The beauty of Food DIY

I wasn't expecting to be moved by a book about food.  I bought Food DIY by Tim Hayward for my husband as he's the main cook in our family, and dreams about living in the countryside one day doing lots of River Cottage-y type things like making his own charcuterie.  

Food DIY's sub-title is: "How to make your own everything: sausages to smoked salmon, sourdough to sloe gin, bacon to buns".

I was looking through it at the weekend and found myself reading passages aloud to my husband (I guess trying to convince him that he really should pay attention to this book I had just bought for him).  In the introduction:

"...there's something empowering about grasping back food production from industry and middlemen and a dignity in providing for your family..."

"...in a strange, geeky way, some of these skills are a pleasure in themselves and worth trying if only once."

I also loved what Hayward said about Food DIY and Kids (he has a 10 year old daughter who gets involved in his cooking):

"DIY cooking with kids isn't just about recipes, it's about spending time together, about science, history, culture, art, physical competence with tools and heat, about learning to enjoy sensory pleasures, taking responsibility for how we treat our bodies and those of other living things, all the stuff we learned from our parents and from experience and want to pass on."

Although I have never before been tempted to build my own smoke house or make my own cheese, looking at these activities through Hayward's poetic and enthusiastic lens means that now I can't wait for us all to get stuck in.