Full Moon Feast: Food and Hunger for Connection [Paperback]

This book is a personal re-examination of food--what we eat, and why we eat it. In this book, Prentice examines food customs and traditions, searching for their physiological and environmental rationale. Her primary observation about food traditions is that they are strictly tied to the seasons, and thus the continual year-round availability of our foodstuffs has resulted in loss of much traditional knowledge about what is good for us and what isn't. In recognition of the essential seasonality of foods, Prentice organizes this book into the thirteen moons that make up the year, from the famine moon, to the sap moon, from the egg moon to the corn moon, from the blood moon to the wolf moon.

Each chapter describes the ecology that led to the association between a particular food item and a specific time of the year. In the chapters, Prentice discusses the nutritional contributions of the featured food items, and how her relationship with that food has changed over the years. For example, she explains how she used to avoid milk and other dairy products, but now relishes them as a gift of love from Mother Earth. Each chapter also includes recipes of the season, ranging from exotic dishes of non-Western food cultures, like Cardamom and Jaggery pudding, to simple directions for lost arts, such as rendering pork, or making homemade yogurt and sauerkraut.

Prentice was once a strict vegan, who for health reasons, eventually found herself drawn to a diet which includes animal products, but not the products of industrial agriculture. There is much that vegetarians and vegans would not like in Prentice's essays, since she explains how her 10 years of vegetarianism were not healthy for her. Having had the same experience myself after being a vegetarian for 20 years, I can appreciate the wisdom in what she writes. While vegetarian diets work well for some, they are not appropriate for everybody. But at the same time, diets that include the consumption of industrially produced and processed animal products do nobody any good. We need to be willing to recognize our relation and responsibilities to the animals that we consume.

I first heard of this book when I attended a Vermont Localvore potluck at which Prentice was the invited guest chef. I was deeply offended then at her attitude, when she announced she was going to make a salad using a recipe from her book, but lamented the lack of local artichokes or olive oil. `How could such a person be associated with local cooking,' I wondered, `if she doesn't even have the sense to find out what the best local ingredients are and celebrate them, instead of parading the products of another region in front of us?' I figured that a seasonal local cookbook written by a national author would be a worthless concept. Fortunately, that's not what this book attempts--instead the book is much more about rediscovering our connection to food than about specific local recipes.

Although she has become famous for leading the concept of eating foods only from one's local region, what she urges here is really an appreciation for the products of small farms. Thus, instead of simply cheering on local food, Prentice argues in this book that our industrial agriculture system has torn us away from one of the most essential of human traits, our relationship to the food that nourishes us. Instead of following diets of avoidance, Prentice advocates recognizing the meaning that each item of food brings to our lives, and using food to re-establish our connection to the land. Indeed, the only foods that Prentice avoids are those heavily processed products of industrial agriculture: refined sugar, white flour, and pre-packaged extruded junk. Although the book contains a few recipes, it is not a cookbook, but rather a wake-up call: "Our poor diet is at least partly a physical manifestation of a spiritual decay," together with some suggestions of how we can begin the journey back to healthy eating.

Jessica Prentice's book was a joy to read. In fact, it is so readable, I've recommended it as a book club selection to several friends -- after all, we all eat! The way Prentice talks about eating and food, it is like she is an old friend on a passionate adventure.

I have spent years of searching for a way of eating that seems "right" nutritionally (from all-American to vegetarian to vegan to macrobiotic to low-carb to Gittleman!). I have owned books on all of them, and I have lived all of them. None have made as much sense intellectually AND intuitively as what Jessica describes. Her book is organized by thirteen moons, and each moon represents a theme. This organization is one of the things that makes her book so readable - each chapter is a complete exploration of that theme, and then you're off to another theme.

Jessica's work is well-researched, well-written, fascinating, inspiring, and for me, life-changing. I took my hundred-or-so other cookbooks and diet books to the used bookstore, purchased a few others that Prentice recommended in her resources, and my kitchen supply of books is now complete at only a few books rather than the close to 100 that I owned before. I feel THAT sure of this.

This book is for everyone -- interested in nutrition or not. I guarantee you will enjoy it, you will learn things you didn't know about what you eat, and you will be inspired by Prentice's knowledge and passion. And if you are searching for a way of eating that makes sense intellectually AND intuitively (and feels GOOD physically), you will have found a path home.

Blending food lore, memoir, and recipes, "Full Moon Feast" appeals on many levels. I learned more about food than what's in my standard cookbooks. But thanks to Jessica Prentice's conversational style, I didn't feel like I had to work hard to do it. Her evocative prose inspired me to learn more about the issues she raised, cook more, and eat better -- and just plain eat. You'll get hungry reading this book!

The author uses lunar cycles as a launching pad to discuss old food ways and current corporate food practices without being preachy or long-winded. I found it interesting to learn how our ancestors ate and prepared food, and how relatively easy it is to preserve those traditions today. The recipes at the end of each chapter provide accessible ways to eat seasonal foods and try your hand at making foods based on older methods. I made 2 recipes and found them straightforward, complete and delicious. I also liked the extensive list of resources at the end. Her facts are footnoted.

"Full Moon Feast" offers wisdom on food choices for cooks and noncooks a like. A great gift for a foodie or environmentalist.