Po(sey) Sessions

This is me and my friend Sara: She is a farmer:  We live in Cedar City, Utah and Sara has taught me there is a very short growing season here. But Sara loves her farm. She started her Community Supported Agriculture farm when she was 13! For the past four years, I have had the opportunity to attend a farm to fork dinner at a local CSA. For myself and Mr. X these experiences have been transformative, especially in progressing into new chapters of food exploration. Last summer I was able to document some of the experience beyond the plate and gain insight into the mind of the chef and farmer, Sara Patterson. Sara is passionate about local ingredients and quality products. She started farming at a young age and carries her passion like a banner. She eagerly connects with local farmers and growers to find the best and most interesting ingredients. Watching Sara shop for the farm dinner is like watching an ehtnobotanist in action, and she doesn't even know it. She sh...

“Jack Goody has likened eating alone to defecating in public (1982:306) because of the absence of the social in meeting essentially biological needs.” Eugene Cooper ( 1986 ) Chinese Table Manners: You Are How You Eat. Human Organization: Summer 1986, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 179-184. For those of us that have ever been single, these words add a whole new level of shame to the practice is eating a microwave dinner standing at the kitchen counter. There is solace in those moments, at times. But equal amount of shame. Maybe the first three times it is liberating, and the next three hundred is confirmation of body shame because we as humans allow ourselves to feel hunger. In American culture, consumption of food continues to be a sinful act. Food for humans ends up having so many functions. It is fuel, it is a way to socialized, it is a way to create an identity, and it is a tool to identify others. Eating carries with it a large amount of social and cultural significance which...

This is what ethnobotanists do: We dream of eating our way through one ripened, locally abundant morsel after another. - Gary Nabhan Ethnobotany is the relationship between plants and people, primarily for food and medicine. This field of study is relatively new to me, but as soon as I stumbled upon it I felt like it could be a field that would hold my interest. Over the past two years I have been expanding into the study of food. I have been reading about it in a historical, social, and historical context. One of the fascinating things about food is the way that it can be invisible in our lives. The plate of the ethnobotanist should be filled with local foods. I, like Gary Nabhan, live in a desert. I believe, perhaps mistakenly, that locally sourced ingredients would not provide me with the abundance of food I am used to. Though I am well acquainted with the local farms in the area, I am just beginning to understand some of the foraging opportunities in the area. But...

My fourth semester back at university has ended. It has been the most successful school term of my life! My classes were mostly food focused and that did help me stay motivated. April was a successful reading month for me, even though I continue to be well behind my reading goal for the year. It may have been a pipe dream in the first place. BUT... I did finish SIX books this month and I do consider that an enormous achievement. 14. Liar and Spy 15. 15. The Omnivore's Dilemma 16. 365 Journal Writing Prompts 17. Stars So Sweet 18. Edible 19. The Circle The last two I finished since my most recent update and one was AMAZING and the other was really super pretty bad. One was about eating bugs and the other was about the evils of social media and the control of the internet. Considering my interest in dystopia, they both strike different parts of interest for me. The Circle was one of the worst books I have ever read, yet I found it still to be intriguing. It played very ...

Though my reading numbers haven't drastically increased, I am feeling particularly productive when it comes to reading. Partly it is knowing that the semester is ending soon and I will have lots of space and time to read whatever my heart desires. This semester has been very interesting and engaging for me. The entire semester who focused around food. The quantity of the things I was able to learn was astonishing, but I wasn't able to work on my own food related interests and projects because I had so much reading to do for my classes. I did finish a few books over the past week and that always motivates me. 15. The Omnivore's Dilemma 16. 365 Journal Writing Prompts 17. Stars So Sweet Currently Reading: Edible Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo Save Me a Seat The Fireman Hope to Read Soon: The Unsettling of America The Vegetarian Mycophilia The Circle I have not picked up very many of the books I have hoped to read soon or have been in the middle of for a...

I have been thinking a lot about my experience as a blogger lately. Having a blog got me through some dark and lonely times. It is hard to remember the times before social media. The Sunday Salon was one of my favorite parts of the blogging ritual. I realize now that much of the community no longer blogs or no long participates. But I decided to write a salon post this week as homage to the memory of my active blogging days. On Sundays I would get up and leisurely work on my Salon post, taking the time to ponder about the topics I had read about since the last time I posted and see if there was something that I could really tease out and discuss. This week I am preparing for finals and they are weighing heavily on my mind. I find it interesting though not surprising how all consuming university can be. Especially the amount of interest and focus certain topics demand, that suddenly feel less important the moment the test is taken, the paper is written, or the semester i...

It may just be futile to do these reading logs because I do a few weeks and then never stick with it. But when I look back over the past years of my blog, these reading logs are some of the most helpful posts to remind me about events in my life and books that I read. When I met Mr. X, I know I was reading Elantris. And there are other events that I know are correlated with books I was reading. I think it might be weird to remember what book I was reading and not what year it was, but that is just the way my brain works. At my bookstore we do not have computerized inventory system. I keep most of the books and authors in my head. I also keep a lot of the customers' names in my head. Both first and last because we have a trade system that is filed by last name. We have not computerized our trade credit either, to the amazement of most. (And our cash drawer has a little bell that chimes when we open it.) Often people ask me how I can keep track of everything. I am far from perfe...