Thanksgiving editorial Class of 99

Colleges & Universities Haverford College
1

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/opinion/thanksgiving-thrift-the-holiday-as-a-model-for-sustainable-cooking.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/opinion/thanksgiving-thrift-the-holiday-as-a-model-for-sustainable-cooking.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Thanksgiving Thrift: The Holiday as a Model for Sustainable CookingBy TAMAR ADLER
Published: November 22, 2011 </p>

<p>“WE have too few holidays,” wrote Sarah Hale in her 1827 novel “Northwood; or, Life North and South.” She wanted Thanksgiving declared a national holiday, and petitioned four presidents for it before Lincoln finally did the stubborn lady’s bidding in 1863. </p>

<p>Hale thought making Thanksgiving official might help keep the country from rupturing and turning in on itself in civil war. The holiday was born into the war’s belly, and the war kept on, but Thanksgiving did help to “strengthen the bond of union that binds us,” as Hale predicted. </p>

<p>The holiday also contains a solution to one of our greatest problems today: our eating. We’re finding it incredibly hard to feed ourselves the way we want. It’s not, as many think, because food is so expensive or we’re so short on time, but because we have a perspective on cooking that impedes our getting real value from our ingredients, or the most from our time. </p>

<p>On Thanksgiving, though, we get it right. We look forward to aspects of our dinner lasting past the pleasant, evening-shuttering pumpkin pie and pecan-apple crisp. In every bird we rub with butter and sage, we see a savory roasted carcass, halfway to being soup. As we scoop sweet potatoes from their papery skins into a bowl to mash, we see a glimmer of the weekend’s bubbling leek-sweet potato pudding. We happily acknowledge that things often taste better the next day; that leftovers don’t need to be reheated, but transformed; and that the transformation is fun, a chance to be creative without having to start from square one. We see in everything we buy and cook the promise of leftovers, and the makings of meals to come. </p>

<p>Talk about sustainability on the farm is popular these days. This is sustainability in the kitchen. Most of the year, we cook only for the one meal directly ahead, and we dispose of what’s left neatly in the trash — we budget- and time-conscious Americans throw out 40 percent of our food, worth over $50 billion (not to mention all the wasted time)…</p>