Question: How did the two of you come to write a book together, while living and working in two distinct regions of the U.S.?
Beth: I’ve been a fan of Gary’s ever since reading Coming Home to Eat, also a favorite of our mutual friend, Lucia Watson, who shared her copy with me. Gary was also a dear friend of Tommy Vennum, author of Wild Rice and the Ojibway People, and a neighbor of mine. It was at Savanna Institute’s conference several years ago that brought us together.
Gary: Yes, we have also had friends in common-including Mark Ritchie, a remarkable food justice activist and food trade policy analyst. In a sense, we’ve been in the same pond for years, writing about chile peppers, food and climate change, and perennial gardens and kitchens. When we spent time together at an agr-forestry retreat, we both realized the complementarities that a collective project might offer to others
Question: You do cover the connections among food and climate in this collaboration, but with a different take than others. Can each of you speak to that?
Beth: I’ve written extensively about the work being done by The Forever Green Initiative, University of Minnesota, to expand hazelnut production. A key crop in regenerative agriculture as well as Kernza, the perennial grain, and elderberries. These, and other perennial plants, with their deep roots, retain topsoil, stave runoff, and capture carbon.
Gary: The big questions I’ve been living with in the desert for 50 years is this: if the world is getting hotter and drier, and 40% of the continental U.S. is now suffering from extreme heat and drought, what can we learn from desert chefs, home cooks, gardeners and foragers that will enrich rather than impoverish our lives and our cuisines?
Question: What roles did each of you take in weaving together this book?
Beth: It’s been such a pleasure (and an honor) to bring these beautiful ingredients into the kitchen. My primary role is in developing and testing and writing the recipes.
Gary: As Beth has hinted, there was a lot of dialogue and interplay between us about content and tone, and of course we edited each others’ first drafts. But I focused on the introductory essays that demonstrated why people in any part of our country should pay more attention to desert cuisines. I had also spent years collecting traditional recipes from desert dwellers in fifteen countries, which we then sifted through, and in some cases “reverse engineered” to emphasize that aromatic herbs in them. But it was nothing without what Beth contributed, for she really knows how to prepare recipes so that they are easy to follow, but bold in flavor and fragrance. I joke that the welcoming mat at our home in the desert hints at my limited capacity as a cook: “Many have eaten here, few have died.” Beth’s talents and skills assured that the recipes were palatable and pleasurable—they are so bright and inviting, thanks to her touch.
Question: What do you hope this book will do to change America’s food palette?
Gary: I hope it will encourage eaters to experiment with the ingredients long used in desert cuisines, and to understand the pathways of cultural diffusion that brought many of the recipes from China, Persia, Syria, Morocco, India and Mexico. But I also hope that readers will be excited by our focus on aromatic herbs that build a mosaic of astounding fragrances into each dish. When I suffered traumatic brain and vision injuries a few years back, the gift of that accident was that my sense of smell was suddenly heightened. I now design gardens and menus by nose not by sight. I may be an anomaly, but we can all benefit from the fragrances, and healthful antioxidants in desert questions.
Beth: I’ve learned a great deal about these foods – their history, flavor, role in a variety of different cuisines, nutritional qualities – and my goal in co-writing this book is to bring these big, bold, delicious flavors into home kitchens, far and wide.
