Food manipulated for your convenience
Having worked in many kitchens, I’ve heard tons of infuriating stories of cheap food being transformed with an overwhelming degree of manipulation and over-packaging. To a point that when you finally do get the product unwrapped it often has the nutritional value of a newspaper. Masked with a label written by a magician, tricking you into thinking that “mango lemonade” is actually made with fresh mangoes or lemons and that it is “organic” what ever the hell that means anymore. Pre-grated cheese, salad in a bag, BS baby carrots, peeled for you oranges in plastic cups, everywhere you turn your head there is food that has been plumped, prepared and manipulated for your convenience.
Crab cakes at 40% discount
I once had a salesman tell me that he could offer me his crab cakes at an amazing 40% discount because they now shipped the crab from Baltimore to Indonesia to be processed, over-packaged and shipped back to North America. I was stupefied that he thought that was a good selling point for his product and after I finished berating him for flogging “crap” cakes that had the biggest carbon footprint in the world, were most likely made by little hands and took jobs away from people who dearly needed them, he walked away rethinking his sales pitch.
A Year of Practiculture
When I cracked open his book, A Year of Practiculture
The Cook Not Mad
In a similar manner to the book we based this blog on, The Cook Not Mad: Or, Rational Cookery 
Revelations
For Anderson, revelations of the current state of what most people consume came to him with health issues. He, like most of us, had been fed a growing diet of highly processed and manipulated food loaded with sugar and fat, that eventually caught up with him and forced a change.
A simple life
Obviously not one for small measures, Anderson decided that a simple life of practiculture ( practical living) hunting, fishing, growing, foraging and canning his way through the seasons of a year was the key to living healthy and happy. Eating in rhythm with nature and trying to capitalize on food sources available day to day, filling the larder, foraging, tending the garden and hunting game.
Straight from 1831
Unlike back in 1831 Anderson puts together his precious well deserved ingredients into more modern dishes like Hippies’ Zucchini, Nuts and Burghul or a Cheeky chicken Calzone, but his Chicken Hearts and his Elderberry Cordial could be straight from 1831.
Fantastically photographed
The book is fantastically photographed with dishes presented in beautiful rustic charm along with glimpses into seasonal farm life. Anderson’s sense of humour throughout the book, with interesting side notes and stories, is excellent, jabbing at modern living with hipster sarcasm and truth. An honest and fascinating year in a lifestyle that is at its height of popularity, leading the reader casually and candidly through a mountain of great information on living a life of practiculture.
Quote that stood out
There is one quote that stood out to me in the introduction “It makes complete sense to me to state that a life with real food, food that has been produced via natural means, will service your body and our natural world as they should be, resulting in a better chance of a healthy more enjoyable life.”
There are lessons from this book everyone can implement to introduce practiculture into their lifestyle, from lessening our use of packaging and plastic, to growing our own food, even sourcing our own meat. Besides benefiting the planet we will also benefit ourselves with a better diet that can remedy many modern ailments like anxiety, depression, hypertension, diabetes, food intolerances and much more.
We don’t all have to jump off the grid and raise pigs, but there are not many who wouldn’t benefit from a bit of practical advice.
Disclosure: Thanks to powerHouse Books in Brooklyn, New York for allowing us to review this book. Opinions in this review are our own and were not bought or requested.
Thanks for introducing me to the concept of “practiculture” and the impact it can have on our daily lives and well-being. I especially liked the story of the multi-useful geese as lawnmower and meal! One of the things I enjoy most about living in Portugal is shopping the nearby fish market where the fish are fresh caught from the Atlantic and buying fruits and vegetables from a local stand is an enjoyable interaction with the locals. It allows us to appreciate “farm to market” on a daily level as well as enjoy so many of the tastes of ripened-in-the-field foods and learn some new recipes. And we supply our own packaging!
We certainly have to learn more about sustainable living (and cooking). It’s not always that easy to take the time to go to local markets and to cook a meal with seasonal products. But it’s most rewarding #sustainableliving #practiculture
Great article! I can relate to that since I take food seriously. This was a slow evolution in my case. I started from reading about healthy food, through introducing healthy recipes, buying from the local farmers up to growing food myself. This was a great journey! When I look at the progress I made I feel proud and happy about it. Along with extensive physical exercises (I run marathons) it makes me healthy person connected with the local community and with the nature around!
I’m a full supporter of sustainable agriculture, fishing, and animal husbandry. I’m also shocked at what fruits and vegetables are available that are not normally produced or not yet in season in Europe. I try to avoid those as much as I can and cook dishes according to season. Besides, these are also rather expensive. If only people put in a bit more thought on what they are buying and cooking, industrial scale agriculture could be banished. (Oh, and that recipe for chicken hearts is speaking to me. I have to find that!)
We all need to slow down and take care of ourselves, changing what we eat is an easy first step.
I’m a city dweller and can not imagine full time farm life. But I do try to eat as clean and green as I can. And yes, I can see the difference in my skin, hair, mood, etc. when I forgo packed foods, sugar added foods, etc. The photos are beautiful and though I may never be a farmer I will give this book a look. Thanks!
Love it! There are a few easy things that can be done. Several years ago we took charge of what we were eating, no more processed, certainly no fast food, just cook fresh food, rad the labels, and avoid chemicals. We feel so much better. Have to check out the book, thanks.
The book is great, I think you’ll enjoy it.
Recently diagnosed with a wheat allergy, it has served me well. I eat almost nothing processed and I feel better, look better and as an added bonus, have dropped some unneeded weight. “Practiculture” makes sense to me and my new way of living. I cannot keep a plant alive, but am thankful others can so I can eat fresh and local whenever possible.
Cheers,
Priscilla
Glad to hear you are working around your allergy and that practiculture has a place in there.
I want to read this book and share it and or the information with my family and friends who are all getting older and have health issues. It seems so many health problems are related to the food people eat. I’m a vegetarian and I do my best to eat as little processed food as I can.
I was raised on a farm and we grew all our own vegetables and they tasted so different than the ones you buy in the store I have started growing my own produce now
I never heard the term “practiculture” before, but it makes so much sense. We’re limited in terms of space here in the Netherlands, but still manage to do a bit of practiculture. We have two apple trees, and I make and can lots of applesauce from the apples every year. My husband grows vegetables in our little back yard, and, as is traditional here, we eat kale and carrots from the garden through the winter. I also pick blackberries on vacant lots and make lots of blackberry-apple jam each year, which is great to bring along as a house gift when we visit friends. Last year I even picked some prickly pear fruit in Spain, brought it home and made prickly pear jam! Somehow everything tastes better this way!
Looks like a great book. The term practiculture is new to me too. Thanks for the information.
You can’t beat fresh from the garden. While I travel too much to garden anymore I really appreciate the local senior who sells from his garden.