Of the Week: Fresh, Local, Seasonal — It's Not Hype

What I'm reading, writing, and cooking

Reading

I finished Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds by Yemisi Aribisala a little bit ahead of schedule for discussion with Alicia Kennedy’s book club. I’m reading a digital ARC of Jillian Luft’s debut novel Scumbag Summer (House of Vlad Press) which seems to be sold out everywhere I can find it. After listening to Alejandra Oliva talk about immigration on the podcast You’re Wrong About I’m returning to her book Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration (which is out in paperback on June 18!)

Writing

My interview with Victoria Blanco about her new book Out of the Sierra: A Story of Rarámuri Resistance (Coffee House Press) is live on Orion Magazine’s website — read it here! From my introduction:

In Out of the Sierra: A Story of Rarámuri Resistance, author Victoria Blanco asks, “What does it mean–physically, spiritually, and emotionally–to exit a system that is bound with the natural world and enter one that is actively working to destroy it?” As she details the ongoing displacement of the Rarámuri people of Chihuahua, Mexico, one of the largest Indigenous tribes of North America, Blanco’s years of rigorous field research and observation bring a clarifying light to the issues of forced migration, capitalism, and water hoarding in the desert.

Cooking

I tried a new (to me) way to buy local produce and ordered an XL box from Anita’s Area Farms which they delivered to my front door ($20 minimum). I added on eggs and strawberries. They source produce from different local farms and the goods were gorgeous. Money notes: The XL box was $35, the strawberries $16 for two pints, and a dozen eggs for $8. They didn’t charge for delivery.

the contents of the XL box

OK, but the berries. The smell rising from the carton was so strong I was transported to a strawberry field. Even I, who will always agree that local and seasonal is better, was stopped in my tracks — Wow, these are so quantifiably better than the industrial agriculture strawberries. Anyone quibbling over this would be stopped mid-sentence if I handed them the carton. The berries were a wider range of sizes, and the small, almost round (cherry tomato-like) ones were my favorite. They were without the white ring around the stem and the verging on cardboard taste and texture of the “standard”strawberry. Strawberries from a grocery store often don’t have any smell at all. Or, they smell like the rest of the store — clean nothingness. If I put my nose right up to these other, seasonless, berries I might get a faint whiff of strawberry. But we all deserve more perfume than that.

In the last week I’ve made caramelized onions, salads, egg scrambles with the onions and other greens, roasted carrots, and a tray of roasted peppers and chickpeas (which I turned into hummus). I also made crispy tofu (just cut into cubes and fried on both sides) to eat with rice and kimchi. But the highlight of the week was the strawberries that we ate plain.

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The Good Enough Weekly comes out every Friday, alternating an essay with Of the Week. I also take on freelance editing and writing projects. Reach out if you’re looking for help in those departments — I’ve worked on everything from zines to textbooks. More info here. My zine of adapted Irish fairytales, Desert Pookas, is available for preorder now!