Local Dirt

August 3, 2020
Bemis (Dishing Up the Dirt) presents a practical if predictable collection of recipes for local-to-her food, inspired by a 30-day attempt to eat solely items from within 200 miles of her Oregon farm. Chapters are broken out by season, but the organization within chapters feels random, so that strawberry shortcakes in the spring chapter are sandwiched between sugar snap peas and creamed chard. There’s also a discounting of immigrant contributions to the nation’s table; for Bemis, “eating like our grandparents did” means cooking narrowly defined “American” cuisine and eschewing items such as soy sauce and coconut milk (though she uses Mediterranean staples olive oil and canned tuna). An introduction recounting the author’s forays into butchery and tuna fishing includes observations like “Beef is complicated. The industry on a whole is super flawed.... But then you get to know actual ranchers... it’s clear that they’re stewards of this beautiful country.” The recipes are solid and easy to prepare, such as pork shoulder roasted for hours, and macaroni and cheese with bacon and nutmeg; a surfeit of soups and stews include a broccoli cheddar puree, as well as a lamb stew with carrots and parsnips. Bemis does include a few innovative offerings, such as a pot pie filled with ground pork, kale, and pumpkin for fall, and mushrooms cooked over an open flame to welcome spring. Readers will appreciate the straightforward recipes, but may not share the author’s wide-eyed enthusiasm for what is essentially familiar fare.

October 1, 2020
Eating local has been a trend for a number of years now, promoted by the slow food and locavore movements and especially celebrated by restaurants focused on farm-to-table operations. In light of the current pandemic and associated stay-home orders, more readers may be thinking about it as an ongoing way of life that they wish to pursue themselves. Author Bemis (Dishing Up the Dirt, 2017, and a blog of the same name) asks three question of food and its production: is it good for the body, the planet, and the community? Locally grown and produced food is best able to answer all three of these questions in the affirmative, she finds. The recipes here use ingredients that are local to the author's home in the Pacific Northwest, but she encourages substitutions and allows that these recipes should be considered adaptable to whatever is available in the reader's area. Readers who enjoy the typical food blogger's tendency to tell a personal tale prior to the recipe will find themselves right at home here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)