About some people in this book: Ken no longer delivers New Sammy’s sourdough bread. Anyone wanting to try it has to go to his sister’s restaurant, New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro, in Talent, Oregon. Dawn the Egg Lady has moved to other digs, and I now have to find my deep-yellow-yolked eggs elsewhere—luckily, that’s easier now than when I first wrote Jam Today. The Indigo Ray still works in her magical garden, Sally and Daryl Bogardus of Pisces Tuna still fish with dolphins playing at their bow. You can read an update on them on p. 224.
Some things have changed in my cooking life, though. I don’t use sunflower oil anymore; that’s gone from the book. Now I stick to sesame oil, walnut oil, and two different olive oils—a mild and a strong. I no longer have a Teflon pan. Ceramic skillets have been invented meanwhile, and I’ve embraced the new technology with thanks. Three different sizes, and they all work a treat. I’m afraid I don’t ration myself to that one glass of wine a night anymore. That was a bit too penitential. Especially given current events.
One thing that definitely hasn’t changed is what I said in ‘Why I Love Food’: “And if you have an entire population that is well fed—and well loved—and believes it can do just about anything . . . this may not be good for those who would rather lull and manipulate us into doing what they think best. But it’s definitely good for us and our world.”
How much truer is that now, I think ruefully to myself . . .