Assignment 6

Discovering the History of Our Foods
A Uniquely Colonial Potluck

Assignment #6
Due November 1, 2006

I know a sense of wonder when I begin to learn the history of how I eat. I begin to understand I am not the all-powerful, self-determining eater that I think I am. The foods I eat are not just what I have chosen. Many many others have shaped my city, my state, my country, my world, and my universe long before I started eating the cuisine I grew up eating in my mother’s dining room. (See note.)

I also know that sense of wonder when I understand what it took for people to eat the things I eat every day and when I become aware of dishes others ate regularly but I have never tried. I am so small. All human beings have not eaten and lived just like me. I am not the standard by which all other diets are judged. There is mystery in seeing outside of my narrow framework bounded by the time in which I live.

Our assignment this week…

Find a recipe that colonists or Native Americans in early America would have made. Learn a little bit about that particular dish. Bring the dish to our potluck next week. We’ll tell each other about the dish we’ve made!


**Note: Sallie Tisdale’s book, The Best Thing I Ever Tasted first introduced me to this realization.

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