Holy Food

 By Christina Ward

Feral House     2023

368 pages     History/Cookbook

The subtitle for Holy Food reads: How cults, communes, and religious movements influenced what we eat.

And here is a summary from the publisher: “Religious beliefs have been the source of food "rules" since Pythagoras told his followers not to eat beans (they contain souls), Kosher and Halal rules forbade the shrimp cocktail (shellfish are scavengers, or maybe G-d just said "no"). A long-ago Pope forbade Catholics from eating meat on Fridays (fasting to atone for committed sins). Rules about eating are present in nearly every American belief, from high-control groups that ban everything except air to the infamous strawberry shortcake that sated visitors to the Oneida Community in the late 1800s. Only in the United States—where the freedom to worship the God of your choice and sometimes of your own making—could people embrace new ideas about religion. It is in this over-stirred pot of liberation, revolution, and mysticism that we discover God cares about what you put in your mouth.”

Until I looked over Holy Food, I really had not considered the food implications of religious movements and cults. I knew that we could get a really good meal in Amish Shipshewana, Indiana, and that cereal came from religious Dr. Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan, but I had never looked very deeply into the topic. Christina Ward truly has done an incredible job of delving into the topic of food and religion in the United States. One reviewer says, “As Ward demonstrates, by no means were all relationships wacky, coercive, or deceptive. But the centrality of food to people’s lives meant that again and again—especially in a country that was inventing itself repeatedly over centuries—new ideas about religion came with new ideas about eating and drinking.’

Of particular interest to me was the section on The Lost Tribes of Israel that included the group called the House of David in Benton Harbor, Michigan. When I first moved to Southwest Michigan, we visited the House of David several times. In the early 1900s the cult had created a resort near Lake Michigan that included an amusement park. Because of their vegetarian and kosher background, the resort created an atmosphere that was comfortable for the many vacationing Jewish people from the Chicago area. By the time we got there in the mid-1960s, the House of David was in its last days. Only a few practitioners were left and the amusement park and restaurants were closed. We walked the grounds and imagined what it must have been like in its heyday. Oh, and I do have to say that when my father was a teenager in southern Minnesota, he played a baseball game against the famous House of David baseball team.

I also enjoyed the section about the Kellogg sanitarium in Battle Creek, our neighboring community, and about how Dr. Kellogg created cereal as a way to clean out the bowels. The Seventh Day Adventists, of which Kellogg was a member, is a very strong denomination in Southwest Michigan, in part because of Kellogg’s notoriety. Berrien Springs MI, in the southwest corner of the state, is the headquarters for the Seventh Day Adventists, and they have one of the very best vegetarian grocery stores I have ever been to.

Ward includes lots of very interesting recipes from the many denominations, cults, and cultures. “It is a fascinating exploration of the American soul and table” By the way, there is even a recipe for Funeral Potatoes.

The publisher sent me this amazing book, and I discovered that I had another book by Christina Ward on my Kindle, American Advertising Cookbooks. I've got to look at that book next.