Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Micah Wickstrom. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Micah, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I began building cheese boards as a sort of therapy to help myself through one of the more difficult years of my adult life. I was the kind of depressed where you are too depressed to even realize you are depressed…or maybe you realize it but you just do n0t have the energy to get yourself off of the couch and do anything about it. I look back now and I was such a robot…surviving on the edge of a cliff rotating through the things life told me I should be doing. I do not remember many symptoms of my depression but I do remember the sock.

There is a wreath above the couch in my Livingroom. In 2020 at some point someone (who knows-there are children) threw a sock that landed on top of this wreath and a decision was made to not pick it up. That same decision continued to be made by the entire household for several months. I would stare at the sock and tell myself I needed to get up there and get the damn thing down almost daily. It is just above my regular seat of the couch… so I had the perfect view of it every evening after I crawled down from my home office at the end of my 10 hour day…

It was safe to say I was depressed at this point in my life. I had literally lost the ability to care enough to put in the 12 seconds it eventually took to take down the sock…

While scrolling a social media app during one of the `0f the days chained with my headset to my desk I came across a post featuring brunch boards by a small business in one of my home towns. I loved the idea…fun brunch foods arranged lovingly on a board…like my favorite charcuterie boards but different. My mind immediately ran away with it. Everything became “a board” . MY family had amazing lovingly arranged over the top meal boards for weeks, months, maybe? Long enough for this little obsession of mine to have led to my need to plan and execute a fairly extravagant party for my daughter’s cat’s birthday…including a 6 foot harvest table…

It wasn’t long after we realized this little hobby of mine was going to need to start generating an income…or be a fewer further between kind of thing and I was not ready to let any of it go. Period.

Friends took pity on me and allowed me to play with their food at cost. Eventually my friend’s friends let me do the same. Before I knew what was happening we were full on catering a 120 person wedding for someone I didn’t know. I learned several things that evening. It was one of the most intense pressured events I’ve ever worked on. The idea that I was solely in charge of nourishing this celebration of people on a day many of them will remember the rest of their lives…the truly deep honor of that was nowhere near lost on me.

It all went wrong…all of the little things were a mess, things were missing and it turned out absolutely stunning. I was more exhausted than I dare to think about now but also…there was magic in the moment. Real magic…the kind that validated a person who spent years feeling unseen…unheard…undervalued…by herself.

After the table was designed, the pictures taken, the collective of guests lined up happily building delicious memories and the chaos packed away I sat in my car and released self doubt and fear and confusion and I found myself. I claimed in that moment out loud that THIS IS MINE. This is what I am SUPPOSED to be doing.

After that step it was one foot after another and I will continue to do so as long as I can follow the food.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a food artist. It has taken me some time to be able to clearly and confidently claim this. Food Art. When I began creating cheese boards and harvest tables it was not a common concept in my world. It was difficult to own it as art…even though I knew in my heart that is what I was creating. Building beautiful food art with balanced colors, textures and movement is only the part of the art that you see. There is art in the flavor as well. “Looks too good to eat” is definitely a favorite comment I like to follow with “But wait until you taste it”.

I have always been a lover of food. There is something about that “ratatouille moment” I like to call it… the experiences that can be created by taking even just two simple foods and combining them in a way that creates an entire new experience when they are paired. There are a lot of great cooks in my family and everyone used it as a way to show they cared. Food was always the center of gatherings. Looking back at it now the majority, if not all of the happy moments form my childhood involved food. I think part of that is how food grasps our senses better than anything else. Texture, taste, aroma…even the sound of a crunchy apple or bacon frying. With each sense that is touched memories are made. Delicious food creates delicious memories. Its the memories that I know will be created that help me to pour my love into the food art I create. The emotion people express when they see or enjoy a board I have created is what makes my work art. Art is supposed to make you feel something. In my experience of creating food for people I can confirm food makes people feel. The reactions I see when people watch my art being created is confirmation. Food can really make people feel. Really. It is without a doubt art and that is a little something I’ve always felt but was unable to perceive or realize until I began to create food for others and see the emotion drawn from people in response to my work.
Born into a fair share of generational trauma, I dedicated my career to save as many people as I could through social work. I have worked with many marginalized groups, seeing pain and need and having a need inside me to fix it. I dedicated my life to saving others thinking it would somehow make up for my inability to save myself. I felt if I gave enough of myself to the world I would find happiness and be full. I have always been creative, pursued arts when I was younger in school and I have always loved food. It took combining art and food into this opportunity to find out for myself that the only person I really need to worry a bout making happy is myself. In doing that, I will shine on others. As we all will once we have found our light.
Food art is my light and it shows in my work. When I create a meal for someone I really really do it with love. That is a claim many make but I know not everyone truly understands. To create a meal with love for someone you can absolutely do so with love for the person in mind. That love truly begins for the love of food. I LOVE food. The extensive palette I get to work with when I am creating isn’t just beautiful in colors and balance of textures and movement…it is multidimensional. When creating food I consider the flavor and texture balances of each piece so that the art continues as you taste the food. Each element on a charcuterie board is placed with thought so that you can work your way through pairing different items for a unique balanced experience.
The art of food is still here and it is my hope to have a small part in reminding people that food can nourish their bodies and their souls.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Cheesy as it may be…it’s definitely the people. I’ve catered a lot of food for a lot of people. To the point where I definitely do not remember every one of them…but the ones that I do remember I remember because they include my favorite stories of people.

My first summer of catering I was commissioned to create a harvest table for a senior’s graduation party. I spent a little time getting to know the details of an event to be sure I can custom colors, flavors, and style to really personalize each event. Taking the time to really try to get to know a person and what makes them happy is what really inspires my best pieces. One of my favorite stories and tables was a table for a high school graduate, Clara. My first graduation event I knew I wanted to personalize it for Clara as much as I could. Her mother gave me her favorite colors and a general idea of her favorite foods…(we went crazy on the blueberries) and then I asked for her mother’s permission to go ahead internet stalk her a bit. lol Who knew social media would be such a great source for caterers? I knew that little bit of extra time in my planning was absolutely worth it, not when Clara saw the table…but before, when her younger sister came in while I was putting together finishing touches. I am used to oohs and aahs…people love some pretty food…but this girl actually gasped and exclaimed to her mother “This is like exactly Clara on a table.” I swear to you I have tears in my eyes as I write this nearly a year after this experience. I have no doubts Miss Clara felt so special that day…her family was sure that she would. I am just so honored to have shared in that memory with them.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Don’t we all just want to make the world a better place? I mean, I hope we all do anyway…

I thought my original goal was to find a way to be able to continue to do my art and not go completely broke doing so.
As my business and my art grew, more and more opportunities presented themselves to be able to do small things that may just make someone’s world a better place…they definitely have mine.

When we decided to move out of the food trailer and into a store front, the location we landed on actually inspired some of my favorite pieces of this adventure. The original idea was a store front for the catering services and a bigger kitchen to have room for help.

When we found our space it had more room in the dining area than we had intended to use but it inspired a small dine-in menu, an art gallery and a marketplace. We knew rather than pile in as many seats in the open space as we could that we wanted to instead “build a bigger table”. The beauty in each of these pieces is what makes Sage Bites so magical.

Our gallery is open to any local artist that is in the process of growing their art and in need of an opportunity to grow their exposure. We offer a space for a month and get to celebrate their work with an opening reception…plus we get new amazing art on our walls every month.

Our marketplace is quickly becoming the heart of our business as it helps to bring our community together. We offer a shelf to small business local artisans and businesses in need of an opportunity with special consideration for anyone highlighting social injustice or marginalized communities.

Our start was meant to be a stepping stone for our business but has grown into a net for our beautiful community. That community will be the inspiration for any further growth going forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sagebitesllc.com
• Instagram: sagebites
• Facebook: @sagebitescatering
• Linkedin: Micah Wickstrom
• Twitter: @BitesSage
• Youtube: @sagebites8518
• Yelp: Sage Bites Bistro & Marketplace

Image Credits
Micah Wickstrom Marquivious Hester