A local cuisine

An old proverb says "The poor man gets his ice in the winter."    Not too long ago both the poor and the rich alike got their food in season.

Today we have incredible abundance.  Not only is ice available to anyone anytime, but any food you can imagine is available in season and out.  Food fads are created and discarded at breathtaking speed.  Food snobbery is created and fueled by gurus on cooking shows.

But none of this is for me.  At our house we eat seasonally.  When asparagus is in season we eat it as often as possible.  When strawberries come into their own, we feast on them.  Some towns are famous for their corn festivals.  Well, we have a corn festival at our house every July and August. And, so it goes through the year.  This is the old way - and I think the best way.

Did you know that every region in America was once famous for their cooking?   Housewives had taken what was at hand and developed hundreds of ways of using it and in the process created a local cuisine.

These 'cuisines' are still there - perhaps hidden in old handwritten notebooks or in wooden recipe file boxes.  Some authors have researched these old recipes and written cookbooks about the different regions. 

One that I love is "Cooking from Quilt Country" by Marcia Adams.  It celebrates Amish and Mennonite cookery in Northern Indiana.  She takes you through the year with the harvest and as she does so she weaves in interviews, culture, history, beautiful pictures, and great recipes.  The first section 'The Greening of Indiana' talks about how "Spring comes to Indiana in quiet ways......The earth once again unfolds to nourish its people."

Another good read is the United States Regional Cookbook.  First published in 1939, it was one of my Mom's cookbooks.  When I was little I liked to look at it for the pictures.  Both my sister and I have tracked down copies for ourselves.  I have the 1947 edition.  Strangely, both Wisconsin and Michigan have their own sections and the rest of the Midwest is lumped into the Mississippi Valley.  Here is what they had to say about us back then:

"Meat is of prime quality, especially beef, pork and veal; and the fresh fish from the Great Lakes, the smaller lakes of Michigan and Wisconsin and the rivers and streams add a pleasing variety.  Apples, peaches, plums and pears are abundant around the lakes in Michigan and the southern states of this group.  The decks of the steamers piled high with crates of small fruits and berries from Southern Michigan are the wonder of every voyager on the Great Lakes.  The celery fields of Michigan and the cranberry bogs of Wisconsin are known nationally."

Wendell Berry says "Eating is an agricultural act."  If you can't farm or garden, you still do eat.  So, celebrate the seasons; find recipes using the abundance; start your own handwritten regional cookbook.