Grow Food, Cook Food, Share Food: Perspectives on Eating from the Past and a Preliminary Agenda for the Future

The Appetizer

the a p petizer I would like to thank all the marvelous people I met during a perfectly delightful week in Corvallis in the fall of 2011 while delivering the lectures that were the basis of this little book. Above all, thanks to Anita Guerrini who arranged everything and even let me mess up her kitchen. Thanks to the late Benjamin B. Horning whose munificence made the trip possible. Thanks also to Joan Gross, Sara Jameson, Mary Jo and Bob Nye, Flo Leibowitz, Jon Katz, and all the fantastic students and people from the community who prompted me with thoughtful questions. Thanks also to Allen Goodman and Hilarie Phelps at the Harrison House. I never suspected a stay at a B&B would include great conversations over breakfast. Thanks to Laura McCandlish with whom I took a fabulous tour of the 2 Towns Ciderhouse. And thanks to all the lovely people who shared food with me or provided great ingredients at the farmer’s market. A big thanks to all the people at Oregon State University Press who turned this into a book, especially Mary Braun and copy editor Julie Talbot. The lectures on which this book is based are partly drawn from my research as a food historian, but also from my personal experience growing, cooking, and sharing food. Whenever people ask me why I spend so much time cooking and writing cookbooks, I tell them this is the activist phase of my career. As you will see herein, I believe that practice of history, while valuable in and of itself, should also engage the public and inspire people to generate social change. In my small way, these ruminations on the garden, kitchen, and dining room are designed to do just that. I hope you can follow me and get your hands a little dirty.| xi xii || In these lectures I discuss the historical development of three crucial components of human nourishment and their disjuncture in the industrial era. I have tried to describe without romantic sentimentality the ways our food production system, our methods of food preparation, and our modes of consumption have changed over time to the detriment of human happiness, health, and community. I have also made some creative suggestions regarding ways in which we can recapture the positive aspects of past foodways without endangering food security or abandoning the many valuable advances of the last century. History offers constructive examples of how we can better grow food, cook food, and share it, if only we have the means to listen and learn from food writers of the past. ken albala Grow Food, Cook Food, Share Food Wellcome Library, London ...