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Food for Thought

 Life seems to throw things at me to GET MY ATTENTION, and today I'm back where I started, using my Google Blogger program to talk about food. I've been struggling with the amount of tech skills and unwanted "stuff" that comes along with my existing Wordpress blog, so I thought I'd get back to basics with the five easy steps of Blogger. Nothing fancy, just my writing and some photos.

Today's Menu

I've long been worried about the additives in our food and how commercial food production has caused generations of unhealthy eaters. 

Our book club is reading Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food by Chris Van Tulleken. I'm only part-way in, but I know that this book is going to both validate my concerns and also change the way I eat. It was inevitable that at some point I was going to have to give up my sacred Tuesday morning McDonald's sausage and cheese biscuit, and I guess that point is now.

And then...

I finished the Austen Project Emma remake by Alexander McCall Smith (more on that another day) and was searching for something to listen to in the car. I pulled up the podcast Just Plain Wrong, created by Mennonite librarians, including our cousin Tillie, and an episode on Mennonite food jumped out at me. The episode is from August 7, 2024, and is entitled More food talk: A conversation with Marlene Epp, author of Eating Like a Mennonite.

Saying there is such a thing as "Mennonite food" is exactly the wrong interpretation of the book featured on this episode. Eating Like a Mennonite: Food and Community Across Borders by Marlene Epp focuses on the complex relationships between food and the people who prepare and eat it. "Looking at Mennonites past and present, Epp shows that foodstuffs (cuisine) and foodways (practices) depend on historical and cultural context (Amazon)."

Making the connection

In a wide-ranging conversation about the genesis and theme of her book, the friendly questioning by the podcast hosts, Erin and Abby, intrigued me to dig a little deeper into my relationships with "Mennonite Food." In full disclosure, I am not Mennonite by either cultural tradition or theology, but am Mennonite-adjacent through my marriage into a family with deep roots in Mennonite-ism. The conversation about traditional recipes sent me flying to my bookshelf when I got home to see if I still had my copy of More-with-Less after the great cookbook purge when we moved to the condo. I was relieved to see it was still on my shelf along with several other community cookbooks.

I'm going to put Marlene Epp's book on my Libby watch list and hope that encourages one of my libraries to buy it. I have always loved the connection between food and community and have talked about it to pretty much anyone who would listen. Most cultural traditions use food to tell their stories and I'm eager to read more about Epp's research into global Mennonite communities and the food that they use to connect with each other and with other cultures.

What's next?

I have the makings for a leek and mushroom quiche in the fridge, and I found a recipe for an old-school pie crust in More-with-Less. I'll be reporting back on whether this old girl still can make a cheesy pie.








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  1. LalaOctober 3, 2024 at 5:58 AM

    So glad you’re writing again!! Save some cheesy pie for me!

    ReplyDelete

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