Wendell Berry: Daily Food Quote, June 30, 2011

Published by Thursday, June 30, 2011 Permalink 0

“A person who undertakes to grow a garden at home, by practices that will preserve rather than exploit the economy of the soil, has his mind precisely against what is wrong with us… What I am saying is that if we apply our minds directly and competently to the needs of the earth, then we will have begun to make fundamental and necessary changes in our minds. We will begin to understand and to mistrust and to change our wasteful economy, which markets not just the produce of earth, but also the earth’s ability to produce.” — Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry was born in Kentucky in 1934. He has always promoted a responsible kind of agriculture that is fully integrated into one’s everyday life. Because he promoted this vision of food and agriculture long before the Slow Food movement started, he is considered by many to have laid the foundation for the American Slow Food movement and the move toward a more sustainable and ethical agriculture.

The American Poetry Foundation says of Berry: Critics and scholars have acknowledged Wendell Berry as a master of many literary genres, but whether he is writing poetry, fiction, or essays, his message is essentially the same: humans must learn to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of the earth or perish. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, which analyzes the many failures of modern, mechanized life, is one of the key texts of the environmental movement, but Berry, a political maverick, has criticized environmentalists as well as those involved with big businesses and land development. Berry strongly believes that small-scale farming is essential to healthy local economies, and that strong local economies are essential to the survival of the species and the well-being of the planet.

You can view his books and biography on the official Wendell Berry site.

Click here to listen to the 2-part series “Building a Slow Food Nation,” including an interview with Wendell Berry.

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Food Art: Classic Spanish octopus, food photography by Steve Homer

Published by Thursday, June 30, 2011 Permalink 0

Our ongoing series of tapas photos from our latest food artist discovery: food photographer Steve Homer of Sabor de Almería in the southeast of Spain.

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Wendell Berry: Daily Food Quote, June 29, 2011

Published by Wednesday, June 29, 2011 Permalink 0

“Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating. (pg. 88, “Think Little”)”—Wendell Berry (The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry)

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Crónica de españa – Mujeres y consumo de vinopor

Published by Wednesday, June 29, 2011 Permalink 0

por Raquel Pardo

This article is currently being translated into English

Ellas piden, ellas deciden

“¿Qué buscan las mujeres en un vino? Lo mismo que los hombres: vinos con carácter, interés y a buen precio. Si usted cree que prefieren Chardonnays glicéricos antes que Zinfandels con mucho cuerpo, piénselo dos veces.”(Agi Toth, educadora vinícola).

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Rosa’s Musings: My Swiss Grandmother’s Cooking: the Deep Roots, Bonds and Nostalgia of Food

Published by Tuesday, June 28, 2011 Permalink 0

by Rosa Mayland

My Swiss Grandmother and Her Glorious Cuisine

“As a grandmother of six, I believe that it is crucial that we make time to pass on our recipes, cooking and growing skills and other crafts to our grandchildren.”— Darina Allen, president of Slow Food Ireland

Grandmothers link us to our culinary heritage

In our modern world, most women choose or have to work, and countless couples don’t have the time or energy to become kitchen bees. Many people prefer buying prepackaged food and don’t see any point in spending their free time preparing homemade snacks. The majority of 21st-century grandmothers hail from a generation of females who cut themselves off from old traditions, therefore nowadays, very few kids are lucky enough to have grandmothers* who cook or enjoy cooking, and who are able to share their family’s culinary legacy with their grandchildren.

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Food Art: Spanish beach bar food: prawn & monkfish kebabs, food photography by Steve Homer

Published by Tuesday, June 28, 2011 Permalink 0

Our ongoing series of tapas photos from our latest food artist discovery: food photographer Steve Homer of Sabor de Almería in the southeast of Spain.

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Wendell Berry: Daily Food Quote, June 27, 2011

Published by Monday, June 27, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.Wendell Berry

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Food Play: Saint John’s Coca, a Catalan specialty

Published by Monday, June 27, 2011 Permalink 0

by SandeeA

Para leer la versión en español, pinche aquí

Food Play: Saint John's Coca, a Catalan specialty. Food Play, by SandeeA. The Rambling Epicure. Editor, Jonell Galloway.

Saint John’s coca is a typical Catalonian sweetened bread eaten during the celebration of Saint John’s Eve in June. It is usually oval, but I wanted to give it a a playful twist… would you like to try some?

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Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, June 24, 2011

Published by Friday, June 24, 2011 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

Food is a subject of conversation more spiritually refreshing even than the weather, for the number of possible remarks about the weather is limited, whereas of food you can talk on and on and on. Moreover, no heat of controversy is induced by mention of the atmospheric conditions (seeing that we are all agreed as to what is a good day and what is a bad one) and where there can be no controversy there can be no intimacy in agreement. But tastes in food differ so sharply…that a pronounced agreement in them is of all bonds a union the most intimate. Thus, if a man hates tapioca pudding he is a good fellow and my friend.–A. A. Milne, “Lunch” (1934)

Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his book about a teddy bear named Winnie the Pooh.

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Food Art: Spanish sea bream composition, food photography by Steve Homer

Published by Friday, June 24, 2011 Permalink 0

Our ongoing series of tapas photos from our latest food artist discovery: food photographer Steve Homer of Sabor de Almería in the southeast of Spain.

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