Book Club

It is with sadness that we bid farewell to the Mississippi Market book club. They are bowing out after poor attendance numbers. With everything that must pass we should remember to take something with us. I suggest that we work hard to encourage friends and acquaintances to see the value in reading and community. Book clubs are an opportunity not only to learn, but to turn that learning into thought and action. Let us take this moment to set aside the time to fully support the Linden Hills Coop book club in Minneapolis and the Harmony Coops book club in Bemijdi!

Prepare yourself book club aficionados. July is offering unprecedented opportunities for lots of great reading. Our three book club participants are all reaching out in different directions this month. Join the Linden Hills Coop as they kick off their book club with Hungry Planet, by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio. Mississippi Market will be reading the book Food Inc. by Karl Weber, and will be showing the film at their end of the month meeting. If you are in the Bemidji area, join Harmony Cooperative as they read Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber, and will watch the documentary film based on the book.

What do a memoir about farm life and a photo-diary of the world’s eating habits have in common?  Why, they’re both June Simple, Good, and Tasty Book Club Picks, of course!

Instead of choosing between Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet by Catherine Friend and Hungry Planet: What the Word Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio, our book club planners have decided to go with both of these fantastic books.

Coming up on Thursday, June 30th:

Author Wendell BerrySpring, glorious spring! As our farmers’ markets start to ramp up for the season, our Simple, Good, and Tasty book club pick reminds us to stay in tuned with the who, what, where, and how of our food.  Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food, by Wendell Berry, is a collection of essays about farms, farming, and eating throughout our modern history with food.

It's book club time again! Tonight we're gathering to discuss My Life in France at Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op’s Selby location from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. and near Harmony Co-op in Bemidji from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. 

Paris in the 1950’s. Le Cordon Bleu. Food in France. It’s a good thing these book club posts aren’t supposed to be objective, balanced journalism. Turns out I tend to like pretty much any book that has to do with making, eating, or enjoying food. (I guess that's not all that unusual here on SGT, right?) But when you add Julia Child, France and her beautiful, delicious story into the equation? Forget it -- I’m in love.

What would you do to really make a difference? Would you give up most seemingly “normal” trappings of modern city life to create the ultimate experiment?

February’s Simple, Good, and Tasty Book Club pick focuses on author Colin Beavan and the year he spent trying to do as little damage to the environment as possible. Beavan eventually spun that year into a book (and accompanying film) entitled No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process.

New year, good intentions, resolutions. So, how are YOU doing?

Nearly a month into 2011, I’m thinking a bit about the intentions I had way back at the start of the new year (experiment with more vegan recipes, eat more veggies in general, and understand more about the food system and related politics), and checking in with myself on how things are going. One of the best things about working with food on a daily basis is that I don’t have to make an excuse to set aside time for these things. With little effort, I can get right to the core of the subject.

Our first book club first pick of 2011, Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat, tells the stories of women working towards eating and farming sustainably. Author Temra Costa writes about the relationships, nurturing, and inventiveness that women bring into the “delicious revolution” that is happening in our food world. Join us on January 27 at Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op from 7:00 - 9:00 pm or in Bemidji (near Harmony Co-op) from 5:30 - 7:30 pm to dig into these stories.

Selfishly, I found myself super excited when this month's book club pick was announced. I'm a huge Molly Wizenberg fan -- she of the successful blog Orangette and the amazing, go-to recipe collection, and she of the blogger-turned-author fad that has swept the nation these past few years. I guess I just love her natural, homey, chefy, and Frenchy vibe -- and apparently I'm not alone. Wizenberg's practical. She's cheeky. She leads with her taste buds. She seems like someone I'd enjoy sharing a bottle of wine with. And, to be completely honest, I've also got a girl crush on her for parlaying her blog into a book deal. I bought this one the week it came out. You go, Molly!