Foraging: The Renaissance of Ancient Food Gatherings

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Posted by Barb from Somewhere on Route 95 between Herndon, Virginia and Fayetteville, North Carolina

Please welcome Friend of the Wickeds, Devon Delaney, who is here to celebrate the release of A Holiday for Homicide, book nine in her Cook-Off Mystery series.

Take it away, Devon!

What’s Old is New Again

There’s no denying the fact I’m not young anymore. Let’s make sixty the new forty. No, lets’ not. My forties were chock full of health issues, no me time, and offspring with daily teenage angst. When I say “what’s old is new again” I’m not referring to myself, that ship has sailed. I’m referring to ways of doing things by embracing techniques from yesteryear. I can’t help but include these “old” ways in my books because I am a Renaissance woman deep down.

I am a student of all things food. My cooking competitions have taught me the importance of trends, tastes, culinary cultures, and of course, the importance of the way things were done long ago. My latest book, A Holiday For Homicide, includes a nod to foraging, the ancient task of food gathering. We all have had ancestors that foraged. It’s in everyone’s DNA. If you haven’t tried it, do. The old art of successful foraging is back in a new way. Foraging is experiencing a renaissance.

In A Holiday For Homicide, I have featured a cook-off twist that shines a light on the subject as the participants are asked to forage for one of their recipe ingredients. My amateur sleuth main character gathers her ingredient and gathers clues at the same time.

The commonalities between foraging for food stuffs and gathering clues in a murder mystery may sound farfetched but you’ll find out that’s not so. I’m not saying hunting in the woods for berries, scapes or wild garlic will solve a murder investigation, but you must put clues together to be successful at both.

Another example of “new again” in my latest book, and nearly all the previous books in my cooking competition series, is how I spotlight the importance of an ingredient to a culture and how that ingredient has transcended the ages. The book I’m currently writing delves into the cultural importance of the underrated potato. The comeback of the spud is an amazing example of what’s old is still old but incredibly important to keep new. Another reason to celebrate old becoming new.

I can’t be “new” again, but I strive to bring fresh ideas and features to my books to keep my audience informed, hungry for more, and young at heart. To me, food culture, especially in terms of recipes handed down through the ages, is the lifeline to remembering who got us to where we are today, for better or worse, and why we are obligated to go back and study the old ways of doing things.

I don’t want to get preachy but if foraging can help my main character solve a murder mystery, then imagine what incorporating Great Grandma’s pickled string bean technique into our daily lives can accomplish. In my books, when you, as the reader, find a reference to something old, consider a new clue may be staring you right in the face.

Readers: What blast from the past have you revived and incorporated into your life?

About Devon Delaney

Devon Delaney is lifelong resident of the Northeast and currently resides in coastal Connecticut. She is a wife, mother of three, grandmother of two, accomplished cooking contestant and a recent empty nester. She taught computer education and Lego Robotics for over ten years prior to pursuing writing.

About A Holiday for Homicide

Despite being a seasoned competitor, nothing could have prepared Sherry Oliveri for the thrill of being chosen for a three-day cooking challenge on national television. She’s dying to tell her friends, but she and everyone else involved in the contest has been sworn to secrecy until it airs. Still, that’s not stopping someone from penning cryptic notes about the show for the whole town to read, which has the production crew on edge—right up until one of them is found dead.

Determined to root out the killer, Sherry suspects the truth lies with whoever’s behind the mysterious notes—which have now turned dark with menacing comments on the murder and suggestions of buried secrets. Trying to unravel it all while focusing on her recipes, Sherry’s stopped dead in her tracks when the cook-off host drops a bombshell. With no time to spare, she’ll have to unearth the one missing ingredient that will ensure the killer’s cooked . . . 

Website:

www.devonpdelaney.com

Books available on:  Amazon, Barnes and Noble

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Published by Barbara Ross

Barbara Ross is the author of twelve Maine Clambake Mystery novels and six novellas. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com

20 Thoughts

  1. Congratulations, Devon! Gleaning is also having a comeback – extracting produce left behind from mechanically harvested fields.

    I’ve been an organic gardener (and farmer for a while) for many years. I use techniques gardeners have used for centuries that nourish the food I grow as well as the soil, and don’t harm beneficial wildlife.

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    1. Amazing, Edith! I am also all about saving and embracing the old ways of doing things, especially gardening! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Two things that have become new again to me would be cooking and porch sitting. I remember all my mom’s from scratch recipes and how as we matured and life was hectic that we looked for shortcuts, instant this, microwave that. And there was NO time for porch sitting. Now with time slowed down as a senior citizen and retired, I’ve found the joy of cooking/baking in the old ways of my mom. As an example, German Chocolate Cake from scratch sure tastes a lot better than a box mix making the extra time and effort well worth it. Taking the time to sit on the porch and enjoy the sight and sounds of nature, glimpsing the daily critter visitors and the bird frolicking around at the feeders gives one a whole new prospective to the problems in one’s life and allows the body, mind and spirit a chance to reset to happy after a stressful day. I can remember sitting on the porch with the grandparents on our yearly time with them. I know appreciate that time even more so because I understand the porch sitting. I won’t take for both these trips back to memory lane making things of old new again!

    A HOLIDAY FOR HOMICIDE is on my TBR list. Can’t wait for the opportunity to read and review it.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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    1. We are peas in a pod! I love heirloom recipes and I try to porch sit to see what my neighbors are up to a few times a week.

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  3. I love your post! I also try to porch sit a minute or two a day to see what my neighbors are up to! The cake sounds out of this world. I hope you get a chance to read my book, I think it’s right up your alley.

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  4. Hi Devon and Barbara! When I moved with my Swiss husband to his hometown of Bern 36 years ago, I adopted some Swiss ways of doing things that are quite old-fashioned. For example, I do a lot more shaking hands or kissing cheeks when I run into people than I’d do in the US, and I like it. I prepare food differently, too. One thing I do is make crunchy caramelized almonds from scratch every Christmas. I do them when my son is visiting for the holiday so he can share the stirring with me because these “Gebrannte Mandeln,” as they’re called in German, require around two hours of steady stirring until the browned sugar properly coats the nuts.

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  5. Love this post. My mom’s family were farmers, hunters, and gatherers. One thing she always talked about was the ‘older’ generation going off into the woods with baskets and returning with them full of mushrooms. She often commented that no one ever became ill and lamented that she had never learned the art. For me, I find myself turning to old recipes and making more and more things ‘from scratch’. There’s something so satisfying about knowing (and being able to pronounce) everything you are putting in your body!

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    1. I love your post! So glad you’re embracing the ways of your mom’s family. I put a few of the old ways in each of my books because I think its important to keep them live.

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  7. I am trying to get my kids more involved in community activities like going to plays, attending concerts downtown and community celebrations like I did when I was little. Those outings helped make me who I am today, getting to know my town and the people who live and run businesses in it. Bowling Green is also now much more cultured do those are now part of the experiences!

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    1. Thanks such a good idea and so healthy for your kids. Feeling like a part of a wonderful group in a wonderful town is a treasure.

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    1. Thanks, Liz! I also use a pan, mixing bowl set and I have a ridiculously old cookbook from my grandmother(s). Priceless!

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  9. Welcome. I love the cover. When I was a child, my parents would can hot mix. Our hot mix was more on the mild side. Today, you can find a form of the “hot mix” as giardiniera. It is not the same as what my parents canned, but it is close. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.

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  10. I can bushels of tomatoes. Just taught my 54 year old daughter how to do it. I also seldom use recipes, but have a wonderful 1942 Good Housekeeping cookbook that has loads of info on substitutions for scarce commodities from the war.

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    1. I do both of those! I create recipes for cookoffs and I can my tomatoes. Lets keep that alive for generations to come!

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