Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat

by Jonathan Kauffman Narrated by George Newbern

Overview

An enlightening narrative history-an entertaining fusion of Tom Wolfe and Michael Pollan-that traces the colorful origins of once unconventional foods and the diverse fringe movements, charismatic gurus, and counterculture elements that brought them to the mainstream and created a distinctly American cuisine.

Food writer Jonathan Kauffman journeys back more than half a century-to the 1960s and 1970s-to tell the story of how a coterie of unusual men and women embraced an alternative lifestyle that would ultimately change how modern Americans eat. Impeccably researched, Hippie Food chronicles how the longhairs, revolutionaries, and back-to-the-landers rejected the square establishment of President Richard Nixon's America and turned to a more idealistic and wholesome communal way of life and food.

From the mystical rock-and-roll cult known as the Source Family and its legendary vegetarian restaurant in Hollywood to the Diggers' brown bread in the Summer of Love to the rise of the co-op and the origins of the organic food craze, Kauffman reveals how today's quotidian whole-foods staples-including sprouts, tofu, yogurt, brown rice, and whole-grain bread-were introduced and eventually became part of our diets. From coast to coast, through Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Vermont, Kauffman tracks hippie food's journey from niche oddity to a cuisine that hit every corner of this country.

A slick mix of gonzo playfulness, evocative detail, skillful pacing, and elegant writing, Hippie Food is a lively, engaging, and informative read that deepens our understanding of our culture and our lives today.

Editorial Reviews

FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile

Narrator George Newbern’s clear voice and captivating style work well with nonfiction. His storyteller’s cadence suits the vibe of this audiobook, which is devoted to the personalities and ideas that evolved into the alternative food crusade. His close-up history includes the organic, food co-op, and back-to-the-land movements. Newbern’s classic delivery enhances this exhaustive (sometime exhausting) study of how brown rice, tofu and tempeh came to prominence. The author has done a thorough job researching the stories of the often-quirky personalities—John Harvey Kellogg and Gayelord Hauser, Sylvester Graham and Adele Davis—and other icons of the counter-culture and alternative food worlds. Newbern vividly brings these stories to life. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

The New York Times Book Review - Michael Pollan

For a revolution that supposedly failed, the counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s scored a string of enduring victories. Environmentalism, feminism, civil and gay rights, as well as styles of music, fashion, politics, therapy and intoxication: In more ways than many of us realize, we live in a world created by the '60s…Jonathan Kauffman's briskly entertaining history, Hippie Food, makes a convincing case for adding yet another legacy to that list: the way we eat…I thought I knew this story, having read Warren J. Belasco's 1989 history, Appetite for Change, but Kauffman has added a lot to it, in the way of both fresh information and narrative verve.

Publishers Weekly

★ 10/16/2017
In this informative, briskly paced first book, James Beard Award–winning food writer Kauffman details how the concept of health food “evolved in the kitchens of young baby boomers” during the late 1960s counterculture and then in the post-Vietnam age. “Counterculture adherents,” he writes, “turned their efforts away from protest and created institutions, businesses, and cookbooks that brought the food movement to a much broader audience.” Kauffman explains that many of the staples of what is considered today to be a healthy diet—whole-grain bread, low-fat yogurt, organic or pesticide-free fruits and vegetables—had once been associated with fringe movements and have always been available to consumers. He interviews dozens of influential people within the healthy food movement, including the owners of the Aware Inn on the Sunset Strip, one of the earliest health food restaurants in the late 1950s; the editors of Zen Macrobiotics, which popularized the use of brown rice; and Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet, which introduced soybeans and tofu to American tables. Kauffman is equally thorough in tracing how these early innovators inspired the food co-ops and whole food stores that exist today, as well as how, during the 1980s and 1990s, mainstream supermarkets across the country added natural food sections to sell what was dismissed as “hippie food” in the 1960s. This is an outstanding food and cultural history. Agent: Nicole Tourtelot, DeFiore and Co. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

An intelligently written narrative refreshingly free of personal admonitions... Kauffman comprehensively presents the history and the momentum of the organic food revolution while foraging for the keys to its increasing desirability and crossover appeal. An astute, highly informative food expose that educates without bias.” — Kirkus Reviews

“An outstanding food and cultural history…In this informative, briskly paced first book…Kauffman details how the concept of health food ‘evolved in the kitchens of young baby boomers’…Kauffman is equally thorough in tracing how these early innovators inspired the food co-ops and whole food stores that exist today.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Kauffman describes a time when a simple bowl of brown rice...and dashes of tamari could be an act as politically symbolic as hitchhiking to San Francisco with flowers in your hair... Alongside playful prose the great joy of Hippie Food is its rich cast of characters.” — Wall Street Journal

“Kauffman’s research left him with a fascinating picture of what longhairs ate and where they got it.” — NPR’s The Salt

“Briskly entertaining… I thought I knew this story, but Kauffman has added a lot to it, in the way of both fresh information and narrative verve.”
— Michael Pollan for the New York Times

Wall Street Journal

Kauffman describes a time when a simple bowl of brown rice...and dashes of tamari could be an act as politically symbolic as hitchhiking to San Francisco with flowers in your hair... Alongside playful prose the great joy of Hippie Food is its rich cast of characters.

Michael Pollan for the New York Times

Briskly entertaining… I thought I knew this story, but Kauffman has added a lot to it, in the way of both fresh information and narrative verve.”

NPR’s The Salt

Kauffman’s research left him with a fascinating picture of what longhairs ate and where they got it.

Wall Street Journal

Kauffman describes a time when a simple bowl of brown rice...and dashes of tamari could be an act as politically symbolic as hitchhiking to San Francisco with flowers in your hair... Alongside playful prose the great joy of Hippie Food is its rich cast of characters.

San Francisco Chronicle

An engaging new book...Hippie Food makes the case that the most durable contribution of the counterculture can be found in your kitchen...It’s hard to read more than a few pages without feeling compelled to do something...whether it’s digging a plot for lettuce in your backyard or taking a trip to the farmers’ market.

FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile

Narrator George Newbern’s clear voice and captivating style work well with nonfiction. His storyteller’s cadence suits the vibe of this audiobook, which is devoted to the personalities and ideas that evolved into the alternative food crusade. His close-up history includes the organic, food co-op, and back-to-the-land movements. Newbern’s classic delivery enhances this exhaustive (sometime exhausting) study of how brown rice, tofu and tempeh came to prominence. The author has done a thorough job researching the stories of the often-quirky personalities—John Harvey Kellogg and Gayelord Hauser, Sylvester Graham and Adele Davis—and other icons of the counter-culture and alternative food worlds. Newbern vividly brings these stories to life. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170179602
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	01/23/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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