Now that I've come in from the rain, I want to tell you a little bit about how I got to Midwesterner ( @ourmidwest)--maybe answer some questions you've had if you've been following me since (or because of) Garden & Gun

I haven't written anything about it because this project isn't about me. But this feed is! So, I might as well explain.

I grew up in southern Ohio, though I spent a significant chunk of my teenage years in Montana. Still, I've always been proud of my roots below the Mason-Dixon: Mom grew up in Piedmont North Carolina, Dad's best family stories came from East Tennessee…

When I graduated from college, there was no question which direction I wanted to go: toward the cornbread, barbecue, and grits that were sacred to me when I was growing up. Who wouldn't choose that over the grey skies and suburban sprawl I associated with my heartland childhood?

As a professional Southerner at G&G, I hid my Midwesternness. I didn't relate much to my fellow heartland transplants, anyway, as the namesake and protégé of a lifelong North Carolinian, my grandfather Joe Dudley. I felt at home in the Carolinas. I still do!

After a few years at G&G, though, a couple of developments began to pull me toward home: First, a trip to Minneapolis for a family wedding that kicked off with a quick solo eating tour--from Lakota to Scandinavian to Hmong to Prairie Midwestern...

My architect (and outdoorsman) uncle got my attention on that trip with stories about the Boundary Waters, the Great Lakes, and the Prairie School. I started to wonder if there might be just as much to explore in my native Midwest as below the Mason-Dixon

The second development: I started dating Sara, now my wife, who enjoyed an idyllic childhood outside Chicago and Cleveland. As she shared stories, I had to admit that, you know, some of that actually rang a bell, and that I'd probably been too hard on Cincinnati

As soon as I started looking for Midwestern culture, it was there--including in my own background, when I considered the Ohio institutions we frequented as kids: Skyline, Graeter's, LaRosa's, our own @TheGoldenLamb, est. 1803…

The more I let my mind go Midwestern, the further it wanted to go, deep into the black walnut-and-hickory woods that also defined my childhood in southern Ohio. I realized that I was more excited about the Midwest than the South. I left G&G to get an MBA

Some of my what-ifs started to turn into what-nows after a few exploratory trips across Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, the Dakotas, Wisconsin… "It's all here. It's who you are. You want to dive in. What now?"

I came up with a lot of ideas--heartland beer, spirits, cider, preserves and ferments, restaurants… I tested them at "Best of the Midwest" parties while I was in grad school in Virginia, a compromise between South Carolina and Ohio

@johntedge changed my direction with one comment on a phone call last summer: "You want to tell stories about the Midwest. Why don't you just do what you know how to do and… tell stories about the Midwest?" That eventually, after months more angst, led to Midwesterner

It's a humble project right now, but it's one that's close to my heart, and a platform for the heartland community that I've been getting to know for the past few years

Take it from a former professional Southerner: America, if you liked learning about the South, you're going to love learning about the Midwest. Midwesterners in exile, you might be looking at your hometowns all wrong. Come back. Or for now, consider joining our Midwesterner

Anyway, I'm still proud of my cornbread-and-country-ham roots, but coming back to the heartland has been good for my soul, and I know we can offer fresh, surprising stories from this region for years to come. Now, signing off from a rainy porch in suburban Cincinnati...