To Write, or Write about What? My journey to writing on Food and Beverage

Am I just an Apple in Writing? Image by google gemini.

by douglas reeser, March 21, 2024

My quest to rekindle and re-find my writing voice has seemingly stalled again. I have always wanted to write - that was one of the motivations for returning to school when I was 30. My Masters and PhD training in anthropology further compelled me to write, forcing me to do so as a major piece of the degrees, but also instilling in me a sense of obligation to write, a sense that my advanced education in my field brought on a responsibility to share my work, share my reflections, my thoughts. And still, at 50, I continue to feel the urge to express through writing. And yet, express what? 

My writing started in my teens, when I kept a journal. Of course some of that writing was personal and reflective, but also creative, and philosophical. That type of writing continued until I began my academic career, when I began to write more professionally. I wrote a good deal of anthropologically based work, not only for coursework, but also for academic journals, and more public-facing writing for a group blog, and a few other online publications. Writing for the public included reframing academic work in a more accessible way, along with commentary on various current events, and reflections on my work and interests in the field of anthropology. I was a regular contributor, and had begun to gain some visibility, at least in the circles of anthropology.

Then I took a career turn. And once I left academia, I wrote less and less, to the point that I now struggle to write at all, to exercise this rusty skill. Yet the urge persists. And so taking my past training into account, along with my current life in cider and food, it seems natural that I write on these and associated topics. And I have, and I do. But inspiration remains sparse, and I'm wondering what my voice on these topics is? Where is my base? From where do I write?

It's an interesting path that life takes us on. In an effort to find my base from which to write, I ask myself how did I get here? While it's not completely obvious, there were signs along the way that food and beverage might remain a theme. A reinvention at age 50 is really just an extension of the reinvention at age 40, but I wasn't done with that one before it was stolen. And so here I am, fermenting, creating, involved with food and beverage. But how did I get here? So an investigation of the signs... 

I wonder if it started in my youth. My mom told stories of me asking to sit on the counter while she cooked. She liked to say that I was always interested in food. Even in my middle school years, I was one of the few boys who enjoyed our Home Economics class, where I made bread from scratch, and started to learn my way around the kitchen. When I look back, I don't remember much, but I do feel like a fondness for food and the kitchen has been a thread that's been here all along.

From those days in Home Economics class, it seems like there was a gap. But in reality, it was only five or so years until my later teens and my transition into vegetarianism. Inspired by a young and beautiful Russian ballet dancer that somehow ended up hanging around my trailer by the river for a few months, I went full on veg. And while a relationship never sprouted with the dancer, it was that transition to vegetarianism that solidified my love of food. It was a specific diet that forced me to think about what I was eating. Thinking led to creating, and I see that move to the Veg Side as the piece that really inspired me to cook and create in the kitchen.

There were other food pieces too. I held a seasonal job at a river outfitter for 12 years from my late teens until I was 30. During those years, I began to explore my interest in the food industry through a number of other jobs: a barista in a bookstore cafe, a cook under a chef at a natural foods cafe, a baker at a small high-end dessert bakery, a bread baker at an organic bread baker. Before all of that, I even worked as a teenaged cook at a Friendly's restaurant, working up from fryer, to plating, to the grill, making probably some of my most uninspired plates. 

So while it rarely took center stage, food and the industry were always by my side early in my adult life. Craft beer also came early, when, by a stroke of luck, I was served at a legendary craft beer bar at the age of 19. I became a regular there, and was subsequently exposed to the world of craft beverages. It took me a long time to wade into that world myself, but eventually, in my early 30s, I tried my hand at brewing beer at home. Boy did that decision have some ripple effects down the line.  

But before I get to that part of my life in food and beverage, my years in academia come into play. It was in graduate school that I brewed that first beer, a Nut Brown Ale that was more exciting than good, mainly because it was created in my kitchen. It was also during those years that I began to think about cooking a little more seriously. The earliest posts of this blog are from that time, and they show pictures of some of my creations, some with recipes and descriptions. Food was on my mind, if not the full focus of my research. 

Still, even within my research, food stayed tangential. My Masters work investigated Maya gardening in small villages in the forests of southern Belize. An international non-profit operated a school gardening program in a number of villages in the region, claiming the Maya no longer gardened, and so were teaching youth the practice of Western gardening, in small fenced plots with rows of vegetables, some of which were culturally appropriate, some of which were not. My work showed that the Maya actually did garden, and they gardened everywhere. They grow food right outside of their door, along the house, under trees in the yard, along paths and rivers, and deep in the forest. It's just that they didn't use delineated plots. That work influenced the non-profit to rethink how they framed their program and the Maya communities that they worked with. 

My PhD work was less food focused, more of an investigation into health and health practices in that same region in southern Belize. The thing is, food is a major part of health and health beliefs and practices, and so I found myself talking to people about what they ate and why. Again, food retained a thread. It was also during my academic years that I was exposed to a whole different type of cuisine - international local foods. I traveled substantially throughout Central and a bit of South America during those years, discovering a variety of local foods and traditions that I barely knew existed. Food was always a highlight of my forays to foreign lands. 

As life would have it, just as my academic career was starting to build and advance, I made a pivot. My family had purchased an abandoned historic restaurant and lodge, and asked if I would take a summer between teaching, and help with restoration of the building. I took them up on the unpaid offer, and while working in the old building and its former kitchen and dining rooms, a vision began to take shape. My interest in brewing beer had grown to a passion, and there was an excitement around the young burgeoning industry. I convinced my family to let me and my brother-in-law rent two rooms of the building that were not a part of the plans for the overall project. With some credit cards, and a whole lot of my labor, we opened a tiny brewery and bar in those two rooms. Pivot completed. 

Or so I thought. Five years in, COVID hit, as did the breaking point of my relationships with my family, and they ousted me and my staff from the brewery. This is a story that I have written about previously, at least in part. There's drama involved, but ultimately it's a story about greed and betrayal that is best saved for it's own telling. In the end, the ouster forced yet another pivot, but this time a much smaller one. 

Five years of experience running a small brewery and local-sourced kitchen, kept a flame inside of me alive. I had created a space that supported local farmers and producers, and produced delicious food and beverage. The impact our business had on the farmers and producers was real, as was the community that built up around those efforts. And while I had started making cider at the brewery, it was not until the break, when I was trying to figure out what to do, that it all crystalized. Cider was the linchpin to a fully locally sourced food and beverage operation. 

It took another year, and a whole lot of help, and more of my labor to find a space, build it out, and get it open, but open we did. It's been about a year and half since we opened the doors, and we once again are producing delicious and unique food created from our plethora of local farmers and producers. And I'm making cider using locally grown apples, fruits, and herbs. We could not run our business as is without the people growing and making in our neighborhood. 

And so at 50, I'm deep in a fairly new endeavor. Food and beverage has taken hold, growing from an interest, to a passion, to a profession, and easing back into passion again. And through it all, I have written. And I still want to write. It's that voice that I haven't quite figured out yet. Or figured out again. So I'll continue to put words to paper (well, words to screen), and put it out here. I'll try to at least. And hopefully some sort of voice emerges, some sort of underlying message. Or maybe it will just be threads of food and beverage surrounded by my ramblings and retellings. Either way, I'm going to keep it up...