This ecosystem is described in my first book, Venerable Trees: History, Biology and Conservation in the Bluegrass. The hardcover is sold out but you can find good used copies. The digital version is available.

Well, from very healthy to very unhealthy more or less overnight. What happened to me. Not important in the grand scheme of world events right now but a record I wanted to have. www.rachellaudan.com/2025/01/thre...

Thanks United Healthcare for once again denying my pain meds. I'm a cancer patient w a bad prognosis and in constant unmanageable pain, but just keep counting beans.

Unnatural stuff in food & livestock scares people way more than safety data reassures them. Hence opposition to: ➡️ Irradiation ➡️ Genetic modification ➡️ Preservatives/additives ➡️ Artificial sweeteners And now, Bovaer, a cattle feed additive that reduces methane. www.bbc.com/news/article...

What an unusual national meal is Thanksgiving (my annual reminder). Not showy, not reserved for politicians and diplomats, not an ox roast put on by civic fathers. Not an accident but by mid 19th century design. #foodhist www.rachellaudan.com/2023/11/amer...

Mil gracias @jferrerbeltran

Thanks for posting. I'm still hoping that someone will do a study of the Poor Clares as highly effective agents in the transmission of cuisine.

Many friends were surprised that at 80 years I went on a 2000-mile road trip. As I am pretty healthy, it seemed fine to me. You're the best judge of what you can do. But if you are tempted, here's what I did (and would have done years ago). www.rachellaudan.com/2024/11/how-...

Thanks so much @dranniegray.bsky.social. glad you included your work in this list. www.ucpress.edu/books/cuisin...

Great summary of successive Mississippi cultures (and great pics too).

Not a competition. These are older, trading network for hunter gatherers, city built by hunter gatherers impressive.

A hunter-gatherer theater for living: mounds, the highest 70 ft, semicircular banks, wooden post circles. My obsession: grindstones for nuts, seeds, meat, and roots of aquatic plants, brought from across the Mississippi Basin to this stone-free site. Poverty Point in Louisiana. www.povertypoint.us

Such a fine book. #foodhistory

Thanks @michelamassimi.bsky.social

So great to be with so many others interested in the geosciences. We are all lucky to have @alisabokulich.bsky.social to bring us together.

Port Hudson in Louisiana where the Union got control of the Mississippi after a long brutal siege. The combination of full Stars and Stripes with half tattered Confederate flag was something I'd not seen before.

Delighted that Ligaya Malones chose to include my Food of Paradise (hybrid history/cookbook) in her must reads before going to Hawaii. nymag.com/urbanist/wha...

Hi everyone, Welcome Naomi Duguid who has excellent insights on food in its different settings around the world, particularly Asia. You prob already know her many books.

The Mississippi River at night

The Tennessee River in the late afternoon sun. Road trip happenstances.

Drove into Glasgow, Kentucky this afternoon as the town celebrated Veteran's Day. Simple, heartfelt, moving ceremony. Poor pic because it felt inappropriate.

Hello! I am interested in crop genetics, gene editing, GMOs, food and farming science perspectives. I have considerable following on X & Facebook. What’s the best way to build an audience here?

PhilRice files a petition for review & temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction before the High Court to challenge the Court of Appeals’ decision on the Writ of Kalikasan case against Golden Rice www.philstar.com/business/202...

Just finished perusing the schedule for PSA 2024. Goodness, how numbers of philosophers of science have grown since I last went in the 1990s. I'll be dropping in Friday, Saturday, Sunday and hope to meet some of you then. #philsci

So exciting to see how a young science is evolving at the meeting of the International Society for Neurogastronomy recently. www.rachellaudan.com/2024/05/how-... #histsci #PhiSci #foodhistory #science #STS

For Superb Owl Day. Tagging a baby barn owl. Owl hole high on a barn. Both in Wiltshire, England.

A new one for me. A request from someone I don't know in an organization somewhat related to my work asking me to donate two copies of my Cuisine and Empire to be used as prizes at their next meeting. Thoughts?

So sorry to hear this. Apart from his signal contributions to philosophy, I will remember him for his many kindnesses.

A lovely surprise. A Japanese New Year's spread delivered by a friend. A reminder of the importance of this day for the Japanese.

If you think speculation is a good thing, and I do, then the Cerne Abbas giant as Hercules idea is interesting. If you think speculation sooner or later needs good evidence, and I do, then hold your breath. www.theguardian.com/culture/2024...

Sun rising on a drive through Kentucky horse country on a misty December morning. No, no horses, they are too valuable to be out to grass.

I've been seeing meals classified as factory quality (frozen dinners), catering quality, restaurant quality (home delivery). Home cooked meals come near the bottom. 1. Is this widely used? 2. What do you think of it? 3. What about fast food & family dining? #food history #food politics

An evening on the Cumberland River, Kentucky

Here is something that is probably in your Thanksgiving dinner, though you may not know it. Gum arabic, obtained from the tree Senegalia senegal in the African Sahel, is a common food additive, in a wide range of prepared foods - gravy, beverages like plant milk, beer, and soda, candy. 1/3

This history of how Thanksgiving became widespread is fascinating, and how the country collectively all deciding to eat the same thing on this holiday was a political choice, and a statement against wealth and monarchy. First time I've enjoyed a take on What a Holiday Means.

Nuts are an major part of Thanksgiving. The climate crisis has to be addressed at the global level, but consumer choice plays a role. One thing we can do is switch from almonds (R in photo) to pecans (L). Both are similar in nutrition, but it is water use and geography that makes a difference. 🌍 1/4

On why Thanksgiving as a national meal is off the historical scale and the politics of that. www.rachellaudan.com/2023/11/amer...

Sycamore on a glorious November day in the central Bluegrass of Kentucky.

In the 1960s Katherine Whitehorn inducted a whole generation of British women into the modern world, including post war cooking. www.rachellaudan.com/2021/01/cook...

And a very fine volume it is. Couldn’t have hoped to work with nicer contributors.

The gleanings from a twenty-minute stroll round my neighborhood in Lexington, KY. It's been a glorious Fall.

Sorry to hear of the death today of the historian of physics, John Heilbron. His drive, knowledge and standards came into sharp focus when I worked with him on the Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science. #histsci

Welcome Godfrey @guillamin.bsky.social Godfrey is doing great work on John Dewey and hist and phil of science at the turn of the 20th c. Previously measurement. Professor at one of Mexico's major universities. #philsci #histsci #histSTM

And to see why our obsession with vegetables, for example, is red herring for most of food history. 🧵n/7 end.

With this rather simple insight, it's possible to pursue various lines--the necessity of secondary grains, the search for alternatives for making alcohol/sugar etc, the competition with fiber plants, the sequence of famine foods. 🧵n/6

"Roots" in the culinary not the biological sense are the main alternative. They are wet, heavy, perishable and cannot be transformed into as many kinds of foodstuffs as grain so before modern steam transport are not good for feeding dense popns (cities, armies). 🧵n/5

The exact amount obviously depends on what other foods are available, what particular grain is being used, the age of the consumer, whether they are doing heavy labour. But assuming 1-2 lbs grain (probably closer to the latter) gives you a handle on what populations needed. 🧵4/n

The answer was that almost all complex societies around the globe have depended on grains (barley, wheat, maize, rice, millet etc). And that multiple sources (army provisioning, granaries) agree that the amount is about 1-2 lbs a day. 🧵3/n

So in my global food history, Cuisine and Empire, I tried a different approach to economic underpinnings. What and how much did people need to eat?🧵2/n