Two events in one week this summer generated a sense of empowerment for many Vinalhaven residents as groups gathered to consider ways to become less dependent on mainland-supplied essentials like energy and food.
First there was the decision by the members of the Fox Islands Electric Coop to go ahead with a wind power project to serve North Haven and Vinalhaven.
Several days later, the Vinalhaven Public Library hosted a talk by writer and food authority Nancy Harmon Jenkins, sponsored by the Friends of the Library. A native of coastal Maine, Jenkins has also lived in numerous locations around the Mediterranean, and now spends time in homes both in Camden and Italy where she gardens, cooks, and writes about regional cuisine.
Jenkins is the author of six books describing the history, traditions, and recipes of Mediterranean food, and is also a regular contributor to The New York Times, often writing about Maine chefs and restaurants.
Raised on Yankee basics like chowder and baked beans, she came to embrace Mediterranean cuisines with a passion. One could wonder at that perhaps unlikely love match. What elicited Jenkins’ genuflect?
There’s that sultry array of olive oils, the sensual ambience of the region, its ancient roots in time, the mysterious foreign words. But Jenkins puts at the top of her list of why she touts the virtues of Mediterranean eating its emphasis on fresh, local ingredients.
In her 1994 book, The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, which she has rewritten and will be released in December, she wrote, “Eating is one of the most important things we humans do in our lives…[in Mediterranean countries] the cultural message is that it’s important to pay attention, to be aware of what food is, where it comes from, and how it gets to be the way it is when it comes into our lives.”
And while ingredients like olive oil and red wine are acknowledged as beneficial (in moderate use), Jenkins emphasizes, “the most important lesson from the Mediterranean is not to be found in recipes but rather in attitude…consciousness about food stems from the realization that good food begins with good ingredients. This will come about only when you seek out the very best of local, regional, preferably organically and naturally raised products.”
If Jenkins learned that lesson abroad, she has brought it home to Maine with added emphasis. Watching Rockland’s environs morph from rural to suburban, she laments the loss of farmable land and local businesses. Growing and buying local, she argues, is important for a number of reasons.
In the Midcoast area, Jenkins recommends Beth’s Farm Market in Warren and Chase’s Daily in Belfast. She observes, “As more of our foods get contaminated by one thing or another, people are beginning to realize we have to take control, as individuals, of our own food supply. The corollary to this is cooking our own food rather than relying on carryout and pre-prepared foodstuffs. Cooking our own food is a way to gain control. All over the world, people prepare two or three meals a day without thinking twice about it, delicious meals too, and they don’t spend all day slaving over a hot stove.”
And her cookbooks demonstrate that meals don’t have to involve elaborate preparation and ingredients. To her Vinalhaven audience, Jenkins pointed out that, as a food writer, she finds it ironic that she focuses on dispelling, rather than sustaining, the profession’s hyperbole about what makes for “great food.”
Instead of supporting the notion that eating well requires things such as procuring the “perfect” ingredients, being a highly skilled cook, and having all the kitchen accouterment, Jenkins argues “the bar is high” notion is a disservice to the reality of what actually contributes to eating well. Over and over in her books, the typical essentials she recommends for meal preparation include using seasonally fresh, locally-grown ingredients and a good extra-virgin olive oil, and taking some pleasure in both preparing the food and the eating of it, preferably shared with family or friends.
Jenkins concluded a recent interview with me by reiterating that we should take more control of our diets, use local products as much as possible, and encourage local farmers to expand the growing season.
As ambitious as those goals may sound, Jenkins is realistic enough to want it feasible. She recognizes that those who buy only food produced within a certain radius of their home, may mourn the loss of “staples”-perhaps Florida oranges, Spanish or Italian olive oil, or Central American coffee beans and chocolate-resulting in a certain diminishment of gustatory pleasure.
Jenkins is all for including some necessary ingredients that support the joy of eating. On a sterner note, she showed no sympathy for those claiming home cooking takes too much time or work. “If you’re one of those people who says, ‘Gosh, I just don’t ever cook anything anymore,’ I say to you: get over it. It’s time.”
The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: A Delicious Alternative for Lifelong Health, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins, will be released by Bantam Books in December.
Tina Cohen enjoys locally-grown victuals on Vinalhaven.