Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager - Softcover

Cook, Langdon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594850860 ISBN 13: 9781594850868

Publisher: Mountaineers Books, 2011

Synopsis

* Quirky, engaging book about the hot topic of sustainable foods
* Combines adventure with locavorism
* Delves into iconic Northwest staples, such as huckleberries, Dungeness crab, and morels

Foraging is not just a throwback to our hunter-gatherer past; it's a way to reconnect with the landscape. And Langdon Cook is not just your typical grocery cart-toting dad. For him, gourmet delicacies abound, free for the taking if we just open our eyes. As a result, he finds himself free-diving in icy Puget Sound in hopes of spearing a snaggletooth lingcod, armed with nothing more than a "Hawaiian sling." He tempts fate by eating mushrooms that may or may not be poisonous. He strings up a fly rod to chase after sea-run trout. He even pulls on the gardening gloves to collect stinging nettles. In wry, detailed prose, he traces his journey from wrangler of pre-packaged calories to connoisseur of coveted wild edibles. Structured around the seasons of the year, each chapter focuses on a specific food type and concludes with a recipe featuring the author's hard-won bounty, a savory stop to each adventure-filled morsel.

About this title

About the Author

LANGDON COOK has worked as a professional writer and editor his entire adult life. He was a reporter with the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Berkeley Voice before moving to Seattle to earn his MFA in fiction writing at the University of Washington, where he studied with well-known authors David Shields and Laura Kalpakian. In the late-90s he turned to the nascent Web, first with Microsoft's MSN and then Amazon.com, where he was a senior book editor. In 2004 he left Amazon to live in a cabin off the grid with his wife and son. More recently he has worked as a freelance magazine writer and editor for such publications as Conservation Magazine. His writing has appeared in Outside Magazine, Gray's Sporting Journal, Fly Fisherman, The Stranger, and other publications. Lang received his B.A., cum laude, from Middlebury College in Vermont. He was the recipient of the Joyce Waddell Writing Award at the University of Washington, received the Margery Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency, and attended the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference on a grant. Langdon's blog, Fat-Of-The-Land was named Best Local Foods Blog by Seattle Weekly in 2009.

Review

“Smart, funny, and hugely knowledgeable, Langdon Cook is a walking field guide and a gifted storyteller. Fat of the Land is a welcome kick in the pants to get outside and start foraging for our suppers.” —Molly Wizenberg, author of A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table

“Langdon Cook understands that the goal of hunting and foraging is not just to eat, but to eat well. Any city-eater can grab something at a supermarket, but to feel the thrill of grappling with lingcod or plucking dubious mushrooms gives the reader maximum pleasure—and zero pain. Provided you follow Cook’s recipes to satiate your whetted appetite. As a neophyte forager with a well-trained palate, Cook knows best.” —Betty Fussell, author of My Kitchen Wars and Raising Steaks: The Life & Times of American Beef

“Langdon Cook celebrates the bounty of the land and sea through the pleasure of foraging. It’s an inspiration and a reminder that eating your local foods connects you to the land you live on.” —Maria Hines, Chef/Owner, Tilth Restaurant

“In Fat of the Land, Lang Cook invites us to share in his enthusiastic, salubrious, wild food foraging quests. Get out of town, breathe in the fresh air, hear the quiet, exercise, feel good, connect with nature and the season—then return to the kitchen to delicious preparations of dandelion greens, squid, fiddleheads, or whatever the quarry. Lively, informative, soul-satisfying narrative.” —Jon Rowley, Contributing Editor, Gourmet

Edition details

• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1594850860
• ISBN 13: 9781594850868
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224