Edible Memory: The Lure of Heirloom Tomatoes and Other Forgotten Foods

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Food is clearly fraught. It is packed with symbolism, emotions, taboos, anxiety, fear, and pleasure, as well as life and death questions of politics and economics. How does a tomato become an heirloom, how does an apple become an antique? And what are the implications of this transformation for society and for biodiversity? Jennifer Jordan has a special take on these questions: instead of relating her story to changes in cuisine and restaurants or to the rise of the locavore and morality of food choices, and instead of eye-opening investigations of the politics and economics of our food supply (eschewing, that is, the schoolmarm approach of much food work nowadays), she here reveals the connections between food and memory, telling us particular stories and finding special meanings in particular foods that zero in on pleasures and possibilitieswith profound consequences for the ways we eat. She investigates the symbolic and sensual properties of heirloom fruit, vegetables, and animals to understand how our memories of them can shape the menus of fancy restaurants or well-stocked grocery stores. The old-fashioned plants and animals at the heart of this book are part of a concerted movement to preserve the diversity of kinds and breeds: from turnips (not the lowly root vegetable you may think it is, the heirloom varieties of salsify, parsnip, turnips, etc., make for glorious eating) to the stone fruits and antique apples, and she doesn t neglect the heirloom grains (rice, wheat, barley, oats, corn come in surprising arrays) and heritage turkeys that recently have been brought back to the Thanksgiving table. Harvey Levenstein told us, in "Fear of Food, " how we are taught (usually through misinformation) to fear lipids, sugar, meat, and so much else. Jordan flips this coin to show us the pleasurable side of food, and tracks the powerful emotional and physical connection to a genetic, cultural, and nutritional past that gives the book its title.