Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Agreed, and thinking also now of the mention earlier made of
grapevines grown near wild herbs:  there is a lot of chemical warfare
that goes on between plants, chemicals released from roots to inhibit
the growth of competing plants, that may trigger changes in the roots,
and perhaps also eventually the shoots and fruits, of nearby plants on
the receiving end of the signals or toxins or other factors.
  

    
I recently had a great conversation with Sister Noella, also known as
the "cheese nun." Some of you may have read a profile of her in the New
Yorker several years ago or seen a documentary. She is a cloistered
nun in a Benedictine abbey who began making cheese and then got very
interested in microbiology. She ended up getting a PhD and then a
Fulbright to got France to study cheesemaking. She did her research on
the many wild fungi and other microflora that are found in cheese caves
and on cheese. She thinks these fungi impart flavor to cheeses and
contribute to unique terroirs. She hasn't done much with the results
but  it looks like it may become part of her work at the abbey so look
out for that. 

And yes, I do think that our values and sensibilities always inform
more particularistic technical knowledge and practices! France is a
culture very concerned (some would say obsessed) with tradition and
precedent and so decisions about how to make wine, where to make wine
and even how to taste the wine are wrapped around such cultural
preoccupations. In the US we are more wrapped up in ideas of innovation
and individual uniqueness. Although I would say that many of these
cultural values are in great flux right now with the globalization of
the marketplace. I look at communities of craftspeople dedicated to
taste of place across the US and France b/c really small cheesemakers
in both nations have more in common then a small cheesemaker in Vermont
and a large industrial operation in Wisconsin or California.
  

    

(A reminder: drop us a line at inkwell@well.com if you'd like to contribute
to the conversation but are not a Well member.)
  

    
In Denmark I once discussed the difference between Tuborg GRØN  and
Carlsberg HOF  "lager" beer  with one of their master brewers

many consumers cannot taste any difference and he explained it was the
"brewery taste" caused by wild yeasts in the pipes which survive any
cleaning

see also the LAMBIC beers of Belgium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic
  

    
Did anyone see this past week's New Yorker food issue? This issue
really took up many of the issues we have been talking about recently.
There is an article about new US brewers who are using wild yeasts to
make their beer. 

There is also a lovely article about a chef in China who has started a
restaurant dedicated to capturing the traditional foodways of his
region and he buys directly from hundreds and small farmers, foragers
and others. He sees himself as preserving a culinary legacy in the face
of all the pressures for modernization and industrialization in China.
I was amazed at the many similar methods he has developed to Odessa
Piper, who I profile in The Taste of Place. I really wonder if the
globalization of our food system has really truly made "the world flat"
when it comes to terroir as a type of intervention between the natural
world, artisans, and the taste of food. 
  

    
I am going out of town overnight so I am writing a bit now and will
check in again Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. As a newbie on the
Well, thank you all so much for participating with me in this
fascinating discussion!  And since we are talking about food, here is
my Thanksgiving menu in the style of the taste of place.

We are getting a turkey from down the road, from a couple who are
raising turkeys and have a cow and selling unpasteurized milk (which I
haven't tried b/c I don't really like straight milk). We have a huge
garden so we will be having brussel sprouts from the garden as well as
green mountain potatos for a potato gratin. We have some shagbark
hickory  nuts from our friend Odessa Piper which will put in our bread
stuffing using baguetts from the fabulous Ren Hed Bakery as well as
rosemary and thyme from the garden. Of course we have tons of apples so
I am making apple galettes (a free form pastry tart layed with apples
and a nut-cinnamon layer) and whipped cream from nearby Monument Dairy.
I really do feel thankful I live in a such a bountiful region!
  

    
My grandfather raised green mountain seed potatoes in the upper
peninsula of Michigan back in the 'teens and twenties.  Where can you
get seed now?  I think I remember that they are tasty but subject to
scabbing.
  

    
Another good article on terroir in the NY Times:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/travel/23explorer.html

It's about Spain's Asturias cheesemaking region. Interesting article,
but with this sad note:

"But recently, the craft of making Cabrales has suffered “because so many
young people are leaving Asturias,” said Ms. Viejo."

Sounds familiar.
  

    
I love that her name is Ms. Viejo.
  

    
I am a HUGE fan of the Green Mountain potato! Vermont was known for
breeding this variety of very popular baking potato at the turn of the
century but ultimately the russet won out in the major commercial
market because, as you say, the Green Mountain is a more delicate. Here
is a local person who sells the Green mountain potato seed over the
web: 

http://peasleesvtpotatoes.com/products.htm

I love the texture of the potato - it is flakier and more delicate
than the russet and the Green Mountain does a much better job at
absorbing flavors.  
  

    
Writer Andrew Beahrs describes wild American foods for the
Thanksgiving table, including the foods Mark Twain would have in a
fantasy meal, in today's NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/opinion/26beahrs.html?th&emc=th
  

    
The concluding line of the New York Times article, when Beahrs asks us
to consider the landscapes of our lives in relation to Thanksgiving is
very thought provoking. I hope everyone in the Well community (and
beyond) has an opportunity tomorrow to experience a Thanksgiving meal
as part of a landscape, if it be an agrarian landscape such as the
Zinfandel wine and the local turkey, or a landscape of memory as in th
the cherished family recipe for cranberry sauce, or pie, or.... 
Bon appetit! Amy

 
  

    
Thank you, Amy, for a great discussion. We're going to turn our
spotlight to a new conversation today, but you're welcome to continue
here as long as you like.
  

    
Amy, it's been wonderful having you here and I certainly enjoyed your
book, which I hope many more here will have the opportunity to read.

If you are around long enough for one more question, and I'd throw
this open to the rest of the group here as well, I was wondering how
you think people learn about the taste of place - what it is, what its
importance is, how to appreciate and share it.  (Besides reading your
book, of course.)  

You tell the most wonderful story about French kids having their own
'tasting' at a wine conference, where they taste different fruit juices
and are encouraged to talk about what they are experiencing.  You also
talked about the role that restaurants play in helping form a cuisine
of place, both creating it and communicating it to their public.  What
other ways do people have for learning about the taste of a landscape?
  

    
I think the best way to learn about the taste of a landscape is to
find what I call in The Taste of Place the food artisans who have
dedicated their lives to nurturing the relationship between the natural
and sensory domains. Talk to a goat cheese maker about her
cheesemaking practices and what she thinks makes her cheese unique.
Then taste the cheese and then taste it again. And, like Michael
Pollan, I say we should all try to grow food ourselves, even if it is
just a small pot of cherry tomatoes on your balcony. And wouldn't it be
great if the present campaign pushing the Obamas to "eat the view" and
plant an organic garden at the White House were actually come to pass?
Amy
  

    
Thanks, Amy, for that final thought, one we can all dine out on!

And thanks everyone for your participation.  I hope you enjoyed this
conversation as much as I have.
  

    
Yes, thanks again, Amy. (and if you haven't gone - does the Obama
administration's rural agenda make you as happy as it does me?
http://change.gov/agenda/rural_agenda/ )
  

    
Those of you who enjoyed Amy's chapter that discussed the fruit juice
tasting held for kids at a French wine event may be interested in this
NPR story:

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100746963>

In Paris, Culinary Education Starts In Day Care

In the land of high cuisine, even lunch in preschool is a culinary
delight. French culinary traditions and knowledge are cultivated at a
very young age. Even toddlers in day care centers are taught how to sit
at a table and are encouraged to eat all kinds of foods.