I'm glad to see permaculture coming into the kitchen and this is something I have been doing both at home and professionally (almost a decade in restaurants) for a long time. So I was really excited when I saw "The Permaculture Kitchen" being released as one of the first publications synthesizing these two beautiful fields. However, after watching the above video and reading Burra’s review I have my reservations. Mainly, this being an actual
permaculture kitchen book versus being another local/seasonal/slow food/from scratch book with some nice permaculture jargon thrown in...see words such as “resilient” and “sustainable”. The recipes/foods mentioned in the video and in Burra’s review mostly use annual plants. Where is the whole systems thinking and how is permanent agriculture supported through our daily actions in the kitchen? Where are the ethics (earth care/people care/return of surplus)?
Using things that are going bad/bolting, saving time, thinking ahead, extending ingredients, seasonal menu planning, etc. are fundamental aspects of most (good) restaurants and slow cooking with thousands of publications on this material. Most of that stuff comes down to common "thrifty" sense really. Obviously, techniques like zoning (and diverse space saving herb spirals) apply in the kitchen as well as other areas of life.
Is cooking like this
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/10/07/354053768/the-sioux-chef-is-putting-pre-colonization-food-back-on-the-menu or at restaurants like “Faviken” not more permaculture without the fancy word salad? I’m not saying this book is full of all annual recipes but I am playing a bit of devil advocate. As Larry Santoyo says we use not do permaculture, how does this book teach one to use a permaculture mindset in the kitchen other than using basic techniques as mentioned above that most seasonal restaurant chefs already do?
