October 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome to Sound Authors. Today is Friday May 30th and it’s a beautiful day out here in New York. I have four guests on the show today. My musical guest at the end, his name is Matt MacIsaac, one of the best pipers in the industry. He plays with Natalie McMaster’s band and that will be great. I’m also speaking with the author of millennial leaders; she’ll be on the show – Bea Field – later on. R.T. Jordan is the author of a Polly Pepper Mystery, The Final Curtain and we’ll chat with him after my first guest. My first guest, her book is named You’re a Good Mom, and You’re Kids Aren’t So Bad Either; 14 Secrets to Finding Happiness Between Supermom and Slackermom. Welcome to the show Jen Singer.
Jen Singer: It’s good to talk to you today.
Dr. Kent: Tell me a little bit about on your website you have a humorous bio that you’re the mother of two boys that talk to you through the bathroom door.
Jen Singer: Its true and one of those boys is up on the couch with the stomach flu so I’m crossing my fingers that we make it through this okay. I write about my life as a mom of two boys and all of the neighborhood boys who wind up in my backyard after school everyday. I don’t know how that happens but it’s a frat house for fourth graders around here.
Dr. Kent: Tell us a little bit about this book. You’re a Good Mom and You’re Kids Aren’t So Bad Either.
Jen Singer: What’s happened with parenting in the 21st century is that we’ve tried so hard to keep up with that super mom who’s using flash cards to get her six year old ready for SATs and we’re failing miserably. So some of us will give up and become that slacker mom, the one who isn’t paying attention to what her kids are watching on TV and has given up completely. What I’ve found is the sweet spot in between where you can be happy and turn out perfectly good kids. In the book there’s 14 secrets to doing that.
Dr. Kent: Give us a little hint of one.
Jen Singer: Well, one of them is you didn’t invent motherhood. We 21st century mothers seem to think that we’re the only ones who can mother but my mom had two kids and my mother-in-law had three under three years old and no car God bless her. Somehow they all made it to adulthood and she was fine. So you have to realize that it’s okay to leave your kids with somebody else, especially someone like your parents or your in-laws who actually raised kids before. You’re not the one who invented motherhood.
Dr. Kent: One thing about this book is its very personal for you. At the end you talk about your personal struggles. How do you mix the daily life of being a mother and then dealing with your own health issues and things like that?
Jen Singer: Yeah, that was tough. I was in the middle of writing this book; I had four chapters left when I found out last summer - it’s been almost a year now – that I had non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. So I went from being the mom carting the kids around in the mini van and trying to fit in chapters here and there to writing the book on the oncology floor at New York Hospital.
What I found was that writing helped me get through the cancer and especially humor writing. Apparently amusing myself was good medicine for me so I borrowed my brother’s laptop, I got an extension from my publisher Source Books, and I kept on writing. I would write in the hospital, I wrote in outpatient chemo, I mean when else am I going to get four hours to actually just sit. So I could type for a whole four hours, which is more than I normally get and I managed to get it done.
I’m in remission now; I’ve been in remission since January but it’s an aggressive cancer so I have to have frequent scannings and I just kind of work in those three month increments and cross my fingers.
Dr. Kent: So let’s talk a little bit about your book. There’s amusing chapters in here with secrets. It’s fantastic. There’s one called Don’t Let the Youth Sports Cartel Run Your Life. I want to hear about that one.
Jen Singer: This one I thought that people would be coming after me with pitchforks with that one but I’m finding there’s lots of parents who feel the same way I do. Keep in mind that I played soccer all the way through college and beyond and I am a recreational soccer coach to both my boys’ soccer teams and yet I’m disappointed to find out what has happened to youth sports. In my neighborhood right now, the sign ups for travel soccer for kids born in 2001. A lot of expectations on our kids too young to be playing a sport year round and to dedicate themselves. There’s trainers that are training eight year olds; I didn’t get a trainer until I was in college so I think it’s a little bit too much too soon and our kids are burning out. Kids are dropping out of sports by the time they’re 12 and frankly we’re burning out driving them all over the state.
Dr. Kent: I live in New York and in this area on Long Island the parenting especially, they find themselves running up against tests at a very young age and they’re trying to get their kids into college from age four.
Jen Singer: Yeah, there was a great book once called Toilet Training for Yale by Ralph Shoenstein and I think that sums up what the culture is right now. There’s a lot of competitive parenting going on. I heard a story of a mother on a Friday night at her son’s baseball game trying to get her four year old to do worksheets so that she would have a leg up on all the other kids. She wanted a leg up on the Harvard graduates from the class of 2022 I suppose but it’s not necessary as our kids can learn through play as well and we need to let up on them a little bit because they’re going to burn out.
And also what we’re finding is that they’re so used to being micro-managed; our kids are so used to having us plan their lives for them that by the time they get to college they have to text you to ask you what to get for lunch because they don’t know how to take care of themselves. So I think that there needs to be a big change in motherhood and that’s what you’re a good mom is all about.
Dr. Kent: So what do moms really not know? What’s a slacker mom?
Jen Singer: A slacker mom is one whose given up completely and she’s looking to celebrities for parenting advice and I really don’t think Brittney Spears is the star of parents but don’t forget that a lot of celebrities have trainers who are getting them back in shape within months, and most of us don’t have the time or money for. They have somebody getting up with their babies all night long; the playing field isn’t level there so you shouldn’t compare yourself to that.
Another one of the tips I have is you shouldn’t wait on daddy like he’s a houseguest. What I see is a lot of mothers think well, my husband doesn’t parent as well as I do so they swoop in and try to take over. After a while the father doesn’t even want to help out at all and now you’re waiting on your kids and your husband.
Dr. Kent: So what about super mom? What is super mom?
Jen Singer: The super mom is that mom who is handing out the worksheet on a Friday night at a baseball game for her four year old. She’s the one who is trying to create the super child and you know a lot of it you have to understand is propaganda. In fact that’s one of the secrets in the book. Super mom is faking it. She’s putting her best face forward to make herself look better than she is. She’s the one whose baking brownies for certain teachers and the principle at the school so she gets an in there, she’s putting on full makeup just to go to the mailbox. She can’t keep that up for long and there’s really no reason why you should try and keep up with her because eventually she’ll burn out.
Dr. Kent: So are you able to balance pretty well?
Jen Singer: So far so good. Working from home is certainly a huge help because I’m here and I’ve got a sick kid right upstairs from me so I can keep an eye on him and get some stuff done. I have to let a lot of things go and just understand that it has to be done that way and I also have a great support system. I have a fantastic literary agent. I have my own publicist who’s fantastic as well. In addition to the publicity department at my publishers and I have a manager who helps me get spokespersonships and things like that so its not all completely on me.
Dr. Kent: Now there’s a lot of fun stuff on your website as well. It’s called mommasaid.net. Tell me a little bit about that.
Jen Singer: Well mommasaid.net is basically you look at it as the basic of my platform. You know, books come and go and in terms of publicity the interest among the media comes and goes but websites are always there and so I’m constantly updating it, constantly blogging about it, asking people questions. I have my finger on the pulse of motherhood just from talking to mothers every day so that makes me valuable to the media when they want to interview me. So even if a couple months go by and my book is a little bit older then I always have mommasaid.
Dr. Kent: And you also won an award with the website. It was a Forbes best of the web community.
Jen Singer: Yeah, that was very exciting, very validating. Forbes decided that mommasaid is one of the best of the web and now, it was a couple years ago and it’s grown since then. I now have thousands of people coming through from all over the world. I’ve seen traffic go up and it’s great to have a fan base because any time you want to try and sell a book to a publisher nowadays they want you to have that fan base, that platform in order for you to prove that you have a following and I have a following in mommasaid.
Dr. Kent: So what’s the value of humor for mothers and parenting and life?
Jen Singer: Well humor for me is better than medicine. It’s really better than therapy. In order to get through the craziness of motherhood, I had two colicky babies who screamed. One of them cried for ten hours a day for three months. Then all of the crazy things with the stomach flu in the middle of the night for example, you need to keep a sense of humor or you’ll go crazy just from being exhausted. That goes the same for I find anything I do. Like I said it got me through cancer, it got me through motherhood and that’s why I love it.
Dr. Kent: Now how about us men. What’s your message for men?
Jen Singer: For men I would think in terms of parenthood you mean?
Dr. Kent: All of it.
Jen Singer: All of it? Well you know humor goes the same for men as well and in terms of parenting, I would say don’t be your wife’s second in command. You need to step up and help out but more than just help out. These are your kids you know, some people say oh I’m babysitting my kids today and you can’t baby-sit your own kids, they are your kids. And I see that today’s fathers are really doing a fantastic job with that. Much more than the generation before so keep it up guys.
Dr. Kent: Well this is a fascinating conversation. The book is called You’re a Good Mom and You’re Kids Aren’t So Bad Either. Of course that’s in parentheses because the book is for mothers and fourteen secrets to finding happiness between super mom and slacker mom. It’s a gorgeous book published by Source Books. How’s that experience?
Jen Singer: Source Books has been absolutely fantastic from the editing to the publicity department to sales. They’re extremely enthusiastic, extremely helpful; I can’t say enough about Source Books. They’re a great publisher.
Dr. Kent: We’ll visit you on the web, Jen Singers mommasaid.net and it’s been great speaking with you on the show.
Jen Singer: Thanks for having me on.
Dr. Kent: I hope your son feels better really soon.
Jen Singer: Well thank you.
Dr. Kent: Now my next guest after the break is R.T. Jordan with his book In the Polly Pepper mystery series and the book is called Final Curtain. So come on back for that.
October 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with Georgeanne Brennan [10:08m]:
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We spoke with Georgeanne Brennan about her latest book “A Pig in Provence.” About Georgeanne from her website:
Georgeanne Brennan is an award-winning cookbook author and journalist who has won national acclaim for her evocative and lyrical writing about food and gastronomy. Her expertise ranges from farming and agriculture to history and food lore. A charming and inspiring teacher, as well as a writer, she captivates and imbues her students with her enthusiasm and knowledge about the pleasures of food and the table.
Georgeanne Brennan grew up in southern California and was educated at San Diego State University, the University of Aix-Marseille in Provence, and the University of California, San Diego, where she earned a Master’s Degree in History. In 1970 she and her husband returned to southern France with their small daughter (their son was born there) and bought an old farmhouse where they made and sold goat cheese, and raised and sold feeder pigs for two years before taking teaching jobs in Northern California, although they returned to France at least once a year thereafter.
In 1982 Georgeanne and a partner, Charlotte Glenn, started Le Marché Seeds, a national mail-order specialty vegetable seed company. With customers all over the United States, including emerging organic market growers, Le Marché was featured in such magazines as Family Circle, Metropolitan Home, Organic Gardening and Vogue, as well as in the food and garden sections of numerous newspapers.
Out of her these activities came her first book, The New American Vegetable Cookbook (1984) co-authored with Isaac Cronin and Charlotte Glenn. Since then, she has written POTAGER: Fresh Garden Cooking in the French Style, which has been called a modern classic by Patricia Wells, published into both French and German, and was also a finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award, as was her next book,The Glass Pantry; Preserving Flavors.
The Mediterranean Herb Cookbook (2000), which celebrates herbs and the Mediterranean way with olive oil, was followed in 2001 by Olives, Capers, and Anchovies: The Secret Ingredients of Mediterranean Cooking, (published in Dutch in 2002) both from Chronicle Books. These were followed by Great Greens, also from Chronicle Books. In 2006, she brought to life Dr. Suess’s quirky take on food with The Dr Seuss Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook, (Random House 2006), and in 2007 her food memoir, A Pig in Provence (Chronicle Books, 2007) was published to much acclaim. It will be released in paperback by Harcourt in March, 2008. She is currently working on tales of growing up in a Southern California beach town during the magical years of the 40s and 50s, as well as continuing to work on a mystery series set in Provence.
In addition to her books Brennan writes regular features for The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper’s food section and is a regular contributor to Fine Cooking, Bon Appétit, and Cooking Pleasures. She has also contributed to The New York Times, Garden Design, Metropolitan Home, Horticulture, and Organic Gardening. She has been featured in Food and Wine, Gourmet, and Sunset magazines.
In 2000, Georgeanne opened her own cooking vacation school in a restored 17th century convent located in a medieval village in Haute Provence, not far from her own small farmhouse. The week long experience for small groups features gathering and cooking from the kitchen garden - the time-honored cuisine du potager - as well as shopping in village markets and preparing the equally honorable cuisine du marché. Seasonal activities include mushroom hunting, gathering wild herbs, visits to olive oil mills and local cheesemakers, as well as visits to her favorite restaurants, antique markets and nearby historic sites. The cooking school is on hold at the moment, due to other commitments.
She has been a featured speaker on Provence at the Culinary Academy of America at Greystone and at COPIA: The American Center for Food, Wine and the Arts and a spokesperson for the California Tree Fruit Agreement.
She also has been a guest chef on Crystal Cruises, a frequent guest at the Chef’s Holidays at Yosemite, Whistler School of Cooking in Vancouver, B.C., and Macy’s De Gustibus Cooking School, as well as a guest teacher at cooking schools nationwide. Additionally, she has taught food and memoir writing at the University of California at Berkeley and Davis Extensions.
Active in the Slow Food movement for many years, she has served as a jury member for Slow Food International Award, a member of Slow Food’s American Ark Selection Committee, and is currently co-leader of the Slow Food Yolo Convivum.
She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and of Les Dames d’Escoffier.
Georgeanne lives with her husband on their small farm in Northern California. They have four children.
October 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: That’s a song by the Blind Boys of Alabama called Down by the Riverside off of their newest album Down in New Orleans. It’s my honor to welcome to the show legendary singer Jimmy Lee Carter and he’s one of the original members from the Alabama Institute for Negro Blind and the Happy Land Jubilee Singers. They were the precursor to the Blind Boys of Alabama. It’s been almost 70 years, this group in the making and they’re still singing like their 21 years old. Welcome to the show Jimmy Lee Carter. Hi, how are you doing?
Jimmy Lee Carter: I’m doing good, how are you?
Dr. Kent: I’m great. Tell me about this long career in the business.
Jimmy Lee Carter: Well, we got started early you know and we’ve been singing ever since.
Dr. Kent: I mean the success is amazing; the Grammy awards from 2002 to 2005; you’re in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame; you’ve recorded with everyone from Ben Harper to Prince coming on stage. How does it feel to be so high in the music industry right now?
Jimmy Lee Carter: You know, we feel honored to have these guys to come on to join our set. Prince came on stage one night and we had the honor to be with Aaron Neville, Ben Harper, a whole lot of folks so we feel honored to be with these people and they love the Gospel and they love the blind boys and we love them too, that’s the way it is.
Dr. Kent: Do you remember those early records? Sweet honey in the rocks, The Sermon, When I Lost My Mother and all those records from the 40s and 50s and all that?
Jimmy Lee Carter: Yes, that was done, Sweet Honey in the Rocks was done I think in 1948. When I Lost My Mother was done in 1950 or 51 on a special day.
Dr. Kent: How has the industry changed since then? How does it feel different nowadays?
Jimmy Lee Carter: When the blind boys started out, we started with just one acoustic guitar, that’s all we had. Now we have a complete four-piece band, we have a lead guitar, bass guitar, a sweet guitar and drums. Now we’ve added a keyboard so that’s the way the times have changed. Years have changed and we have to change with the times.
Dr. Kent: Also right now we’re in the middle of the political season. Have you all taken a position on politics?
Jimmy Lee Carter: I haven’t taken a position; I don’t really get into politics. I leave that alone. I have my preference; I’m not going to tell you what it is but I have one.
Dr. Kent: How was it for you? You’re in the forefront of what’s happened with Ben Harper for example. You’re in front of a new audience. Ben Harpers fans run from teenagers all the way up to who knows how old. How does it feel to be in front of different audiences?
Jimmy Lee Carter: What you’ve got to understand about Ben Harper, he came out of the church. All of the people that we are associated with, most of them came out of the church. They just chose another profession. We stayed with Gospel because that’s how we were growed up. The Blind Boys were grown in a Christian environment and we were determined to stay with Gospel. We were offered many chances to go another way but we decided not to do that. We will stay where we are and we will not deviate from that because we promised God that we would serve him.
Dr. Kent: When you sing the Gospel for this many years, do you still feel the same feelings you felt when you were a little boy in church singing the same songs?
Jimmy Lee Carter: When I started out, I knew I had a gift to sing when I was five years old. I used to sing around the house and when I was seven I went to the school and met the other guys up there. We started singing together and that’s where my career started off. When my mom took me to school I was seven years old and I got up there and I knew I could sing a little bit so we started singing together in the choir. From that, that’s where we got started.
Dr. Kent: Were your parents good singers?
Jimmy Lee Carter: My mom could sing a little bit but my dad was a whistler. He loved to whistle. He was a great whistler in the day but we all were Christian folk.
Dr. Kent: Now the Blind Boys; do you always elect new members to that? How do you keep it running for 70 years?
Jimmy Lee Carter: Well you know, they come and go. We had one pass away in 2005 and we replaced him. We had another one, he’s still alive but he had health problems and isn’t able to travel anymore so we had to replace him. We keep searching until we find who we’re looking for. We’ve got some fine young men now and they’re doing well. So we made some changes with the Blind Boys but we’re hanging in there.
Dr. Kent: This latest album Down in New Orleans, we’re going to listen to one more track off that in a minute called Free At Last. We just listened to Down by the Riverside. These are tributes to New Orleans and that’s been a city that’s really been hurting in the last few years and something we’re all thinking about. How does it feel to do this tribute album featuring some of your New Orleans friends, the Hot Eight, Allen Toussaint and the Preservation of the Jazz Band?
Jimmy Lee Carter: When we decided to do this album our producer came up with the idea to go down to New Orleans and get these musicians who are very good. We thought about how Katrina had left the city of New Orleans so devastated. So when we got down there we told the people that we couldn’t help them build their houses back, we couldn’t use a hammer or a nail because we couldn’t see.
But we could bring encouragement and hope to them through our music and so we sang to them. We got this record together with the musicians at Celebration Hall and we told the folk that we couldn’t help them build a house but we could encourage them through our music and I think that’s what we did. New Orleans is on its way back.
Dr. Kent: It is a beautiful album; it’s full of life, full of soul, just like all of the Blind Boys records.
Jimmy Lee Carter: Thank you so much for saying that.
Dr. Kent: When you keep singing the Gospel I guess it will always have that soul.
Jimmy Lee Carter: Oh, we’re going to try to.
Dr. Kent: Thank you so much for chatting with me. I’ve been speaking with the legendary Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Lee Carter: Thank you my friend. You’re very easy to talk to, thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Kent: Their website is blindboys.com. The newest album called Down in New Orleans; it’s a great CD, has raving reviews from The Rolling Stone, USA Today and more. We can check them out all over the web, just Google the Blind Boys of Alabama. It’s been such an honor and now a track from Down in New Orleans called Free at Last.
[Music]
October 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with Leonard L. Berry [17:00m]:
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About Leonard L. Berry:Dr. Leonard L. Berry is Distinguished Professor of Marketing, and holds the M.B. Zale Chair in Retailing and Marketing Leadership in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. He is also Professor of Humanities in Medicine in the College of Medicine at The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center. He was one of two Texas A&M faculty members honored at the University’s commencement ceremony in May 2008 by being named a Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence. During the 2001-2002 academic term he served as a Visiting Scientist at Mayo Clinic studying healthcare service. He is the founder of Texas A&M’s Center for Retailing Studies and served as its director from 1982 through June 2000. He is a former national president of the American Marketing Association.
Professor Berry’s latest book, Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic, was published in 2008 by McGraw-Hill. Other books include Discovering the Soul of Service, On Great Service, Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality, and Delivering Quality Service.
Dr. Berry has been recognized on three occasions with the highest honor Texas A&M bestows on a faculty member: the Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching (1990) and the Distinguished Achievement Award in Research (1996, 2008). He is the recipient of the 2008 Paul D. Converse Award from the American Marketing Association, the 2007 AMA/McGraw-Hill/Irwin Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, the Career Contributions to Services Marketing Award from the American Marketing Association’s Services Marketing Special Interest Group, the Outstanding Marketing Educator Award from the Academy of Marketing Science, and the Pinnacle Award as Marketing Educator of the Year from Sales and Marketing Executives International. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Marketing Science. Texas A&M University named him a University Distinguished Lecturer for 2002-2003.Dr. Berry is a member of the board of directors of several major public companies and national not-for-profit organizations.
October 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest on the show, Georgeanne Brennan wrote a book called A Pig in Provence; Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France. She owns a little place there and welcome to the show Georgeanne Brennan.
Georgeanne Brennan: Thank you very much.
Dr. Kent: The New York Times said fascinating, you can almost hear her lips smacking. Tell us a little bit about this book, A Pig in Provence.
Georgeanne Brennan: Well, it has its origins in the fact that my husband and our little daughter went to Provence in the early 1970s and bought a farm deep in the heart of little Provence, acquired a herd of goats and learned how to make goat milk cheese. I had fell in love with Provence and the way of life there and the people and that love affair has continued until today. So the book is about these many years and adventures and good food in that wonderful part of the world.
Dr. Kent: You discovered many things there, including making fresh goat cheese. I really want to know how to do that!
Georgeanne Brennan: Well I sure did too at one time and it was a difficult discovery because when we went there as I said in the early 1970s, the old tradition of making cheese had pretty much disappeared withy two wars and people leaving the country side. all I could find out was basically you milk the goat, you strain the milk into a can and you add some renis, which is a coagulating agent, and then the next day it will have separated into curds and whey and ladle the curds into cheese molds, let it drain and turn it and two days later you have cheese.
Dr. Kent: Wow.
Georgeanne Brennan: Sounds simple but like any simple thing, it wasn’t.
Dr. Kent: Describe this world; Provence in 1970. What did it feel like for you?
Georgeanne Brennan: Well, we had left southern California, the San Diego area, and it was not just going to another country it was going back in time. This little rural community of about 200 people, I think there were only two phones, one in the bar and one in the Mayors office. Many people did not have full indoor plumbing, most people had electricity but it was really left over from 1930 and the best part was the people really lived out of their gardens and their orchards. Out in the fields were gathered wild herbs, mushrooms, asparagus and people shared with us the bounty of their protégées, their year around gardens. There was always something fresh and wonderful to eat.
Dr. Kent: You’ve written several cook books. What makes this one different? Of course, besides the fact that it’s a memoir, it’s got a beautiful cover and all that. What makes this different for you?
Georgeanne Brennan: What made it different for me, I think you notice in cookbooks there’s always what they call head notes, some kind of two or three sentences or maybe a paragraph that describes what the recipe is about or how to serve it or something like that. So for me, being able to write this book A Pig in Provence was like being able to write all those head notes that tell about the history and the place, the taste and the smells, and the people connected with the food. That became a major part of what I was doing rather than the minor part. The major being the recipes.
Dr. Kent: As far as the cookbook part of it, the recipes in here, did you find that over all of these years going back and visiting, you’ve gotten better at their recipes and their style of cooking?
Georgeanne Brennan: That’s a good question. I’d say yes I think that after time and actually I’m going back next Wednesday in just a few days and I find that its kind of become part of me. It’s intuitive. I can walk out into the garden and say oh here’s some char, here’s some arugula and the last of the seasons tomatoes, and what a wonderful salad this will make with some goat cheese. You know without really having to think about going to the supermarket other than for meats and stuff. It’s a wonderful way to think and relate to food. It’s very therapeutic in a sense.
Dr. Kent: Because we’re in the middle of the political season I’ve got to ask the question looming. Now living in Provence, isn’t the temptation to just cut your ties from northern California here and move out of the country?
Georgeanne Brennan: Well, I have heard that from several people. I’m going to buy a house and move to France or England or New Zealand or wherever it might be and of course having had a place in France now for more than 30 years off an on that’s been a temptation. But I really have come to the conclusion that for me my home is here in northern California and I’m very privileged to have another life with dear friends in a wonderful part of the world.
Dr. Kent: Lets talk a little about what your doing right now because you have a little farm, you’re active in the slow food movement, what does it mean to you someone who’s inside the culinary world, to support something like slow food? Of course, having a small farm or a living in a small town where there’s only two telephones. What’s the value to sort of going back in time?
Georgeanne Brennan: I think that whenever we can step away from our daily whirlwind of life, you know I think now with the internet and the tremendous amount of information content that we have, that any time we can step away from that and sort of recollect ourselves and get centered again and think about where does our food really come from? How is it made and who are the people who grow it? Does it come from human hands or is it simply sent off some place to be processed into something as Michael Palin said our grandmother wouldn’t recognize what it was?
So for me I think that’s part of the value of this slow food movement. Its encouraging people, it’s very educational in encouraging people to think about their food and where it comes from. Here in northern California, my husband and I have a small farm, ten acres, we grow lots of things. We grew over 1,000 tomato plants and just gave the tomatoes away to friends and family. People came and took 100-150 pounds away to go make tomato sauce with their children, it’s great. Its part of why I’m having my teaching classes here, now I call it Provence in California. It’s wonderful to be able to share the knowledge and enthusiasm I gained with others.
Dr. Kent: What do you have on the farm? I’m curious. Besides tomatoes do you keep goats and animals?
Georgeanne Brennan: No I don’t have animals other than my dog and partly because I still travel quite a bit and if you’re going to have animals you have to absolutely dedicate yourself to your care, you cannot be causal about that. So we have a number of blood orange trees, naval orange trees, and the garden which is huge. What we grow in the fields right now I have arugula, char, yellow beans, the garlic is coming up, I still have basil and sweet peppers, but the cabbages are on their way, the asparagus ferns are full and lush and soon they’ll be ready to be cut back and we’ll have asparagus before you know it.
Dr. Kent: It’s been an honor speaking with Georgeanne Brennan. She’s got Provence in California culinary weekends; gosh that would be neat to attend for anyone as well as writing this book A Pig in Provence and good food and simple pleasures in the south of France. It’s been such an honor speaking with you.
Georgeanne Brennan: Oh thank you, it’s been a pleasure.
Dr. Kent: We can visit her online at georgeannebrennan.com. We can find A Pig in Provence just about anywhere. My next guest on the show will be the legendary Blind Boys of Alabama.
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