Edna Lewis’ incredible book The Taste of Country Cooking is not just a cookbook, this work functions both as instructional material and memoir, using recipes to tell the story of a year in the lives of people living in Freetown, the self-sustaining agricultural community in rural Virginia where Lewis grew up.
Potawatomi Berry Rice from Indigikitchen
This ice cream is small reflection of the glowing, balmy restorative days; a distillation of the bright coolness, the sharp scent of new green growth, and the creamy sweetness of perfect air.
Basil is a “remedie for malancholicke people,” the scent of it good for the heart and head, and will make a man merry and glad. Anyone who has harvested fresh basil on a summer’s day can attest to the truth of this!
Using foods native to their Americas, Indigikitchen gives viewers the important tools they need to find and prepare food in their own communities. Indigenous food systems support healthier ecosystems, bodies, and families.
“I love making almond flummery by candlelight in the early morning hours, as the household still sleeps. The kitchen is quiet and dark. The scent of rosewater, almonds, and apricot kernels rising from the mortar and pestle transform the kitchen countertop to a magic carpet that carries me off to 18th century England.”
To me, “resolve” doesn’t mean to give something up, but to bring it into focus, to become harmonious, to be solved, or healed. To see things as clearly as we can, at the highest resolution.
Enough is just what we need, and all that we can ask. Enough money to live, enough food to eat, enough strength to carry on from day to day, and enough humor to enjoy it all. If nobody had too much, then everybody would have enough.
The cakes are called “souls” the singers are called “soulers,” and the practice is called “souling.” How beautiful is all of that?
A recipe for simple bread for the best toast, and thoughts on toasting over the years.
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