Coming Full Circle with Nourishing Traditions

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and Diet Dictocrats has been my go-to kitchen resource for many years.  Although it was published in 1995, I didn’t get my hands on a copy until about 5 years later.  And, actually, that was a good thing.  

Are you ready to question contemporary nutritional thought?

In 1995, I wasn’t in a place in my life to appreciate all of the incredible information it contained; I wasn’t ready.  Instead, I learned about Nourishing Traditions about the same time I started to become interested in raw milk, ancestral foodways, and fermentation.  Once I opened the book I quickly realized how valuable it was and, over the next few years, I cooked (and read) my way through the entire thing.  That book was my introduction to Sally Fallon Morell, Weston Price, and the Weston Price Foundation.  

Making the Connection

10 years after I cooked my first dish from Nourishing Traditions, I met Sally in person for the first time.  I was a new faculty member at Washington College and was teaching my newly created freshman seminar class called, Food, People and the Planet.  Amongst other assignments, to successfully complete this class the students had to spend the semester creating a multi-course meal that they served at the college president’s house just before finals.  And, they had to do it entirely from scratch using traditional approaches!  This meant that they were making cheese, butchering, fermenting, curing, and the list goes on and on!

Each student was assigned a topic that was the focus of their research the entire semester and the results of that research were to be presented on the night of the meal through the food they created!  In between each course the students provided brief descriptions how their research topics were conveyed through the food in order to contextualize the meal for the diners.

An Evening to Remember

I was so confident that this was going to be a special meal, I invited Sally to the dinner.  After all, she had such an influence on my approach to food and I knew she would enjoy it.  Not only did she come, but she followed the meal with a presentation on campus at Washington College to both the college and local community!  I can only imagine how special it was for the students to serve Sally a meal they had literally poured their heart and souls into over the course of an entire semester.  This meal was so special, in fact, that it was covered by the Washington Post and, it became a mainstay in my teaching arsenal and I repeated a version of this class and meal almost every year I taught at the college.

Coming Full Circle

So, you can imagine how honored I was to take the stage this year at the 22nd annual Wise Traditions Conference of the Weston A Price Foundation and for me and Christina to have a booth in the vendor hall for the Modern Stone Age Kitchen and Eastern Shore Food Lab.  This past weekend we shared our Eat Like a Human message and offered our nourishing food, swag, and classes.  This year’s conference took place in Knoxville, TN and boasted 1,500 attendees and over 100 vendors.  The entire weekend was filled with connection, conversation, learning, inspiration, and nourishment.  

An added bonus . . .

I met a relative at the conference that I didn’t even know I had.  And, it turns out she has been a part of the Weston A Price Foundation since its inception!!!  Her name is Monica Corrado and you need to check her out: https://simplybeingwell.com/.  She is a strong advocate of traditional foodways, chef, writer, speaker, certified GAPS practitioner, and the list goes on and on!  We had a great time together learning about each other’s work and how much we have in common!  We are already scheming about future collaborations . . .

Doing what we love

Christina and I drove the 9 hours home last night exhausted but fulfilled.  We had just spent three days straight inspiring and getting inspired; sharing knowledge and learning from others; eating nourishing foods; engaged in nourishing conversations; and doing what we love – together.  It doesn’t get better than that.