One of my favorite books this year. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I conceptually know that because the climate is changing, foods are going to become more scarce as they attempt to shift to cooler zones, but never really thought about those plants that can’t move — they must be grown exactly where they are.

Lohman’s book explores what these foods are and what they mean to the people who grow and rely on them. But it’s also an indictment on American agriculture. As we’ve shifted to more convenience foods as a society, we’ve lost traditional ways of cooking, or farmers shifted to more profitable crops rather than heirloom varieties and animals. And that’s nothing to say about pushing indigenous peoples from their lands such that they cannot as easily eat traditional foods and the preparation of such is being lost for later generations. How do we save them and even do we attempt to are two important concepts that are missing from the food landscape.

I will likely never try some of the foods she discussed, but we’re at least trying to plant runner beans this year in an attempt to do our small part.

This book is an excellent introduction to the world of endangered agriculture. Though sometimes it feels like her explorations drift slightly too far off course, Lohman does an excellent job of opening up readers’ eyes to something they’ve likely never thought about before.

Culinary historian Sarah Lohman travels across the US to take a deeper look at endangered foods and traditions, as well as their cultural and historical significance. From specific foods, to animal breeds, to a sustainable fishing method, it's not just about the foods but also the way they are incorporated into people's lives and what it would mean to keep them going. Lohman covers the origins of the food or method, the history of why the food was impacted, how the community used them, and what the current status is. Her focus in this book is more about awareness rather than solutions. Overall, a well-researched look at foods and traditions across the US and the way communities are impacted by the food's disappearance.

Endangered Eating is the latest by culinary historian, Sarah Lohman. The foods she writes about in Endangered Eating are produced or prepared in unique ways that as the title suggests may not be around that much longer. Lohman picked the food she covered from the Ark of Taste a project that encourages biodiversity and tries to prevent losing unique foods due to industrialization, genetic erosion, climate change, and migration.

It was fascinating to learn about foods such as variety of dates unique to California and sugarcane in Hawaii. I had visited a date farm and sampled fresh sugar cane juice in Australia, but had never before considered how those foods might have uniquely American counterparts. Lohman also examines a special Native American fishing practice, reef net fishing that was developed by the Straits Salish people, and the unusual Navajo-Churro sheep breed by the Dibé people, as well as Anishinaabe wild rice, and Choctaw Filé Powder, which is a classic ingredient in gumbos. I was most interested to learn more about the Heirloom Cider Apples that were once ubiquitous in this area of North Jersey and New York before Prohibition.

Recipes are included for each of the ingredients she writes about and I’m curious to try the dishes such as a date shake, The Bright and Sunny Cocktail, gumbo, and the Charleston Groundnut Cake, based on a treat from circa 1855 for use with Carolina Africa Runner Peanuts, one of America’s oldest cultivated peanuts. I’m planning to include one of the cider cocktail recipes for my Thanksgiving meal with my family and friends; what better way to celebrate our country’s bounty than with some uniquely American dishes.

I received an an advance copy of Endangered Eating from Netgalley and the publisher in order to provide you with an honest review.

A journey through a sampling of America's Ark of Taste, Sarah Lohman's Endangered Eating: America's Vanishing Foods presents a travelogue of tasting and micro histories of eight foods at the brink of extinction. To eat them is to help save them, and Lohman learns many a skill taking part or observing the catching, butchering, harvesting or preparations of the featured foods.

The book begins with an explanation of the title, "What is endangered eating?"defining terms as well as Lohman's journey with the Slow Food Movement and the Ark of Taste ("a living catalog of delicious and distinctive foods facing extinction"). Lohman began this project prior to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as is made clear in the text. For each of the eight foods detailed here, Lohman shares both her first hand experiences with preparing the food, eating it and the origins and development of the food along with how its existence became precarious. Lohman relied upon both traditional research methods in archives and libraries, but also interviewed many of the present day practitioners. Each chapter also includes at least two recipes. Foods covered are Coachella Valley Dates, Hawaiian Legacy Sugarcane, Dibé Navajo-Churro Sheep, Sxwo'le Straits Salish Reefnet Fishing, Manoomin Anishinaabe Wild Rice, Heirloom Cider Apples, Kombo Hakshish Choctaw Filé Powder and Carolina African Runner Peanuts.

It is in the food history's that Lohman becomes truly expansive. The foodways represent cultural change, commercialization and the racial or genocidal history of America. Each of the foods has a common path or narrative. All of them were stable and relied upon, some with specific peaks in popularity or wide acceptance before something occurred to place barriers in their usage and they fell to the fringes or were practically disappeared. In their resurgence or less well known continued usage, was fueled by food movements or the interest of the curious or food historians and scientists. It is the barriers that are most telling in this history,especially those tied into the history of American expansion, almost always to the detriment of the indigenous peoples through land loss, forced relocation or broken treaties. This history comes up for most of the foods. All of it to show, as is demonstrated in many other books, what and how we eat matters.

A thoughtful expansive food history tied to both the present, past and future. Beyond just the materials referenced, the book also includes sections for further reading. Recommended for anyone interested in food, recipes or history.

A look into the endangered foods of America. I thought this would be more analysis but it was more of a chapter by chapter overview of various foods that are endangered. If I had known the format more beforehand, I probably would have enjoyed this more. It was still interesting though!

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

Slow Foods International has complied a catalog of important regional foods and food-production procedures that are endangered around the world. Culinary historian Sarah Lohman explores select items from that list, traveling around America to find out the real history of the food and how it's being kept alive today.

The trip is absolutely fascinating. Her tone is personable, the subject matter immersive. She's frank about how things such as climate change, colonialism, and capitalism have impacted which foods are popular and which ones die off.

In California's Coachella Valley, she examines how dates came to the state, how it was advertised using Arabic fantasy and biblical motifs, and how the industry gets by today. In Hawaii, she visited modern farms that continue to grow sugar cane, and discusses how canes came to Hawaii and how the sugar industry has changed through white settlement to only recently cease, and how people are trying to perpetuate older varieties of sugar cane.

She roams Navajo lands to butcher Navajo-Churro sheep and meets the Dine who raise and respect the animals who mean much to their people. Among the Lummi in Puget Sound, she sees what traditional reef net fishing is like and how Indigenous people are continuing the fight, legally and culturally, to catch salmon. In the Upper Midwest, she joins tribal members as they harvest manoomin, often branded as wild rice, and shines a light on environmental shifts in the region.

Apple cider has waned in popularity and prevalence over the centuries as religious and cultural norms have shifted, and today people are making a concerted effort to rediscover "lost apples" across America. The Choctaw people introduced sassafras powder to the Creoles of Louisiana, and today very few people continue the old ways of creating file powder for use in dishes such as gumbo. Free Black women sold groundnut cakes on the streets of Charleston, South Carolina, in the 19th century and into the 20th, and now people are trying to bring back heirloom peanuts such as Carolina Runner.

This is a book that will make you think. Past and perpetuated injustices will make you angry--but the way that people are trying to preserve foods, preserve their history and culture, will also make you grateful. Also: this is a book that will make you HUNGRY. Ultimately, the tale is one that encourages conservation so that these foods and their methods can continue to be eaten, enjoyed, and respected.

Inspired to look into foods that are endangered, Sarah leads us on a fascinating journey, part travelogue as she visits where the foods are grown and then dips into the history. Just how did the foods come to be grown there and why are they endangered. Very much a book to dip into over and again

Slow Food International has created the Ark of Taste--a list of foods that are in danger of becoming extinct and should be preserved. There are more than 5000 foods on the list worldwide, 350 of them from the US. In this book, Sarah Lohman sets out to learn more about a few of these foods, travelling to different parts of the country to talk to the people trying to keep them alive. She goes to southern California for a deep dive into dates, Hawai'i for lessons in all things sugarcane, the Navajo Nation, northern Washington, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and the Gulf Coast to learn about the cultural significance of churro sheep, reefnet salmon fishing, mannomin (real wild rice), and file powder (made from dried and pounded sassafras leaves) respectively; to New York and New Jersey to sample cider apples, and finally to the South Carolina low country to discover Carolina African runner peanuts.

This is a wonderful book--each food has a fascinating story that Lohman tells in an engaging and highly readable way. She includes so much information not only about the food, but also about the history of the food in each place, the people for whom it is important, how it fits into the culture, how it is grown, harvested, used and how it tastes. She includes her own experiences harvesting and eating different foods and talks to people who are immersed in each food culture. She does this without getting bogged down in dry prose. It is clear that she has a keen sense of curiosity and interest in this topic and that shines through on every page. Her enthusiasm and respect for the people she is working with are evident and make the book that much stronger.

I loved this book and if the author ever decided to write another book about more of the foods on the Ark of Taste list, I would certainly read that, too! I cannot recommend this book highly enough. 5 stars.

The Ark of Taste, established by the Slow Food organization to highlight foods and ingredients of cultural importance that are in danger of disappearing, contains a number of unique varieties found across America. In this fascinating book, Lohman explores several of those culinary treasures and traditions, from true wild rice (manoomin) to Carolina Runner peanuts to the dwindling variety of dates in California. Her research gives strong historical context for each item, particularly in their connections to Indigenous communities and traditions, and she reveals what is happening now to ensure that these foods will continue to be grown and appreciated. (Recipes are included, too.)

What I really liked about this book was how Lohman grappled with some of the philosophical questions surrounding preserving these foods and traditions. Where foods such as the Navajo-Churro lamb nearly went extinct thanks to the deliberate acts of the U.S. government (as part of the attempted erasure of the Dine), is it ethical now to make this specialized breed more widely available to those outside the Navajo community? Now that the Carolina Runner peanut, once a vital part of Black culinary traditions in the South, is becoming available to growers, is it fair that their price means they are more likely to end up in the hands of white chefs and farmers instead of the Black community members who see these peanuts as a lost part of their heritage? Lohman doesn't reach for easy answers: instead, she raises awareness of the cultural implications of why these foods were nearly lost and why they are finding new life.

A worthwhile read for foodies. 4 stars.

Thank you, W. W. Norton and Company and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

A wonderfully interesting read! In each section, Lohman focuses on a specific harvested crop, raised animal breed, fish (ing method) in danger of dying out, and covers them through a combination of detailed history, her own personal encounters with the people reviving and sustaining these food traditions, and relevant recipes. Not only did I enjoy learning about these selected endangered food ingredients, nearly all of which were new to me, but I particularly appreciated how Lohman doesn’t hold back on the reality that the majority of them come from indigenous communities. Far from it, she goes full tilt with and provides as much information as possible on the various colonization factors that have pushed these foods to the brink of extinction in the very first place. Every single chapter proved to be a whole new unique and jam-packed miniature education, and I was quite happy to devour each and every one of them (pun fully and shamelessly intended).

Overall, it's a simply excellent spotlight on heirloom foods - not only a great lesson on the array of diverse ingredients out there across America, but also does excellent work raising awareness of what's in danger of potentially being lost. This is a book I'd be happy to recommend to those who enjoy great microhistories or food writing, and also those who just enjoy a unique nonfiction read.

Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
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A culinary historian’s investigation of the American food traditions in danger of being lost, and how to save them.

We may think of American cuisine as ever-expanding, but Slow Food USA curates a growing online catalogue of ingredients in danger of extinction. Featuring heirloom cider apples, wild rice, and more, this list provides the impetus for food historian Sarah Lohman to travel across America seeking these rare foods. With vibrant prose and a hands-on approach, Lohman illuminates why we need to preserve these largely Indigenous culinary customs that were nearly eradicated due to colonization.

She travels into the heart the Navajo Nation, where butchering a Navajo-Churro lamb is the first step in the creation of flavorful blood sausages; and to Lummi Island in northwest Washington, where we meet those who are working hard to keep up a traditional, sustainable method of salmon fishing.

Those drawn into this world of highly localized foods will learn how to support the farmers, shepherds, fishers, and other producers by seeking out their products, supporting community organizations, and sharing the stories of these cherished foods.

Decidedly not a cookbook, it will be filed amongst them on our shelves thanks to Mr. Dewey, but it is still a great read. I love reading about old-time foods when life was simpler and how we can bring them back sustainably and preserve our heritage. I loved her previous book Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine and this one did not disappoint. Highly recommended to foodies who are into more than cooking and eating, if you get my drift: this is a treatise on how to keep traditions and their food alive. #shortbutsweetreviews