Dear Reader,
I’ll be missing all the fun at the LFM this Saturday, but the call of the wild …well, of a mountain house with hot shower, washer and dryer…beckons. Family reunions, I find, especially when that family is multi-layered and loud, are best done with a modicum of creature comforts. Also, with a good book or two for when I need a getaway from my getaway. Books are my comfort food.
So, July is drawing its own conclusions about how this summer of 2023 is turning out. You HAVE or HAVE NOT ticked off most of the plans and projects you announced to the world you would get to, so that leaves all of August to just sit back, admire your work or your ability to ignore it, and look for something good to read. Right? And even if wrong, whether you’re at the beach or your own backyard, it’s never a wrong time to sit down with a good summer read, be it an old favorite or a new bestseller you’ve been waiting to get your hands on. So many options…
Let me help. What’s your pleasure?
Nostalgia? I, as I do every year about this time, HIGHLY recommend Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine. And I’ll once again thank Ben Hover for putting me onto this sweet, but not saccharine, trip back to a time some of us can or maybe wish we could remember. The sounds and smells of a childhood when kids made their own fun, chased fireflies, ran from bogeymen and did it all within yards of their own front porch. A perfect book to bring to bed…just a chapter or two is better than whatever the doctor ordered. The shush-shush of a push lawn mower will be the last thing your mind will hear as you drift off…
WARNING: Don’t listen to this book while operating heavy equipment!!!
You say Home Gardening is your current passion? Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle chronicles her family’s move from the sandy expanse of the Southwestern desert to her ancestral home in the green hills of Appalachia, and their year-long commitment to eating only what they can harvest or barter from their garden. Chickens can roost anywhere, so eggs were a staple…but if they wanted bacon to go with, they needed to make friends with the neighbors. Now that’s about as local…and as serious…as it gets. But Kingsolver and her family dug…literally…into the life of their new community with guts, grace and good humor. And learned something about family dynamics along the way. Part memoir, part cookbook, part figurin’ it out as she goes, the author takes you on a tour of not just the possibility, but for many folks just the way of it. This book is, quite literally, food for thought.
Finally, for the foodies and for the families they feast with: If you haven’t read Stanley Tucci’s book Taste, please treat yourself. We all know Tucci the celebrity, the urbane and camera-ready world citizen…we may have enjoyed his tour de foodie in the series Searching for Italy…that guy. But this book is something a bit different and much deeper. Humble, even. Tucci’s love and respect for good food began in childhood and is inextricably married to his abiding love for family, friends and human experiences…some happy, and some tragic. Watch Searching for Italy for the incredible places and plates, but read Taste to know where he finds and defines himself. If “you are what you eat,” Mr. Tucci is a veritable buffet.
Spoiler: find out why this famous foodie was, ironically, obliged for many long months, to be fed through a feeding tube.
So…here’s the plan: 1) Find yourself some great snacks here at the market…then 2) grab yourself a good book…any good book, and 3) find the time and place to kick back and relax…like I’m doing right about now!
And, hey, I’m not the only Reader of the Pack. If you have a great suggestion for a summer read, scroll right down the page to the comments section and leave us a tip.
Time to get those creative juices percolating. Now available at the Manager’s Tent: The LFM Bake-Off* handouts and sign-up sheets…already generating lots of buzz. The only rule is that *at least one ingredient must be from the Market, which may explain why freezers all over Lansdowne are suddenly loading up with those summer berries and peaches. Stop by, step up, and add your name to the list. You could walk away with one of the three cash card prizes! ($100, $75 or $50).
This week in the Music Tent: CRAIC aka the Cello Cats. A blend of Scots & Irish tunes to set your toes tapping.
And don’t forget to read ALL the news in this edition of the Lansdowne Link.
See you next week,
Terry B