Food in America's Environmental History

Staking out American 'food history' is a promising way to change perceptions about the place and importance of the 'environment' in American history.  Food connects to the mainstream of 'American history,' and puts standard narratives in a new light: think of food and native America; establishing colonial societies; protests over tea and trade relations swirling through the American Revolution in the economic and political context of an Atlantic world; slaves growing rice and tobacco and the role of food in fighting the Civil War; the long westward conquest and the wholesale reordering of landscapes to support both a new regime of property and food production; immigration, foodways, identity, ethnicity and America as a Melting Pot; progressivism, home economics, and food reform; industrialization and corporate capitalism from Swift to Sunkist and Monsanto; the rise of tourism and consumer culture - especially consumer culture.

excerpted from:

A Companion to American Environmental History

Douglas Cazaux Sackman (Editor)

Wiley-Blackwell, 2014

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The Nature Pages
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History and American West Titles

New Guide to Carving a 1930s Street Scene

From an auto repair shop at one end of the street to a movie theater and a building under construction at the other, this book depicts downtown USA during the Great Depression, through the eyes of 29 of North America's top caricature carvers.

The Caricature Carvers of America (CCA) present the 1930s street scene, complete with 11 buildings and over 100 original caricature carvings.

The book includes a step-by-step chapter on carving a piece from the scene as well as patterns and details for many of the original carvings.

Carving a 1930s Street Scene

by Caricature Carvers of America

Schiffer Publishing, 2014

Carvings
Here's How To...
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New Guide to Homegrown Tea

This book explains how to grow a large variety of plants in your own garden, on a balcony or even on a window sill could become your tea cupboard. It shows you how to grow your tea from seeds, cuttings, or small plants, as well as which parts of the plant are used to make tea.

Liversidge lays out when and how to harvest your plants, as well as information on how to prepare the plant, including how to dry it to make tea you can store to last you throughout the year.

Homegrown Tea

An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Blending Teas and Tisanes

by Cassie Liversidge

St. Martin's Griffin, 2014

Tea
Here's How To...
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
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Farm and Garden Picks: Brassicaceae

This book is believed to be the the first collection of articles to summarize the most advanced information and studies of Brassicaceae, a special genus with vast species, which not only have tremendous human health beneficial compounds for dietary consumption, but also comprise the most metal hyperaccumulating species worldwide discovered to date with potential usage in phytoremediation of polluted soil, air and water.

Brassicaceae

Characterization, Functional Genomics and Health Benefits

Minglin Lang (Editor)

Nova Science Publishers, 2013

Farm and Garden Books
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Home Grown

Review: Sauces & Shapes

While there are plenty of pasta cookbooks available with recipes for spaghetti, linguine, or rigatoni, few offer as much guidance for handmade pastas in the home kitchen. This one explains how to make not just tagliatelle, but strozzapreti, garganelli, trofie, fusilli and dozens more.

The book includes recipes for about a hundred traditional sauces and soups derived from home kitchens throughout Italy and suggests matches for both homemade and store-bought pasta shapes. There's also a healthy serving of advice for cooking, serving and eating pasta.

Sauces & Shapes

Pasta the Italian Way

by Oretta Zanini De Vita and Maureen B. Fant

W.W. Norton & Co., 2013

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Review: Lobsters

Lobsters are among the most extensively researched creatures on the planet, owing largely to their commercial value and cultural significance in certain regions. Yet, much of what is known about the species does not explain its role in marine ecosystems, and questions about how lobsters interact with their environment, and how they can best be managed, occupy the current generation of lobster scientists.

This text, now in its second edition, focuses on the most commercially important species of marine lobsters - Panulirus, Homarus, Jaus, Sagmariasus, Nephrops, and commercial Scyllarids - throughout the world's major fisheries, from Australia and New Guinea to Brazil, Baja California, India, South Africa, Somalia, Indonesia, Japan, the Mediterranean, and the Northeast Atlantic.

Lobsters

Biology, Management, Aquaculture and Fisheries

by Bruce Phillips

Wiley-Blackwell, 2013

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Review: Great Meat

This is a consumer's guide to selecting and preparing meats of all kinds, from beef and pork to goat, venison, poultry, rabbit, duck, goose and game birds. It includes detailed instructions for grilling, braising, roasting, broiling, stewing and flash cooking.

Compiled by a master butcher, Dave Kelly, at the meat shop Ruby & White in Bristol, England, this book includes recipes from some of the best restaurants in the West Country of England, like the Manor House Hotel in Moreton-in-Marsh, Martini Ristorante and the Circus Cafe and Restaurant in Bath, The Town House in Bristol, and Bath Priory as well as Keefer's Restaurant in Chicago.

Recipes are grouped into six categories of meats - beef, pork, lamb, game, chicken and turkey, and duck, goose and game birds - along with background information on how the meats are produced and a guide to the available cuts.

Great Meat

Classic Techniques and Award-Winning Recipes for Selecting, Cutting, and Cooking Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, and Game

by Dave Kelly, et al

Fair Winds Press, 2013

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