On an October day, when the colors were still spectacular, I drove four miles out of Hillsboro and then up a dirt road, past a pond contained by a beaver dam built of twigs and mud, past a smaller pond, to the house at the end of the road, where Beatrice Trum Hunter lives.

"We try to discourage the baby beavers who try to dam the little pond," she said.

Hunter has been called Superwoman without the cape, Nutrition's Guru and the Nutritional Thoreau. Beginning with the Natural Foods Cookbook, published in 1961, she has written more than 30 books and numerous magazine articles in her crusade to inform the public of the perils in our food marketplace.

Years ahead of today's nutrition advocates, Hunter's early writings were often looked on as visionary. Through the ensuing years, she has come to be regarded as an authority on her subjects throughout the world. She has lectured across the United States and in Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Haiti, Costa Rica and Canada.

"We need to know why soy is not good for us, that no canola plant grows anywhere and that high fructose corn syrup is at the root of many of our health problems," she said. "There's so much misinformation around about food."

Hunter's titles include Gardening Without Poisons; The Sugar Trap and How to Avoid it; Water and Your Health; and Food Additives and Federal Policy. Her latest book, Infectious Connections, about food borne illnesses, is just out, and she's started on the next one - Toxic Metals and their Effects on our Health.

For several years, Hunter was the food editor for Consumers' Research. Her advice to us: If the food was familiar to your grandmother, it's probably good for you.

Hunter grew up in Queens, N.Y. After receiving degrees from Brooklyn College and Columbia University, she taught blind and vision impaired children. She and her husband traveled a lot.

Eventually looking to put down roots, they bought the house in New Hampshire, first as a summer retreat. It had no plumbing or electricity, just the woods and an old barn at the end of a dirt road.

It wasn't long before they decided to live here year-round.

Hunter's husband modernized the house. For needed income, they initiated Guest Weeks, housing and feeding bird watchers and other lovers of the outdoors.

"Respites for the guests - lots of hard work for us," Hunter said.

Bats in their barn have been the subject of a long-term bat study by Dr. Thomas Kunz of Boston University. Their 200 acres, including ponds, have been gifted, in perpetuity, to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

Using Julia Child's pots and pans, Hunter did a television series called Beatrice Trum Hunter's Natural Foods. She helped establish LINEC, a continuing education program at New England College, and has taught courses there for 20 years. She has received many honors, including being the first woman elected to the American Academy of Environmental Science.

Her books are archived at several area colleges and universities.

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