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kristamead · 6 years ago

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In 2019, I want to bring more books to the blog! For starters, it’s about time I compiled a list of some of my personal favorites that I think everyone should read.

What are your must reads? Favorites? Current books?

Leave a comment at the end of this post!

I’d love to hear from you (:

From fiction to non-fiction, music to manga, personal greats to graphic novels. Creating a general book recommendations list was difficult to narrow down, but I think I’ve got something for everyone. There’s definitely more where this all came from and I’m excited to continue posting about everything books.

For my (first) ~must reads~ I wanted to pick the books that I find the most compelling choices for anyone and everyone. If you’re looking for a new read, here are 15 titles and blurbs explaining why they’re worthy of your time.

I made sure to create this little notebook attachment if you want to save it for when you hit the bookstore (;

✽ I couldn’t make a list of my must reads without including this. Hands down one of my absolute favorites. In Americanah, you’ll meet Ifemelu – a student leaving university strikes in Nigeria for university in the US. As she grapples with her new life in the States, she starts what soon becomes a very popular blog illustrating the differences of being black in Africa and being black in the States. Throughout the book you’ll also follow Ifemelu’s school sweetheart, Obinze, and their stories together, apart, and… well you’ll see.

✽ Not too much to say here, because who hasn’t heard of Frankenstein. Of all of the assigned readings throughout school, this one has always been my favorite. There’s something about gothic literature that has a special place for me – all the dark spooky drama, I love it. I feel like everyone knows about Frankenstein, but hasn’t necessarily read the book so here’s a little nudge.

✽ Whether you’re looking for a quick read, an aesthetically pleasing page-turner, a cool artsy graphic novel for your shelves – this one is perfect. Cartoonist Barbara Stok’s Vincent van Gogh addition to the collection of autobiographical Art Series novels is super cool and worth checking out.

✽ If you’re in the mood to read something fascinating, you won’t want to put this down. In Brain on Fire you’ll hear the telling of Susannah’s mysterious true story as she recounts the frightening events as she rapidly descends in to madness and what it takes to work out her life-saving diagnosis.

✽ When I first really wanted to start making a habit out of reading, I was after something that would really make me feel something. I didn’t think it was possible for me to really laugh or cry when I read a book. Long books seemed like things that wouldn’t hold my attention for very long – I’d probably get bored and forget to finish it. Then I heard about A Little Life. This book had me on an emotional rollercoaster. I didn’t just cry, I was weeping by the time I finished it. I really got invested in Jude and his three best friend’s stories. Some of the scenes in this book are pretty traumatic and aren’t for the faint of heart so proceed with caution.

✽ Hotel Silence is an Icelandic novel about Jónas who’s at a point in his life where he feels unfulfilled, like there’s really nothing left to live for. When he decides to leave everything behind and do something about it, he reaches Hotel Silence where he finds reasons to keep going. I picked this up initially intrigued by the cover and finished it really appreciating the story and the message it left me with.

✽ This book turned my life upside down. I had heard plenty about Girls to the Front prior to finally picking it up. The Riot Grrrl movement was revolutionary in itself, but reading in to Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile, Sleater-Kinney, and more really inspired me. Maybe it was good timing, but this book really helped me put things in to perspective.

✽ Pretend I’m Dead is one of the weirdest books I think I have in this mix. I never really jumped at this book on my shelf. It was another one of those that I picked up because I thought it looked pretty cool and the blurb on the back seemed interesting enough. This book is strange in all the right ways. You’ll meet 24-year-old Mona, who cleans houses and volunteers at a needle exchange. Throughout the book we meet different people that help Mona find her place in the world. This one is purely entertaining from start to finish.

✽ The hype surrounding this book checks out. Normally I’m not a huge fan of stories that follow families through the generations, but this one proved me wrong. In Homegoing, we follow two Ghanaian sisters as they’re separated at birth and brought up in different villages. One sister will marry into a fortunate, luxurious life in the Cape Coast Castle and the other will be imprisoned in the same castle – ultimately sold into slavery. Through eight generations you’ll read of “slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed [and] how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.”

✽ If I didn’t already love Carrie Brownstein watching Portlandia, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl made me idolize her even more. Following Girls to the Front, I’ve become increasingly fascinated by all of the women in music throughout the nineties and early two thousands. Reading about Carrie’s experiences in music and her many words of wisdom made this book hard to put down. I would highly recommend this book to anyone in the mood for a really great music memoir.

✽ Speaking of music memoirs, Girl in a Band is Kim Gordon’s. It seems like the music memoirs I gravitate toward kick off at some sort of an end for the person who wrote it (this one being Sonic Youth’s final show). However, Kim takes us back to her childhood in the sixties/seventies – to the NYC art scene – Sonic Youth – to her marriage and split with Thurston Moore – motherhood – Body/Head – and more. Tons of familiar names are dropped in this one which make it all the more interesting.

✽ Next, the first and admittedly only manga I’ve ever read – Solanin. This was recommended to me as a music/band/gig lover. Reflecting back on it, this book is totally relatable and thoroughly enjoyable. You’ll meet Meiko who felt stuck in her day job, so she quits in hopes for something more. She convinces her boyfriend to do the same and start up his old band which she inevitably joins. This book will be a pleasure to read because I feel we all have been in the same spot as Meiko sometime in our life. Definitely a manga that showed me no genre is off limits.

✽ I found myself contemplatively stopping multiple times with Too Much and Not the Mood. Durga Chew-Bose’s writing really creatively inspired me and my writing. It’s the sort of book that made me feel really close to the author, like we were akin to each other. A lot of things really made sense in this one and I didn’t want it to end. It’s hard to really go in to detail with a collection of essays, but each essay had something notable to offer. Even if you don’t necessarily relate to what Durga has to say – I love this book so much I would recommend it to anyone.

Saving some of the best for last – I have two favorites by Robin Sloan. I completely feel his writing would be enjoyable for anyone. I normally don’t really gravitate toward fantasy or magic-filled books, but these two are exactly the kind of magical realism I can immerse myself in. Everything that takes place in both stories are more imaginatively entertaining than a far-fetched reach into make-believe. Both are situated in the Bay Area (San Fransisco/Silicon Valley), which was bonus points for me because I always fantasize living around there.

Mr. Penumbra follows an out-of-work Clay Jannon as he picks up the night shift job at an eccentric bookstore with some curious clientele with rather bizarre purchasing patterns. Clay is inclined to track these books and ultimately uncovers something even more mysterious. Sourdough is about exactly what the title and this cover infer – sourdough bread. Lois Clary is your typical nine to fiver working for a robotics company – exhausted by the time she gets home. She begins to frequently order from a neighborhood restaurant with a delivery service and becomes well-acquainted with the operating brothers. With visa complications, the brothers of Clement Street Soup and Sourdough have to close shop and entrust Lois with their sourdough starter. Once Lois starts baking loaves and loaves of bread, everything begins to change as her life of technology and food begin to merge.

Ultimately, if you’re looking for a safe and cozy feel-good book to tuck in to and enjoy from start to finish – I’d argue either of these two are the way to go.

Whew, putting this together seemed like I was biting off a little more than I could chew for a bit. I really wanted to make it apparent why I enjoyed each title I mentioned here without plainly saying “HEY! I liked this and I think you would too!” BECAUSE GENUINELY I think you might too! Later on I want to try and take note of what I really enjoyed in books moving forward and writing this all out for you helped me realize why.

When reading a book I’m easily captivated and I think sometimes I spend a lot of time relishing in the luxury of it; but I realize now that really expanding on why and recording my thoughts will help me improve my explanations looking back on them. A lot of the time someone will ask me what book they should read so I’ll give them a title and forget the specifics of why I loved it so much. It’s easy to remember that I liked a book because it triggered an emotional response or I blew through it or I was in awe at points – BUT moving forward just know that I’m ready to deep dive in to some more books when it’s time.

Let me know down below what books you love

or your thoughts on any of these!

my must reads In 2019, I want to bring more books to the blog! For starters, it's about time I compiled a list of some of my personal favorites that I think everyone should read.

#books #must reads

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downloadebooktrue · 4 years ago

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Full Pages Artisan Sourdough Made Simple Practical Recipes & Techniques for the Home Baker with Almost No Kneading [PDF] DOWNLOAD READ

Download Or Read This Ebook at:

http://read.ebookcollection.space/?book=1624144292

Download/Read Artisan Sourdough Made Simple: Practical Recipes & Techniques for the Home Baker with Almost No Kneading Ebook

information book:

Author : Emilie Raffa

Pages : 207

Language :eng

Release Date :2017-10-24

ISBN :1624144292

Publisher :Page Street Publishing

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Many bakers speak of their sourdough starter as if it has a magical life of its own, so it can be intimidating to those new to the sourdough world; fortunately with Artisan Sourdough Made Simple, Emilie Raffa removes the fear and proves that baking with sourdough is easy, and can fit into even a working parent s schedule! Any new baker is inevitably hit with question after question. Emilie has the answers. As a professionally trained chef and avid home baker, she uses her experience to guide readers through the science and art of sourdough. With step-by-step master recipe guides, readers learn how to create and care for their own starters, plus they get more than 60 unique recipes to bake a variety of loaves that suit their every need. Sample specialty recipes include Bacon, Shallot & Black Pepper Bread, Blistered Asiago Bread, Cranberry Apple Cider Bread, Overnight Cinnamon Rolls, Share n Tear Garlic Rolls and Fool-Proof Focaccia with Rosemary.With the continuing popularity of the whole foods movement, home cooks are returning to the ancient practice of bread baking, and sourdough is rising to the forefront. Through fermentation, sourdough bread is easier on digestion often enough for people who are sensitive to gluten and healthier. Sourdough Made Simple gives everyone the knowledge and confidence to join the fun, from their first rustic loaf to beyond.

#epub

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easyfoodnetwork · 5 years ago

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Welcome to the Culinary Barter Economy

Photo-illustration: Eater

COVID-19 has led to a growing number of people trading food like sourdough starter and flour with their friends and neighbors

Until about a month ago, Ari Koontz had never traded food with their neighbors in Providence, Rhode Island. But when Koontz decided to leave part of an extra-large batch of chocolate chip cookies on their neighbors’ doorsteps, they received cornbread and other cookies in return. “It was so wonderful to experience this kind of full-hearted reciprocity,” Koontz says — so much so that they began looking for more opportunities to trade. Soon, Koontz was running all over the neighborhood, swapping baguettes, sourdough starters, and pepper seeds for oranges, herbs, and dried beans.

At my own house, in Seattle, a recent Costco impulse purchase of a two-pound bag of active dry yeast quickly became worth its weight in gold. While I happily gave it to anyone who needed some, friends and neighbors kept asking if there was anything they could give me in return. I accepted leeks from a garden, homemade granola, and malt powder for making bagels.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, the television writer Jess Dweck joked that “2020 sounded like the most futuristic year and now we’re all like ‘I traded my neighbor a handkerchief for some carrots.’” More than 70,000 people liked the tweet — most likely because more than a few of them had been busy trading cloth masks for baking powder or bread for milk.

As people have tried to cut down on grocery store trips (and their associated anxieties) since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, trading with neighbors has become an easy, low- or no-contact way to acquire that one missing ingredient for a recipe, find suddenly elusive supplies like yeast, or share brownies that can no longer be brought to an office. And so the informal bartering and trading of ingredients and food has mushroomed, with people using social media networks like NextDoor, Twitter, and Buy Nothing to ask for that pinch of cinnamon or give away extra lemons. “Yeast is selling for like $30-$70 online — does anyone want to trade us yeast,” wrote Twitter user Tori Hinn, who prefaced the request with, “[A sentence I would have never typed one year ago].” In public Facebook groups, posts using the terms “barter” and “trade” during March and April increased more than 250 percent over the same time period last year.

“Barter already appeals to millennials and Gen Z,” says Julie Smith, a principal at the consulting company Point B. These generations, which make up about half the U.S. population, share dresses through companies like Rent the Runway and Armoire, swap baby clothing on Buy Nothing, and purchase resale or upcycled goods on Etsy. This predilection for sharing and reusing, combined with easy access to large groups of neighbors via social media, meant that bartering was already part of life for many in the U.S., and thus poised to catch fire long before the pandemic lit the fuse.

But the instinct to trade during hard times follows a deeply entrenched pattern of human behavior that reasserts itself whenever a country endures a large-scale change to its fortunes. “Uncertainty leads people to conserve cash,” explains David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, citing such examples as hyperinflation in Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

Bartering has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing.

While Ortega isn’t surprised that informal trading has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s quick to point out that the pandemic is of a very different nature and scale than these other crises — and that its particular circumstances have created anxieties around food, not cash. “We are not running out of food,” he says, but the switch from eating at work, school, and restaurants to eating at home has led to shortages of certain items. “It’s not as easy as shifting delivery trucks from restaurants to a grocery store in a very short time frame,” Ortega explains. That, along with the tendency of many nervous shoppers to buy in large quantities, and supply chain disruptions related to sick workers, has created what are called stock outs. As a result, some people end up with plenty of flour or yeast, but miss other supplies that their neighbors have.

Still, Ortega says that the gaps in the food supply chain aren’t the only explanation for why we barter. By sharing access to food, he explains, people feel they can connect with a friend or neighbor. “You go to the store, then call a friend and say, ‘Hey, I found eggs, do you need any?’” Bartering, in other words, has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing.

This kind of connection has resonated with Koontz, who was laid off from their job because of the pandemic. Trading has become “not just an act of kindness,” they say, but also — despite Koontz’s own lack of financial resources — “a way to feel like I was supporting my community.” For these reasons, they hope that the bartering trend is here for the long run. “Not just for me personally,” they say, “but [I hope that] our wider communities will continue exploring creative and non-capitalist ways to support one another in times of need.”

While Twitter users may joke about the novelty of bartering (insert Little House on the Prairie punchline here), the practice is hardly new to many communities. Rebecca Adamson, an Indigenous economist and the founder and president of First Peoples Worldwide, a global nonprofit organization, notes that against the backdrop of the pandemic, “we can see the Western economy taking on the lessons or values of an Indigenous economy.” In the former, wealth is often synonymous with money, while the goal of the latter is for everyone in the community to survive and thrive.

Indigenous economies accomplish this through collaboration and cooperation, valuing “the collective efficacy of community,” Adamson says — “much like what we are seeing in the public response to COVID- 19.” While she laments the lack of traditional exchange networks in the market economy, she sees elements of them reflected in the efforts of many people to create barter and trade networks to provide child care, hair styling, garden and farm produce, gourmet foods, carpentry, entertainment, and more. “By mitigating the influence of cash in a community,” Adamson says, “the value of social benefits can be maximized.”

But bartering is generally a short-term fix in times of economic turmoil, Ortega says: When things get even worse, people turn to more extreme solutions, such as parallel currencies, which allow for more flexibility than direct trading. That said, he doesn’t think this new uptick will vanish anytime soon. And so he has a few words of wisdom for anyone interested in participating in the informal culinary barter economy. There’s a reason that “most people begin by trading with the people they know,” Ortega says: They trust that they’re not getting old yeast or spoiled milk. For that reason, he recommends that aspiring barterers also stick with people they know and trust. “Now,” he says, “is not the time to be paying a visit to the ER for a foodborne illness.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2WcU4bm https://ift.tt/3fzq4hi

Photo-illustration: Eater

COVID-19 has led to a growing number of people trading food like sourdough starter and flour with their friends and neighbors

Bartering has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2WcU4bm via Blogger https://ift.tt/3bfG3On

#Blogger #cooking #Eater #food #recipes

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viralnewstime · 5 years ago

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After a five-year wait, Purity Ring are back with their latest album, Womb. The Canadian duo – comprising Megan James and Corin Roddick – first formed in 2010, releasing their debut full-length Shrines in 2012 to exceptional critical review. The second single from the album, ‘Fineshrine’ currently has more than 58 million streams on Spotify, was named one of the best songs of the decade so far by Pitchfork, and made it onto triple j’s Hottest 100 for 2012.

The group’s second album Another Eternity was released in 2015. Another Eternity featured single ‘Begin Again’, which came in at number 87 on the triple j Hottest 100 for 2015, and currently has over 25 million Spotify streams.

Vocalist Megan James tells Music Feeds she hopes the forthcoming album “feels like a place where people can rest and sit in and feel some kind of comforting escape for the brief time that it runs for.”

In this interview, we have a chat with James about the band’s creative process for the album, her personal favourite tracks, and how she’s holding up during quarantine.

Music Feeds: You guys have mentioned that Womb “chronicles a quest for comfort and the search for a resting place in a world where so much is beyond our control”, which seems pretty relevant to what we’re experiencing right now. What were you thinking about, specifically, when creating this album?

Megan James: Yeah, as it happens, it is applicable. I feel like, it’s odd how applicable it is right now. Mostly I think that’s just because we made the record from home and like, made a conscious decision to stay home a lot, whereas a lot of times throughout the previous records, we would travel somewhere together and like, go on some kind of writing trip. But yeah, I felt like, after touring Another Eternity – which was extensive, like, we toured for a really long time – we both needed a lot of space after that, to sort of like, come back to ourselves, and I think staying home to write this record sort of was born of that feeling. It’s like, we want to be home as much as we can ‘cause as soon as we’re done we have to go tour again.

So, yeah, I feel like that really played into it. Like, I am the kind of person who absorbs a lot from my environment, and therefore my home becomes a place where… how it feels and like, what’s in it and yeah, what it feels like it encompasses is really important to my creative process. A lot of that was like, a major part of just how this ended up being. It wasn’t like, that conscious what the record ended up being about, that’s like, more I guess how the personal poetry of the past five years of my life, it just so happens. But I think overall it was just staying home, and needing to for our creative process.

MF: This album was entirely recorded, produced, and mixed by yourselves. How was that process different from previous albums where maybe you had other people mixing or helping out in different ways.

MJ: Well, it’s not actually that different. Like, we usually… we have always done everything ourselves. I guess for our third record it was something we did more decisively, ‘cause it’s a lot easier to get things done faster, especially living in LA, it’s like… if you have a problem it’s really easy to call someone up and get it solved. I dunno, that’s never our go-to because we have, like through our creative process over the years we’ve realised that if it’s not coming from, exclusively from the two of us, it doesn’t feel like Purity Ring anymore. Also, it’s just sort of like a DIY mentality that we’ve always had. It’s like when we started making music, we did what we had to, like, it was all in Corin’s basement where we recorded, and then it was like in the living room in the Montreal apartment, and now it’s in the spare bedroom [laughs] at our house.

And it’s not because we could do anything differently now, necessarily. Like, we’re not at the stage where we can like, have the big studio and have like, all the gear and make a bigger deal out of it or whatever. It’s just like, what we’ve always done. But this time Corin did mix it himself. He mixed the Shrines record, and then we had someone else mix Another Eternity, and then he wanted to do it again this time, which was a big deal, it’s a lot of work. But yeah, it comes at the end. So, the writing process is all pretty much the same with how it has been.

MF: Do you have a personal favourite track from the album?

MJ: It actually changes. For a long time, it was ‘Rubyinsides’, I really like ‘Rubyinsides’. Corin’s favourite is ‘Sinew’, definitely. When we finished the record, I really liked ‘Vehemence’. Like, I wasn’t sure about it before and then I really liked it. It’s funny how it comes together. You don’t always know what it’ll look like at the end and it’s often unexpected. I mean, obviously we like all the songs, they made it to the record but, yeah, how my initial reaction to them traverses quite a lot over the process of making it.

MF: What’s your favourite lyric that you’ve ever written, across any of the albums?

MJ: Hm, that’s a really hard question. I don’t remember a lot of them, honestly. Like, I don’t really look back or listen.

MF: Or maybe from this album, if it’s easier?

MJ: Yeah, maybe from this album it would be… I think, there’s a bit at the… I think the end of ‘Femia’ is my favourite thing. That gets stuck in my head a lot and I feel like it has the elements of poetry that I am usually aiming for, in a very compact way. It just feels really satisfying.

MF: How are you planning on spending your time during this quarantine/isolation period of our lives?

MJ: Well, like I said, I spend a lot of time at home to begin with. Work from home is like… it’s funny though, ‘cause like, all of my creative process is already here and then, since the quarantine started, I’m having a harder time than ever actually being creative. I didn’t realise how much I’d have to wrap my head around what’s happening, even though it’s like, it feels like I’m alone but I know I’m not, but also… I dunno, it’s like, it’s developing into a thing that… it’s so big and so real that it is really hard to know what to do with it but I feel like we have to do something with it, otherwise, we won’t get anything done [laughs].

I don’t know, I have a lot of… I’ve been sort of going through phases, and initially, I was like, this is great, I’m gonna like, start a sourdough starter – which has been two weeks, it’s going great – I can make bread. I’m growing sprouts. I’m like, doing all these sort of, self-sustaining things so that I don’t have to go to the grocery store I like planted potatoes [laughs]. Working at all these things that will just like, maintain being able to stay inside longer.

But then it’s like… I’m fortunate enough to be okay, with where we’re at right now, but it feels like survival mode. I guess one thing I could say though is, I do really appreciate how everyone’s first instinct was sort of to like, help each other. In the first week of quarantine I got more phone calls from like, distant friends to like, have a Skype hang or whatever than I ever have before and it’s like oh, everyone’s really thinking about each other. It gave me a lot of hope for whatever the new normal is.

MF: Yeah. I think that’s very accurate though, about the reduced motivation to do things. I’ve definitely been feeling that as well, in a weird way.

MJ: Really?

MF: Yeah, like even with writing and stuff, I’m like, I’ve got to do it but… it’s hard. When the world feels like it’s almost falling apart, it’s hard to get motivated. I dunno, it’s weird.

MJ: Yeah, it’s like… It’s so heavy that you can’t hole up and pretend it’s not there. Because like, it’s affecting everyone anyway. It’s hard to define at this point.

MF: It is. I’m sure in the future there’ll be lots of stuff about it written.

MJ: Oh yeah. But also, I just hit this point where… it got heavier recently. Like, I started feeling more emotional than I was the first couple of weeks, so, I don’t know about you, but I’m like… it’s starting to hit harder.

MF: No, for sure. I think that’s definitely a thing.

MJ: Like, it’s beyond cabin fever, it’s like… whoa, what is happening? I feel like, crazy in a way I’ve never felt before, so I don’t know.

MF: Yeah, ‘cause the first week or two it’s new and it’s different, and then you get a bit further in and it’s like oh, this isn’t ending, this keeps going…

MJ: And it’s like, shifting still, because it doesn’t end… We’ll see though, I hope we’re all okay.

MF: So do I. Are you marathoning any Netflix shows or reading any books during this time that are particularly good?

MJ: The usual. I watched Tiger King, which was great. Also, Crip Camp was a beautiful movie, also on Netflix. That one was very moving for me. And then, I had like, a funny sort of coincidence, I guess. I watched this movie Safe the other night, which is from… I think it was made in ’87, which is right after the AIDS crisis in America, so it’s like, kind of pertaining to that, and it has Julianne Moore. Anyway, the next day, The New Yorker wrote an article about how that movie applies to what we’re going through right now, and it was like… the movie really affected me, and then the next day was this article, and I was like, oh, this is easier to think about, ‘cause it is the kind of movie where it’s like… I was affected but I wasn’t sure why, like, ‘whoa, what just happened to me? I have so many feelings!’. But yeah, that was a really good movie, and on point, weirdly. Kind of like a timeless message, I guess.

MF: Yeah, I find that’s kind of strange as well with like, a lot of media out there, whether it’s albums or movies or books, some of it just weirdly relates to what we’re going through right now, without even… you know, being created years before. Whether I’m just reading too far into it, I dunno.

MJ: No, but like, the first movie I watched when this all started was Contagion, obviously. But that was like, eerie how on the nose it was. So, yeah, there is a lot of entertainment that predicted this. It’s so weird. But also it’s time. Pandemics are… I think the main thing that affects society, and it’s every century or so it happens. We’re kind of like, due for one. Or that’s like… I have read that, I’m not saying that of my own accord.

Actually, the last book I read it was last year at some point. Reading books has been a thing that’s on the list that I procrastinate about. I read The Lost City of the Monkey God, which is like, it’s kind of like, about treasure hunters, I guess [laughs]. Anyway, that was interesting ‘cause it’s also about how they’re… like, they all go deep in the jungle, where people haven’t been for hundreds of years, and they come out with leish[manaiasis], and they all… the virus has been around since the beginning of time, but there’s still no cure and it still exists. I’m not making any sense, but the book’s related to what we’re going through now.

MF: Yeah, I think you’re right. I think it has been shown that every hundred years or so there seems to be something. Who knows why that is…

MJ: Yeah, it’s nerve-racking and we’re in it and there are no answers because there are not many people around who have been through this before.

–

Purity Ring’s new album ‘WOMB’ is out now.

The post Purity Ring’s New Album ‘Womb’ Is A Resting Place In A World Out Of Control appeared first on Music Feeds.

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themanuelruello · 5 years ago

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How to Make Your Own Sourdough Starter

Flour and water. That’s all you need to make your own yeast in the form of a homemade sourdough starter. With just a little bit of patience and this simple recipe, you’ll have a starter that will decrease your dependence on the grocery store and help you make the most amazing sourdough breads, pancakes, crackers, brownies, and more.

Sourdough captured my imagination way back at the beginning of my homestead journey.

I actually found a little post-it note in one of my old recipe books that said the date of my first sourdough starter: October 11, 2010, which was right at the beginning of my homesteading adventures here on this blog.

I’ve been doing sourdough off and on since then and have learned plenty along the way. I’ve written about sourdough in my cookbook; I showed you how to make sourdough bread in my heritage cooking crash course; I’ve even talked about sourdough a bunch of times on my Old Fashioned on Purpose podcast.

(If you’re wanting my full in-depth video tutorials for sourdough, fermentation, canning, gardening, and more, I’ve bundled them together for a short time for an extremely low price!)

I’ve had some massive sourdough failures over the years. I’ve made the classic brick loaf that you can use as a paperweight or a doorstop. I’ve had loaves that taste way too sour or have an odd texture that no one wants to eat.

I’ve killed plenty of sourdough starters. I’ve cooked a sourdough starter by accident. I’ve let the sourdough starter die on the counter. I’ve neglected it in the fridge.

Through trial and error over 10 years of sourdough making, I’ve failed many times at sourdough, but I’ve also learned plenty of handy tips and methods to make successful sourdough recipes.

Today I’m going to show you how to make your own sourdough starter with nothing more than flour and water.

You don’t need a purchased starter and you don’t need to add extra ingredients like yeast, fruit, or sugar. This is as easy at it gets, my friend.

What is a Sourdough Starter?

Sourdough is simply naturally leavened bread that is made with wild yeast captured from the air. This method has been around since the beginning of time.

Using a sourdough starter does not mean your bread has to end up being super sour. Much of the sourdough bread you find at the store isn’t true sourdough. It’s often made with regular yeast and has other flavors added to make it sour.

So even if you dislike the taste of grocery store sourdough bread, there’s still a good chance you’ll enjoy homemade sourdough bread.

A real sourdough starter does not require commercially-bought yeast to get started. A true sourdough starter is simply made by combining flour and water and letting it sit for several days to either “capture” wild yeast in the air or to get the wild yeast already in the flour to become activated.

(There’s a LOT of passionate debate as to whether the wild yeast is present in the air or in the flour. I suspect it’s probably both…)

After a few days, your newly-formed sourdough starter will start bubbling, which tells you that the wild yeast is starting to become active and multiply. In order to keep that wild yeast happy, you have to feed the sourdough start with fresh flour and water over the next few days.

After about a week, your sourdough starter will be super bubbly and ready to be used.

What is Wild Yeast?

Wild yeast is all around us. It’s in the air, on your hands, in your food, in your bags of flour…yeah, it’s everywhere. Since the very first humans who discovered you could make bread from water and ground grains, wild yeast has been used for leavening.

The commerical store-bought yeast we are accustomed to seeing in grocery stores only replaced wild yeast for making bread because it’s easier for companies to make and sell. It’s also easier for bakers to store and use commerical yeast.

So, if store-bought yeast is indeed a little easier, why make your own sourdough starter with wild yeast?

Not only do I love making my own sourdough starter because I think old-fashioned living and homesteading is awesome and worthwhile, but I think that bread made with wild yeast is all-around better…it makes a superior tasting bread with a better texture that is easier for us to digest.

Not to mention, yeast isn’t super easy to find at the grocery store right now…

Fortunately, capturing wild yeast is super easy to do. If you prepare to watch rather than read, here’s my video showing how to capture wild yeast and start your own sourdough starter.

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The Health Benefits of Real Sourdough Bread

Real sourdough bread has impressive health benefits for your family. The biggest health benefit with real sourdough revolves around the fact that sourdough is a fermented food.

Like other fermented foods, sourdough bread is wonderfully nutritious. As your sourdough bread dough ferments, proteins are broken down into amino acids for you, so your digestive system’s job becomes much easier.

As a result, your body is able to snag more nutrients out of the bread, since it’s easier to digest. It makes your bread more digestible, and sometimes folks who have issues with regular bread can tolerate sourdough.

Fermentation also helps to preserve food, meaning sourdough bread often has a longer shelf life than homemade breads made with commercial yeast. That’s because the fermentation process creates all sorts of organic acids that resist fungus. Basically, it’s harder for mold to grow on sourdough.

The fermentation process also breaks down the phytates, or anti-nutrients, present in wheat. This allows your body to absorb more of the vitamins and minerals in the flour.

So the fermentation process creates all kinds of beneficial nutrients in your bread, then it also makes those nutrients extra easy for you to digest. It’s one of the reasons why I love eating fermented foods (by the way, if you love fermented foods, check out my tips on how to use a fermenting crock.)

How to Make Your Own Sourdough Starter

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour* (*see notes)

All-Purpose Flour

Non-Chlorinated Water

Instructions:

Step 1: Mix ½ cup whole wheat flour with 1/2 cup water. Stir vigorously, loosely cover, then let sit for 24 hours.

Step 2. Add ½ cup all-purpose flour and ¼ cup water to jar, and stir vigorously. (You want the starter to have the consistency of thick pancake batter. If it is too thick, add more water.) Loosely cover, and let sit for another 24 hours. You should hopefully begin to see bubbles in your starter at this point, but if not, don’t give up yet.

Step 3. Discard half of the starter, then feed again with ½ cup all-purpose flour and ¼ cup water. Stir, loosely cover, and let sit 24 hours.

Keep repeating Step 3 until the starter doubles within 4-6 hours of you feeding it. If you still aren’t seeing any bubbles after several days of this process, it’s probably best to dump out and start over.

Once the starter is bubbly, active, and doubling consistently after each daily feeding, it’s ready to use in your recipes! (This usually happens between days 7-10.)

Sourdough Starter Notes:

Using whole wheat at the beginning gives your sourdough starter a jump start (it contains more microorganisms and nutrients, which will make your new starter especially happy).

Keep your sourdough starter at least 4 feet away from other cultures (like kombucha or sauerkraut) to avoid cross-contamination.

Don’t use chlorinated water to feed your starter. If you have chlorinated city water, you can work around this problem by allowing a jar of water to sit out overnight (uncovered) for 12-24 hours. This will allow the chlorine to evaporate.

The key to successful sourdough bread is using the starter in the proper stage of activeness — this will prevent you from ending up with sourdough bread bricks. Most people run into issues because they try to use barely active starter to make full-rise breads.

How to Care for a Sourdough Starter

Storage For Frequent Use: If you plan to use your starter every day (or every other day), it’s probably best to keep it on the counter and feed it daily. To do this, discard half of the starter each day, then feed it a 1:1:1 ratio — 1 part starter to 1 part water to 1 part flour (in weight).

You can get super technical and weigh this out with a scale, but I prefer to keep it simple. I usually discard all but about ½ cup of the starter and then feed it with 4 ounces flour (a scant 1 cup) and 4 ounces water (½ cup).

Storage For Intermittent Use: If you’ll only be using your sourdough once or twice a week (or less), you can keep it in the refrigerator. This will prevent you from having to feed it daily (and ultimately using a lot of flour!).

To transfer a starter to the fridge, first feed it as you normally would. Let it sit out for one hour, then pop it in the fridge (covered). It’s best to continue to feed it weekly in the fridge, if you aren’t using it much. However, I will confess, there have been times I’ve sorely neglected my starter for many weeks and even months and I was still able to revive it.

To Wake Up a Cold Sourdough Starter: To prepare a dormant sourdough starter for baking, bring it out of the refrigerator at least 24 hours before you need to use it. Discard half of the starter, and feed it the 1:1:1 ratio explained above — 1 part starter to 1 part water to 1 part flour (in weight).

Repeat this every 12 hours or until the sourdough starter becomes active and bubbles within 4-6 hours of feeding (this likely will take 2-3 rounds). If you need a larger quantity of starter for baking, or you’re planning on doing a big baking day, you can bulk it up by skipping the discard step in each feeding.

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How to Make Your Own Sourdough Starter

Making sourdough starter is super easy because it only takes a few simple ingredients: flour and water. With just a little bit of patience and these tips, you are gonna end up with a happy and healthy starter that’s going to make you some of the best tasting sourdough breads, pancakes, crackers, brownies, and more.

Author: Jill Winger

Category: Sourdough

Method: Baking

Cuisine: Bread

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Flour* (*see notes)

All-Purpose Flour

Non-Chlorinated Water

Instructions

Mix ½ cup whole wheat flour with ¼ cup water. Stir vigorously, loosely cover, then let sit for 24 hours

Add ½ cup all-purpose flour and ¼ cup water to jar, and stir vigorously. Loosely cover, and let sit for another 24 hours. You should hopefully begin to see bubbles in your starter at this point, but if not, don’t give up yet.

Discard half of the starter, then feed again with ½ cup all-purpose flour and ¼ cup water. Stir, loosely cover, and let sit 24 hours.

Once the starter is bubbly, active, and doubling consistently after each daily feeding, it’s ready to use in your recipes!

Notes

Using whole wheat at the beginning gives your sourdough starter a jump start (it contains more microorganisms and nutrients, which will make your new starter especially happy)

Keep your sourdough starter at least 4 feet away from other cultures to avoid cross-contamination.

The key to successful sourdough is using the starter in the proper stage of activeness — this will prevent you from ending up with sourdough bread bricks. Most people run into issues because they try to use barely active starter to make full-rise breads.

Sourdough Starter Troubleshooting: Your Questions Answered

Here’s some of the most common questions I get asked about sourdough. Feel free to add your own questions to the comments below.

How do I know when my sourdough starter is ready to use?

Here are the top signs that a sourdough starter is ready:

It is doubling in size

There are bubbles in it

The texture is fluffy and foamy

There is a pleasant tangy, sour aroma

If you place a teaspoon of start in a cup of cool water, an active starter will float on top

Why do I discard part of the sourdough starter?

By step three of the sourdough process, you start to discard half of the starter. This might cause alarm for some of you, and I understand, because I don’t like wasting things either. However, at this point, if you keep feeding it without discarding some of it, the starter is going to get enormous and start taking over your kitchen.

If you don’t discard some of it, you end up having to add more and more flour to make the ratio correct. Since we don’t want to waste flour, it’s actually less wasteful to discard part of the early sourdough starter. At this point in the process, the starter isn’t super sour and it’s not very fermented so you aren’t get those fermented food benefits either.

You can make some small sourdough pancakes if you want, or you could give some to a friend to get some more people passionate about making bread. Otherwise, you can feed it to your chickens or put it in your compost pile.

What do I do with my sourdough starter discard?

Once your sourdough starter is active and bubbly, you’re gonna end up with sourdough discard. Besides making bread, I’ve got a bunch of sourdough discard recipes in my Prairie Homestead Cookbook. I also talk a bunch in my podcast about my favorite ways to use sourdough discard.

Help! My sourdough starter isn’t bubbly and active yet!

Sometimes you might feel panicky if you’re on day 4 or 5 and you’re not seeing bubbles in your sourdough starter yet. My first tip would be to be patient. Wait at least 7-10 days before you decide if your sourdough starter isn’t active. Sometimes it just takes time.

You can also look at the following things to help your sourdough starter:

Warmth. Check if your kitchen is drafty or cool. If it is, try moving your sourdough starter to a warmer location. You don’t want to put it in direct sunlight or on the stove where it can scorch, but try to move it closer to a heater or warm source in your house.

Flour. If you’re not seeing bubbles after a week, try using a differenty variety or brand of flour.

If you’re still not sure if your starter is active enough to successfully be used in baking, place 1 teaspoon of the starter in a cup of water. If it floats, you’re good to go! If it sinks, it’s still not active enough and needs more time.

Help! I’m getting sourdough bricks instead of bread!

I’ve been there. Most likely you’re doing what I did. I always had this problem when I was impatient and didn’t let my starter get active and bubbly enough before I tried to make my bread. If that doesn’t solve your problem, there is another factor to consider: your dough may need a little more water or a little more time to rise.

Also, my sourdough tends to be a bit “heavier” than my other breads. By its nature, sourdough a hearty bread, but I like it that way. If I’m in the mood for a light, fluffy loaf, I’ll make an easy sandwich bread recipe with more yeast and a shorter rise time.

Can I use a different flour for a sourdough starter?

You can use whole wheat, all-purpose flour, rye, einkorn, and many others for a sourdough starter. If this is your first time making sourdough, I suggest using whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour in the way I wrote in my recipe. This ratio tends to behave very well for me compared to other techniques I have tried in the past.

I have not personally made a gluten-free sourdough starter, but I know it’s possible. This gluten-free recipe from King Arthur flour looks promising.

Should I use buy a sourdough starter or use part of my friend’s sourdough starter?

Generally, I just go with the simple method mentioned above and skip the commercial sourdough starter packets, but you may go ahead and purchase a starter online if you like.

If you have a friend with a starter, you can absolutely grab a little bit of culture from them as use that instead of starting from-scratch.

Help! I am so overwhelmed with the different methods mentioned online for starting sourdough!

I would suggest that you pick a method and you just go with it. Whether that’s my sourdough starting method or someone else’s, you will drive yourself crazy trying to take something from all of them. So just pick one and odds are you’ll be just fine. They all kind of work out the same.

In the end, we just all have different preferences and little things that we do. I personally use flour and water to start my starters. There are also dehydrated sourdough starters that you can buy online and those are an option if you want. There are other people who suggest sugar and grapes and potato flakes, and I’ve just never ever found those things to be necessary.

So I just keep mine super simple and I personally have not had issues with it. Will you have some bumps along the road in your sourdough experimentation? Probably. But just shake it off and keep going. The end result is worth it– and quite tasty.

More Heritage Kitchen Tips:

Simple Bread Dough with Commercial Yeast

The Ultimate Guide to Canning Safety

A Guide to Quick Pickled Vegetables

Tips for Cooking From Scratch With Limited Time

How I Find Meal Inspiration When I’m Stuck in a Rut

The post How to Make Your Own Sourdough Starter appeared first on The Prairie Homestead.

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guitarsun40-blog · 6 years ago

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25 French Recipes for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving isn’t a thing in my own very French family, but I have many American friends in Paris who do celebrate it.

They usually host their special meal on the Saturday following the actual Thanksgiving Thursday, since French companies and schools don’t consider it a holiday (obv.).

A few years ago, it was a real challenge to find a whole turkey to roast in Paris in November — easier around Christmas — but Parisian butchers have gotten the memo, and have started advertising turkeys to their American customers, in varying levels of English. Ordering in advance is a must. (If you’re nervous about this, read my tips on Paris butcher shops.)

Through my extended family and friends, I have been fortunate to partake in a few Thanksgiving meals over the years, on both sides of the Atlantic. The feeling of warmth and the amazing food are not soon forgotten.

And when I am invited, I like to contribute dishes that are both French in spirit, but fit nicely into the Thanksgiving traditions.

So here are my suggestions of French recipes for Thanksgiving, if you want to add a little Gallic flair to your all-American celebration. Did you know French settlers actually preceded the Mayflower Pilgrims by several decades in holding the first Thanksgiving service in the New World?

Roasted Bird

One of my favorite ways to roast any kind of poultry is to butterfly it (see: how to spatchcock a chicken), removing the backbone and flattening it. This method yields a perfectly roasted, moist bird, and takes less time than roasting it whole.

If you don’t quite feel up to roasting a turkey (I’m not a fan myself, and doubt one would fit in my oven anyway) I think heritage birds are just as festive, and pay homage to the original chickens brought in by the first Spanish explorers.

Here are my favorite French chicken recipes to feed a crowd:

Muriel’s Chicken

I love this recipe for its simple, foolproof method. All you need is a few quality ingredients and the patience to let them cook slowly.

Spatchcocked Chicken Under a Brick

One of my favorite spatchcocking methods, this recipe uses a heavy object placed on top of the chicken as it sears to create perfect crackly skin. The best part? It only takes 45 minutes total.

Salt-Crusted Chicken

The salt crust on this chicken allows it to cook in its own juices, and also offers some flexibility when it comes to cooking time — a must if you’re hosting a holiday meal.

Chicken in a Bread Crust

Looking to truly make an impression? Try this two-in-one French recipe, perfect for Thanksgiving: the bird is tucked inside a bread crust, that you can then use to mop up all of the flavorful cooking juices.

Vegetarian Main Dish

Of course, modern-day Thanksgivings don’t require turkeys as much as they used to, and vegans and vegetarians can feast on more than just sides and Tofurkey. If you’re seeking a good vegetarian French recipe for Thanksgiving, quiches are very versatile and can be easily veganized (here are my vegan quiche filling recipe and my olive oil tart crust recipe.)

I love to make roasted onion quiche and greens and walnut quiche, and either option will be a lovely centerpiece on your plant-based Thanksgiving table.

(My book The French Market Cookbook also has many French vegetarian recipes that would work splendidly as a part of your menu. Check it out!)

Sides

As we all know, Thanksgiving meals are all about the sides. When does one ever get so many choices, so many colors, so many textures, all homemade with love?

Swiss Chard Gratin

With a creamy (and vegan) béchamel sauce, this Swiss chard gratin is easily adapted for other vegetables and has a luscious consistency, but it’s the subtle hint of nutmeg that seals the deal.

Spaghetti Squash Gratin with Walnut and Bacon

This gratin allows the spaghetti squash to really shine as a gourd of its own, you know?

Elbow Macaroni with Comté and Spinach

A grownup(ish) version of mac ‘n cheese, with an extra serving of greens.

Potatoes

The comforting effect of potatoes, regular and sweet, can never be overstated, and no holiday meal can be without them.

40 Irresistible Sweet Potato Recipes

Is there even such a thing as a Thanksgiving without sweet potatoes? I didn’t think so. Here is a compilation of inventive and irresistible ways to prepare sweet potatoes — without a marshmallow in sight.

Gratin Dauphinois

This creamy French classic features thinly sliced potatoes and the special trick that promotes even cooking and tip top browning.

Perfect Mashed Potatoes

I know, I know. Everybody claims to have the key to perfect mashed potatoes. Just trust me on this one.

Celeriac and Sweet Potato Soup

Perfect as an opener, or served with post-feast leftovers. It’s impossible to say no to a warming, nutrient-packed soup on a cold day, right?

Vegetable Sides

Roasted Savoy Cabbage

Winter vegetables just beg to be roasted, and Savoy cabbage is no exception!

Saffron Roasted Cauliflower

This inspired pairing of cauliflower and saffron does just as well warm or at room temperature, making it an easy addition to your holiday spread.

Chicken Family Green Beans

Inspired by my favorite (sadly defunct) rôtisserie in Paris, these green beans eschew fried onions in favor of fresh.

Zucchini and Mushroom Crumble

The combo of tender vegetables and crisp top is the perfect side for any and all.

Mâche Salad with Endives and Beets

This cold-weather salad is a great option for a lighter side full of color and flavor, or as a refreshing first course that won’t spoil your appetite.

Bread

If you happen to maintain a sourdough starter (and I mean, who doesn’t these days?), forgo the rolls and opt for a sourdough loaf or baguette that will (literally) sing with flavor. They can be made ahead and frozen, so you can bake them the weekend before and just refresh them in the oven when you’re ready, to revive the crust.

Sourdough Bread

This impressive loaf will be oh-so picturesque on your dining room table. Also: turkey sandwiches!

Sourdough Baguettes

I can’t have a list of French recipes for Thanksgiving without a baguette, right? Skip the papery, oversized store-bought ones and whip this one up chez vous.

Dessert

Caramelized Apple Tarte Fine

A truly truly easy twist on the classic American apple pie, featuring a delectable caramelized crust and thinly sliced seasonal apples. (And one of my most popular recipes on Chocolate & Zucchini by far! Find out what the fuss is about.)

Easy Tart Tatin

Turn your apple pie upside down — literally — with this classic French tatin.

Quince Almond Cake

A lovely fall cake that is moist enough to please at the end of the meal, or can be saved for your morning-after brunch.

Melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate Cake

If you have qualms about chocolate cake not being a super traditional Thanksgiving dessert, just add pecans.

Crème Caramel

Individually plated desserts add an extra dash of elegance to any meal, and this cute French dessert is easy to make ahead as well.

Looking for more French recipes for Thanksgiving?

I enjoyed these dish selections from SAVEUR and Epicurious.

Source: https://cnz.to/recipes/round-ups/french-recipes-thanksgiving/

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easyfoodnetwork · 5 years ago

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Photo-illustration: Eater COVID-19 has led to a growing number of people trading food like sourdough starter and flour with their friends and neighbors Until about a month ago, Ari Koontz had never traded food with their neighbors in Providence, Rhode Island. But when Koontz decided to leave part of an extra-large batch of chocolate chip cookies on their neighbors’ doorsteps, they received cornbread and other cookies in return. “It was so wonderful to experience this kind of full-hearted reciprocity,” Koontz says — so much so that they began looking for more opportunities to trade. Soon, Koontz was running all over the neighborhood, swapping baguettes, sourdough starters, and pepper seeds for oranges, herbs, and dried beans. At my own house, in Seattle, a recent Costco impulse purchase of a two-pound bag of active dry yeast quickly became worth its weight in gold. While I happily gave it to anyone who needed some, friends and neighbors kept asking if there was anything they could give me in return. I accepted leeks from a garden, homemade granola, and malt powder for making bagels. Meanwhile, on Twitter, the television writer Jess Dweck joked that “2020 sounded like the most futuristic year and now we’re all like ‘I traded my neighbor a handkerchief for some carrots.’” More than 70,000 people liked the tweet — most likely because more than a few of them had been busy trading cloth masks for baking powder or bread for milk. As people have tried to cut down on grocery store trips (and their associated anxieties) since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, trading with neighbors has become an easy, low- or no-contact way to acquire that one missing ingredient for a recipe, find suddenly elusive supplies like yeast, or share brownies that can no longer be brought to an office. And so the informal bartering and trading of ingredients and food has mushroomed, with people using social media networks like NextDoor, Twitter, and Buy Nothing to ask for that pinch of cinnamon or give away extra lemons. “Yeast is selling for like $30-$70 online — does anyone want to trade us yeast,” wrote Twitter user Tori Hinn, who prefaced the request with, “[A sentence I would have never typed one year ago].” In public Facebook groups, posts using the terms “barter” and “trade” during March and April increased more than 250 percent over the same time period last year. “Barter already appeals to millennials and Gen Z,” says Julie Smith, a principal at the consulting company Point B. These generations, which make up about half the U.S. population, share dresses through companies like Rent the Runway and Armoire, swap baby clothing on Buy Nothing, and purchase resale or upcycled goods on Etsy. This predilection for sharing and reusing, combined with easy access to large groups of neighbors via social media, meant that bartering was already part of life for many in the U.S., and thus poised to catch fire long before the pandemic lit the fuse. But the instinct to trade during hard times follows a deeply entrenched pattern of human behavior that reasserts itself whenever a country endures a large-scale change to its fortunes. “Uncertainty leads people to conserve cash,” explains David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, citing such examples as hyperinflation in Zimbabwe and Venezuela. Bartering has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing. While Ortega isn’t surprised that informal trading has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s quick to point out that the pandemic is of a very different nature and scale than these other crises — and that its particular circumstances have created anxieties around food, not cash. “We are not running out of food,” he says, but the switch from eating at work, school, and restaurants to eating at home has led to shortages of certain items. “It’s not as easy as shifting delivery trucks from restaurants to a grocery store in a very short time frame,” Ortega explains. That, along with the tendency of many nervous shoppers to buy in large quantities, and supply chain disruptions related to sick workers, has created what are called stock outs. As a result, some people end up with plenty of flour or yeast, but miss other supplies that their neighbors have. Still, Ortega says that the gaps in the food supply chain aren’t the only explanation for why we barter. By sharing access to food, he explains, people feel they can connect with a friend or neighbor. “You go to the store, then call a friend and say, ‘Hey, I found eggs, do you need any?’” Bartering, in other words, has provided a way for people to get closer to one another even during a time of required social distancing. This kind of connection has resonated with Koontz, who was laid off from their job because of the pandemic. Trading has become “not just an act of kindness,” they say, but also — despite Koontz’s own lack of financial resources — “a way to feel like I was supporting my community.” For these reasons, they hope that the bartering trend is here for the long run. “Not just for me personally,” they say, “but [I hope that] our wider communities will continue exploring creative and non-capitalist ways to support one another in times of need.” While Twitter users may joke about the novelty of bartering (insert Little House on the Prairie punchline here), the practice is hardly new to many communities. Rebecca Adamson, an Indigenous economist and the founder and president of First Peoples Worldwide, a global nonprofit organization, notes that against the backdrop of the pandemic, “we can see the Western economy taking on the lessons or values of an Indigenous economy.” In the former, wealth is often synonymous with money, while the goal of the latter is for everyone in the community to survive and thrive. Indigenous economies accomplish this through collaboration and cooperation, valuing “the collective efficacy of community,” Adamson says — “much like what we are seeing in the public response to COVID- 19.” While she laments the lack of traditional exchange networks in the market economy, she sees elements of them reflected in the efforts of many people to create barter and trade networks to provide child care, hair styling, garden and farm produce, gourmet foods, carpentry, entertainment, and more. “By mitigating the influence of cash in a community,” Adamson says, “the value of social benefits can be maximized.” But bartering is generally a short-term fix in times of economic turmoil, Ortega says: When things get even worse, people turn to more extreme solutions, such as parallel currencies, which allow for more flexibility than direct trading. That said, he doesn’t think this new uptick will vanish anytime soon. And so he has a few words of wisdom for anyone interested in participating in the informal culinary barter economy. There’s a reason that “most people begin by trading with the people they know,” Ortega says: They trust that they’re not getting old yeast or spoiled milk. For that reason, he recommends that aspiring barterers also stick with people they know and trust. “Now,” he says, “is not the time to be paying a visit to the ER for a foodborne illness.” from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2WcU4bm

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