A week or so ago I went to the library to see if they had a copy of Barbara Kingslover's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, about the year she and her family grew nearly everything they ate. The library copy was checked out, but as I stared at the shelf in disappointment another book caught my eye. It was called The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved and I thought something like "well, duh". But since it seemed to be about local food and other food politics I grabbed it. I like a little revolution as much as the next girl!
This book? Is super cool. There's nothing in it that's flat out news to me (agribusiness and drug manufacterers are bad, m'kay? whole, local, organic foods are good. high fructose corn syrup and trans fats are the spawn of the devil. big brother sucks. 99% of the animals used for meat, eggs, and dairy in this country live miserable lives of abuse. colonialism is still very much alive. good stuff to keep in mind, all of it.), but I've still learned quite a bit. I'm thinking and plotting, and working to change as much as I can in my own life, and hopefully for others as well.
An added bounus to this book, tho, are the recipes! The author, Sandor Katz, is a fermentation guru and includes recipes for mead and root beer (also saurkraut and other pickles, pestos, streudls, all kinds of yum)!!! I am sooooo making root beer at home. Right now I've got a shopping cart full of roots over at Mountain Rose Herbs, and if they weren't out of sassafrass root I'd be buying the lot of it right now. Your body, it turns out, can't really digest high fructose corn syrup (which is a product requiring the addition of genetically engineered components just to create), and it builds up in your liver. The livers of people who consume a lot of the stuff (that would be most of us, with average American consumption at about 55 lbs per year) resemble the livers of alcoholics. Nice.
My mama never let us drink much soda growing up and I never really developed a taste for it. As a result I almost never drink it (of course this doesn't fully protect me from the horrors of high fructose corn syrup- read some labels, it's in damn near all prepared foods- but it does help a lot. Wanna know how much soda the average American drinks? 54 gallons a year, or 1.5 cans per day.), but Robert really likes to have some when he comes back from a long ride. This makes sense; it's quick energy and his body has just used up a lot of what it had on hand. But Robert knows it's not good for him, and more importantly he knows its not good for the kids and he doesn't want to set a bad example for them. So we don't buy it. But now I get to try to make it! With wholesome (or as wholesome as sweetners get) stuff like raw honey and maple syrup, and with the healing powers of herbs and roots.
Stay tuned. I'm totally gonna rock this fermented beverage ride!
2 comments:
Yea!!!
Laine and I have plans to make root beer at home, too. We usually make about 5 gallons of beer 2-3 times a year - invite the friends over...It's fun; however, a few months ago, Saveur Magazine had an article on old-school root beer, and that got me gung-ho to brew up some for ourselves.
We can be long distance brewing buddies!
the book sounds great. I have seen it on bookstore shelves. Perhaps, I too, will read it.
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