Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Idaho scholar shares lore and love of food

Hailey Public Library hosts Smithsonian exhibit


The children's table at the Crouch family Thanksgiving Day dinner. Ledyard, Connecticut, November 1940. This and other work reflecting on food in America will be on display at the Hailey Library's "Key Ingredients" exhibition. Photo by Jack Delano. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

By BETSY ANDREWS
For the Express

"The first homemade bread I tasted, I think I made myself," says Susan Swetnam, Professor of English at Idaho State University. Yet Swetnam—recipient of Idaho State University's Awards for Distinguished Teacher, Distinguished Public Servant, and Outstanding Researcher—went on to win blue ribbons for her loaves at the Eastern Idaho State Fair and has become a leading food scholar of the Intermountain West.

The connection of food to ritual, culture, and the past is Swetnam's area of expertise—one of them, at least. A consultant for the Smithsonian Institute, she will give a keynote address titled "Nostalgia and Social Change: Food in Contemporary America" for the Hailey Public Library's exhibit, "Key Ingredients: America by Food."

"It's one of these very exciting things, that a first class Smithsonian exhibit can come to a tiny town," she said, applauding the Idaho Humanities Council for bringing the program to six rural Idaho communities.

Her participation engages four of Swetnam's great passions: teaching, writing, food, and public service. "Susan was a natural," said Hailey Public Library Adult Program Director Lisa Horton about the choice of Swetnam as keynote speaker. In association with "Key Ingredients," Swetnam led a three-part program in June, which included a workshop in which students crafted food essays inspired by family recipes. "She inspired everyone," said Horton. Swetnam describes it as one of her most rewarding teaching experiences.

A former chair of the Idaho Humanities Council, Swetnam has been instrumental in improving the state's public arts programming. Her book of personal essays, "Home Mountains: Reflections from a Western Middle Age," won Honorable Mention in the Idaho Library Association's Idaho Book of the Year 2000 awards. She has two nonfiction books at press and another book of personal essays on the sideboard. A ghostwriting job for a high profile Portland restaurant is brewing.

How does one become a food scholar in rural Idaho, especially when born into an East Coast household led by what Swetnam describes as "a classic Betty Crocker cook?" Swetnam had already earned a PhD in English from the University of Michigan when she sent "Gourmet" an unsolicited essay about entering (and, incidentally, winning) the bread baking competition in the Eastern Idaho State Fair. The magazine published it in 1988, and hired her for travel pieces. Then a Connecticut publisher asked her to write a chapter on foods of the Northern Rockies for a series of reference books about regional American culture. "Since then, I've been doing all kinds of interesting things," she said.

"Interesting" to the professor of literature who also teaches American studies and advanced creative nonfiction at Idaho State University means perfecting activities that in this country have long been labeled mundane: the art of baking the perfect loaf of bread, of knitting exquisitely, of running. At fifty-six, Swetnam no longer runs full-length marathons, but she recently completed the Seattle and Tucson half marathons on back-to-back weekends. She's an avid hiker and skier, too.

"She's one of those ladies that could be intimidating," said Horton. "But she's not. She's superwoman—but you can't hate her. You have to like her."

A product of a suburban Philadelphia household, Swetnam had never been west of Kalamazoo before accepting the position at Idaho State University. "But," she recalls, "I took one look around when I got off the plane and I knew that I was home." That was twenty-seven years ago. She met Ford Swetnam, her future husband, almost immediately. Her work ever since has focused on the Intermountain West, and food is an intrinsic part of the story, as well as a personal delight.

"I do love to cook, and I cook all the time," she said. Last weekend she hosted a dinner for twelve; at Christmas, she threw a cocktail party for seventy. For sous chefs, she harnesses the energy of her Girl Scout troop. She has led the same group, which includes her oldest goddaughter, for more than 10 years. "I've done lots of informal cooking teaching with the girls," she said, referring to them as "my girls"—"which confuses people completely," she admits. "But that's what it feels like."

Swetnam praises Pocatello's farmer's market, and enjoys her own "reasonable garden" of fava beans, lettuce, garlic, broccoli, and Italian arugula. The latter, she says, has actually naturalized into the lawn. "The Italian version of arugula is toothy and tough. It used to drive Ford crazy. But it's kind of fun to have an edible lawn." One imagines that she cheers on the errant veggie because she identifies with it: A tenacious outsider, it recognizes the high desert soil as home.

Does she ever use a bread machine? "Never! Because for me," she explained, "the whole point of making bread is the tactile sense, the feeling of it under my hands. I don't have a microwave, either," she said, and then added thoughtfully, "although I really should."

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Key Ingredients

July 13 at 6:30 p.m. Susan Swetman will present her keynote address, "Nostalgia and Social Change: Food in Contemporary America," as part of the Smithsonian Institute's traveling exhibit, "Key Ingredients: America by Food," at the Hailey Public Library. It will focus on topics like the vogue for nostalgic cookbooks in the last twenty years; the interest in little-known regions and declining cultures, and why community cookbooks have become so popular. Admission is free.

July 15-Aug. 26 Hailey Public Library will present the exhibition "Key Ingredients: America by Food." Through historic photographs, regional recipes and food memorabilia, "Key Ingredients" examines how culture, ethnicity, landscape and tradition influence what is on the dinner table tonight. "Key Ingredients" is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Idaho Humanities Council.

"Key Ingredients" events:

July 18, 5-7 p.m. Grand opening celebration, World War II Rationing Party at the Hailey Public Library. Rationing recipe treats, G.I. jive music, dancing, kid's activities. Prizes for World War II era costumes.

July 22, 1-2:30 p.m. I Love Lucy (and Chocolate) Festival.

July 25, 6:30 p.m. Morgan Spurlock's documentary about super-sizing, followed by a panel discussion of the movie and of "Fast Food Nation," by Eric Schlosser.

Aug. 1, 6:30 p.m. "From Camas and Cowboy Beans to Croissants and Curry: History of Food and Dining in Idaho and the Wood River Valley" slide-show lecture by Boise historian Arthur Hart.

Aug. 12, 3 p.m. Coffee talk and Hailey Coffee Company Roastery tour.

All programs and activities take place at the Hailey Library on Main Street and are free. For more details call 788-2036.




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