Emergence Magazine’s sixth issue explores monastic cuisine, soils and seeds, ancestral recipes, legacies of displacement, nourishment, and the cultural power of food.
What we eat touches every aspect of human life and is a daily reminder that we are part of an intricate, living world. The stories in this issue delve into the diverse worlds and complex histories of food and eating: mushrooms in Cambodia’s Areng Valley, Peru’s papas nativas, ancestral seed bundles, the fight for food justice from a farm in upstate New York, the dark earths of the Amazon, the culinary traditions of Black Appalachia, Hmong squirrel hunter’s stew, the ancient processes of fermentation, the legacies of the black-eyed pea, and the wondrous world of soil.
Wendell Berry’s prescient essay, The Pleasures of Eating—first published in 1989—is presented here with a new introduction from chef and food activist Alice Waters. And the 28-recipe cookbook, Seasons of the Monastic Table, invites you to gather people together to celebrate the seasons through a shared meal.
Voices and contributors include chefs Alice Waters, David Zilber, Vilma Luostarinen, and Michael W. Twitty; farmers and food activists Leah Penniman, Rowen White, and Wendell Berry; writers Jay Griffiths, Crystal Wilkinson, Lisa Lee Herrick, Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder, and Emma Marris; photographer Beth Evans and filmmaker Kalyanee Mam.