97 Orchard : An Edible History

97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman has gotten some very nice reviews and I can see why - it is a great book! Ziegelman takes five families of immigrants (Germans, Irish, Italians and Eastern European Jews) and looks at their food culture that they brought with them and how it changes and adapts to American life.

It is fascinating to take a look back at how things used to be done and what conditions that they had to live through. (How brave our ancestors were to make their way here!) It also is interesting to see what impact they had on the American palate and how they influenced "American" cuisine.

Some interesting points of interest -

- Ireland had a well balanced diet but because of the land laws changing - smaller plots, and their growing dependency on potatoes, by the time they arrived in America during the famine, they really did not have a national cuisine anymore. They could assimilate their food culture much faster into the land of abundance.

- Ellis Island eventually had a kosher kitchen and dinning to feed the newly arrived Jews but not til around 1914.

- Schmaltz was originally was not derived from chicken but from geese. As chicken breeding improved - and they were cheaper - chicken fat took the place of geese fat.

- It is interesting to see how far and fast that German food was assimilated into the New York culture of the time.

Ziegelman takes each family's story and tries to tell it through the limited documents that are available. But she uses their tales and expands them to their neighborhood of the time (which changes with the various waves of immigration) and their cooking traditions of the time. A great book for history lovers, and foodies alike. A very good read.

Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer

Tim Stark did not start out to become a tomato farmer. It was more of a casual obsession with growing tomatoes in his New York brownstone. It reminded him of growing up near farm land Pennsylvania. When it came time to expand his crop, that is where he headed and had to deal with the memories that he had left behind. Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer is that story.

Stark has a way with stories - each chapter takes you forward and back to his work of growing tomatoes for the Greenmarket in New York City, trying to create his business, and his memories of growing up in farm lands - but not in a farm family. And after each chapter you are eager to read more about what happened next and how his small business has had setbacks and personnel changes. As the business grows - he sells other vegetables and peppers (one of the best chapters is his story of peppers and customers at the Greenmarket) and soon his produce makes its way into some of the finest restaurant kitchens in NYC.

And if you are a tomato person - and believe that one of the best things in life is a delicious home grown tomato - this book is for you. An excellent read that I discovered while reading an exerpt from the Best Food Writing of 2009. I'm glad I took the plunge. A very good read.