Edna Lewis and a Tradition Preserved

“As a child in Virginia, I thought all food tasted delicious. After growing up, I didn’t think food tasted the same, so it has been my lifelong effort to try and recapture those good flavors of the past.” — Edna Lewis

Edna Lewis (1916-2006) had a remarkable career as a chef and writer of several best-selling cookbooks. Perhaps her most lasting contribution was her lifelong celebration of traditional southern cooking. She kept the tradition alive, and along the way inspired the next generation of cooks to make fresh magic from the local foods of the south.

As many of you know, the Land Library has a 3,000 volume Kids Nature Library in Waterton Canyon, southwest of metro-Denver. One of our most treasured books at the Kids Library is Robbin Gourley’s beautifully illustrated picture book, Bring Me Some Apples and I’ll Make You a Pie: A Story About Edna Lewis.

Edna was born on a small farm in Freetown, Virginia — a farm that had been granted to Edna’s grandfather, a freed slave. Robbin Gourley’s lyrical tale (and her lush and vibrant watercolors) follows Edna and her family throughout the growing season. Gathered fruits, vegetables, and nuts quickly make their way to the family’s table, with the surplus canned for the winter ahead. Every family member is involved, but it’s Edna who shows an early genius for making fun recipes from the simple foods at hand. The New York Times had this to say about Edna Lewis’ upbringing: Growing, gathering and preparing food was more than just sustenance for the family; it was a form of entertainment. Without fancy cooking equipment, the family improvised — measuring baking powder on coins and cooking everything over wood.

It was Robbin Gourley’s wonderful kids book that inspired us to learn more about Edna Lewis, and to slowly gather her cookbooks for the Land Library. After all, if she could give so much to preserving a precious regional tradition, we wanted to reciprocate a tiny bit by keeping her work alive on our shelves!

Somewhere along the way, we came across this inspiring documentary, Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie: Keeping Traditions Alive, written, produced, and directed by Bailey Barash. There’s much more to Edna Lewis’ life than you might imagine. This is a wonderful film!

In 1995, Edna Lewis was awarded the first ever James Beard Living Legend Award, for her creative years in the kitchen, and for books such as these:

In Pursuit of Flavor, and The Taste of Country Cooking, of which, Craig Claiborne wrote that it “may well be the most entertaining regional cookbook in America“.

Food traditions have long been a happy obsession at the Land Library. Here’s two of our favorites volumes:

High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey From Africa to America by Jessica B. Harris, and The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook, edited by Sara Roahen and John T. Edge.

Edna Lewis was the co-founder of the Society for the Revival and Preservation of Southern Food, a precursor to the Southern Foodways Alliance. For more on their ongoing work be sure to visit their website!

And for more on the great topic of food traditions, here are a few of our earlier posts!

–Recalling Voices, Tastes, and Traditions (on the great variety of ethic kitchens)

–From the Bronx Seedless Grape to the Paiute Tepary Bean: The Food Nations of North America (featuring one of the best books we know!)

–The Taste of Place (Rowan Jacobsen’s American Terroir, and more)

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Transforming Asphalt

“Think of the outdoors as an instructional toolbox. In any climate, during any season…nature provides multiple venues and options for enhancing, enriching, and adding a much-needed change of pace and place to the instructional routine. Like a toolbox, the outdoors is readily accessible — just open the classroom door and step outside!” — from Moving the Classroom Outdoors

Educator Herbert Broda set out to find the most innovative outdoor learning programs across the country. He visited dozens of schools and nature centers, gathering the very best examples of “schoolyard-enhanced” learning in action. His book, Moving the Classroom Outdoors, shares a variety of approaches, including school gardens, outdoor classrooms, nature clubs, and schoolyard art projects.

Another wonderful resource is Taking Inquiry Outdoors: Reading, Writing, and Science Beyond the Classroom Wall (also pictured above), edited by Barbara Bourne. This anthology features educators who have used the natural world to encourage kids to sharpen their skills of reading, investigation, research, writing, and all the different ways of sharing what they have discovered in the field.

Here’s two books we have featured in earlier posts: Herbert Broda’s first book, Schoolyard Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool, K-8, and Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation by Sharon Gamson Danks.

Speaking of schoolyard transformation, it’s hard to beat the story of what happened at Berkely, California’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School! Here’s a 4-minute clip that will make you wonder why this total learning experience isn’t available for every school kid:

The story of Alice Waters and the kids of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School is nicely told in Alice’s The Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea (pictured below), and for nuts & bolts ideas and inspiration, be sure to take a look at How to Grow a School Garden: The Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers by Arden Bucklin-Sporer & Rachel Kathleen Pringle (also the subject of an earlier Land Library post, A Gentle Rebellion, Where Some Dirt will Fly).

For more on the Edible Schoolyard Project, be sure to visit their website!

And for related book ideas, you may want to link-back to a few earlier Land Library posts:

– Child’s Play, Bush Houses & More

– The Green Hour

– To Make the World My Own

– The Insect Man

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A More Abundant Life

“We’re doing more than just growing vegetables. We are creating biodiversity and protecting water, as much as our small farm can. And I just enjoy being able to take it to the market. I enjoy interacting with people who eat it, appreciate it, and enjoy it. I meet a lot of neat people there, doing a lot of neat things. It’s kind of inspiring. You get tired, oh gosh! But all these other people who are doing these amazing things. And I think, I could do more!” — Melissa Evard, farmer and vendor at Bloomington’s Farmers Market

For the past many weeks, countless farmers markets have provided the freshest produce possible to urban dwellers across the country. Tony Hiss, author of The Experience of Place, has called the local farmers market movement “one of the most creative and useful additions to American city life since parks or street lights.”

If you’ve enjoyed fresh sweet corn and just-ripe peaches this summer, you’ll know all about the true benefits of this growing movement. You also might enjoy The Farmers’ Market Book: Growing Food and Community by Jennifer Meta Robinson and J.A. Hartenfeld. This book tells the story of harvest markets everywhere by focusing on just one — the Farmers Market of Bloomington, Indiana. Here is a vibrant place where urban and rural lives intermingle. The Farmer’s Market Book artfully gathers both the stories and colorful images at this intersection of land, food, and community.

Also pictured above: There’s no more classic story of a treasured community institution than Seattle’s Pike Place Public Market. Established in 1907, Pike Place is the nation’s oldest continuously operating farmers market in the country. The persistence of the market (against all odds) is wonderfully told in Soul of the City: The Pike Place Public Market by Alice Shorett and Murray Morgan. We especially loved the many historic black & white photographs included in this book — the sheer energy of the market quickly jumps across the years, reminding us how critical certain public spaces are to the vitality of our communities.

Vitality, and all the other intangibles markets offer, abound in these two volumes from our Waterton Canyon Kids Nature Library:

Two beautifully illustrated books on markets across the globe, by Ted Lewin: Market!, and How Much? Visiting Markets Around the World.

Providing healthy local food is central to two other indispensable volumes on the Land Library’s shelves:

Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in a Land of Plenty by Mark Winne (the subject of an earlier post, and last month’s Land Library Book Club selection!), and Agricultural Urbanism: Handbook for Building Sustainable Food Systems in 21st Century Cities, edited by Janine de la Salle & Mark Holland.

To borrow a phrase Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke in the depths of the Great Depression, may every city thrive, and enjoy a “more abundant life”!

And here’s just a few of our favorite city posts over the past few years:

–The City Alive, on the great wandering soul of New York City — Joseph Mitchell. His favorite market? The Fulton Fish Market!

–The City: Humanity’s Greatest Invention?

–Work, Enjoy, Together Now — more on the new food movement!

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Bark Beetles & Blue Fungus

Last week we wrote about two new books on the bark beetle epidemic that has swept across North America. Here’s an excellent film clip from the folks at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science!

Science Bites: Blue Fungus, Red Forests from DMNS on Vimeo.

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