Ian was born and raised on Xalychidom Piipaash lands (Phoenix, Arizona). Spending grade school summers among raspberry hedgerows and an apple orchard in Door County, Wisconsin auspiciously planted seeds for the future. Many years later, after reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he abruptly understood the necessity of good, clean, and fair local food and the Slow Food movement.

His journey to California began first to the Valley of Heart’s Delight at Apple, and then to San Francisco, when he began volunteering at Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley. He found his local food home in San Francisco with CUESA, and then like a bee to a flower, was drawn to the Gravenstein apple orchards and vast sustainable foodshed of Sonoma County.

Ian engaged deeply with Slow Food after years volunteering at the Gravenstein Apple Fair. He has interned for Slow Food USA in Denver, and was a USA delegate in Chengdu, Copenhagen, and Torino, and is on the board of Slow Food Russian River and Slow Food California.