Category Archives: Food
FREE RANGE: FOOD, NATURE, PLACE, AND MORE
Most memorable meals, take four: oysters and earthquakes
As some of you know, Heather and I have spent the last two weeks in a rented cottage in Point Reyes Station, about an hour north of San Francisco. This is, I think, the longest vacation the two of us … Continue reading
The meaning of meat
“It is true, I came as near as is possible to come to being a hunter and miss it, myself….” (Henry David Thoreau) I spent last weekend in the company of six heavily armed women at Madroño Ranch. Don ’t worry; … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged bison, Dai Due, deer, farmers markets, feral hogs, Henry David Thoreau, hunting, Jesse Griffiths, Madroño Ranch, meat, Morgan Angelone, Sarah Palin, Sir Paul McCartney, Tink Pinkard, vegetarianism
3 Comments
Food science: Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, and the Old Testament
When I was in seminary, my Old Testament professor Michael Floyd spent some considerable time and effort trying to disabuse us students of the thought that we were somehow more spiritually advanced than our ancient Israelite ancestors who codified the … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged C. P. Snow, food science, Gastronomica, Leviticus, Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, processed food, purity codes
1 Comment
Meat and flourishment: carnivorocity, take three
The Color of Atmosphere: One Doctor’s Journey In and Out of Medicine. After describing a flummoxing patient she had as a second-year medical student, Kozel said, “[I] devoured the answers without asking the right questions.” Of course, if you’re obsessive … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged bison, climate change, guns, Joel Salatin, meat, Polyface Farm, prophets, Thunder Heart Bison, vegetarianism
1 Comment
Bloody hands: bison harvest at Madroño Ranch
The very first fruits (though “fruits” hardly seems the right word) of our very first bison harvest are ready to sell, but getting to this point has been a long and sometimes frustrating process. The last stages of that process … Continue reading
Getting to good food
Happy New Year! This week, sparing no expense as we recover from the excesses of the holiday season, we have once again secured the services of a top-shelf guest blogger. In this post, Tito Kohout reflects on some of the … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged Fiesta Mart, fish sticks, pork and beans, rugby, sustainability, Wendy's
1 Comment
Meat and unmediated experience: Deer School at Madroño Ranch
At lunch the other day, a friend opined that too much of what we all think and see and hear—and, yes, eat—passes through various filters (the media, agribusiness) before it reaches us; even our air is conditioned, he added, though … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged Dai Due, deer, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, hunting, Madroño Ranch, meat
7 Comments
Most memorable meals, take three: giving thanks
“There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk.” (M. F. K. Fisher) The day after Thanksgiving, when we’re all still riding that tryptophan high, seems like an appropriate time to resume our … Continue reading
Barbers, bison meat, and the invisible hand
I was back in my shiny new persona as salesperson last week, driving out to all the dude ranches around Bandera in hopes of scaring up a market for the hundreds and hundreds of pounds of bison meat we will … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged Adam Gopnik, Adam Smith, bison, community, economics, The New Yorker, Wendell Berry
2 Comments
Most memorable meals, take two: a lobster tale
We’re in England and off the grid this week, but we have spared no expense in securing the services of a guest blogger, the lovely and talented Elizabeth Kohout. In this post, the second in what we hope will be … Continue reading