The History of Food

I gave up on The Omnivore's Dilemma part way through the foraging section. The earlier stuff was brilliant though. Some of the aspects of the book I will remember for a long time I think. I found his analysis of a problem with our food intake being not which animal we eat, but what that animal has itself been eating (i.e. corn, or what it has evolved to eat), compelling. I'm grateful we have access to the occasional truly free range rooster to kill and eat from my friend Raelene. Hunting is a popular pastime on the West Coast and I've also put the word out among friends that I'd be interested in buying any game they catch and don't wish to eat themselves.

The food thinking I've been doing since reading The Omnivore's Dilemma prompted me to get The History of Food out of the library again. I'd had this book out before but not read much. The History of Food is by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat and I read the version translated into English by Anthea Bell. It was first published in 1987. It's scope is huge and I am only dipping into chapters or parts thereof at the moment.

There is a section on the symbolism of bread and cakes. There are comments on the links to The Lord's Prayer, to the phrase 'earning our bread', and to the Eucharistic host. I have learned that the place-name 'Bethlehem' means 'house of bread'. And lots more. I recommend this book. The word 'companion' literally means to share bread together. Latin com = together and panis = bread.

Then the significance of rituals, or stories, of traditions and of their meaningful links to the seasons, brings me to Easter. Shouldn't we be having a harvest festival instead in the southern hemisphere? As a child, I used to think that Easter was about ushering in winter, with the sadness and Lenten fasting. Now I see that as a northern hemisphere festival with history more ancient than Christianity, Easter is really about sayting goodbye to winter with the resurrection of Jesus. My daughter Brighid, born late January, might, I thought, have arrived early February during the festival of Imbolc. I only learnt about Imbolc, a festival which welcomes Spring, when we were researching names for our second child. I hope we will have a festival to welcome Spring in our community later this year.

Evetually, despite it no longer being Summer, I noticed that the garden is dry and watered it today. I also killed many caterpillars.