The explosive growth of the local food movement is hardly news: Michael Pollan’s books sell millions and the spread of farm-to-table restaurants is practically viral. But calls for a “food revolution” come most often from a region where the temperature rarely varies more than a few degrees. In the national conversation about developing a sustainable and equitable food tradition, the huge portion of our population who live where the soil freezes hard for months of the year feel like they're left out in the cold.
In Winter’s Kitchen reveals how a food movement with deep roots in the Heartland—our first food co-ops, most productive farmland, and the most storied agricultural scientists hail from the region—isn't only thriving, it's presenting solutions that could feed a country, rather than just a smattering of neighborhoods and restaurants. Using the story of one thanksgiving meal, Dooley discovers that a locally-sourced winter diet is more than a possibility: it can be delicious.
Industry Reviews
Praise for In Winter's Kitchen
"Dooley does much more than recycle familiar arguments for eating local; she personalizes the path from farm to fork with heart and skill. Unapologetically sentimental, deeply informative, and always practical . . . In Winter’s Kitchen is essential reading."—Wall Street Journal
"Through her passionate yet straightforward and enticingly simple prose, Dooley invites us to share in her bounty. Like any good book about food, In Winter’s Kitchen inspires us to cook."—Kansas City Star
"A beautiful writer. In Ms. Dooley's world, 'kids drank cider because milk was reserved for making butter and cheese.' And we get to meet neighbors like Atina Diffley, who dropped out of a music conservatory at age nineteen to grow food, 'and who calls on all of us to reclaim our land, our food, and power over our lives.' Certainly a message to love."—Huffington Post
"Beth Dooley has written the book we need, a collection of stories about the foods we eat in winter, the season that is so often ignored, as if it doesn’t count somehow, or even exist. Part memoir and part serious food study with beguiling but essential recipes, a wonderful work!"—Deborah Madison
"That Beth Dooley is a dynamite cook and journalist is a given in my book. She’s the expert who is deep in the trenches with the farmers, the artisans, hunters and the gatherers, and every important dimension of food today. With this book you get outstanding recipes and get Beth sharing her stories, people, and insights."—Lynne Rossetto Kasper
"Beth Dooley’s In Winter's Kitchen is a reflection on the way that we become at home in the world, by coming into deep relationship with our food, our farmers, our family, and the land. Each chapter celebrates the relationship between land and culture, from Anishinaabek wild rice to Hmong sweet potatoes. Her warm prose invites you to the kitchen table and reminds you of what we’re all really hungry for: connection. I wanted to linger with the lush images, ripe with memory and mothering."—Robin Wall Kimmerer
"Beth Dooley creates culture in the kitchen, connecting readers, farmers, and food in the soup pot of biological diversity. Knowing where we are by the food we eat was the reality of the past and is the trend of the future. In Winter’s Kitchen is a fascinating read; cultivating the knowledge we need to make diverse, local food a reliable reality—the most crucial task of our time. Read this book, and pay attention as if life depends on the truth it contains. It does."—Atina Diffley
