Grounded Grub Weeklies! 04.07.2020
Hello Grounded Grub Community!
Every week we’re sent amazing articles, books, podcasts and other content from our community. We love hearing from everyone and having these resources, so we decided to start pooling together these recommendations, as well as some of our favorites, and sharing them once a week on Tuesdays. We hope you enjoy and feel inspired to share with us if you see/hear/try something that inspires you in the future!
Today: April 7, 2020
What happened on Grounded Grub last week:
On Wednesday we hit you with a white wine mushroom sauce that makes your pasta noodles beg to come out of the back of your pantry. We love the way that this sauce packs so many subtle flavors together and we think it’ll become a staple in your cooking repertoire. So give it a try and follow the recipe here!
On Friday we published another one of our pieces about the toxicity of diet culture. This isn’t the first time we’ve come out against the negative ways that our society talks about food and bodies, but this time we focused on eating “clean” and the negative aspects of that language for our conscience and our culture. Read more here.
And then over the weekend Ben took us on another flavor adventure with a vegan risotto that may make you completely rework your weekly shopping list. He may compare risotto to Mac & Cheese at some point?! But the effort and time put into this dish takes it up a couple of levels. Head on over to our recipes page and make it today!
Coming up on Grounded Grub…
It has been a flurry of activity in the Grounded Grub email inbox, and we are thrilled about all the different things we have in the works...but we’ll just stick to what we have going on this week:
We have an amazing interview with Daniel Rosenfeld, a graduate student researcher at UCLA that studies the intersection of things like food choices, shame, disgust, and social identity… Could it get any cooler? Our interview with Dan showcases some of his research on food identity and how people make the change to becoming vegan and vegetarian, and more importantly, how they actually can stick with that change in a healthy way. If you can’t tell, we’re really excited about this one.
We’ll have a short and sweet feature on our Instagram about the classic goodness of asparagus and how delicious this in-season veggie is!
And last but not least, Ben will take us on a full kombucha tour from the basics of fermentation to the subtle art of getting the carbonation and flavors jussssst right. We’ve all been excited about this but Ben may be the most excited?! No matter what this article is thorough and may-or-may-not just get you brewing some of your own during these weeks of quarantine…
Have any other ideas for things we should cover? Reach out on Instagram, Facebook or email. We love hearing from you and some of our best articles have been from community suggestions.
Media articles of the week:
“As Supermarkets Feel Hazardous and Sparse, Small Farms Deliver” Tejal Rao, New York Times. “In Los Angeles, some community-supported agriculture services have seen their membership triple in just a few weeks.” This article highlights the way consumers are looking for no or low-contact grocery solutions. Look for an article from us soon about the importance of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs as a way to support sustainable agriculture year-round (not just during this crisis), but we love that people are turning towards direct farmer relationships during this time. We agree with the farmer featured in this article: “I think there’s a wake-up call going on, in terms of food systems...I hope it’s not a blip.” Read more here.
“Decolonize Your Diet: Notes Towards Decolonization” Catrióna Rueda Esquibel, Food First. We featured this article in our piece on “The Messiness of Eating Clean” but it’s too good and important to not share again. We hope you’ll take the time to read this important piece about how recipes and food have been deeply impacted by colonialism and how individuals are working to reclaim history and culture through food. Read this impactful piece here.
“Mostly Vegetarian, but flexible about it” Daniel Rosenfeld. We hope this super interesting article can serve as an introduction to the interview coming out next week with Rosenfeld. Do you remember our article about flexitarianism? Well he actually studies the psychology of food identity and his research puts data behind what some of us may have only observed.
“ Some flexitarians, despite eating meat, consider themselves to be vegetarian…Over and above actual eating behavior, two psychosocial variables emerged as significant predictors of flexitarians’ levels of vegetarian identification: the centrality of meat-reduced dieting to their identity and their beliefs about carnism (the ideology of eating animals).” You can access this scholarly article for free here.
Book of the week:
The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan
“When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life. Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder...What's at stake in our eating choices is not only our own and our children's health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth...Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us—industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the American way of eating. His absorbing narrative takes us from Iowa cornfields to food laboratories, from feedlots and fast-food restaurants to organic farms and hunting grounds, always emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the handful of plant and animal species we depend on.”
Okay this is probably one of the most classic and iconic food books out there, but also is a great introduction to so many foundational things that we talk about on Grounded Grub. We sometimes forget that this is what we study and think about all the time and we worry we can get a bit jargon-y on here. This book is a great start-to-finish read and can get anyone passionate about the way we eat. It’s great to people new to this whole thing, but also is great for everyone deep in food systems to return back to basics.
“Pollan contends that, when it comes to food, doing the right thing often turns out to be the tastiest thing an eater can do.”
Borrow from a friend, check it out from a library, or find a place to buy it here!
Podcast of the week:
Ted Radio Hour: How Things Spread
“What makes an idea, a brand, or a behavior catch fire? This hour, TED speakers explore the mysteries behind the many things we spread: laughter and sadness, imagination, viruses and viral ideas.” We love the way that this podcast showcases the effect we have on others. The virus part happens to be relevant in these times, but we’d like to focus on the fun parts: laughter! Good habits! We think a lot of these concepts can be used to encourage those around you to think about food and sustainability as well. Even if it’s just a casual listen, we highly recommend it! Listen to the podcast here, or wherever you stream your podcasts.
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