11/13/2023
Historian Lohman (Eight Flavors ) examines eight “endangered” foods in this satisfying trek through American culinary history, starting in California with Coachella Valley dates and ending in South Carolina with Carolina African Runner peanuts. Lohman’s quest for foods that “will not be around in another generation or two without immediate action” involved meeting with “farmers, shepherds, fishers, and makers”; attending food-related celebrations and ceremonies (she helped to butcher a Navajo-Churro sheep in the Navajo “Sheep Is Life” festival); and untangling the history of each ingredient, from the influx of “date gardens” in 1900s California to the cultivation of heirloom cider apple trees in Puritan America (and their destruction during the temperance movement, when it was considered “shameful” to have the trees). While the author’s personal musings occasionally butt awkwardly into the historical details, the history is vivid and fascinating, astutely probing the ways that many of these foods have been nearly eradicated by colonization and violence (in the mid-1800s, U.S. troops drove flocks of Navajo sheep off New Mexico land where they wanted their own flocks to graze) or harnessed by Westerners for their own gain (Western-owned distilleries in Hawaii produce rhum agricole—made of Hawaiian legacy sugarcane—using the images and stories of Hawaiian culture for their branding). Part travelogue and part history, this is ideal for curious foodies. (Oct.)
"Endangered Eating is culinary historian Sarah Lohman’s surprising journey across the United States, visiting the vanishing futures of native peanuts, apples, Ojibwe wild rice, Hawaiian sugar cane."
Chicago Tribune - Christopher Borrelli
"[Lohman’s] descriptions of unprecedented textures, tangs, and mouthwatering subtleties are masterful. Not just for foodies, this is an entertaining and enlightening account."
"From sheep to wild rice, the foods we eat for both hedonistic exploits and sustenance have been going extinct; every time we breed a food to survive the rigors of worldwide transport, we lose all its delicious attributes. Sarah Lohman shares compassionate stories about the importance of these foods and outlines what you can personally do to ensure their continued and delicious survival. Lohman carries Twain's torch with her passion, love, and want to preserve these amazing foods for future generations."
"[Lohman's] descriptions of unprecedented textures, tangs, and mouthwatering subtleties are masterful. Not just for foodies, this is an entertaining and enlightening account."
Booklist - Kathleen McBroom
"Sarah Lohman sheds light on the urgency of safeguarding Indigenous culinary customs through her tales of traversing America in search of endangered foods. In Endangered Eating she highlights the influence of colonization upon foodways, and also advocates for the localization of food systems and greater support for food producers and community organizations."
"Lohman is serious, but lighthearted, about her work; she’s a skilled cook, but she seems to most enjoy the treasure hunts that certain recipes require."
The New Yorker - Jessica Weisberg
"Through eight first-person essays, Loman tracks down the farms, restaurants, growers, and fisherman that are part of the life cycle of ingredients like heirloom cider apples from the Hudson Valley, dates from California's Coachella Valley, and even Navajo Churro sheep in the southwestern United States. In doing so, she illuminates how the delicate balance of agriculture, demand and production impact what is available and how we can protect heritage ingredients from being lost forever."
Food & Wine - Korsha Wilson
"From Coachella Valley’s date gardens to heirloom cider apples in New York’s Hudson Valley to Choctaw filé powder in Louisiana, each stop Lohman makes is more interesting than the last.… But Endangered Eating isn’t just a foodie travelogue (with recipes sprinkled throughout). Lohman encourages people to follow her lead and learn more about their food’s origins. We can start by reading her intrepid book."
"The prose [of Endangered Eating ] reminds me of The Omnivore's Dilemma . I am finding the writing to be extremely clear with palpably effervescent enthusiasm."
"Lohman deftly combines history and people-forward accounts of her travels across the country to learn from food producers. The result is a thoughtful, compelling read about why these food traditions matter and are worth preserving."
Eater - Bettina Makalintal
"Lohman wanders the nation armed with a notebook and a fork in search of disappearing foodstuffs. . . . [Endangered Eating ] is about not just the foods but also the cultures that produced them, and Lohman does all of them justice."
Sierra magazine - Paul Rauber
"Part travelogue, part history and part eulogy, [Sarah Lohman’s] book plumbs not just the American plate, but its soul."
New York Times - Shreya Chattopadhyay
"[Endangered Eating ] is as much a fascinating study of heirloom cider apples and Buckeye chickens as it is a commentary on the way politics, money and convenience have conspired against America’s culinary history."
"When Sarah Lohman describes herself as a ‘historic gastronomist,’ she is being too modest. She is, in addition, an accomplished writer, an intrepid traveler, dogged researcher and pundit. She knows what Americans eat, what our ancestors ate, and why."
USA Today - David Holahan
"In Endangered Eating Sarah Lohman gives readers a new and powerful lens through which to view the past, present and future of food in America."
"[Sarah Lohman’s] enthusiastic charm and what you sense is genuine Midwestern niceness shine through. She’s also impressively plucky…[and] is assiduous in tracking down early recipes and describing cooking techniques. She also gets to show off her scientific fluency (she comes from a family of scientists)."
New York Times - Corby Kummer
Sarah Lohman is a surprisingly effective narrator of her thoughtful audiobook. She narrates with a pointed reportorial style and measured cadence that suit this text on vanishing foods. She does Native accents impressively in sections on the Navajo (Diné) and Choctaw people. And she's an active participant in the journey to test and taste foods identified by the Ark of Taste, an arm of the Slow Food International movement, which "fights for the conservation of endangered edibles." Her American forays take her to the Salish Sea to work reef-caught salmon, to a Navajo reservation to help butcher the unique four-horned sheep called Churro, and to Ohio, where she learns about Buckeye chicken, a locally celebrated bird. She is an intrepid eater and energetic narrator. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
2023-06-21
Good food is one of the great pleasures of life, notes Lohman, and a tragedy of modern times is that the development of agribusiness corporations threatens to reduce the variety on our plates. In her 2016 book, Eight Flavors , the author explored America’s culinary history; here, she comes at the subject from another angle, traveling around the country to investigate traditional foods that are returning from the edge of extinction. As her guide, she uses an online catalog called the Ark of Taste, produced by an organization called Slow Food International, which is dedicated to preserving food diversity. She finds plenty of optimistic stories, such as the orchardists keeping apple types alive and the breeders of longhorn cattle, which have gone out of fashion with beef producers. Many of the foods that interest Lohman have roots in Indigenous cultures, and the story of the displacement of traditional Hawaiian culture to grow sugar cane has a tragic aspect. The author is willing to go deep into the rituals of traditional food preparation; for example, she happily gutted salmon caught by Native American methods on the Pacific coast and helped butcher a Navajo-Churro lamb. Along the way, she looks at the legacy of wild rice, the origin of peanut farming, and the resurgence of the Buckeye chicken. At the end of each chapter, Lohman includes recipes of the foods featured, and they all sound delicious. The result is a package that is enjoyable, entertaining, and meaningful. The author encourages readers to begin their own journey of culinary discovery: “The secret of the Ark is that you don’t have to travel very far at all….There’s probably a rare food practically in your backyard.”
A tasty sojourn through the landscape of America’s endangered foods, served with a scoop of energy and a dash of hope.
