Grocery stores have the best A/C (and other food-focused summer activities)

It’s August and here I am, the hundredth person saying to you “wow, the summer is really flying by.”

It’s August and here I am, the hundredth person saying to you “wow, the summer is really flying by.”

I’ve spent most of it struggling over my dissertation and sweating. Summers in southern Ontario are swampy. Without A/C in my apartment, I often find myself puttering around the grocery store, visiting with the produce to see what’s come into season, and “browsing” inside the freezers, trying to get my melty brain to regain some shape. Because I frequent the small grocery-market by my home (and probably also because I stick my head in their freezers) the staff recognize me. 

They’ll let me know which new fruits have arrived and where they’ve come from. They know that I love blueberries, all-dressed chips, and orange seltzers but not bitter greens. I know that most of us share a love for the fancy olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette, focaccia, and cherries. Beyond our shared and diverging tastes, though, we know very little about each other. 

I look forward to my grocery shop, as I do to grabbing coffee in the morning at any of the sweet Hamilton cafes. Their A/C may not be as great as a grocery store’s but there are few things more comforting than the nod of recognition from my baristas, who remember that even in the heat I prefer my coffee piping. 

Maybe it is the pandemic that has enhanced my deep appreciation for the kind of intimacy that food and flavour can bring to everyday exchanges, or maybe I’m especially grateful for the baristas and grocery clerks who’ve made my sweltering days more tolerable! Probably both, and more.

This month, I’m thinking about how moments with food and drink don’t always have to be flashy to be deeply meaningful, which is not to say that patio drinks, barbecues, and other classic summer past-times are not fun! However, when it comes to glorious summer moments with food more is possible and these possibilities might be more manageable for people on tighter budgets, those not wanting to or not able to eat out, those who don’t have access to a yard + barbecue, those looking for lower-stimulation activities etc.

So, here are a few summer food ideas that revolve around the intimacies that food enables, but also the haven that is a cool or shady place to rest. As always, I welcome you to take what you like, leave what you don’t, add in the comments what simple moments with food you’ve been partaking in this summer (or whatever season you’re in wherever you are), etc. etc. Interact with this in whatever way feels good for you!

I already mentioned the grocery store, which for many, won’t be considered a “summer activity,” but for those of you out there who also don’t have A/C this is your reminder that grocery stores are a great place to cool down and, unlike many other food establishments, don’t necessarily require you to purchase anything to enter. Even–especially–if you do your shopping at a larger store, take advantage of the cool air! 

If you’re not into wandering aisles in search of new goodies or ridiculous food labels like I am, libraries also have fabulous A/C!

Coffee Time (or Tea Time or Whatever You’d Like Time)

Grabbing a coffee and pastry to enjoy outside is probably my favourite thing to do in the mornings. On their days off, my partner and I love getting coffee and a vegan scone from Ark+Anchor to share on a park bench! 

Another variation of this, of course, is to make coffee at home, grab a biscotti or another on-hand treat that you love, and sit for a moment outside or by an open window. I tragically no longer have access to my back porch, or the back door, because it is in such a state of disrepair. To cope I’ve been pressing myself up to the window screen by my desk when I want to be outside but can’t because I need to work with wifi.

The best parts about coffee moments are sensory– the smell of coffee (or tea or whatever you like) brewing, the sounds of the world waking up, the feeling of the sun or maybe a breeze or maybe whatever makes it through the window screen before it's too hot, and finally, the glorious first sip and bite.

My therapist tells me that paying attention to food and drink can be especially grounding because both are practices that engage so many of the senses. They can remind me that I have a body that requires care but also one that is working in ways I don’t often credit. My eyes, nose, ears, skin and tongue are translating the world for me. Tasting, I find to be the most intimate form to receive knowledge, probably because what you eat becomes you. 

As much as coffee, even tea, are framed as the jet-fuel of hustle culture and capitalist endeavors, particularly in North America, not all coffee practices are, and least of all those that are connected to the labour involved in procuring a cup. As Neichelle Guidry and Amber Vaughan explain, Eritrean and Ethiopian coffee drinking (said to be the birthplace of coffee) is part of a practice and embodied experience. Yet, the coffee industry, thanks to colonialism, is fraught, violent and built upon the exploitation of land and labour at many levels (Boss Barista is an excellent resource for those interested in learning more about coffee–Ashley does great work and makes this work widely available). 

For these reasons and others, the hasty and careless consumption of coffee feels complicit with the kinds of capitalist logics that rely on a separation between products and labour, both our own as well as the labour of others. That coffee is in my kitchen, your kitchen, Tim Horton’s, the office, the independent cafe down the street, but is not grown here, in North America, is evidence of wide and uneven labour networks.

Picnics in Public Spaces

I love a picnic.

Not only are they an excellent way to enjoy public spaces but picnics are endlessly adaptable. While small group, home-cooked picnics are my personal favourite, solo picnics are delightful too, especially when you have a good book keeping you company, or an especially engaging podcast. I’ve also witnessed tons of larger potluck-style picnic parties this summer around Hamilton, from kids birthdays to anniversary parties and more!

Pooling resources towards a hearty meal, one that includes options for those across dietary circumstances, can be a really special way to express mutual care. I find that when I’m working with few spoons, but still want to be in the company of others, going to the park for a picnic feels more manageable than hosting at home (which is where I’d want to be but would require cleaning and anxious dog-management, both of which take more spoons than I likely have) or going out, which would be too stimulating. 

Be sure to pack essentials like food, utensils, and cutlery, of course, but also water, blankets or towels, sunscreen, bug repellent, sunglasses, hats, lip balm, and/or anything else that would make you and your friends more comfortable.

If you’re in Hamilton, here are some parks with good shade and public bathrooms (to my knowledge none of the bathrooms are gender neutral):

• Victoria Park

• Hamilton Ameteur Athletic Association Grounds (near Locke and Charlton)

• Bayfront Park

• Gage Park

Does anyone have any Toronto park recommendations? Or recommendations for wherever else in the world you may be?

Generally speaking, I (a white, cis, housed woman) feel comfortable at the Hamilton parks mentioned. My white non-binary partner says they do too. This brings me to a major caveat when it comes to picnics in public spaces. That is, access to so-called public spaces, as well as the ability to fully enjoy those spaces, is not a privilege equally shared. Restroom designations, police presence and/or citizen policing can make these spaces inhospitable for many community members, but especially trans people, Black folks, people of colour and houseless people. If you’re using a public park, look out for community members! Here is a helpful resource outlining what that could look like: Guide to Community Care in Your Neighborhood

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One last quick note before I share what I’ve been reading and cooking and that is just to say “Thank you!” To those of you who have supported me in this journey, I so appreciate the likes, shares, and little notes of encouragement. It helps me be braver in sharing my work, both here and elsewhere, and helps the newsletter grow!

If you’re enjoying the foodstuff and would like to share it with food-loving friends you can do so with this link:

Reading

What I finished in July:

Most of these are more food-adjacent than they are directly about food but they deal with ideas surrounding eating, consumption, survival etc.

• Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

  Cw: sexual violence, violence/horror/gore

  Queer and trans horror/dystopia featuring a virus called T-rex, feral men and an army of TERFs. Note: The online reviews of this book are wildly skewed by TERFs (trans exclusive radical feminists). Don’t let these deter you from the book, which is written by a trans author and is about trans characters. 

• Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

  Though I’ve spent time with various chapters before, I finished this in its entirety this month. These essays feel like a hug and a call to action at the same time. I love reading something that just oozes care. This work is published by the wonderful Arsenal Pulp Press, who is having a sale right now!!

• Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

  Cw: sexual violence, gore, ableist undertones

  Plenty of folks have probably already read this latest one from M. I’ve never read her before but I liked this one for the most part– It’s gross and entertaining in the great way weird books are. The story is set in the middle ages. There's a famine and a selfish lord which, as you’d expect, leads some characters to flirt with the idea of cannibalism. Strangely-but-also-not-so-strangely, cannibalism has been an ongoing theme in many of the books I’ve been reading.

• Eating in Theory by Annemarie Mol

  Denser work of theory but theory that is conceptualized through eating!

• Swollening by Jason Purcell

  A great book of poetry also published by my favourite press, Arsenal Pulp Press! This work explores the intersection of queerness and illness and there are even some eating/ food inspired poems.

Other newsletters that I’m loving right now!

• Boss Barista by Ashley Rodriguez

• Linking and Drinking by Julia Fine

• From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy by Alicia Kennedy

Cooking

Sweet chili nachos! Mix your regular corn chips with Doritos sweet chili heat and your nachos will be 1000000% more fun. Also, the best vegan cheese for melty recipes is Violife!

For the comment section:

What is your go-to picnic food or recipe? And tell me, because I haven’t been able to decide, are nachos a picnic food!?