Braiding Sweetgrass
⭐⭐⭐
Braiding Sweetgrass is hard to review - on the one hand, the topics covered are fascinating. On the other, her focus was clearly on the flow of the writing rather than information organization. Settle in on a quiet afternoon and pair it with homemade focaccia.
Kimmerer's writing style is beautiful and she does an excellent job weaving together her native ancestry and scientific training. My favorite chapters were those that dealt with her experiments to see if various pieces of native lore are true wisdom or just old wives tales. In each case she talks about the resistance she received both from the rest of the scientific community for focusing on such ‘silly’ topics and within herself questioning if she was too emotionally invested to properly investigate. Perhaps unsurprisingly her experiments consistently found there was truth to the native traditions, validating centuries of practice. Even if you don’t read the entire book, its worth getting from the library to check out these sections. They were just neat.
A concept Kimmerer spends some time on is the honorable harvest. It focuses on finding balance in consumption. In traditional times this looked like only killing for need and using every part of what you killed, or taking the second bunch of herbs you found to ensure the first survived to propagate for the next year. In modern times this might take the form of avoiding fast fashion, repairing or repurposing things wherever possible, or committing to buying one more 'green' thing a week while grocery shopping. Kimmerer is very clear that there is no 'perfect' here, and that we're so far removed from the creation/production of most things that a true honorable harvest is nearly impossible - demand has been decouple from supply. Because of this she emphasizes that people should focus on small improvements they can build into their habits. Quick sidenote from the review - individuals should focus on incremental improvements they can stick with, but corporations and industries need to be held to a higher standard. I’ve added a couple links below you can use to see how to contact your representatives about issues that are important to you. The beauty of living in a democracy is that our voices matter. If you can, make it a habit to contact your local reps periodically to make sure your concerns are heard. You can also make sure you’re registered to vote at the last link below. Even if you don’t live in a swing state, real change comes from the down-ballot races - the same ones that tend to be much more competitive in any state.
The actual experience of reading this book felt a lot like the rebellion against capitalism and hustle culture Kimmerer often focuses on in her book, but not necessarily in a good way. While her writing is beautiful, its also repetitive and somewhat disorganized. Since I listened to it, I just put it on in the background while working on chores. Much stories from your elderly aunt or uncle, each individual thing in the book was interesting but I often wondered how much longer she would stay on that subject before moving on.
This is a good book to read as long as you aren't in a rush, if you're willing to relax into the flow instead of getting the information as efficiently as possible.
Focaccia Recipe:
Your favorite pizza dough
Olive oil
Sea salt
Toppings
Leave your favorite pizza dough out for an extra hour to over-proof (rise). Preheat the oven to 500. Coat a cast iron pan, cake tin, or baking sheet (depending on quantity of dough) in olive oil. Gently stretch the dough out until its roughly 1/2 inch thick, and poke it with your fingertips to create the dimpled texture. Brush with slightly more olive oil than you think it needs and sprinkle your toppings on. I always start with sea salt and then either do fresh rosemary or thyme and garlic (pictured). Bake until the focaccia is a nice golden brown. You should be able to tip it up and see browning on the bottom as well.
Happy eating!
