Preparing & Preserving
Preparing
(a poem)
Outside the squirrels are frantic, crashing through
downed leaves as they gather food for less generous times.
The rabbits are in a daze, as if summer packed up and left
without remembering to tell them goodbye. The chipmunks
are more shrewd. They don’t wait for signs. They stripped
the serviceberries back in spring. All along they’ve been hoarding.
Inside I am padding my own burrow, stacking books two deep
on the shelves.
Preserving
A Chill in the Air
It’s the end of October and the weather feels properly settled. We’ve reluctantly closed the windows and embraced the manufactured heat pouring through our vents at the press of our thermostat. The fireplace is only used for date night or family gathering once or twice a year, providing a cheerful ambiance more than heat, and yet it was disproportionately startling to me to read Nicola Twilley describe the refrigerator as “eventually displacing the hearth as the heart of the home” in Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves (224). The fridge as the “heart of the home?” Really? That thing I yell at to shut up every time I have to put groceries away because it’s petulantly ding-ding-dinging about its door being open for too long? But there’s no denying how reliant we are on the fridge, especially after reading Twilley’s book.
Our household fridgies (we have many a glorious magnet thanks to my mom; more in storage for rotation) and fridgie (smaller than U.S. average which generally is really nice; it makes me itchy that I didn’t turn all the labels to face the proper direction but I wanted to give the you the unvarnished truth!)
Twilley takes us on a fascinating journey through the relatively short lifespan of our refrigerated convenience:
Engineers and entrepreneurs trying to make cold storage happen despite injury and enormous financial loss. (If refrigeration hinged on me personally, it never would have happened—we’d be trying to keep our food cold in waterfalls or streams like the boxcar children.)
The early public reaction—not great thanks to how unnatural it felt and the inconsistent cooling available at the time (thawed-cooled-thawed food, yum…)—many of them would probably think this is the perfect subject for Halloween.
A century of innovations, both to cold storage and to our food itself. (I learned to appreciate forklifts and shipping containers, and I’m looking at apples in a new way.)
The potential alternatives (like Apeel “using food to protect food”) needed to mitigate the climate impacts of our current system and the burgeoning demand for cold storage around the world.
And way more besides.
One of my favorite tidbits that falls under that “way more” is “by 1916, some twenty U.S. towns and cities boasted cold networks, with pipes extending more than eighteen miles underground to supply markets, hotels, restaurants, and even ‘food preservation cabinets’ in private homes” (196). I’ve been in love with the idea of pneumatic tubes since I first heard about them, so this—pipes to carry cold throughout a city—feels like world-building gold for a future novel.
This book made me want to hug, question, clean out, and maybe take an annual picture of my fridge like an archaeological snapshot of my shopping habits. Apparently “fridgies,” as in selfies for your fridge, are a thing? (Though an internet search of this returns a few other things that hold prior claim to the title of “fridgie,” like fridge magnets and some midcentury dishes.) Suffice it to say, I highly recommend reading Frostbite by Nicola Twilley.
Do you have a “fridgie” (magnet) collection, and if so, do you have a favorite? What did you find the most interesting about Frostbite?
I’ve also been reading Extra! Extra! Eat All About It by Jane Conway and Randi Julia Ramsden but I’m only two-thirds of the way through (due to lack of time, not lack of enjoyment). The book is a feast of historical information, as well as interesting context to consider for “how we got here” and “what’s old is new again.” One of my favorite bookstores/coffee shops in Madison is Leopold’s, which serves a raw bar with oysters in the summer. I’ve tried a grand total of one oyster in my life (basically dared to by Lucas and his mom, ha) when I visited Seattle. I didn’t get the appeal then, and I really didn’t understand it as a choice in the Midwest, but apparently “oyster saloons” were once a part of Wisconsin life thanks to trains with saltwater tanks!
From heaped spoonfuls and scant cupfuls to root cellars and mock recipes (like Mock Apple Pie, made of crackers instead of apples), Extra! Extra! Eat All About It’s insight into another era of food and cooking guarantees it a spot on my research shelf forever. It’s also just plain fun, even if I won’t be trying Barbecued Ham with Bananas or adding an egg yolk to my hot chocolate anytime soon.
‘Tis (nearing) the season! Do you have a favorite hot chocolate style or recipe? I miss the fancy Cocoa Trio from Borders.
“The Long Goodbye”
Inspired by reading Frostbite and a writing course I’m taking, I wrote a short story about two girls, their guinea pig and family, and a special fridge.* It’s for Halloween and it’s a touch over 7,000 words, which means it’s a 30+ minute read. If you’d like to try it, you can find it on this page: “The Long Goodbye.” Here’s a teaser:
Jesse tugged on her favorite sweater, the soft pink one with Ariel framed in bubble hearts. It was fall chilly—the good kind of chilly that meant school was back, the leaves were pretty reds and yellows, and there was a new season of Batman: The Animated Series to watch. There were never enough episodes with Catwoman in them, but whatever.
Chuck, who Jesse’s parents claimed was her little sister but Jesse was pretty sure they adopted out of a wolf den (what kind of girl wants to go by Chuck instead of Charlotte?), appeared in the doorway of their shared bedroom and turned pleading eyes toward Jesse. “Just one?” she begged.
Mom wasn’t home yet and probably wouldn’t be for another hour. They could get away with it. Continue reading >>
*You know how many artists have themes they revisit over and over again? As evidenced by my current novel-in-progress, my prior tabled novel, and this short story, mine might be siblings, cookies, and death. Lucas finds this concerning, but I can only say: is there any mystery bigger than death? Of course I’m going to poke at it. Especially at Halloween.
November’s Book
I’ve been waiting to read Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive by Eliot Stein for months, so I’m thrilled we’re finally here, if a little surprised at how fast time sped by.
Have a happy Halloween and see you soon!
Image Credits
All photos by Leigh or Lucas Gray
