Wednesday, December 1, 2021

97 Orchard by Jane Ziegelman

 genre: nonfiction

    The subtitle of this book is "An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement," which I feel is just about right! 97 Orchard is in sections, chronologically, based on the families that lived in one tenement on the Lower East Side throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Located in a  predominantly immigrant neighborhood, the families who lived at 97 Orchard reflected the world around them: German, Irish, Eastern European Jewish, Italian - and with each new family came new foodways. I really love that word "foodways" because it means "the intersection of culture, traditions, and history" as it relates to food preparation and consumption. THAT is what this book is about. It's about what each different culture brought with them from the old country, what stuck around, what changed, and what became such an integral part of American life that it's hard to remember it actually was once never here.

    I know this isn't a book for everyone but I really enjoyed learning what it had to offer me!  I LOVE to learn about the lives of common people (especially women)  in different times and places.  This book gave me both an intimate look into the kitchen and pantry of several specific women, it also looked out on a grader scale as people went out into the community to sell or purchase what they needed to feed their families.  97 Orchard is history, it's recipes, it's context for the different waves of immigrants the came into this country.  It's pretzels and sauerkraut to knishes and gefilte fish and spaghetti.   If you are also interested in the space where food and history meet, I'd be surprised if this one disappointed you.

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