Lovely Listeners,

We're at the time of year when spring festivals of Passover, Easter, Nowruz, and Ramadan ask us to look deeper at ordinary things. Rebirth is everywhere in stories of survival, redemption, kindness and faith. All you have to do in Southern California right now is walk outside your door, smell the jasmine and look up at the sky to know that each day is an opportunity. 

Eggs are the ultimate symbol. We have heaped layers of meaning on them for millennia. Author Lizzie Stark uses her personal story to explore the cultural history and uses of eggs. Egg: A Dozen Ovatures is "an unconventional history of the world’s largest cellular workhorse, from chickens to penguins, from art to crime, and more."

I can't seem to stop baking, most recently from Irina Georgescu's Tava: Eastern European Baking and desserts from Romania & Beyond. It's a fascinating exploration of baking traditions in the overlapping cultures of Romania. Cheesecake lovers will prize her Easter recipes which are filled with sweetened "curd" or fresh cheese tucked into many doughs and shapes.

Chickens are once again "a thing" as more urbanites decide to build coops and populate them with the charming but problematic feathered creatures. Tove Danovich loves raising backyard chickens, a tradition that dates back to her great-grandmother. Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them, is "an immersive blend of chicken-keeping memoir and culture reporting by a journalist who accidentally became obsessed with her flock."

Perhaps you know someone who ran from the city to an "intentional farming community." The impulse to go "back to the land" waxes and wanes over generations. Most recently the pandemic saw record numbers of people reassessing their lives. Margot Anne Kelley says millennials are the latest generation to embrace this attempt at utopian living. She revisits utopian back-to-the-land movements throughout American history in her book Foodtopia: Communities in Pursuit of Peace, Love and Homegrown Food.

Craig McNamara was one such youth. He dropped out of Stanford, began to travel and found a measure of peace and intention in restorative farming as he grappled with the legacy of his father, Robert McNamara's involvement in the Vietnam War. His book Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family from Vietnam to Today is an urgent read. 

Enjoy your holiday meals with family and friends. 

Evan

The incredible edible egg

"The egg is a powerful symbol," says Lizzie Stark, "they're found in every continent and a universally edible food." She said that eggs were once a more seasonal food since the reproductive cycle of birds was sensitive to light. In her research, Stark discovered that ancient peoples used ostrich eggs as canteens as they moved across the desert while Roman priests kept chickens to make predictions.

“We are a culture of wheat,” says Irina Georgescu about Romanian baking, “Everything that is special is translated into wheat and bread.” And curd cheese, what we call farmer cheese, is integrated into dishes using immature cheeses in the spring that aren’t available at any other time of the year like in this curd pie with sultanas.

Raising chickens runs in Tove Danovich’s family, whose great-grandmother was gifted a coop by her husband as a wedding gift. Her chickens have become Henfluencers, the name of her immensely engaging book.

What’s the difference between a farmer and back-to-the-landers? For Foodtopia author Margot Anne Kelley, farmers work on large scale, industrial projects. Self-sufficiency and using regenerative practices on a small scale distinguishes those wanting to be free of societal constraints.

The memoir Because Our Fathers Lied chronicles the relationship between Craig McNamara and his father, one of the architects of the Vietnam War. When he dropped out of Stanford, he spent the next two years on the road, traveling and working the land before buying a walnut farm in Northern California, where he has become an advocate for regenerative practices.

We have a Passover recipe roundup for you in case you're running out of ideas. Several are recipes I've used for years.