When I read that Bon Appetit’s May issue picked its Best Eats in all 50 states, I was a bit taken aback by its choice of Glee Gum in the Triple Berry flavor for What to Buy in Rhode Island.

When did gum become food? I wondered.

Then I met up with Debbie Schimberg, owner of Glee Gum, and I learned so very much not just about the gum but about Schimberg and her passion for supporting all things sustainable. She is the founder of the Southside Community Land Trust, which started as a neighborhood garden and is now a national model for its urban farming programs.

Her Glee Gum is also groundbreaking — for how it uses an ingredient that supports sustainable harvest across the border. It’s all natural, made from chicle, which flows from trees in the rainforest of southern Mexico and northern Guatemala. Because the trees are tapped for chicle, they provide ongoing income for the local farmers who harvest the chicle. Keeping the trees for chicle harvest, rather than cutting them down for lumber, supports the rainforest.

Her Providence-based company, Verve, also donates a percentage of profits to scholarships for the families of chicle farmers.

Glee Gum is the only gum that uses chicle, Schimberg said. “Other gums are made with loads of unpronounceable items,” she added. Her gum has no artificial coloring or flavoring and no preservatives or aspartame.

Schimberg happened on chicle back in 1993 while visiting Guatemala with the Kellog Foundation program. She saw farmers tap trees for chicle, which flows out like maple. Then they boil it down and mold it into blocks. She brought back such a block of chicle and made gum with her three young kids. And so the idea for all-natural Glee Gum was born.

Until the time after World War II when the food industry sought better products through chemistry, chicle was used for gum, Schimberg said.

Today, Glee Gum is sold all over the U.S., including at natural-food stores like Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s.

On her Web site, gleegum.com, you can buy Chewing Gum Kits to make your own gum at home. Locally, find it at Dave’s Marketplace stores and a host of coffee shops, gift stores and natural-food markets or use the zip code-powered store finder at gleegum.com.

But is gum food?

“You don’t digest the gum base,” Schimberg admitted. “But you get flavor.”

It comes in a variety of flavors, including the winning Triple Berry as well as cinnamon, peppermint, bubblegum, tangerine and spearmint.

She also says, “Gum is a cheap treat. It’s a buck for a pack.”

Two more picks from Ocean State’s menu by the folks at Bon Appetit magazine1

matt jennings

Chewing gum isn’t the only story to be found in the Bon Appétit selections.

Hartley’s Pork Pies of Lincoln were named as What to Eat in Rhode Island and the Bitter Rhubarb and Strawberry Punch at Farmstead’s La Laiterie in Providence as what to drink in the Ocean State.

In spite of the description “Best Eats,” Victoria von Biel, the magazine’s executive editor, explained how she considered the list to describe “The United Plates of America.”

“We weren’t necessarily focusing on the best of each state, but on the unique things in each state that you have to try in order to have the local experience.

“At a time when it feels like we’ve been taken over by chain restaurants and mega-supermarkets, we wanted to celebrate the delicious, quirky food and drink that’s unique to every corner of the United States, and appreciate the things that are made here,” she said.

Von Biel said they especially appreciated the sustainable harvest that Glee Gum’s production supports.

Hartley’s Pork Pies fit another criteria of the magazine’s selections and that is the pies are a “completely local phenomenon,” von Biel said.

“We don’t really know anywhere else in America that has raised English-style pork pies to such an art form,” she said. “This is the kind of food that people who move out of state dream about” because they can’t get them.

From Wednesday to Saturday, Dan and Colene Doire sell the palm-size meat pies from their tiny Lincoln storefront at 871 Smithfield Ave. A sign in the window signals if they have pies or don’t. Step through the doorway and there is no food in sight. A glass case offers only pie condiments of ketchup and vinegar. A small blackboard on the counter tells what’s available. On a recent visit, they were selling hot pork, beef, chicken and meat and potatoes pies for $2 each. Salmon pies are available on Friday only. Frozen pies are $1.75. Once you place your order, the counter person slips into the back and returns with a bag or box with the order. The warm pies generate a wonderful aroma.

The savory pork and beef pies offer ground meat in a pastry crust. You can eat them by hand. They are reminiscent of pub food found in London. The chicken pie is more like a pot pie with gravy a part of the mix and requires silverware. They open at 7 a.m. Wednesday through Friday and 8 a.m. on Saturday. They close at 2 p.m. or whenever they run out of pies.

As for the third item on Bon Appétit’s list, you can forget about trying that punch for now. You have to wait for strawberry season.

Von Biel said that Bon Appétit is a fan of Farmstead, the Wayland Square cheese shop and its sister restaurant, La Laiterie.

“We feel that Matt and Kate Jennings epitomize the trend toward high-quality, local restaurants that are ingredient focused,” she said.

Owner Matt Jennings said it is that commitment to ingredients that makes the Bitter Rhubarb and Strawberry Punch only available when both are in season, usually the month of June. He did share the recipe here so we can all make it when June comes and local strawberries are in season and before rhubarb season ends.

Jennings said the magazine called and asked for their spring cocktail menu and selected the punch from that.

Bon Appétit invited comment on their best-of-the- states feature at its Web site bonappetit.com/forums. And readers have been quite busy making their suggestions.

“Some of them love our choices; others are utterly outraged and are letting us know the places they would have picked!” von Biel said. The result is “our readers have already turned us on to great local places and products all over the country that we don’t always get to hear about.”

Recipe: La Laiterie’s Bitter Rhubarb and Strawberry Punch1

LA LAITERIE’S BITTER RHUBARB AND STRAWBERRY PUNCH

3 springs of mint

2 ounces rum

1 ounce Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur

1 ounce fresh rhubarb juice

3 ounces fresh strawberry juice

Muddle fresh mint in a cocktail shaker. (You can use an official muddler or use anything that will smash the leaves to the release the oils from the mint.)

Put a handful of ice in shaker. Pour in rum, Canton Ginger Liqueur, and both juices. Shake vigorously three times. To serve, strain over ice in glass and top with a splash of sprite or soda water.

Garnish with fresh mint, lemon twist and ginger spear, if desired.

Bartender’s note: Both juices are generated with an electric juicer.

Serves one.

gciampa@projo.com