Endangered Eating

May 1, 2023

Shocked by the disappearance of comestibles from heirloom cider apples to wild rice long associated with the North American continent, food historian Lohman (Eight Flavors) sets out to discover foods that are fast disappearing--and find a way to save them. In particular, she argues for preserving largely Indigenous culinary customs very nearly lost to colonization. Prepub Alert.

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July 15, 2023
A food historian argues that preserving the richness of what we eat is part of recognizing our cultural legacy. Good food is one of the great pleasures of life, notes Lohman, and a tragedy of modern times is that the development of agribusiness corporations threatens to reduce the variety on our plates. In her 2016 book, Eight Flavors, the author explored America's culinary history; here, she comes at the subject from another angle, traveling around the country to investigate traditional foods that are returning from the edge of extinction. As her guide, she uses an online catalog called the Ark of Taste, produced by an organization called Slow Food International, which is dedicated to preserving food diversity. She finds plenty of optimistic stories, such as the orchardists keeping apple types alive and the breeders of longhorn cattle, which have gone out of fashion with beef producers. Many of the foods that interest Lohman have roots in Indigenous cultures, and the story of the displacement of traditional Hawaiian culture to grow sugar cane has a tragic aspect. The author is willing to go deep into the rituals of traditional food preparation; for example, she happily gutted salmon caught by Native American methods on the Pacific coast and helped butcher a Navajo-Churro lamb. Along the way, she looks at the legacy of wild rice, the origin of peanut farming, and the resurgence of the Buckeye chicken. At the end of each chapter, Lohman includes recipes of the foods featured, and they all sound delicious. The result is a package that is enjoyable, entertaining, and meaningful. The author encourages readers to begin their own journey of culinary discovery: "The secret of the Ark is that you don't have to travel very far at all....There's probably a rare food practically in your backyard." A tasty sojourn through the landscape of America's endangered foods, served with a scoop of energy and a dash of hope.

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September 1, 2023
Slow Food International, an organization dedicated to preserving unique regional foods, created an Ark of Taste in 1996. The Ark currently identifies over five thousand flavors and edible items that are in danger of becoming extinct, including 350 in the United States. Author and food journalist Lohman (Eight Flavors, 2016) investigates eight of them from regions across the U.S.: Hawaiian Legacy sugarcane, Navajo-Churro sheep, Straits Salish reefnet fishing, Anishinaabe wild rice, heirloom cider apples, Choctaw Fil� powder, and Carolina African runner peanuts. Her engaging commentary documents the histories of these items; their cultural and societal significance; the various ways they became over-hunted, over-fished, or overgrown by corporate and government greed; the generations of farmers, herders, and other conservationists who nurtured their survival; and ongoing efforts to preserve them. Lohman's commentary is engaging, and she elegantly relays anecdotes (catching salmon by hand; harvesting sheep) that capture the respectfulness and passion of the individuals she met while researching. Her descriptions of unprecedented textures, tangs, and mouthwatering subtleties are masterful. Not just for foodies, this is an entertaining and enlightening account.

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November 13, 2023
Historian Lohman (Eight Flavors) examines eight “endangered” foods in this satisfying trek through American culinary history, starting in California with Coachella Valley dates and ending in South Carolina with Carolina African Runner peanuts. Lohman’s quest for foods that “will not be around in another generation or two without immediate action” involved meeting with “farmers, shepherds, fishers, and makers”; attending food-related celebrations and ceremonies (she helped to butcher a Navajo-Churro sheep in the Navajo “Sheep Is Life” festival); and untangling the history of each ingredient, from the influx of “date gardens” in 1900s California to the cultivation of heirloom cider apple trees in Puritan America (and their destruction during the temperance movement, when it was considered “shameful” to have the trees). While the author’s personal musings occasionally butt awkwardly into the historical details, the history is vivid and fascinating, astutely probing the ways that many of these foods have been nearly eradicated by colonization and violence (in the mid-1800s, U.S. troops drove flocks of Navajo sheep off New Mexico land where they wanted their own flocks to graze) or harnessed by Westerners for their own gain (Western-owned distilleries in Hawaii produce rhum agricole—made of Hawaiian legacy sugarcane—using the images and stories of Hawaiian culture for their branding). Part travelogue and part history, this is ideal for curious foodies.