Po(sey) Sessions

Gullah culture and cuisine is about the intersection of folk stories and foodways and the exploration of these people and their cuisine both through and beyond their myths. The Sea Islands off the coast of many southern states hold a culture, linguistics, and history all their own. Each land has grains of stories that are sunk deep into the ground, the kind of stories that build a person. Enslaved people became disconnected with their homeland, they were forced to find opportunities to thrive in their new environment. These outer islands are relatively isolated and provide the possibility of a preserved culture. But how do we respect the culture, oral tradition, and history of these people without making them wear the dress of the noble savage. The gullah people have been studied and examined but remain relatively unknown in contemporary culture. Are they unimportant or overlooked? The distinctions between the two can be hard to determine. What makes food tradition...

The Bon Appetite podcast is one of the ways that I get exposed to new types of food and chefs. One thing that the podcast does really well is keep the level of information extremely introductory. This must be hard than it seems, because over time the podcast can't increase the entry point of understanding. At any moment someone could be listening to the podcast for the first time and they show does not want the listener to feel disadvantaged. About a year ago, I listened to a podcast with author Stephanie Danler. Interestingly enough I didn't really like her, but aspects of her interview stuck with me through my continued research with food. I think we see the same phenomenon in cooking shows and especially cooking travel shows. And I talked about this nagging thought when I discussed my experience dining at Momofuku. Stephanie talks about how restaurant service workers are looking for the extreme aspects of life. So many people interested in food are looking for the e...

Only a few days ago Netflix aired a new show called Nailed It! IT IS HILARIOUS. One of the things that is refreshing about the show is the realization that perfection is always going to be off the table. Humans and moms seem to struggle with this a lot. Originally when Julia Child began to teach Americans about French cuisine, it was her humanity that help transport her into an icon. Television stars walk the balance between reality and perfection. Often the more realistic the presentation, the more simplistic the steps or ingredients. Many Americans strongly believe they can't cook or don't have time cook. Much of the advertising world is trying to confirm this. One of the issues I have always had with cool looking deserts is that they might not always taste good. This show reveals the man behind the curtain on the process of dessert construction while showing the reality of what it looks like when a regular person attempts to make these spectacular items.

Southern Utah has been home to different native groups for thousands of years. The first people here used spears to hunt big game, like bison and wooly mammoth. They supplemented their diet with smaller animals and by gathering fruits, nuts, and roots.  After the time of the Paleoindians, as the climate began to change, various tribes called the landscape of Southern Utah home. Anasazi, Fremont, Southern Paiute, Hopi, and Navajo people have wandered the Great Basin, Colorado Plateau, and Canyonlands. As the large game became more scarce, native groups focused on smaller animals like deer, mountain sheep, rabbits, and prairie dog. All native groups in Utah also began to utilize some form of agriculture.  Although the Anasazi, Fremont, and Southern Paiute had different lifestyles, many of the food items they relied on were the same. All three groups used the three sisters method of agriculture. They gathered amaranth, beeweed, sunflower seeds and roots, cactus fruits and ...

What does studying food tell us about life? It can unlock insights into what it means to be human and what it means to be American. It can connect us with our regional or ethnic identity. Even if we do not connect with the regionality of our food specifically we still eat daily have a series of thoughts about the experience. It can be calorie counting or portion control, it can be pleasure seeking or following that particular craving. It can be merely an interaction of fuel. Self -  The problem with the self identification of an American through food is that so much of American culture has been borrowed from other cultures. Adaptation and diversity have been key ideals to the success of individuals in this nation and the shifts in various cuisines throughout the geographical borders off the United States. There are some food that are deeply and inherently American, but they are likely less common than you might think. The way that any individual interacts with food is extremely...

The Civil War’s Enduring Influence on the Gullah People The end of the Civil War marks the beginning of isolation for the freedmen of the Sea Islands. The individuals emancipated from the coastal islands of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida are now called Gullah. During Reconstruction those on the Sea Islands rarely saw visitors imposed on their isolated space. Many of the residents would travel to the mainland to take care of various aspects of business, but few outsiders came to visit them. The survival of Gullah culture and language is fully dependent on the Civil War. It is a mistake to think of slavery as having a single origin point or homogenous experience from one slave to the next. Experiences of slaves on the Sea Islands, and throughout South Carolina, significantly differed from other slave experiences in the South. Gullah culture emerged from the interactions between Africans, African Americans, Native Americans, and Europeans combining different cultures, tradit...

February is a hard month for me. This year was better than most. I finished five books and I am happy with that. I spent a lot of time reading through Hippie Food because it had so much connection with the other research I have done in the past. The book was a really enjoyable read for me and opened me up to a lot of new information and directions for future research. I was hoping to be able to do a school project related to the book or research I have done on communal living, but so far there hasn't been a good fit. I have started some research on the plants used for food by the Southern Paiutes in Southern Utah but it is a slow process. I hope to explore more on this subject soon. Finished: 7. Walden Two 8. The Punch Escrow 9. Hippie Food 10. Fish in a Tree 11. Granny Ting Ting Currently reading: Appetite for Change Native American Food Plants Strangers in Their Own Land Home to start soon: Kiss the Ground Hillbilly Elegy  Binti