A Southern Saturnalia

Saturnalibus, optimo dierum! (Catullus) And so it is.  A time of honoring agricultural deities, gathering to brave darkness, exchanging tokens of friendship, banquet-style eating of copious amounts of the gods’ riches, and drinking . . . drinking and drinking.   For twenty years I’ve started Saturnalia celebrations with the seasonal Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale, 2016 … Continue reading A Southern Saturnalia

Cochon De Lait For The Three Graces, Day One

The number of guests at dinner should not be less than the number of the Graces nor exceed that of the Muses, i.e., it should begin with three and stop at nine.  (Marcus Varro) I have a suckling pig in my refrigerator.  Over the next three days I’ll narrate his transformation from corpse to recipe … Continue reading Cochon De Lait For The Three Graces, Day One

Hunger In America

A compelling view of hunger from Osage, Iowa to Houston, Texas to the Bronx, New York. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/hunger/ This is also a good place for a book recommendation: The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement by Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis.  A small food bank in Toronto, Canada … Continue reading Hunger In America

Is The World Better Off With Celebrity Chefs? Bourdain, Pépin, And Hong Kong Gardeners.

While working on a new post, I often like to scrawl through what’s happening in the blogosphere and discover a comet, orbiting planet or an emerging galaxy–today is one of the emerging galaxy days, I think. Throughout Dan Barber’s new book The Third Plate, he’s constantly wondering if chefs like himself are part of the … Continue reading Is The World Better Off With Celebrity Chefs? Bourdain, Pépin, And Hong Kong Gardeners.

Winter and Summer at Eastern Market Means Two Stews And A Dog!

Back in the winter of 2013 I traveled up to Michigan to see the family, meaning my daughter Kelsey and her husband Matthew Wisotsky and my son Nicholas Harvey and his wife Gerianne Ditto-Harvey.  Whenever I’m up in the Great North with the kids, I like to cook; therefore, it was time to visit Eastern … Continue reading Winter and Summer at Eastern Market Means Two Stews And A Dog!

From Small Goat Farms To Megafarms: The Shared Reality of Urban and Rural America.

Born in Royal Oak, Michigan, raised in Troy, I really didn’t interact with the city of Detroit until I went to Wayne State University located in mid-town, south of Grand Boulevard and what used to be the General Motors Building, and north of Cass Corridor and dire poverty.  My whole stay in the Metro-Detroit area … Continue reading From Small Goat Farms To Megafarms: The Shared Reality of Urban and Rural America.