Business Items -- Next get together November 11, at my house
- Next book - "Earthly Joys"
- Future Book - "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" with lunch at the Baltimore Museum of Art
The Book(s) -
We've been on a food theme for several events.
- The Omnivore's Dilemma - was written recently, and focused on following different meals from field to table. The author highlighted corn, meat, and gave a pretty through look into industrial and organic farming. This is the book to read to know what pundits are referring to when they mention "petroleum-coated" food.
- The Art of Eating - was written in the 1940s and 50s. It's a compilation of short stories and books including the well-known To Cook a Wolf which is a stab at describing how the author dealt with shortages during WWII. The first book notes that a lot of industrial food production started up after WWII when munitions producers switched to fertilizer (happy thought?), so industrial food production as we know it really wasn't entrenched at the time she wrote her book. Fisher was a woman supporting herself writing for magazines. Her focus was not about food as a political issue but as a family and social construct. Not too many men cook in her stories, but plenty of social interchange happens over food. Given the optimism about science at the time -they're the ones that brought us industrial food- the author's focus on food, balancing meals across a day, and social connections is almost holistic.
- Other reading - Paige recommended The Botany of Desire. This book, by the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma explains how plants and humans have evolved together. It's not for anyone who is anti-evolution. It's not a long book and is worth reading for the write-up about apples alone. Another recent book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is by one of my favorite authors Barbara Kingsolver. It covers some of the same ground as The Omnivore's Dilemma, but in a different voice. The author and her near-perfect family set out to eat locally for a year from their farm in Virginia. Clearly in debt to Fisher she advances the notion of balancing a diet across four seasons.
With energy continuing to be a national issue the whole concept of "local" needs to be explored. The idea of existing locally has gotten lost in our push towards globalization and specialization. If we find that eating locally is healthier for us and the plant it opens up the possibility that other things would best be done locally as well.
Consider this in light of medical tourism? Do we really want to develop a medical economy that is petroleum coated as well? Is there something wrong with the workings and structure of our system that policy makers are contemplating jetting people around the world for health care? Is that really secure for our country?
Let's eat something!
We enjoyed the "The Art of Eating", and sampling things from the book. In addition to the Prune Roast and Tomato Soup Cake we had: Oyster Soup, shrimp, Cheese/Grapes and Crackers, Challah bread, Crepes with Figs and Ham/Cheese.
We ambled across the life of M.F.K. Fisher. She was in the "ahead of her time" category in her life and food suggestions. She was married multiple time, managed to offend people with her stories, and never quite considered her magazine writing legitimate. She was quite interested in France, and took her daughters to live there for the experience.
Her take was that food be simple and fresh, and that meals be balanced across days, not sittings. Her account of eating a tangerine made us think that enjoying what we have, rather than gobbling it all down and going for more, might improve the gastronomical qualities of our lives.
We contemplated her relationship to Julia Child and Alice Walters - two Californian women who are also well known in the food world. Julia Child was a contemporary, while Alice Walters a follow-on. In the spirit of Fisher we considered sweet potatoes baked simply and served without marshmallows.
Bon Appetite - and hope to see you November 11 !
