My fork sliced the pork tenderloin so poetically on Saturday I almost wept.

In honor of spring, we selected a few recipes that had been buried in the back of our long-forgotten cookbook: pork tenderloin in mango sauce. I dashed (slowly) to the local butcher shop located directly on a pig farm. The food tasted better for one simple reason: it was fresh and stress-less. We weren’t eating the stress hormones induced by mile-long commutes to the slaughterhouse. The animals were treated well, had plenty of fresh air and exercise.

It’s simple. Slow food, grown locally, is joyful. After a meal of home-grown goodness, you feel less stressed, too.