Food From a Younger Land- Before the National Highways

I was born in the 70s. The world was already changing like crazy, we went from transistor radios and record players to Walkmen and CD's in a matter of years. From there it was bye-bye glass soda bottles and hello Evian water (which I drank until I realized Evian was "naive" spelled backwards). Diet Coke didn't exist when I was born- which is frankly unthinkable to me.

I remember the days in Jacksonville Beach, FL. when we thought going out for pizza was pretty exotic, and believe it or not I never experienced the wonder that is cilantro until the mid-nineties when I moved to the teeming cultural metropolis that is Atlanta.

So, what am I babbling about? I've been doing a lot of thinking in the last 24 hours. All this brain activity has been started by a book reading I went to last night. Mark Kurlansky, the author of "Salt" and "Cod", has written a fantastic new book called "Food From a Younger Land" that has me thinking about the past, the present and the future of how this country eats.

Kurlansky has uncovered a pot of gold in the form of a long shelved WPA, Federal Writers Project called "America Eats". Originally intended to be a treatise on the traditions and ingredients of American food, the project was abandoned shortly after the beginning of WWII. A number of writers, including Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, and Nelson Algren, were dispatched all across America to chronicle the eating habits, traditions, and struggles of local people. Once the war broke out, all of their efforts were collected into boxes and stashed at the Library of Congress where they were destined to be forgotten.

Enter Mark Kurlansky. Years of sorting through boxes of writing has brought together a picture of our country when things were simpler. He doesn't make it look like never-never land-he completely acknowledges that it wasn't always easy. Yes-there were good things, but bad as well- racisim, ingredients like possum, and serious issues with poverty and fear.

One of the questions posed after his reading was what he thought about the "local food" movement surging through America. I was really impressed by his response-yes-its great that we're thinking locally. But, if I can get cherries from Mt. Ranier and cranberries from New England completely out of season why should I turn away from them? So True.

I will say this-get this book. It will get you thinking. It will get you cooking. It may even change the way you live.