedicated team.

To start a business is not easy. To share an idea and interrupt spaces and patterns in the food industry is not easy. To work 15hr shifts back to back on our feet in a tiny hot metal box, is not easy. The evolving crew I have been so fortunate enough to work with show up, and show out. They are powerful, they are creative, they are geniuses, and cheerleaders, and growers, and feeders. They’ve kept it going, they’ve evolved it, they’ve made it sustainable, they’ve made it possible. They have surprised me, they have made my heart explode, they have made me laugh, and they have made you food. They’re incredible, and Wilde Thyme is incredible because of them.

 

Starting this business I dreamed it could support local food systems, I dreamed it could take part in a conversation around where and how (and for how much $) food travels through this city, I dreamed of interrupting stagnant and oppressive spaces, I dreamed of filling bellies, of teaching recipes, and of creating a community.

In just one year we have touched on all of that. And while I could gripe and groan about the bruises along the way, I am not here to give that attention. I am here, with the support of the community we have built, to continue what we have started, to evolve and address the complexities of the food system in new and improved ways, with continued creativity, tougher skin, and a growing veracity. We made it through a year of business. HECK YEA. And we are here for year two.