What I'm Reading: October



What I'm Reading -- October 2011

The first book for October is "Where Our Food Comes From," Gary Nabhan's account of retracing the footsteps of Russian plant biologist Nikolay Vavilov. Professor Nabhan takes the reader on multiple journeys to the origins of many of our common foods. From apples to grains, from palms to peanuts, from the Po Valley to Kazkhstan to the desert southwest of the U. S., Mr. Nabhan adds his curiosity and inquiry to the growing body of literature about where seeds and plants come from. Mr. Nabhan, an ethnobiologist, works out of the University of Arizona in Tucson and is co-founder of Native Seeds/SEARCH, a 501.(c)(3) organization located in Tucson that is dedicated to preserving, educating and growing native seeds. 

If you have read Michael Pollan's "The Botany of Desire" and Mark Bittman's "Food Matters," then you will find Mr. Nabhan's book as yet another aspect of the evolving food and agriculture concerns today. Also, since this blog is written for my father, Stan Hayes, I am hoping that Dad will chime in on the comments with some reflections about the years when his father, Carl Q. Hayes, raised seed in Wisconsin as Valley Drive Seed Farm. Help me out, Dad! I remember that Grandpa Hayes raised oats seed, but I can't remember much else.

Speaking of seeds, my sister Heidi sent me an email recently that details the financial difficulties of the Landreth Seed Company in Pennsylvania. This company is facing extinction due to a number of factors, one of which is the decline in consumer demand. That means, simple, there aren't enough customers calling Landreth for their products. Take a look at their website, Landreth Seed, and see what they have to offer. I ordered 10 of their catalogs and plan to pass them around to my gardening friends this winter.

Landreth has shipped seeds to every American president from Washington through FDR. They introduced the zinnia from Mexico to the U. S. Since most of the large seed houses are owned by vertically integrated corporations, Landreth and seed banks/companies like them deserve attention and support.

The second book on my October reading list is "The Leisure Seeker" by Michigan writer Michael Zadoorian. Mr. Zadoorian steps into the persona of an older woman, a cancer patient, whose husband has Alzheimer's. Together, husband and wife set off from Detroit to Los Angeles in their old motor home along Route 66. The story of their family, their marriage, and of the narrator's strong will to be human makes this novel a fine "what if" about the aging process in America.

I don't read a lot of fiction, but I did really enjoy Mr. Zadoorian's wry descriptions of aging and his wonderful portrayal of these two adventurers. The book jacket calls the two main characters "down-on-their-luck geezers." The book is a fascinating look at end of life.

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler

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NOTE: "What I'm Reading" was supposed to be a monthly blog post highlighting books of interest. The first "What I'm Reading" was published in January. Here's the second one. I will try to get back on track with this occasional review of books. As before, keep in mind that I love reading, use a Kindle daily, but also love to hold a book and savor the page turning and the graphics on paper.

NOTE 2: Today's blog post is being uploaded late on Saturday, Oct. 1. Normally I have the post up and ready at 7:00 AM EDT. Ed and I are in slow mode, due to his bout with pneumonia and this little story. When we arrived at the lakehouse late in the afternoon yesterday, we discovered that a power outage had left our side by side frig/freezer without power. After an hour plus orgy (maybe that's too strong of a word) of garbage disposal and wiping down, the frig crisis was muted. We ate simple broiled sandwiches (turkey, avocado, tomato, mozarella on Murphy's wheat bread) for supper and watched the Tigers-Yankees game, which was a rain out in the second inning.

To quote my Texas friends, today I'm "tarred!"