what’s a lagusta? April 17, 2007

I am Lagusta Yearwood, a vegan chef and chocolatier living in the tiny town of New Paltz, New York (85 miles north of NYC). When not cooking, I devote my time to Green Party work and food activism as well as many other passions and pursuits, most of which are catalogued on this blog along with other assorted excitements and annoyances.

I use this blog as a way to work through the constant friction of being a thinking person in a society that has seemingly abandoned all reason. I do my best to stick to my homegrown lefty values while working for meaningful change both inside and outside “the system.”

I’m an anarchist who is head of her local Green Party chapter. I’m an anti-capitalist who owns her own business, a home owner who hates the idea of private ownership of land. I always pay my quarterly taxes on time, then have nightmares about dead Iraqi children killed with guns I bought.

I always thought my life would be more hardcore—that I would never interact with the society whose values I often despise. As I gingerly step into my thirties, however, I am realizing that I can live in the world without being of the world, and that running my business in the most anti-capitalist way possible is pretty damn hardcore. That I’m proud to own my house because it means that the trees on it will never be cut down. That in my small town the Green Party has a real impact, and it’s worthwhile to work inside the dreaded political system if it means we can put solar panels on Town Hall. I’m enjoying finding the difficult balance between not compromising my values and being a productive, active member of society.

“Resistance is fertile” is a slogan I have shamelessly stolen from Ruth Ozeki, a writer whose books I adore. It has become my motto. This post (at the way bottom) talks a little bit about what it means to me and should mean to you.

My personal site bio.

My professional site bio.

A cookbook I worked on – buy it.

You can contact me at lagustaATlagustaDOTcom, but, you know, change the at and the dot.

Two people I mention a lot on the blog are my sweetheart, Jacob (a sound engineer/music industry person), and my sous chef, Veronica (she of lightning-fast hands and the rare ability to laugh at the stupid jokes I make all day while cooking). So now when you see their names, you’ll know who they are.