Drop Where You Shop

a message from Jessica Prentice

Take a look around the modern supermarket: The volume of packaging, in and of itself, is mind-boggling: plastic, styrofoam, foil, cardboard boxes, and individual portions on disposable trays. Vegetables that have been sprayed with pesticides and often preservatives and then shipped from far distances are neatly arranged, each almost perfectly shaped, and periodically misted by mysteriously hidden sprinklers to keep them looking "fresh."

I move through the supermarket as if through a nightmare. In the meat section I am haunted by visions of mass slaughterhouses. The ceiling-high tower of cereal boxes conjures up images of huge factory machines and grains so processed they no longer resemble themselves. In the dairy section I sympathize with animals given growth hormones to increase their production of a liquid that will then be boiled for long enough to kill its potential to either harm or nourish the one who drinks it. Each aisle, each section, presents a little house of horrors.

Then there is the farmer's market...

I watch a farmer spill into large baskets his boxes full of just-picked peppers and onions; another makes huge mounds of greens that range in shapes and sizes and colors far beyond anything one sees in a supermarket. I admire small baskets of specialty berries, homey jars of jams, huge barrels of winter squash, flats of mushrooms, bottles of olive oil, hunks of beeswax, jars of variously-hued honeys, rustic round loaves of bread, bags of pistachios, walnuts and almonds, dried fruits, bottles of juice and cider, crates of peaches and apricots, tablesfull of organic grapes, rounds of goat cheese. I take in the season at a glance... I begin to get ideas for what to cook: a pot of borscht, a groundnut stew, a berry cobbler, salsa verde, a barbecue, poached pears... and I think: this is what life is really about...

If this is the sort of thing that appeals to you, check out these Stirring the Cauldron resources for help & inspiration:

• Where the Wise Foods Are: Bay Area Sources for Wise and Nourishing Traditional Foods
• Imagine This... remember the meaning of true nourishment
• Heaven's Leaven: an article by Jessica Prentice
• Seasonal Cooking Recipes
• Favorite Links

click to: book summary

Full Moon Feast Food and the Hunger for Connection by Jessica Prentice Full Moon Feast invites us to a table brimming with locally grown foods, radical wisdom, and communal nourishment.