"Modern American culture is fairly empty of any suggestion that one's relationship to the land, to consumption and food, is a religious matter. But it's true; the decision to attend to the health of one's habitat and food chain is a spiritual choice. It's also a political choice, a scientific one, a personal and convivial one. It's not a choice between living in the country or the town; it is about understanding that every one of us, at the level of our cells and respiration, lives in the country and is thus obligated to be mindful of the distance between ourselves and our sustenance."
--Barbara Kingsolver

Last month, I was very excited to receive my copy of the new World Community Cookbook (authored by the Mennonites, whom I adore), Simply in Season. I am a huge fan of the More-With-Less cookbook and some of you may recall that I was a recipe tester for this latest Mennonite cookbook last year (I managed to test about 6 recipes - 2 made it into the cookbook in some form or another - before the exhaustion and disinterest in food from my first trimester made it too difficult). I had been eagerly awaiting Simply in Season for months and I was not disappointed when it arrived.

The cookbook focuses on cooking with fresh, locally-grown foods and is organized into five sections - one for each season and a fifth section for foods appropriate for any season. In addition to a bounty of wonderful recipes, there are loads of the Mennonite cookbooks' characteristic vignettes and quotes on the spiritual and socially responsible aspects of eating and cooking. These little stories in particular examine the role of small farmers and our connection (or lack thereof) to where our food comes from. Flipping through the pages of Simply in Season reminded me of how profoundly my philosophy on food has been shaped both by my relationship to farmers and the land and by the Mennonites' emphasis on making food choices that reflect the values of Christian faith.

(Even though I've written on the topic of food before, I didn't realize I had a philosophy on cooking and eating until last year when a co-worker [with whom I often talked about cooking] called me a gourmet and I was inexplicably offended. She meant it as a compliment - that I was someone [like her] who enjoyed making good food - but the comment made me bristle. Me - a gourmet? There was something about the term that implied a refined palate, a discerning sense of taste, a certain amount of snobbishness, and a knowledge of foods like shallots and cooking sherry that I just didn't have. My interest in food and cooking had nothing to do with a particular culinary or aesthetic style that my co-worker assumed I shared with her - it was then that I understood just how deeply personal my motivations in the kitchen really were. It was about more than the food - I wanted to make a broad social statement with my cooking!)

So if you like to eat fresh produce, meet the people who grow your food, think about how your food choices fit in with the idea of community, cook healthy food from scratch, and connect seemingly mundane decisions with your spiritual journey, go out and buy a copy of Simply in Season.