Page 54 - Spring2008

Franco-Russian culinary style that featured hallmarks of both traditions, popularity of Molokhovets’ masterpiece among
but was largely enjoyed only by the nobility and large landowners. Changes modern ordinary people as well as restaurateurs
to the diet and daily lives of the peasants came much more slowly, due in speaks of the enduring pride in the cultural heri-
good part to their deep suspicion of novelty. Potatoes, for example, were tage of Russian traditional dishes and cooking

first introduced during the reign of Catherine the Great, yet took another methods.
70 or 80 years before they were accepted and widely cultivated.
In some ways it could be said that Russia’s medieval period, as far as SOURCES:
the bulk of the population was concerned, continued largely intact until it Medieval Russia: A Source Book, 850-1700
collided abruptly with the twentieth century. Upheaval in the shape of civil Basil Dmytryshyn, Harcourt Brace,
war, revolution and world war touched and forever altered every soul in the Third Edition, 1991.
country. Collectivization ended the tradition of the peasant class, and also
changed the face of agriculture for decades to come. A second world war Classic Russian Cooking, Elena Molokhovets’
and the long, hard recovery that followed, with chronic food shortages and A Gift to Young Housewives, Joyce Toomre,

deficits, made permanent because of Cold War military spending, ended Indiana University Press, 1992.
only in the 1990s with the fall of the Soviet Union. Although consumer
goods have since multiplied greatly, with many expensive foreign food The Art of Russian Cuisine, Anne Volokh
imports, it will still take time for private ownership of the land to recreate with Mavis Manus, Collier Books,
a domestic food production economy to feed the people, although already MacMillan Publishing Co., 1989.
there are some beginnings.
In the wake of such history, it is revealing to learn that during the Russian Cooking, Helen and George Papashvili,

period of perestroika, one of the first books to be reprinted after long neglect Time Life Books, 1969.
was an 1861 classic, Elena Molokhovets’ A Gift to Young Housewives. This
beloved cook book had been continually in print and revised for 20 editions Кулинарный словарь, В.В. Похлебкин, Москва
by its author until 1911. Written at a time that some consider the zenith Центрограф, 1999.
of Russian cuisine, the book was condemned as decadent and bourgeois
after the 1917 Revolution. Found only rarely at high prices in used book Обрядовая кулинария, Е. Й. Высоцкая,
stores, the book recalled the culinary glory of a vanished age. The renewed составитель, Мн.: Литература, 1998

MEMORIAL TO DEIDRE CURRIE

We are extremely saddened to announce the passing of Deidre Currie, who died in childbirth on January 8, 2008.
Deidre was a chapter leader in Oakland County, Michigan, along with her husband Archie Welch. She and her husband
put on a wonderful WAPF conference last September.
Deidre is survived by her devoted husband Archie Welch and beautiful baby Jack, born six weeks early but doing very
well on donated breastmilk, often delivered through a WAPF milk drop!
To honor Deidre and her devotion to the cause of good nutrition, the
Weston A. Price Foundation has set up a Deidre Currie scholarship fund,
which will provide scholarships for overseas members to attend our Wise
Traditions conference. Please send donations to the Weston A. Price
Foundation earmarked for the scholarship fund.
For more information about Deidre and photos of Jack as he grows,
visit her website at www.deidrecurrie.com. You will find many moving
tributes there including this one from Archie: “I’ve never met anyone with
as many close friends as Dee had established over her lifetime. Her spirit
is definitely alive and well, fervently carried within the hearts of so many
good people.”
Archie is planning to further honor his late wife with a one-day confer-
ence in the Detroit metropolitan area September 13, 2008. Speakers will
include Natasha Campbell-McBride and Sally Fallon. We will keep you
posted on details.

54 Wise Traditions SPRING 2008