I Hope I Am Not Alive When……. Underestimating Real Food as the Root of Permanent Civilization

 image courtesy NYT

We hunt, we gather, we cook, we bond……..

I had a very busy last 13 days, the culmination of which was the three day celebration of my husband’s 60th birthday at our home in Orleans, Ma.  It was great fun despite the days of preparation and usual pre-event(s) jitters.  Happily, all turned out fantastically well and we, all 13 of us, had a great time!  The weather was a glorious preview of Fall on Cape Cod.  We had a great kaleidoscope of food:  steamers and lobster dinners, local corn and tomatoes, wild maine blueberries, some fabulous Halibut and a dinner at our favorite – Mac’s Shack in Wellfleet – with so much sushi, mussels and other appetizers we could hardly order our entrees!  We had scones, pancakes, salads galore, a decadent birthday cake, and lots of other great food – all of it a loving and supportive element in our very special time of coming together, celebration and living!  Hmmmmmm.

That’s not really the point of this post – it is that while I was busy having lots of fun with my family, I didn’t get to read the newspaper on Sunday.  Yesterday – a couple of days late and dollars short, I came upon this article in Sunday Review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/sunday-review/rethinking-eating.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

Actually, perhaps it IS precisely the point of this post!

Sorry, world, but I, for one don’t want to hear about geneticists, chemists and Private Equity Funds working on replacing food as we know it with, well, something else………

I have read a few other articles which predict that we will all be existing on vitamin pills and pre-fab foodstuffs (not the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese kind) sooner rather than later  – and food as we know it will begin to disappear from civilization. Predictions call for us opening up a packet of powder, dissolving it into a glass of water, drinking it down and then, in some uber-satisfied and environmentally noble? state, walking out the door and heading out to do all the other things we do in a day…..  Really?  I for one,  will never accept this notion as possible – and for that matter, I don’t want to be around if and when such a scenario plays out.

If we can accept that farming began as early as 6500 BC in the Middle East and there have been depictions of farming and socializing around food found in ancient civilizations in many corners (and caves) around the earth, then I am betting that I don’t have to worry too much about this happening in my lifetime (aka the next 30 years or so).  And, I pray that it won’t happen after that either……..

here is just one of many references: history-world.org/ancient_civilization.htm

I don’t doubt that there are people who have a much better understanding of the overall detriment to our planet that current modes of food production cause.  I love Michael Pollan and all of the others who study very important food issues, I do.  I also understand that we can not sustain the population on this planet with these same modes of food production.  I just don’t believe, or want to believe that humans will give up their current attachment to the entire spectrum of habit, tradition and the depth of creativity and the most substantive of social interactions – all centered  around food.  In this regard, I hate to admit this, but I just deferred my very own formalized study of Food Culture at NYU, having registered and everything, to instead pursue my own “independent study” of food culture, aka getting on airplanes and “researching” à pied, again and again and again…… I figure, I’ll do the classroom part when I’m finished with the “in real mode” part and can no longer trek all day long in my favorite real-time venues (like maybe when I’m 90!).

Here is just one of the many persons who came to mind as I wrote today and who, I believe, demonstrate and support my theory – as long as there are people like this walking the face of the earth, we won’t migrate to uninspiring, tasteless, laboratory-conceived iterations of the so-called “future-foods”.

In praise of Pierre Hermé: – http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324445904578284004102034798

 

  images courtesy Pierre Hermé

And in honor of persons such as this, here is my very own quote of the day:

“We must remember that the senses of being – see, smell, taste, touch and sound are all so fundamental to being human.  The quest to satisfy the palate is interwoven with each of these, and thereby form the very base of our existence.”  ……Ok, anyone who’d like to can debate this.

Here are a few “off the top of my head”  timeless situations which I don’t believe will ever be given up in favor of “rethinking food”, or at least I hope not:

– sitting around the “fire” cooking, talking, laughing, chortling, preparing, sampling, bonding

– wandering around the farmer’s market in rapture, celebration and awe

– padding around the kitchen at an early hour – concocting a new scone recipe

– sharing while making pancakes – as I just did with wild Maine Blueberries with my brother-in-law John on Sunday

– sharing, as in happily hearing and watching my sisters-in-law working in the kitchen on salads, greens and corn grits

– nursing my own tomatoes right outside my door

– driving by local farms – and not-so-local ones too – like all along the coast of California – seeing strawberries growing to the horizon in Oxnard in March

– traveling to Italy to see the olive, caper, grape and almond harvests

– visiting restaurants, food purveyors and other celebrants the world over

 

Here is my list of food items I will never accept will disappear from the face of the earth in favor of a pill or packet:

– perfect croissants

– apple pie and tart tatin

– lemons

– garlic

– onions or all sorts

– brioche

– peaches

– a glass of red wine

– organic cucumber martinis!

oh dear, I can’t list them all here, now can I?

 

Here is my list of people who are not likely to give up their obsession with real food in the future:

– chefs, home cooks, cookbook writers and all-around food-obsessed persons such as me

– artists of all disciplines, including painters, photographers, people who draw

– farmers

– historians

– sociologists, anthropologists

– botanists and botanical illustrators

– food writers, dreamers, critics

So please, whenever we are getting closer to this new age of food supply, would someone kindly tap me on the shoulder and gently say, “Ok, Marianne, it’s time to go now”………….  I thank you…..

……..and we remember and we repeat…….

 from the yard this morning