BRATTLEBORO — "Endangered eating" is the theme for the December edition of Literary Cocktail Hour, which takes place online with author Sarah Lohman on Friday, Dec. 8, at 5 p.m. Register at bit.ly/LitCocktail34.
Lohman says American food traditions are in danger of being lost. How do we save them? Apples, a common New England crop, have been called the United States' "most endangered food." The iconic Texas Longhorn cattle is categorized at "critical risk" for extinction. Unique date palms, found nowhere else on the planet, grow in California's Coachella Valley - but the family farms that caretake them are shutting down.
Apples, cattle, dates - these are foods that carry significant cultural weight. But they're disappearing. In our corner of the world, we have hundreds of varieties of apples; Gilfeather turnips; popular foraged items like mushrooms, fiddleheads, and ramps; amazing cheeses; honey; and our beloved maple syrup.
Animated by stories, yet grounded in historical research, Lohman's book, Endangered Eating: America's Vanishing Foods, gives readers the tools to support community food organizations and producers that work to preserve local culinary traditions and rare, cherished foods - before it's too late.
Lohman is originally from Hinckley, Ohio, where she began working in a museum at the age of 16, cooking historical food on a wood-burning stove. She graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2005. For her undergraduate thesis, she opened a temporary restaurant/installation that reinterpreted food of the Colonial era for a modern audience.
She moved to New York City in 2006 and worked as video producer for New York magazine's food blog, Grub Street. She chronicled her personal explorations in culinary history on her blog, Four Pounds Flour, from 2008 to 2018.
Lohman's first book, Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine, was an Amazon bestseller; The Atlantic called it "richly researched, intriguing, and cleverly written." Eight Flavors is currently taught in undergraduate classes at Purdue and Pennsylvania State University. Endangered Eating, her second book, was released in late October.
This event is free, but donations are welcome to help the Brattleboro Literary Festival to continue these monthly virtual programs as well as support their annual festival. Find out more at brattleborolitfest.org/donate-now.
This The Arts item was submitted to The Commons.