If you follow the Real Food Movement you may come across names like journalist and activist Michael Pollan, journalist and filmmaker Eric Schlosser, urban farmer Will Allen, and cookbook author Lisa Leake.

You probably won’t come across my daughter’s name. Not yet, anyway! Natalie started helping me in the garden when she was just a year old. By the time she was eight, she was planning and caring for her own vegetable garden beds. She asked if we would mind giving up more yard space to add more sections of garden. We didn’t mind.

At fourteen she asked the owners of a vacant lot in our neighborhood if they would mind letting her use the land for a community garden. They didn’t mind.

At fifteen, she petitioned our village board asking if they would mind allowing backyard hens in our community. They didn’t mind.

Natalie was on board with the Real Food Movement before I was. She is the one who opened my eyes to the benefits of eating fresh, local, organic food.

Through her involvement with 4-H, local farmers, an organic farmer teen jobs program, and independent studies, Natalie has become an experienced and educated real food advocate. She is currently in college studying sustainable food systems and agroecology, which is about finding innovative ways to preserve and heal soil while growing nourishing food.

Now that she’s away at school, she’s learning how to balance the college eating culture with her desire to keep eating fresh, real foods. And when she comes home her first request is always Mom’s Magic Smoothie <3.  And I don’t mind.