 January 2012 On a Quarter-Acre Farm…Inspiring Resolutions of Self-Sufficiency
By Rachel Caudill, Good Food Book Club Volunteer Coordinator “I pledged that 75 percent of all the food I ate would come from our garden, hereafter known as the Quarter Acre Farm.” ~Spring Warren Join us in reading the January Co-op Good Food Book Club selection, The Quarter Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year by Spring Warren. The Book Club will meet Sunday, January 29 from 7:00-8:30 at a member’s private residence to discuss The Quarter Acre Farm and share a tasty dessert provided by the Co-op. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for more information and directions. Like so many pilgrims before her, one day Spring Warren woke up. It happened on a road trip. It happened when she had too much time to think. It happened after one too many stories about GM food, cows surviving cruel and inhumane conditions, and synthetic hormones making their way into the bodies of children. It happened when she realized, “It was time to do more than talk, I wanted to do what was right for my planet, my family, and me. As soon as we returned (home), I announced that we would start to grow most of our food in our own yard.” But listening in the back seat, she noticed that her two teenage sons started to twitch. “As I outlined my plans, Louis and Sam caught on that I was no longer woolgathering about a few raised beds: I was seriously plotting the transformation of our yard, our eating habits, and maybe the fabric of the entire universe. Louis and Sam paid sudden and nervous attention.” That’s when her son Louis announced, “You can’t grow your food in the yard. You’d starve.” Actually, she doesn’t. Nor do the boys. Instead, by the end of her yearlong experiment to grow most of her family’s food, her boys and husband are her biggest cheering squad and they delightedly help harvest and eat the beautiful bounty. If you’ve considered growing more of your own food on your own small parcel of land, this is the memoir (cookbook, almanac, DIY how-to-guide) for you. It’s the perfect inspiration for a New Year’s resolution for increasing self-sufficiency. According to Amazon’s author bio, “Spring Warren now lives in Davis, California, an educational hub of the agricultural world, in the Central Valley, the world’s most productive agricultural region.” Find out more at: www.thequarteracrefarm.com The Quarter Acre Farm (2011) is available through your local library. If you are interested in buying the book, check out the area’s local used book stores or visit Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a discount. Please join us for dessert and discussion of The Quarter Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year, Sunday, January 29, from 7:00-8:30 pm. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about the Good Food Book Club. For more information about the Good Food Book Club, check out the outreach section of the MFC website at www.moscowfood.coop. Now Rachel is tempted to make a New Year’s resolution to grow her family’s food in their yard (where there are already three hens a-laying). Now, where are those seed catalogues?  December 2011 Christmas Ravioli: Gathering Food and Family
by Rachel Caudill, volunteer Good Food Book Club coordinator
“A little square of ravioli is like a secret.” –Laura Schenone
Join us in reading the December Co-op Good Food Book Club selection, The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family by Laura Schenone. The Book Club will meet Monday, January 2 (in deference to the holidays) from 7-8:30 p.m. at a member’s private residence to discuss The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken and share a tasty dessert provided by the Co-op. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for more information and directions. The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken is about one woman’s search for family, history, and meaning through the joy of delectable food. Even more fun at this time of year—and in scrumptious good fortune—it is also about her search for her Italian grandmother’s Christmas ravioli. She starts out, “You’re not supposed to make Christmas ravioli alone, really. It’s too hard. It takes hours of work. Far better you should have people at your side, probably women of your family—daughters, mothers, and sisters helping you, nagging you, and bumping into you in the kitchen… But this cold and damp Christmas Day, I am making the ravioli by myself.” And make it she does. Find out why Laura Schenone decided it was imperative to detangle the confusing threads of her mixing-pot family, unite with cousins and aunties she’d never met, and travel across oceans in search of a visceral, vital connection to her deceased grandmother—through ravioli. And discover how she figured out that cream cheese was not, God forbid, called for in the original Italian recipe! Laura Schenone is the 2004 winner of the James Beard Foundation Book Award for Food and Reference Writing for her first book, A History of American Women Told through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances. You can find out more about both books at: http://www.lauraschenone.com/books.html. The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken is available through your local library. If you are interested in buying the book, check out the area’s local used book stores or visit Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a discount. Please join us for dessert and discussion of The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family, Monday, January 2 from 7-8:30 p.m. We’ll also discuss future book selections and potluck possibilities for future gatherings. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about the Good Food Book Club. For more information about the Good Food Book Club, check out the outreach section of the Co-op website at www.moscowfood.coop.
Rachel is contemplating a new Christmas tradition: handmade ravioli. But bring on the helpers…she’s not gonna do it alone! November 2011  The Town That Food Saved: Do We Find Vitality in Local Food?
By Rachel Caudill, Good Food Book Club Volunteer Coordinator Come take a peek at the town that’s been dubbed, “The Silicon Valley of local food.” Join us in reading the November Co-op Good Food Book Club selection, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food by Ben Hewitt. The Book Club will meet Sunday, November 27 from 7:00-8:30 at a member’s private residence to discuss The Town That Food Saved and share a tasty dessert provided by the Co-op. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for more information and directions. Like too many small towns across the United States, the little Vermont town of Hardwick (population 3,200) was dying. Once a bustling center that had relied on a now-defunct regional industry, Hardwick’s economy flailed as its residents found themselves commuting further and further away to find work. But in Hardwick, something happened. Something big. A group of visionary young “agripreneurs” hit the scene with prophetic ideas about how to use local food systems to catapult society off our dependence on large-scale agribusiness—all while striving to make food systems sustainable. Author and long-time Vermonter Ben Hewitt nosed around Hardwick—like a wild boar snuffling for truffles—intent on finding the delicacies buried beneath the dirt. And find them he does. His survey locates not only the agripreneurs but also the small-scale farmers and artisanal food producers who’ve tended their local wares for decades. The story he unearths marks a model system that other small towns across America can use and adopt in creating their own local and sustainable culinary delights and thriving food systems. Come find out why The School Library Journal says that, “The literary tone and humor make this book more accessible than some of the seminal works by Bill McKibben and Michael Pollan.” Ben says he was “was born and raised in northern Vermont, where he currently runs a small-scale, diversified hill farm with his family. He lives with his wife and two sons in a self-built home that is powered by a windmill and solar photovoltaic panels. To help offset his renewable energy footprint, Ben drives a really big truck.” The Town That Food Saved is Ben’s first book (Rodale 2010). And Rodale has just released his second: Making Supper Safe: One Man’s Quest to Learn the Truth About Food Safety (2011). Find out more at: http://benhewitt.net/about/excerpt-from-the-town-that-food-saved/ The Town That Food Saved is available through your local library. If you are interested in buying the book, check out the areas local used book stores or visit Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a discount. Please join us for dessert and discussion of The Town That Food Saved, Sunday, November 27 from 7:00-8:30 pm. We’ll also discuss future book selections and potluck possibilities for future gatherings. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about the Good Food Book Club. Rachel is really enjoying her new role coordinating the Good Food Book Club. If you know the story about how Brer Rabbit cried out, “Please don’t throw me in that briar patch!” then you’ll have some idea of just how much. October 2011  Will You Grow a $64 Tomato?
by Rachel Caudill, Good Food Book Club volunteer coordinator “There’s a fine line between gardening and madness.” ~ Cliff Clavin in Cheers So launches the wonderful memoir and October Good Food Book Club selection, The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured and Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden by William Alexander. The Book Club will meet Sunday, October 30 from 7:00-8:30 at a member’s private residence to discuss The $64 Tomato and share a tasty dessert. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for more information and directions. And launch it does…right into a rollicking and hilarious jaunt across one man’s pursuit of the perfect kitchen garden. Straightaway, Alexander relates his dismay upon discovering that his two teenage children see his gardening zeal, as shall we say, unusual. He asks his son if they have a “normal family.” To which the son rolls his eyes in exasperation, saying Dad, “…you just came in from the garden. In freakin’ December.” With a couple of acres of land, Alexander has the mixed-blessing joy of space. Along with the vegetable and herb garden, he plants a small orchard, and brings in “Big Machinery.” All while fending off hoards of deer (somewhat successful), reclaiming a nearly derelict home fondly referred to as The Big Brown House (successful-ish), and attempting to live out his values and use all organic growing protocols (not so successful; there are apples involved after all). And he cooks. Oh boy, does he cook. Even his teenagers agree on that. If you yearn for armchair gardening at its best, or for inspiring story-telling that’ll get you into the dirt, this book will launch you into your waiting garden. Or, perhaps, into your kitchen with Alexander’s garden-inspired recipes. Alexander, has been gardening and small-scale farming for over twenty five years, and has published related pieces in the New York Times op-ed page. He lives with his wife and their two children in New York’s Hudson Valley. You can find out more at: www.64dollartomato.com. The $64 Tomato is available through your local library. If you are interested in buying the book, check out the areas local used book stores or visit Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a discount. Please join us for dessert and discussion of The $64 Tomato, Sunday, October 30 from 7:00-8:30 pm. We’ll also discuss future book selections and potluck possibilities for future gatherings. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about the Good Food Book Club. For more information about the Good Food Book Club, check out the outreach section of the MFC website at www.moscowfood.coop. Rachel is very pleased to be the new Good Food Book Club coordinator, and she’s thrilled that at this very moment it is (hallelujah!) raining for the first time all summer. Right into her new kitchen garden… July 2011 A Tough New Planet
by Colette DePhelps, Good Food Book Club volunteer coordinator 
In his most recent book, Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet, author and activist, Bill McKibben, begins by saying global warming is our reality and that we have changed planet Earth in such fundamental ways it deserves a new name – hence Eaarth. The Good Food Book Club will meet Sunday, July 24 from 7:00-8:30 pm at a member’s private residence to discuss Eaarth and share a tasty dessert. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for more information and directions. Debated for so long, and in some sectors, even denied, global warming is a reality. We have increased global temperatures by about a degree Celsius. The results are multifold…we all know about the ice caps melting and the plight of the polar bear…but how many of us now that global rainfall is increasing 1.5 percent a decade or that entire glaciers are now gone and the tropics are expanding…pushing the dry subtropics ahead of them? How many of us are thinking about the dramatic impacts this is having upon millions of people across the planet, many of whom did the least in contributing to global climate change? It is this new reality that McKibben describes in his book. And his call is one of engagement. Local engagement, global connectivity and actions that will build “the kind of communities and economies that can withstand what’s coming.” To find out more about McKibben and his work with 350.org (the global grassroots organization he founded to “force dramatic action” around climate change), visit www.billmckibben.com and www. 350.org. Eaarth is available through your local library. If you are interested in buying the book, check out the area’s local used book stores or visit Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a discount. Please join us for dessert and discussion of Eaarth, Sunday, July 24 from 7:00-8:30 pm. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about the Good Food Book Club. At the time of writing this article, Colette is enjoying summer and time off with her two kids.
June 2011 Finding and Focusing on Abundance
by Colette DePhelps, volunteer Good Food Book Club coordinator “The first rule of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging.”
--Molly Ivins
 The sub-title of Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front by Sharon Astyk is probably the best descriptor of the Good Food Book Club’s read for June. It describes the book as “One woman’s solutions to finding abundance for your family while coming to terms with peak oil, climate change and hard times.” The Book Club will meet Sunday, June 26 from 7 - 8:30 p.m. at a member’s private residence to discuss Depletion and Abundance and share a tasty dessert. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for more information and directions. It seems intuitive that when one (either an individual or society) realizes things aren’t going the way they would like them to, that its time to do something different, to stop digging and to begin thinking about and taking steps to get out of our current situation into one that is better. In terms of peak oil (the time when the global production of oil will reach its maximum rate, after which production will gradually decline) and climate change, the majority of our society and its leaders continue to both dig and simultaneously stick their heads in the sand. But change is hard, perhaps because it is often precipitated by facing a truth, or number of truths, that are difficult to swallow. In Depletion and Abundance, Astyk is frank about the truths we currently face, one of those being that our government is not going to lead us out of our current crises, and that we are going to have to lead our government. We are also going to have to make real changes in our lives, and learn to live more simply, using much less energy. Astyk lays out her vision for how we can do this: how, in making changes, we might not feel deprived or overcome by loss, but might instead feel the abundance that comes from living more sustainably, in closer connection to the natural world, our neighbors and, indeed, our global human community. Astyk, a former academic and farmer, raises livestock and vegetables with her husband and four children in upstate New York. She writes about food, climate change and peak oil. Her blog can be found at www.sharonastyk.com. Depletion and Abundance is available through your local library. If you are interested in buying the book, check out the area’s local used book stores or visit BookPeople of Moscow where Good Food Book Club members receive a discount. Please join us for dessert and discussion of Depletion and Abundance, Sunday, June 26 from 7 - 8:30 p.m. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about the Good Food Book Club. The Good Food Book Club is a project of Community Food Works (CFW). For more information about CFW, check out their Web site at www.communityfoodworks.org.
At the time of writing this article, Colette is loving the blue sky, sunshine, and spring flowers, and is wondering how plants can grow inches in a day… Now that is abundance!
May 2011 Pushing the Edge of Hope
By Colette DePhelps, Good Food Book Club volunteer coordinator 
“Hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like the roads across the earth. For actually there were not roads to begin with, but when many people pass one way a road is made.” Lu Shun, 1921. This opening quote, from Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé and Anne Lappé, touches what is at the heart of community and social change…our collective power create vibrant, just and abundant lives for ourselves and our world neighbors; our ability to push the edge of hope. Hope’s Edge is the Good Food Book Club’s read for May. The Book Club will meet Sunday, May 22 from 7:00-8:30 at a member’s private residence for dessert and discussion. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for more information and directions. In her late 20’s, Frances Moore Lappé dropped out of graduate school to research the question “Why hunger in a world of plenty?” From this work, she wrote Diet for a Small Planet, which debunked the myth that scarcity is the cause of world hunger and increased production is necessary to feed the world’s growing population. Thirty years later, Frances and her daughter, Anne Lappé, embark on a global journey to answer another, even more puzzling question, “Why have we, as societies, created that which as individuals we abhor?” Hope’s Edge documents their search for answers. What they discovered are “worlds beneath the radar of the global media” where people are choosing to reject corporate globalization and, instead, are exercising their personal and collective power growing and distributing food on a local level…creating real food security. The Lappés present a framework for freeing ourselves some of the most prevailing myths of our time and for using our own creativity to overcome our fears and become the change we want to see in the world. Hope’s Edge is available through your local library. If you are interested in buying the book, check out the areas local used book stores or visit Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a 20% discount. Please join us for dessert and discussion of Hope’s Edge, Sunday, May 22 from 7:00-8:30 pm. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about the Good Food Book Club. The Good Food Book Club is a project of Community Food Works (CFW). For more information about CFW, check out the website at www.communityfoodworks.org. At the time of writing this article, Colette is excited about the starts in her greenhouse, the seeds waiting to be planted, the green grass and budding trees, the sunshine and blue sky…
April 2011 Exposing the Hundred-Year Lie
By Colette DePhelps, Good Food Book Club Coordinator 
In his daring expose, The Hundred-Year Lie: How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals that are Destroying Your Health, journalist Randall Fitzgerald provides ample and convincing evidence that the man-made chemicals we are exposed to on a day-to-day basis are polluting our environment and destroying our health. He also says we can do something about it. The Hundred-Year Lie is the Good Food Book Club’s April read. The Book Club will meet to discuss this excellent book Sunday, April 17 from 7-8:30 pm at a member’s private residence. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
to RSVP and for directions. The pharmaceutical, chemical and processed food industry, and even US government agencies mandated to protect public health, insist that the thousands of man-made chemicals that have been released into our environment over the course of the last century cause minimal negative health effects, or are even benign. Personal experience, intuition and Fitzgerald’s investigative research tell us differently. As health costs and concerns skyrocket, Fitzgerald’s suggestions for ways we can reverse this tide of chemical contamination and live healthier lives are a welcome alternative to accepting and, even though unintended, perpetuating the contamination of our bodies and the world around us. In the words of the Boston Herald, The Hundred-Year Lie is “A frightening wake-up call . . . if Fast Food Nation made you consider some serious lifestyle changes, The Hundred-Year Lie will inspire you to go ten steps farther.” For 20 years, Randall Fitzgerald was a Reader’s Digest contributing editor and researched, wrote and edited articles on science and medicine for the magazine. He has also written investigative articles for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. The Hundred-Year Lie is available at BookPeople of Moscow (with a 20% book club discount) and at your local library. If you don’t make it through all of the book, don’t be deterred –you’ll still enjoy the Book Club discussion! So, please join us for discussion and dessert on Sunday, April 17 from 7-8:30 pm. RSVP and get directions at
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
. At the time of writing this article, Colette is spending spring break in Seattle with her two kids, going to numerous museums, yoga classes, the zoo and, happily, soaking up a little sunshine between the cloud bursts.
March 2011 Small is Possible
By Colette DePhelps, Good Food Book Club volunteer coordinator 
March is a good month for inspiration, and that is what you will experience reading Lyle Estill’s Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy. Small is Possible, filled with real life stories about a single county’s success in creating “hometown security”, is the Good Food Book Club’s pick for March. The Book Club will meet Monday, March 28 from 7:00-8:30 at a member’s private residence for dessert and discussion. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for directions. The place is Chatham County, North Carolina. The people are residents who are finding practical solutions to actual problems. The stories are about becoming less dependent upon the global economy; about creating community owned and operated businesses that provide local fuel, food, and housing. They are about community coherence and community financing. And the stories are continually unfolding. If you are interested in community self-reliance, sustainability, local food, and small business you will love this book! Check for a copy of Small is Possible at your local library. If you are interested in buying Small is Possible (a great gift idea!) it is available at Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a 20% discount. Please join us for dessert and discussion of Small is Beautiful, Monday, March 28 from 7:00-8:30 pm. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about the Good Food Book Club. The Good Food Book Club is a project of Community Food Works (CFW). For more information about CFW, check out the Co-op’s February 2011 newsletter. At the time of writing this article, Colette is thinking of her snowdrops, recently emerged from dark, cold soil, now covered with a couple inches of wet snow...a testament to perseverance and confidence that winter will give way to spring. February 2011 What's on Your Menu for the Future?
By Colette DePhelps, Good Food Book Club volunteer coordinator 
In February, the Good Food Book Club will facilitate the NW Earth Institute's "Menu for the Future" discussion course. This course is designed to promote dialogue, not consensus, about our current food system and the role we each play as eaters in the global food marketplace. Meetings will be Sunday evenings, February 6, February 20 and March 6, from 5:00-7:30. The Menu for the Future curriculum is comprised of six sessions. Each session includes readings by prominent authors in the sustainable food and agriculture movement, accompanying questions, a list of suggested actions and further readings and resources. The Good Food Book Club will meet every other week, covering two sessions of the material at each meeting (this is about 30 pages of reading per meeting). Each meeting will be at a Book Club member's private residence and will include excellent discussions and a potluck dinner. Space is limited to 12, so if you would like to participate in this course, email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
ASAP. You can also email requesting to be put on a waiting list for a later offering of "Menu for the Future." The UI Sustainability Center and the Co-op will provide the course books (on loan & free of charge). If you are interested in buying a copy of Menu for the Future it is available at Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a 20% discount. You can also read about Menu for the Future and order the discussion course book direct from the Northwest Earth Institute at www.nwei.org. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting locations and directions and/or to receive email reminders about the Good Food Book Club. January 2010 Conservation and Stewardship: The Legacy of Leopold
By Colette DePhelps, Good Food Book Club volunteer coordinator “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot,” begins Aldo Leopold in his forward to A Sand County Almanac. Considered a literary classic and a landmark in American conservation literature, A Sand County Almanac is the Good Food Book Club’s read for January. Discussion of the book will take place Monday, January 24 from 7-8:30 pm at a Book Club member’s private residence in Moscow. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for address and directions. Perhaps best known for its concluding chapter “The Land Ethic,” Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac has been as influential in the development of the conservation and environmental movements as Thoreau’s Walden. Like Thoreau, Leopold questions whether achieving a “still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free.” Leopold advocated conservation, stewardship and restoration of disturbed ecosystems. Indeed, by the 1930s, Leopold believed that all the wilderness that could be saved had been saved and that humanity’s great task now lies in restoration. Beautifully written, this classic work is sure to be an inspiration for living more mindfully and in deeper relation to the natural world around you. The Good Food Book Club will meet Monday evening, January 24 from 7-8:30 pm. In addition to discussing A Sand County Almanac, we will distribute the book of readings for February (see below for more details). A Sand County Almanac is available through your local library, at used bookstores and at Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a 20% discount. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about book club meetings. In February, the Good Food Book Club will start the NW Earth Institute's "Menu for the Future" discussion course. We will meet every other week (February 6, February 20 and March 6) covering two weeks of the material at each meeting (this is about 30 pages of reading per meeting). Meetings will be Sunday evenings from 5:00-7:30 and will include a potluck dinner. Space is limited to 12, so if you would like to participate in this course, email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
ASAP. You can also email requesting to be put on a waiting list for a later offering of "Menu for the Future." The UI Sustainability Center and the Co-op will provide the course books (on loan & free of charge). At the time of writing this article, Colette is appreciating living in a place where she can see both the sunrise and the sunset.
December 2010 Revisiting Walden
By Colette DePhelps, Good Food Book Club volunteer coordinator “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” Henry David Thoreau
Most, if not all of us, are familiar with Henry David Thoreau and have heard or read excerpts and quotes from what is possibly his most famous work, Walden. This month, when many of us are delving into our own holiday traditions, the Good Food Book Club will be participating in what might be considered an American tradition…reading Walden. Discussion of the book will take place Sunday, December 12 from 2:30-4:30 pm at a Book Club member’s private residence in Moscow. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for address and directions.
Originally published in 1854, Walden chronicles two years Thoreau spent living in a cabin built on land owned by his friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau begins by saying “When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months…” Rather than living in the isolated wilderness, Thoreau’s cabin was just about two miles from his family home. Here, he withdrew in order to gain a more objective understanding of society and did not live as a hermit. During his “Walden years,” Thoreau lived simply, practiced self-sufficiency and regular entertained visitors and went to the village to hear the news. He read, observed, worked, reflected and wrote.
Walden is a wonderfully written account of Thoreau’s thoughts of and experiences with people and place in chapters such as “Visitors,” “The Village,” and “Baker Farm” and with simplicity and self-sufficiency in “The Bean-Field” and “The Ponds.” Other chapters are more philosophical such as “Higher Laws” where his discusses whether hunting and eating animals is good. Whether you are new to Walden, or are re-reading an old friend, we hope you will join in our December book club discussion.
Since December is a busy month with many holiday activities and travel, the Good Food Book Club meeting will meet earlier in the month than usual… Sunday, December 12 from 2:30-4:30 pm. If you haven’t made it all the way through the book by the time we meet, please come anyway! We will have a great discussion and enjoy some holiday treats. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions and/or to receive email reminders about book club meetings.
The complete text of Walden is available, free, on-line at www.walden.org. If you prefer paper, Walden (and other Good Food Book Club titles) is available through your local library, at used bookstores and at Book People of Moscow where Book Club members receive a 20% discount.
What’s coming up… in January we will be reading A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. Check out the full Book Club Calendar on the Moscow Food Co-op’s website www.moscowfood.coop. At the time of writing this article, Colette is thinking the weather is becoming quite conducive to tea, books and quiet evenings reading (after the kids go to bed, of course!).
November 2010
Radical Homemakers
By Colette DePhelps, Good Food Book Club volunteer coordinator  In her groundbreaking book, Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, author and rancher Shannon Hayes documents and advances what she calls the “Radical Homemaker movement”--men and women who are creating a life-serving economy by making family, community, social justice and planetary health the governing principles of their lives. Discussion of the book will take place Monday, September 20 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at a Book Club member’s private residence in Moscow. Email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for address and directions.
Radical Homemakers begins with an in-depth look at the history of domesticity and feminism and a critique of current cultural and economic systems. Here, Hayes aims to show how radical homemaking can both honor the values of feminism and build “a life-serving, socially just and ecologically sustainable economy.” Her approach, while thorough, is in no way dry. The first half of the book is a well-written and fascinating account of human homemaking and how and why it’s changed over the last several thousand years. The second half discusses the overarching themes and lessons that emerged as Hayes interviewed and read letters from dozens of radical homemakers across America. From the development of life-skills to patterns of decision making, we learn just how similar and how varied individuals’ and couples’ approaches to radical homemaking are. Through this discussion, and the appendix of in-depth stories of people who participated in her research, Hayes shows that becoming a radical homemaker is both doable and desirable. Come share your stories of or aspirations for radical homemaking at the September Good Food Book Club meeting: Monday, September 20 7:00-8:30 pm. Remember to email
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
for the meeting location and directions. Also, check out the 2010-2011 Book Club Calendar for upcoming book club titles. To receive email reminders about book club meetings, email Colette at
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
. Radical Homemakers and other Good Food Book Club titles are available through your local library and at Book People of Moscow, where Book Club members receive a 20% discount. At the time of this writing, Colette is preparing for one last trip to big water before summer starts to slide into fall and school begins.
|
