As We Eat’s third season highlights some of our favorite cookbooks and the roles that they play in our understanding and expression of community, identity, and personal and communal foodways. We start with a great American classic: The Taste of Country Cooking by Chef Edna Lewis - a nostalgic but compelling mediation on what it means to eat seasonally and locally.
Connecting with the seasons and home
Despite growing up in a figurative cornucopia of produce in California, Kim struggled to feel a connection between herself, the food she ate, and the place she lived. It wasn’t that the luscious fruits and vegetables were bad - it just was that the easy availability and agricultural homogeneity made everything less vibrant, less succulent, and less special.
Reading Edna Lewis’s seminal work The Taste of Country Cooking helped Kim to break through a false dichotomy between the stereotypes of “city” and “country” and encouraged her to examine the development of her own foodways and traditions grown while living in seven different U.S states.
In the pages of this loving tribute to Chef Lewis’ childhood home in Freetown, Virginia and its rich traditions, Kim found inspiration to embrace the place in which she lives now and to nurture roots in her home community by exploring new foods grown locally in season.
Together Kim and Leigh explore both the fascinating life of Chef Edna Lewis, how she came to write this marvelous book, and the enduring legacy that The Taste of Country Cooking plays in defining not only a key element of American food culture, but also how it loving marks an important time and place in the author’s life.
What does eating seasonally mean to you?
Episode Transcript
🎧 Click here for the full, interactive transcript of this episode 🎧
Sources We Found Helpful for this Episode
Books We Think You’ll Enjoy Reading
The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis
The Edna Lewis Cookbook by Edna Lewis and Evangeline Peterson
In Pursuit of Flavor by Edna Lewis
Episodes We Think You’ll Enjoy
EP 36 Feminism at the Kitchen Counter: From Betty Crocker to Julia Child
EP 37 From the Kitchen to the Voting Booth: Suffrage for Women and Community Cookbooks
EP 43 Food Pioneers: Life and Career Highlights of People Who Make Food Great
Join us in two weeks when Leigh discusses one of the recipes from The Taste of Country Cooking that brought her home. If you would like to become a patron supporter, for just a few dollars, you’ll be the first to hear the podcast episodes with your early access key 🗝️, join us for Afternoon Tea, a virtual klatch to be in community, receive a discount code to use in the coming-soon AWE market, and most importantly you’ll help keep our oven lights on!
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EP 55 Refinding Home: Edna Lewis, The Taste of Country Cooking, and Me