Historic food as a path to the future

The messiness, and interconnectedness, of tradition and memory

This is a (heavily adapted) talk from a women’s herbalism retreat I gave a handful of years ago. As we move into the new year, I’m revisiting this work and thinking about how it continues to shape me. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

I see food as a connective thread that connects us to past, present, and future. But that thread isn’t always a clean line: It’s one informed by colonialism, by our own messy pasts, by our dreams for the future, and by the millions of tiny ways that each of our lives is simultaneously singular and unique, and deeply interconnected and unremarkable.

Working with our hands, creating something ourselves or in community, exists with the potential of being a revolutionary act.

When we connect with traditional food making practices, we’re connecting to the act of being creators rather than consumers. We’re doing something rather than having life done to us.

And when we go further by connecting others with these practices, we’re imagining systems that honor nature, strengthen communities, and return to the knowledge sharing practices so central to humanity for many thousands of years. We’re also imagining the world as it can be, rather than it is.