Salamongundi, Feasts and Big Lunches

The Big Lunch I really wanted to set this up in my street, like the Jubilee street parties of my childhood, where we played catch the egg and had slowest bicycle races. I am not really sure where my priorities lie at the moment so maybe I shouldn't start this new thing. LOADS of good ideas on this site, which inspires Big Lunches up and down the country on July 18th this year. http://www.thebiglunch.com/ideas-and-inspiration/ I also want to make a mental note to myself to research feasts and feasting from an anthropological point of view....many have done this, see below. I just want to put some time aside to go back to more academic studies of the world and food and how we relate to it. RADIO BBC radio 4's Food Programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnx3 (episode on Feasts:Last broadcast on Mon, 12 Oct 2009, 16:00 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts). Synopsis: Feasts have been a feature of human life since humans first mastered fire and climbed out of the trees, but what function do feasts have in today's largely urban society? Sheila Dillon visits the Thames Festival Feast, a modern urban harvest festival, bringing food back into the heart of the city and recreating a sense of community. Grape treading, sacred mayonnaise making and mobile food gardens make a vivid modern feast. Central to it a table spanning Southwark Bridge, its tablecloth printed with collections of Londoners' food stories. The traditional feast has been disappearing from rural areas, but the Welcombe community in Devon some years ago introduced a Christmas Salamongundi to bring the community together to celebrate. Poet and author John Moat explains how it came about. Sir Roy Strong, author of Feast outlines the social, political and religious subtext of historical feasting and, with Rev Richard Coles, comments on the dining TV reality show, Come Dine With Me. BOOKS Feast: A History of Grand Eating by Roy Strong, published by Jonathan Cape Ltd; ISBN-10: 0224061380,ISBN-13: 978-0224061384 Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, by Richard Wrangham, published by Profile Books,ISBN-10: 1846682851, ISBN-13: 978-1846682858 Food: The History of Taste, edited by Paul Freedman
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