Cookbook Roundup - Bark + Grass - Revolution Supper
This battered and worn booklet was my first ever vegan book purchase (even though it’s really a zine, and not a cookbook, I absolutely couldn’t leave it out of these posts). It’s title humorously pokes fun at it’s own vegan community, and refers to what people often say we eat - bark & grass. I must have been 16 when I bought this, and for a few years it was my only guide to cooking and eating animal free. The Food Network didn’t exist yet, and cooking shows where not in vogue. I was left to my own devices, and this humble little booklet served me well.
The introduction to this zine, authored by Daisy Rooks is not about food at all, but about the not so obvious link between feminism and animal rights. She writes: “based on the statistics that I have seen, I have come to understand that the majority of vegetarians are women. I don’t think that this is a coincidence. Women and animals both fall prey to violence, bigotry and abuse in this male-dominated system. Seen as merely parts of the whole, women and animals have both been deemed acceptable receptacles of male violence.” She goes on to say that because women live in a culture of inequity - gender, race, class, pay, etc - we are more able to empathize with animals pain than men. And “because men are conditioned, again by societal structure, to act as both the oppressor and strong, emotionally detached male, they are often more resistant to animal rights as an issue.” Heady arguments, but I was 16 when I read this and it struck a chord that always stuck with me.
This book was also my introduction to hardline veganism - forgoing foods like high-fructose corn syrup, not because it was unhealthy, but because the waste from the production of this sweetener was often used as livestock feed. A fact quite far removed from my personal consumption, but my argument at the time (and in many ways still is) that I just did not want to participate in any way in industries that dealt in livestock (meat, poultry, dairy, leather, wool, silk, etc). The books’ first page after the introduction is a list of products either derived from animals, or use animal products in their production (such as HFCS). It mentions beer, which often uses animal charcoal for filtration, or lard as a foam reducer - urea, a compound taken from animal urine, which is used in shampoos (check your bottle - I dare you!) - and lecithin, an emulsifying agent made from egg yolks (and from soy, usually marked ’soy lecithin’).
In typical punk DIY style the book is illustrated with photocopied image collages of Norman Rockwell-esque families, women, and children, adding yet another layer of social commentary onto its pages. The recipes in this book are not complicated or even that original, but they served me well and were mainstays in my diet for many years. The banana muffin recipe in here was my introduction to (successful!) baking, and I must have made them 100 times. I brought this little book to college with me, and would make banana muffins in my dorm room, bringing the batter filled tins down to the main kitchen on the first floor to bake. (These then progressed to chocolate chip banana muffins, and then finally coconut chocolate chip banana muffins. oh man, these were so good!)
Recipes like Cinnamon Rolls, Nutritional Yeast Cheese, Lentil Dahl (with an ingredient list that reads “as many lentils as you want to cook [preferably red]) and Chocolate Cake were ones I made over and over again (as my grease splattered pages can attest to)
There’s even a section in the back on “Non-dairy Pest Control”, which gives non-chemical ways to discourage pests like ants, flies and spiders from invading your space, a section on all natural cleaners for drains, ovens, floors, and air fresheners made with ingredients from your pantry (and elbow grease), and a section on how to make your own toothpaste, massage oil, and hair rinse. These ladies were progressive and I was totally into it!
Amazingly, you can still buy this online and for only $3.50 it’s an freakin steal! This little zine holds a very special place in my heart, and while I’ve not made any of its recipes for a long long time, I will always treasure it.
Tags: cookbook roundup
