My name is Ryan Steves. I am a cook here at Middlebury. I’ve been here for about a little over a year. Almost a year and a half. My previous experience, I spent up at Green Mountain College. I was the sous-chef there. Pretty much the same as here, only there are a few more kids here. I have 3 kids and a wife and I make a little over an hour commute every day to work. So, it’s two-hours roundtrip, a little over two-hours round trip.

I really do enjoy cooking personally, but I also enjoy homesteading, gardening and chickens. I have a bunch of chickens and geese and what not. But, I’ve always wanted to, my passion personally is I’ve always wanted to be able to be self-sufficient - grow my own food for the year. I have, I only burn wood. I cut my own wood, chop, split, whatever. But I’ve always wanted to be able to be self-sufficient for a full year. That was, that has always been my passion. I’m in the process of building a greenhouse. I can’t wait to start gardening again. And in previous jobs, it’s been difficult. You get busy and you get side tracked and you get away from what you really want to do. And it’s very, very easy to be sidetracked. So just focusing on your goals is difficult at times. Balance between work, family and your personal goals.