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Botany, Ballet & Dinner from Scratch: A Memoir with Recipes
The new, updated edition of Leda Meredith’s first book, a classic local food memoir, is here—with original recipes and color photographs. Leda remains deeply connected to nature, including the sources of her food, while living in New York City. She demonstrates the joys and travails of preserving food in jars that were stored for months beneath her bed—or foraging for edible plants in city parks. Her journey goes beyond New York City to include old-world family vignettes and recipes, as well as glimpses into other cultures she visited as a ballet dancer on tour, and as a botanist. Always personal, with dry wit that does not wax “preachy,” she explores the personal, social, and ecological aspects of eating locally-grown food.
A lifelong forager, Leda Meredith is the author of five books including The Forager’s How to Identify, Gather, and Prepare Wild Edibles, The Locavore’s the Busy Person’s Guide to Eating Local on a Budget, and Northeast 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Beach Plums to Wineberries.
She has a certification in Ethnobotany and is an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She is the winner of a Teaching Excellence award from Adelphi University. Leda was a professional dancer for over thirty years with companies including San Francisco Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theater II, Dances Patrelle, and Jennifer Muller/The Works, among many others. She continues to teach, direct, and choreograph dance internationally. You can find out more about what she’s up to on her website at www.ledameredith.com
“Personal, visceral, intimate, natural and authentic. All these words describe Leda’s book. You can literally taste melancholy in one dish and joy in another. Food is nothing without context, both the context of the environment in which they are sourced and also where they fit in our memories. This lexicon of memories interwoven with cherished recipes immerses you in an enchanted story-land where you can peek into the world of art and ballet, off-the-beaten-path travel, as well as secret gardens and heartbreak. Leda’s life is as rich and textured as her recipes. Although her stories are most likely exotic and far from many people’s common experiences, there’s something deeply identifiable and familiar, too. The longing to be free and in nature, and to be sustainable and be able to cook and preserve in a modern world resonates.”
—Mia Wasilevich, author, educator, chef, food photographer and stylist
“What a delicious read! This book is such a beautiful blend of both familiar and unusual recipes, fascinating facts, and the poignant but impressive story of a multi-talented dancer’s life. I loved it.” —Cynthia Gregory, Prima Ballerina
“In this engaging memoir filled with mouth-watering recipes, Leda Meredith recounts a lifetime of urban foraging adventures. Begun in early childhood harvesting horta in San Francisco with her Greek great-grandmother, Meredith’s foraging ways bring continuity and meaning to her life’s twists and turns, as she repeatedly finds healing in food and her connections to it. This is a book sure to inspire readers to find pleasure in what is close at hand.”
—Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Revolution Will Not Be Inside America’s Underground Food Movements and Wild The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-culture Foods
“Many people tout the benefits of eating locally. Leda Meredith lives them. Part memoir, part travelogue, part recipe book, Botany, Ballet, and Dinner from Scratch combines Meredith’s passion for dance, foraging, gardening, cooking, and writing into an appetizing brew. The recipes and stories are to be savored, the garden and kitchen wisdom to be used.”
— Jennie Schacht, author of Farmers’ Market Desserts,
and I Scream Sandwich! and co-author of Without Reservations and
The Wine Lover’s Dessert Cookbook
A lifelong forager, Leda Meredith is the author of five books including The Forager’s How to Identify, Gather, and Prepare Wild Edibles, The Locavore’s the Busy Person’s Guide to Eating Local on a Budget, and Northeast 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Beach Plums to Wineberries.
She has a certification in Ethnobotany and is an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She is the winner of a Teaching Excellence award from Adelphi University. Leda was a professional dancer for over thirty years with companies including San Francisco Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theater II, Dances Patrelle, and Jennifer Muller/The Works, among many others. She continues to teach, direct, and choreograph dance internationally. You can find out more about what she’s up to on her website at www.ledameredith.com
“Personal, visceral, intimate, natural and authentic. All these words describe Leda’s book. You can literally taste melancholy in one dish and joy in another. Food is nothing without context, both the context of the environment in which they are sourced and also where they fit in our memories. This lexicon of memories interwoven with cherished recipes immerses you in an enchanted story-land where you can peek into the world of art and ballet, off-the-beaten-path travel, as well as secret gardens and heartbreak. Leda’s life is as rich and textured as her recipes. Although her stories are most likely exotic and far from many people’s common experiences, there’s something deeply identifiable and familiar, too. The longing to be free and in nature, and to be sustainable and be able to cook and preserve in a modern world resonates.”
—Mia Wasilevich, author, educator, chef, food photographer and stylist
“What a delicious read! This book is such a beautiful blend of both familiar and unusual recipes, fascinating facts, and the poignant but impressive story of a multi-talented dancer’s life. I loved it.” —Cynthia Gregory, Prima Ballerina
“In this engaging memoir filled with mouth-watering recipes, Leda Meredith recounts a lifetime of urban foraging adventures. Begun in early childhood harvesting horta in San Francisco with her Greek great-grandmother, Meredith’s foraging ways bring continuity and meaning to her life’s twists and turns, as she repeatedly finds healing in food and her connections to it. This is a book sure to inspire readers to find pleasure in what is close at hand.”
—Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Revolution Will Not Be Inside America’s Underground Food Movements and Wild The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-culture Foods
“Many people tout the benefits of eating locally. Leda Meredith lives them. Part memoir, part travelogue, part recipe book, Botany, Ballet, and Dinner from Scratch combines Meredith’s passion for dance, foraging, gardening, cooking, and writing into an appetizing brew. The recipes and stories are to be savored, the garden and kitchen wisdom to be used.”
— Jennie Schacht, author of Farmers’ Market Desserts,
and I Scream Sandwich! and co-author of Without Reservations and
The Wine Lover’s Dessert Cookbook
- GenresFoodBiography Memoir
188 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2008
1 person is currently reading
55 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 2, 2022
This woman's book is why you read memoirs! Such a different life than mine... It was like being an armchair world travelling, foraging ballerina. So fun and so fascinating.
June 16, 2010
Fantastic book by a woman living in Brooklyn (the hometown of my ancestors, I've just learned), who forages for dandelion weeds and other edibles in the city. She hatches a plan to eat locally (within a 250 mile radius) for one year, and she shares the pleasures and challenges of her experiment with us. As for me, I'm growing lovely tomato, eggplant, squash, and pepper plants in an abundant container garden, and I have plentiful Dandelions growing around the edge of my house....so I'm going to try her suggestion of sauteing the greens and buds for dinner tonight (with a delicious Chickpea Indian dish, found in Linda McCartney's vegetarian cookbook).
May 5, 2012
Leda Meredith offers us a tasting menu of remembrances and food. Don't worry. It isn't Proust. But, it's a slim and lovely volume, complete with Meredith's thoughts on environment, food and sustainability. Questioning the role of food, environment and nature, in our modern, technologically-driven lives, Meredith has stepped off the treadmill to offer us, an almost urban guerilla's manual to living in the present and with one-ness to an Earth we neglect to see. Quite lovely. This book is like sipping lemon tea on an overcast day.
June 29, 2009
This memoir was written by my foraging instructor. Its part memoir, part response to Animal, Vegetable, Mineral since she spent a year in Brooklyn eating food produced within 250 miles. Lots of recipes and anecdotes.
on-the-radar
September 29, 2016Written by a dancer Therese knows.
April 13, 2010
Parts were wonderful but the stories did not all carry the same depth of feeling.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews