The artisanal movement in the United States has become something of an anthropological trend. It’s composed and driven by a preference for things hand made, relatively raw and untransformed, and most of all, a desire for authenticity. In a recent article in the LA Times, Forrest Pritchard’s new memoir, Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmer’s Markets, Local Food and Saving the Family Farm, is featured as a voice in the new food movement, which holds as a primary precept that an actual human being had a hand in making what we put in our mouths. While Forrest Pritchard relates his learning experience in becoming an artisan farmer in Gaining Ground (beef, chickens and eggs, pigs, lamb and for a brief, hilarious time, goats), he’s also teaching us about what the business of artisanship is really about.
