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Author, Gardener Joan Dye Gussow: Know Your Food, Where It Comes From

Piermont resident speaks at Hungry Hollow Co-op in Chestnut Ridge about book, life

Friday night, to ready for Joan Dye Gussow’s arrival, Kathey Piedl—Member Services and Outreach Manager for Hungry Hollow Co-op—prepared frittatas.

But not just any frittatas—Gussow’s own recipe. Along with brownies, the 20 or so attendees that came to see this marvel of a woman enjoyed light fare and refreshments before Gussow revealed her thoughts about her new book, her life and why she is proud to wear soil on her hands.

History

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Born in 1928, Gussow graduated with a Pre-Med degree from Pomona College in Claremont, California. She spent seven years as a researcher for Time magazine after moving East to New York and spent five years at home as a wife and mother.  Gussow then returned to school to earn an M.Ed and an Ed.D in Nutrition Education from Columbia’s Teachers College and later became the chair of the Nutrition Education Program there. Gussow and her husband Alan moved to Piermont in 1995.

For over 40 years, Gussow has been fighting a tireless war against the industrialization of the American food system.

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“There needs to be a revolution,” Gussow warned. Long ago she challenged nutritionists everywhere to look at food before it is swallowed, not only after the fact, as they were trained.

“In 1928 when I was born there were 800 products in the supermarket, “said Gussow Friday night. “Now there are 40,000. God has not been that busy. There are not that many new foods.  It is mostly junk. I have always been concerned about this and World Hunger.”

The Talk

“This isn’t a sweet book about gardening,” Gussow revealed before reading from her new book Growing, Older A Chronicle of Death, Life, and Vegetables. She shared passages about the death of her husband Alan; the dance she performs with her gardens and skunk population in Piermont; her Maytag stove that, after her husband’s death, decided to beep insistently; picking, cooking and eating what she grows; wearing her neighbors huge rubber boots and Gore-Tex shell inherited from her late husband and revealing that hope is the lesson that nature keeps teaching her. “We need to pay more for food grown by local farmers who can find something to feed us no matter what—even if it’s not what we planned on in the morning” Gussow says in her book “What an important lesson to learn as we face a world that is changing in ways that we don’t really want at least partly as fallout from our demand for the things we really thought we needed.”

Gussow marveled at the idea that when she was teaching, one of her students asked “I am studying nutrition, why do I have to know about food and agriculture?” Gussow blazed very new trails with her teaching, and admits had she not been at Columbia’s Teaching College she might have been kicked out of another not so liberal institution.  She had her own ideas and was more than willing to share them with her students.

“I am very involved in a non-profit organization called “Just Food” www.justfood.org, said Gussow “There was only one CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group in New York City at the time, 12 years ago when my friend Kathy Lawrence wanted to start this organization. There are now 100 CSA’s in the City.  We helped start them and now give them guidance, it’s a great organization.”

Questions from the Audience

“What do you see as your legacy,” asked an audience member. “I think I am known by those of the food movement as the Mother of local food. But I’d like to think that my legacy is telling the truth,” answered Gussow.

“What do you like about living in Piermont?” another asked. “I love that Piermont is a village and not a suburb, I like the fact that I can walk to the Post Office and to the community market.” Gussow said.

“Do you get a sense of mothering when you are gardening?” one quizzical man asked. “I had two sons and dealing with two active boys simultaneously…it was sometimes a battlefield, I feel gardening is an escape actually.  I think of it as a nurturing task.”

Ansi Boudin from Ridgewood said “It was an excellent talk. I enjoyed every pearl. Her life is an amazing journey. Very inspirational.”

“An eye opener, I learned hope is the lesson nature teaches us.” Said Faith Carlson who lives in Montvale.

Gussow concluded her visit to Hungry Hollow with a book signing. She also wanted to make it clear that the title of her book contains a comma after the word growing.  “This was done on purpose, I love commas.” said Gussow.  Growing, and getting older. But always growing first, like her plentiful gardens--Gussow is a strong, tell-it-like-it-is, witty woman living on the river.

“I will have to be carried out of my home feet first,” concluded Gussow. “I live on the river and I wake up every morning with the sun coming up.” “I love where I live.”

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All proceeds on sales of Gussow’s new book Friday night at Hungry Hollow went to The Rockland Farm Alliance. The mission of the Alliance is to facilitate local sustainable agriculture in Rockland County by creating farms that serve as models of small-scale agriculture with educational facilities dedicated to the development and teaching of sustainable farming practices to people of all ages. http://rocklandfarm.org

 

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