Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods

In her latest book, culinary historian Lohman (Eight Flavors) explores foods that are perilously near extinction. Relying on Slow Food International’s Ark of Taste, a catalogue of more than 5,000 endangered food sources from 150 countries, Lohman investigates plants and animals from the United States that made the list. The 350 entries include Texas longhorn cattle, dates, sugar cane, Churro sheep, wild salmon, wild rice, cider apples, gumbo filé powder, Carolina African Runner peanuts, and the Buckeye chicken. Lohman visits the sites where these food sources are fostered, interviewing the farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and foragers responsible for their survival; a remarkable number of those she interviews say they left more lucrative jobs to pursue their interest in conservation. Each chapter also includes two recipes using the endangered ingredient in question. Lohman narrates the audiobook, making her enthusiasm for her subject palpable as she provides histories of the foods and their places in the larger communities they serve.