Read 'em and Eat
Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers
and the Future of Food in America
By Liz Carlisle
Avery, paperback & eBook
320 pages, $16, $12 kindle
Set in the farm belt of red-state America, far from the farmers’ markets and haute cuisine of coastal cities, Lentil Underground confronts the global food system in one of the little known rural communities that will determine its fate. From the heart of Big Sky Country comes this inspiring story of a handful of colorful pioneers who have successfully bucked the chemical-based food chain and the entrenched power of agribusiness’s 1% by stubbornly banding together.
Unearthing the deep roots of this movement, Lentil Underground introduces readers to a memorable cast of characters, from gun-toting libertarians and Christian homesteaders to peace-sign-waving environmental activists, speaking to everyone concerned with the future of American agriculture and natural food in an increasingly uncertain world.
Liz Carlisle is a lecturer in Food Systems at the University of California, Berkeley, and a lecturer in the Thinking Matters program at Stanford University. She holds a PhD in geography from UC Berkeley and a BA from Harvard University.
RECIPES
Vegan Vegetarian Omnivore
By Anna Thomas
W. W. Norton & Company, April 18, 2016
496 pages, $35
For years, Anna Thomas’s fans have cooked from her trailblazing vegetarian cookbooks. Now, Anna turns her thoughts to that larger question. We are eating differently: Your daughter is a vegan, or you are, but your in-laws don’t think it’s dinner without meat, or you’re hosting Thanksgiving for a mixed group. In this timely and useful new book, Anna offers her solutions for reuniting our divided tables.
Anna shows us how to cook for today’s table, with over 150 recipes for all tastes, and menus for every occasion. For a casual evening with friends, Farro with Lentils and Lavender served with Ratatouille from the Charcoal Grill makes a beautiful vegan supper and also pairs wonderfully with garlic- and herb-rubbed lamb chops for the omnivores. Anna’s crowd-pleasing Easy Fish Soup begins as a robust vegetable soup, with seafood added five minutes before serving—an ideal two-way dish. A vegetarian Lemon Risotto with Sautéed Fresh Fava Beans is perfect on its own, and can easily take on tender shrimp. For dessert, have vegan Pumpkin Gingerbread and with optional vanilla ice cream, or serve a delectable Dark Chocolate Almond Bark studded with ginger and dried cherries.
Anna Thomas wrote The Vegetarian Epicure in 1973, which transformed the landscape of American cooking. She is the author, most recently, of the James Beard Award–winning cookbook Love Soup. She lives in Los Angeles and Ojai, California.
RECIPES
The Color of Food
By Natasha Bowens
New Society Publishers
240 pages, $29.95
The Color of Food recognizes the critical issues that lie at the intersection of race and food. Its stunning collection of portraits and stories challenge the status quo of agrarian identity. Biracial author, photographer and farmer Natasha Bowens’ quest to explore her own roots in the soil leads her to unearth a larger story, weaving together the seemingly forgotten history of agriculture for people of color, the issues they face today and the culture and resilience they bring to food and farming.
The Color of Food, a multimedia project that also includes WHAT OTHER MEDIA?, teaches us that the food and farm movement is about more than buying local and protecting our soil. It is about preserving culture and community, digging deeply into the places we’ve overlooked and honoring those who have come before us. Blending storytelling, photography, oral history and unique insight, these pages remind us that true food sovereignty means a place at the table for everyone.
Natasha Bowens’ advocacy focuses on food sovereignty and social issues.
Copies available at Carmichael’s Bookstores in Louisville and Morris Book Shop in Lexington
