Everybody who knows me knows I love things that are sharp and things that are fast. Knives can be both. And they’re just beautiful. I find myself dreaming about them.

I picked a picture of a Dexter knife for this post. This is the utilitarian workhorse we use at Clover. Dexter is a MA-based knife company. Historically many knife companies are MA-based. Today we still have Lamson Sharp (back near where I grew up) and Dexter (Central MA). A while back I remember reading in the history of my home town about a knife factory. Bernardston is a town of 1200 people today, I’m sure it was smaller back then. But they made beautiful sharp things. And we have our very own knife maker here in Cambridge: Adam Simha of MKS Knives.

Over the years I’ve come to the view that there isn’t anything I could do as an employer that would help my employees eat better than teaching them how to use knives. In my own life it’s been a radical transformation. I’ve always loved food and cooking, but since I’ve learned how to use a knife efficiently I cook a ton more, and I’m much more likely to use fresh fruit and vegetables, and I’m much more likely to cook from scratch.

So here’s what we’re doing:

• Knife Skills 101 is being taught once/ week, Knife Skills 102 once/ month
• Both are open to the public, pre-registration required, see website
• The class is free for Clover employees, small charge for general public (who is also invited)
• At end end of the 101 class you get a paring knife (if you’re a Clover employee you have to pass the test for this)
• At the end of the 102 class you’ll get a Clover Chef’s knife (if you’re a Clover employee you have to pass the test)

We’ve taught these in the past, but never with this frequency. We’re going to push to get all Clover employees trained up. I have some other knife-related projects in the works, stay tuned.