Building relationships through food

Food plays an important role in our relationship with the world around us. On a very personal level even the least food focused individual looks to food for many things. These include sustenance, comfort, immediate gratification and connections to important events in our lives. On an interpersonal level food is central to the rituals and activities we share with other people. Holidays, birthdays, celebrations, reunions with old friends, and family events would not be the same without the sharing of food. The sharing of recipes, techniques, and tools has been a key ingredient in the glue that bonds families together for thousands of years. At a larger scale, communities gathered together not just for security from external threats. More importantly, groups banded together in order to have the means and diversity to produce, transform and share food in all its forms. Throughout the ages the many ways to grow, raise, harvest, preserve, prepare, and enjoy food were discovered and refined only when people were able to get together and share ideas, experiences, failures and successes. At the largest scale, the production and distribution of food has a greater impact on the environment, economics, peace, stability and prosperity than virtually any other human endeavor. And yet… and yet… many people today have a relationship with food that is becoming disconnected, distant, ignorant and unfulfilling. Food is a fundamental part of the human experience. I believe this trend will have significant consequences for us as individuals, for our families and communities, and for the health of the planet around us. This blog is a chronicle of my connections with food in various ways and the people who I share it with. I will wander, perhaps somewhat haphazardly, between my efforts at urban gardening, my many forays into the art of fermentation in all its wonderful forms, the preparation of the food that I most love, and the experiences I have with food at home, and around the world in my travels. More than anything I hope that this blog will allow me to develop connections with any of you I am fortunate enough to call readers.