by Cathleen Hockman-Wert and Mary Beth Lind
From the Preface:
First published in 2005, Simply in Season is a community cookbook about good food: foods that are fresh, nutritious, tasty, and in rhythm with the seasons. This Expanded Edition adds seventeen new recipes to more than three hundred in the 2005 edition.
Simply in Season explores the complex web of factors that brings food to our plates. Before the advent of modern transportation and storage systems, eating local food was the norm as it still is in much of the world. Within our memories we see our parents and grandparents with hands full of fruits and vegetables from their gardens or gardens nearby. Eggs, milk, and meat also came from local sources.
Spring explores the environmental impact of modern agriculture. Summer, Autumn, and Winter follow with thoughts on health, time, and the economic factors of food. The final recipe chapter, All Seasons, presents a vital overview of food production and food security issues, bringing us full circle in our understanding of the meaning and place of food in our lives.
Simply in Season also remains a cookbook filled with delicious recipes. Part of the fun of cooking with the seasons is learning to use what's locally available, and that often means taking recipes as starting points: a theme on which to playfully improvise rather than a blueprint to follow precisely.
Whether you have long cherished local food or are new to these ideas, we hope you are encouraged in your journey with food choices. The journey is long and continuous, with innumerable points of entry. None of us has "arrived", and each of us will have to decide what choices are right for our own circumstances. But it is a delight to share the stories and recipes of fellow travelers who love good food.
Welcome! And enjoy!
Mary Beth Lind, Cathleen Hockman-Wert, authors