Edible Ideologies or Gardeners Table

Edible Ideologies: Representing Food and Meaning

Author: Kathleen LeBesco

Edible Ideologies argues that representations of food-in literature and popular fiction, cookbooks and travel guides, war propaganda, women's magazines, television and print advertisements-are not just about nourishment or pleasure. Contributors explore how these various modes of representation, reflecting prevailing attitudes and assumptions about food and food practices, function instead to circulate and transgress dominant cultural ideologies. Addressing questions concerning whose interests are served by a particular food practice or habit and what political ends are fulfilled by the historical changes that lead from one practice to another in Western culture, the essays offer a rich historical narrative that moves from the construction of the nineteenth-century English gentleman to the creation of two of today's iconic figures in food culture, Julia Child and Martha Stewart. Along the way, readers will encounter World War I propaganda, Holocaust and Sephardic cookbooks, the Rosenbergs, German tour guides, fast food advertising, food packaging, and chocolate, and will find food for thought on the meanings of everything from camembert to Velveeta, from salads to burgers, and from tikka masala to Campbell's soup.

Interesting book: The Elements of Effort or Heinermans Encyclopedia of Anti Aging Remedies

Gardener's Table: A Guide to Natural Vegetable Growing and Cooking

Author: Richard Merrill

In an indispensable book that will be a godsend for any home gardener or fresh-food enthusiast, noted horticulturist Richard Merrill and award-winning cookbook author Joe Ortiz (of "Village Baker" fame) team up to deliver the ultimate, no-nonsense, down-to-earth, simple-to-use guidebook to cooking from a kitchen garden. 50 recipes.

Library Journal

The natural link between kitchen gardening and cooking is seamlessly conveyed by Merrill, who directs the horticultural department at Cabrillo College, and Ortiz, who wrote the award-winning The Village Baker: Classic Regional Breads from Europe and America. Assuming nothing, they start with basic instructions for designing a garden and outfitting a proper kitchen. Organic methods--for building the soil, starting and growing vegetables, and controlling pests--dominate the book, but the authors also include instructions for using fresh produce and recipes for condiments, stock, and vegetable dishes. Finally, a "Grow-It & Cook-It Compendium" conveniently lists vegetables by plant family, culinary uses, botanical name, detailed growing information, and harvesting and storage tips. This book isn't as extensive as Anna Pavord's classic, The New Kitchen Garden (DK, 1996), which includes fruit and herb information, but it's still a good general guide. Recommended for public libraries.--Bonnie Poquette, Shorewood P.L, WI Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.