Ableman has started food gardens at the Santa Barbara AIDS Hospice, an 11-acre farm at the Midland School, and a market garden at the Jordan Downs housing project in Watts. Working with low-income communities from LA and NYC to organizations as diverse as the Esalen Institute and the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Ableman’s work as an educator and consultant has helped to inspire numerous projects and initiatives throughout the world.  

He has traveled around the world documenting other cultures culminating in the internationally acclaimed publication of   From the Good Earth:  A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World (Abrams, 1993). 

His second book, On Good Land:  The Autobiography of an Urban Farm (Chronicle Books, 1998), is the story of his fight to preserve a piece of what was once some of the richest farmland in the world. 

His third book “Fields of Plenty; A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it” was released in 2005.   

Ableman’s photographs have appeared in publications throughout the world and in solo exhibitions at the Oakland Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Field Museum in Chicago.  

He lectures extensively throughout the U.S. and in Europe.  His work has been featured in National Geographic, on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, in the Utne Reader, Gourmet Magazine, and in the Los Angeles and New York Times. An award-winning film about Ableman’s work, Beyond Organic, narrated by Meryl Streep aired nationally on PBS in 2001.     

Ableman currently lives and farms on an island in British Columbia with his wife and two sons. 

David began working in restaurant kitchens at the age of 16 and soon realized what wonders could be created with food. He trained at the Culinary School of Kendall College (Evanston, IL), graduating in 1992. He also attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France that same year.

Upon returning to the Midwest, David worked for Don Yamauchi at Carlos’ Restaurant (Highland Park, IL) and helped them gain national exposure (“Food&Wine” magazine named Carlos’ in the Top 25 Restaurants in the Nation that year.) Next, he worked for Roland Liccioni at the famed Le Francais Restaurant (Wheeling, IL) where he started as line cook and worked his way through all stations to become sous chef under Liccioni. David was most recently chef de cuisine of Sanford Restaurant in Milwaukee.  

During David’s six year tenure at Sanford, the restaurant was voted 21 out of Gourmet’s Top 50 Restaurants in America and number one for Overall Restaurant, Service, and Desserts from the 2003 Reader’s Choice Awards in Milwaukee Magazine. Sanford received the highest rating for food (29) and service (29) from the Zagat Guide and maintained an AAA Four-Diamond Rating.  David garnered local press in 2002 for being the only chef in Milwaukee with an urban garden, which provided the restaurant with fresh produce.  In January of 2004 David had the honor of cooking at the James Beard House in New York City at a dinner entitled “The Next Generation.”  

David is the educational officer for Slow Food’s local Southeast Wisconsin convivium. He created “Braise on the Go” Traveling Culinary School in the summer of 2006 and is working toward opening Braise Restaurant.  

* Note:  Monique Jamet-Hooker was originally scheduled as this year's guest chef.  Due to illness, Monique was forced to cancel.  We thank David for agreeing to participate.

Guest Farmer:
Kay Jensen, JenEhr Farm

Kay is co-owner of JenEhr Family Farm (with her husband Paul), a 110-acre organic farm where they

raise organic fruits and vegetables, operate five hoophouses and raise several thousand pastured poultry and heritage turkeys each year.  Diversity of products on the farm  is amplified by the diversity of their marketing; CSA, Wholesale and Farmers Markets.  

Kay is a Wisconsin native, born and raised on her parent’s dairy farm in northwestern St. Croix County.  A product of the UW system, she started at UW-River Falls and completed her degree in Agricultural Journalism and Rural Sociology at the UW-Madison ag campus.  A long stretch at graduate school finally resulted in an MBA from Edgewood College.  Her work experience includes Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Farm Bureau, editor of Feed and Grain Magazine at Cygnus Publishing, Freelance writing, selling large grain handling equipment into Southeast Asia and the Middle East and teaching technical writing and public speaking at the University Wisconsin- Madison campus.  

She is a founding member of the Westside Community Farmers Market, active in HomeGrown Wisconsin, the Fresh Market Vegetable Growers and the Wisconsin Strawberry Growers Association.  She frequently speaks about creating infrastructure and profitability at grower conventions around the Midwest. 

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Food for Thought Forum support is from:
UW Lectures Committee
UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
UW Dept of Rural Sociology
UW Dept of Horticulture
Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture