Monday, November 24, 2014

fresh, local, seasonal



My last visit to the country I spent a considerable time watching ice form.  The creek water is shallow; it tumbles over jumbles of rocks creating small waterfalls, estuaries and coves. The temperature drops, molecules rearrange, and moving water, ice crystals and icicles mingle.




I was sad to read about the disappearance of glaciers at Glacier National Park. It's overwhelming, all of it.

And I keep thinking about this piece by John Lanchester, A Foodie Repents, in the New Yorker discussing, among other things, his Irish mother's spaghetti bolognese, and how she, who was at one time a nun, learned to cook. Also working as a restaurant critic, food trends, and  the politics of food--how the choices we make about food matter at every level. To a point. The point at which we can't feed the world with our seasonal, local free-range choices. 

He writes, "If shopping and cooking really are the most consequential, most political acts in my life, perhaps what that means is that our sense of the political has shrunk too far—shrunk so much that it fits into our recycled-hemp shopping bags. If these tiny acts of consumer choice are the most meaningful actions in our lives, perhaps we aren’t thinking and acting on a sufficiently big scale. Imagine that you die and go to Heaven and stand in front of a jury made up of Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Your task would be to compose yourself, look them in the eye, and say, “I was all about fresh, local, and seasonal.”



So now I'll tell you about the meal that my three boys and lovely daughter-in law cooked. They bought my husband a smoker for his birthday and came to the country to present it to him and cook up a storm. Our new kitchen was put to the test. They made pulled pork (from a Catskills pig), kimchi, pickled scallions, kale (cooked with gobs of Hudson Valley garlic), biscuits, mashed potatoes, and ice cream. A dozen eggs from our friend George's chickens were used. A meal made with love. And as much local food as we could find.





12 comments:

  1. Your kitchen is beautiful Jen! And the food sounds out of this world good.

    I've never bought a reusable grocery bag. I remember when they first became a thing and my thinking was that why should I pay for a bag to put my groceries in when the store should be supplying my bag for my money spent on their groceries. And still, I have not repented and find the whole thing kind of silly. My only redeeming grace I suppose is that I reuse the paper grocery bags the store supplies for free.

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  2. I read that article also and found it so sad. I still don't get those people that refuse to see the climate change, they make fun of the term "global warming" because there have a been a couple of bad winters---it's called extremes---the ice is melting, we're getting hurricanes in the Northeast. It may be small and meaningless reusing the cloth bags, which I never paid for as they were all promotional, but if everyone did something so small and meaningless maybe it would make a difference. Your dinner sound delicious and local and fresh, I'm sure you all enjoyed everything about it.

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    1. On the bright side, lots of things have gotten better. There's much less air pollution and water pollution and litter than there was 30 years ago. I love that some stores don't use plastic bags anymore.

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  3. Amazing photos! You did catch the moment of the water's life. I recalled the expression "What's water but the generated soul?" by W. B. Yeats.
    I love spaghetti, too. My favorites are peperoncino and carbonara.
    It is just the best time now to enjoy red maple leaves in my town.

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    1. Thanks so much. I adore Yeats! (And spaghetti.)

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  4. How did I miss this? Maybe 'cause I left the house early on Wednesday? I love everything about this post!!!!!

    xoxo

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  5. the meal sounds amazing.
    i find the whole 'eat local' ideal complicated. like how some ethical purchases from afar help those from afar who would otherwise have no other means of income, or that my dollar supports further endeavours for them..... sigh, tricky.

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  6. Personally, I believe in corn over smaller grains to feed the world. It is a great kitchen.

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    1. Such a complex subject feeding the world is. Sigh.

      There are things I love (red and black cabinets especially) and things I don't love about the kitchen. Who knew it was possible to have too big of an island? In fact for me, personally, it's too big, too much. But my husband loves it, and it's really for him--he and the boys are crazy cooks.

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