In Concord, caring for an old house can mean caring for a piece of American history.

That was certainly true when Target Painting was called to work on the historic Daniel Chester French House, built around 1787. French became on of America’s most celebrated sculptors. His Minute Man statue, unveiled at Concord’s North Bridge in 1875, became an American icon; decades later, he created the monumental statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

Seven years ago, in the first issue of Discover Concord, we introduced readers to Kristin Canty—entrepreneur, filmmaker, farmer, restaurateur, mother of four, and passionate advocate for changing the way we think about food.

Even then, Canty was thinking big. Today, the ideas she put into practice in West Concord have reached one of the culinary world’s most respected stages. Woods Hill Pier 4, her restaurant overlooking Boston Harbor, has earned a MICHELIN Guide recommendation—an impressive milestone in a journey that began close to home.

In 1989, opening a store devoted to organic foods, natural remedies, bulk ingredients, and environmentally responsible products was hardly an obvious business proposition. But Debra Stark knew that you could feed your family—and that it could still be delicious—with nothing artificial, nothing chemical, no refined sugars or flours. The idea was clean food, period. Thirty-seven years later, it is difficult to imagine West Concord without Debra’s Natural Gourmet.