Alison's soup

Until recently, the word "sustainability" didn't hold any meaning for me. I kept thinking about housing material, or recycling my electronic doo-dads--all many great actions people can take to minimize our impact on the resources that we all should be sharing on the planet. Then in a wonderful, odd convergence of experience, I came upon a more personal understanding of what it means for me. It all started wtih Alison's soup.

Two years ago my family ate better than ever when the "Mom brigade" brought us food 3 times a week during my chemotherapy. If you have to go through breast cancer treatment, it doesn't hurt to have friends who are gourmet cooks, or like my dear friend and neighbor, Alison, a chef of some fame. Alison loves food the way I imagine Michaelangelo loved stone. Though Alison is known as an experienced and talented chef of in our area, she's mostly famous at our house for being David's mom and someone with the biggest heart in the smallest body you've ever met. She is also acclaimed by our youngest son as an expert on latkes.

During those days, though, she made soup--broths, vegetable laden soups, hearty stews, whatever was fresh and in season went into the pot. Also, on weekends for something to do, she would take me to the Farmer's market. While strolling around talking about the food, she would take photos of the produce (click on the one shown here), talk to the vendors, and smell everything--adding to my appreciation for fruits, vegetables, and locally produced meat and eggs.

At the same time all this was going on, I was making my way sloooooowwwwwwllllyyyy through Michael Pollan's, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I usually am not a zealot, but, seriously, I think everyone ought to read this book--if not for the eye-opening look at the evolution of our relationship to food, then for the sheer enjoyment of his wonderfully written accounts of the mushroom hunter culture or the most beautiful description of a meal with friends that I have ever read or imagined. Anyone who can keep me reading a book over many months with paragraph after paragraph of detail about the food we eat is a genius. And, I'm not the only one who thinks so.

All at once, having Alison love me back to health with food, and reading Pollan's quest for the heart of food, I was getting a look at food in a way I had never thought of it before--as a cycle, as a system, and most of all, as an expression of love. So my definition of sustainability is love: Love for who and what sustains us--the earth, the growers, the people we share food with. Such love inevitably engenders a strong desire to love and act in a way that reminds us to care, share and preserve.

I asked Alison some questions about sustainability and food, and you can read what she had to say here.

For a great article about Alison's work introducing healthy food to a large hospital system here.

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