Enchantment

As practice, as interconnection (plus a special announcement)

(Psst, make sure to read to the end for a special gift from me: Like, a real tangible gift that you get in the mail!)

Enchantment is, at its best, a way of being.

To be enchanted with the world is to live a richer life than if you simply let life happen to you. Enchantment is active and participatory: It asks us to step into, and revel in, the full depth and entirety of the experience of being alive.

As a food writer, in particular a food writer who thinks a lot about weaving pleasure into the process of writing, I approach enchantment as an embodied, physical experience as much as a conceptual one (I wrote more about that in my writing newsletter).

Food and food writing offer us many ways to be enchanted with the world: In part because they connect to other ways in which we seek and find enchantment.

In the introduction to my next book, I talk about my lifelong belief in the intersection of science and magic or faith: A perspective engrained in me by my mother from a young age.

It's a partner to my work at the intersection of theory and practice. Like those, in my version of magic, we believe in something magical, and the incredible things science reveals to us deepen that belief and open our minds to greater wonder.

And so, enchantment, as a food writer and a historian and a social scientist and just as a person, also sits at an important crossroads: Here, we allow the scientific to enchant us, and the magical to be rooted in the observable world (which it very much is).

Here are some books I've read recently that have sparked my sense of wonder, helped me explore and understand enchantment in new ways, and helped me foster my own enchanted life:

Books for an enchanted life

Find the complete book list at this link

Steve Hoffman's beautifully written A Season for That reminds us that enchantment is complex, and contains multitudes that are often beautiful but not always so.
We can be enchanted with a place and still lose sight of the people we're sharing the moment with as we reach for the perfection of a moment. We can, likewise, connect so deeply and surprisingly with those people that it creates a vortex of enchantment all its own. And, we can move between those extremes, existing within the shifting cycles and seasons of our lives, recognizing that each has its own version of enchantment to offer us.

Enchantment bumps shoulders with our humanness, our quirks, our pasts and perceptions, and these each influence the experience of being enchanted, or allowing ourselves to even consider it possible.

Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer reminds us to seek enchantment in small things: And reminds me that you can't rush natural cycles. The most beautiful moss takes time to grow into its full potential.

Thus Spoke the Plant by Monica Gagliano is a perennial favorite of mine, and shows how science and our own spirits, and our connection to the natural world can all live in harmony.

John Cage's Mycological Foray is at once scientifically rigorous as well as delightfully lighthearted and playful (but in a reserved, rather than boisterous way). I love opening it to a random page and just letting my mind meander across the words and images and daydream, rather than try to make sense of them in the way we normally read: Which is really a lovely, enchanting practice to do with just about any book you enjoy.

I bought my copy at Sotheran's (forever a favorite bookshop) before they moved away from Sackville street, and it sits on the shelf next to my desk (as an aside, if you haven't yet read Oliver's Darkshire's Once Upon a Tome, it's a delightful peek into the world of rare books and was, for me, a bit of a trip down memory lane).

Maria Rodale's Love, Nature, Magic reminds us that cultivating enchantment is active, not passive: We have to seek out and greet those parts of the world that wish to enchant us, and let them in when we encounter them.

There are many cookbooks out there that share the author's enchantment with and love for place: A couple recently-read favorites of mine are Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food, and Living within the Wild: Personal Stories and Beloved Recipes from Alaska.

One book I continuously pick up, enjoy in small spurts, then return to again is The Reenchantment of Everyday Life, which considers, practically and spiritually, how enchantment is woven through the fabric of our days.

Enchantment by a book: You know I love a deep dive into the history of a specific cookbook. Here's an example from Drew Shiel of being enchanted by exploring a cookbook.

Our enchantment can be internally focused as much as externally: through the ways our bodily systems mimic structures found in nature, or through the food we make to nourish ourselves (like Jeremy Umansky's writing on what sauerkraut can teach us about the universe).  

Enchantment can lie at the intersection of our sensory worlds: Adriana Gallo's work for Mold as part of the Convivial Cosmogonies series, reimagined by Alicia Kennedy as a zine, helps us view and understand our sensory experiences of the world in new ways.

Enchantment can also happen through wayfinding: As in my recent work for Mold on wayfinding through the history of the cookbook.

And finally, I weave enchantment into my professional life as much as personal. And Samantha Garcia's Regenerative Business has helped me think about how to shift my business models away from hustle culture and towards an ecosystem model that actually feels enchanting and interesting (if you've worked with me recently in Roots + Branches, I talk a lot about creative ecosystems, too: Inspired in part by her regenerative ecosystem model).

Speaking of enchantment, my next book, The Fermentation Oracle, is available for preorder!
When you use the code MAGIC20 on Hachette's site, you get 20% off your deck.

AND, the folks at Storey and I made you a very cool present:

The first 100 people to preorder and fill out this form get
a very special fermentation wheel of the year mailed to their door.

I'm so excited about and proud of this, and am especially excited to hear how the book and the wheel both serve your creative culinary practice in the years to come!