I met Laura Theodore online via LinkedIn’s Vegan and Vegetarian discussion group.  Laura is a jazz vocalist with an impressive resume and a unique voice, who also hosts vegetarian cooking shows on television, radio and the Internet. 

I pitched myself to her as a guest on her internet radio show, telling her I had recorded one (well-received) jazz/blues CD, and I’d also written and illustrated a book that had been a best seller in the 1970s, is still in print in English and Japanese, and was recently selected as one of the 101 most influential American cookbooks of the 20^th century by the Fales Library at New York University. 

She bit. 

So, here is the result of our phone collaboration last December, a show first airing today, January 31, 2013.

I have evolved this recipe over many holiday seasons.

Prepare one of these crusts:

BAKED CRUST

Two cups of gluten-free baking flour (usually a combo of rice, garbanzo, oat, and millet flours – any or all of these)

¾ cup palm kernel oil (comes in a tub, like shortening)

Chill the palm kernel oil. Place it in a food processor with the flour and an ice cube. Blend until it forms a soft ball of dough. If it doesn’t form a dough ball while blending, very gradually add a tiny bit more cold water. As soon as it gets the right amount of water, it will form a soft ball of dough.

Flatten the ball into a disk and press into a 9 inch glass or ceramic pie pan so that it is of even ¼ inch thickness all over, and form a scalloped edge with your thumbprints. Make fork holes every ½ inch all over the bottom and sides of the pie shell. Bake at 375 Fº until golden, but not brown.

If you have extra dough, form it into a cookie shape (star, heart, tree, etc.) in another pan, make fork holes every ½ inch on it, and bake it along with the piecrust. After the filling has chilled and become firm in the crust, place the cookie shaped piece of piecrust on top of the filling. For ease of handling, I suggest forming and baking the cookie shaped piece on top of a piece of baking parchment, so that you can easily slide it onto the top of the pie without it crumbling in the process.

RAW CRUST

In a (clean) coffee grinder, powder one cup each of walnut meats and raw cashews. Remove pits from 6 dates, chop them well and place them in a food processor with the nut flours. Blend until it forms a soft dough. Press the dough into a 9 inch glass or ceramic pie pan. Keep the edge small and simple, since an extended, scalloped edge will crumble off when the pie is cut and served. Chill in the refrigerator.

If you’d like to make a decorative raw cookie for the top of the pie, take some of the nut/date dough, form into the shape of choice, and dehydrate at 105 Fº until almost crisp.

FILLING

Cut a medium sized butternut squash or small kabocha (green) pumpkin into pieces about 1 to 2 inches on a side.

Spoon out the seeds, and either roast, plant or discard them. (If you compost them, who knows, you might get volunteer squash plants growing out of your compost..)

Peel two thumb-sized pieces of fresh ginger and chop into small pieces.

Steam the squash and ginger until soft and let them cool until you can easily pick up one of the squash pieces with your (clean) hand, at which point you can spoon the flesh out from the shells into the food processor bowl, and compost the shells. Then dump the steamed bits of ginger from the steaming basket into the food processer with the squash, and blend until smooth. If the mixture is so thick that it bogs down the food processor, slowly add a tiny bit of the cooking water, until the blades are moving easily.

After blending, just to be sure there are no annoying bits of ginger in the pie filling, pour the mixture through a sieve into a large bowl, and stir with a wooden spoon to complete the separation.

If you’d rather not bother with peeling, chopping, steaming, blending and sieving fresh ginger, you can always skip it, instead adding ½ tsp. powdered ginger along with the other spices below. (Personally, I think it’s worth the extra work.)

Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly: one cup of unsweetened, non-flavored vegan milk (hemp, almond, rice, soy, or, if you’d like a very rich pie, coconut cream) with 2 teaspoons of agar flakes, 1 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. nutmeg, ¼ tsp. cloves, ½ tsp allspice) and 3 droppers of non-flavored stevia glycerite, stirring until the agar is completely dissolved and the spices are well blended into the milk.

Place the food processor: the butternut squash and the agar/milk mixture. Blend until completely smooth.

Pour the filling into the pie shell and chill until the agar is set (at least one hour, although you can make this pie the day before serving it and keep it in the refrigerator until then).

If you have more filling than pie shells, pour it into custard cups and chill.

A nine-inch pie will serve 8 people.

Topping (optional):

Coconut Bliss vegan ice cream (Naked Coconut flavor) would be my choice, but there are also excellent choices available from Tofutti, Soy Delicious, and other vegan ice cream brands.

On October 24th and 25th, 2012, Rizzoli Publishers (Random House, New York) unveiled 101 Classic Cookbooks – 501 Classic Recipes, a collection curated by the Fales Cookbook Library at New York University, home to over 55,000 volumes about food.

Their panel of experts has chosen what they consider the 101 most influential American cookbooks of the 20th century, and, from those, the quintessential recipes of each book.

From Living on the Earth, they have chosen four recipes: Dandelion Wine, Sunflower Milk (actually, How To Make Baby Food), Yogurt, and How to Smoke Fish. In addition, six of the original illustrated and hand-lettered page layouts, plus the cover of the Random House second edition are displayed on pages 136 and 137.

Here's a video of a panel discussion by some of the major organizers and contributors to the book, on October 25, 2012 at New York University.

Truly a wonderful tour.  I enjoyed every day of it!

May 20 live at Ocean Café 18:00-20:00 in Aichi (near Nagoya) for Little Eagle Fashion Exhibition

May 25 live at Juzu (Go West Hemp Boutique) in Ebisu, Tokyo 19:00 for Little Eagle Fashion Exhibition

May 27 live at Natural High Festival at Doshi, 11:20 to 12:00.  Otherwise I'll be at Kurkku/apbank booth.

May 30 live at Cafe Slow in Kokubunji, Tokyo, 19:00 to 12:30 for Little Eagle Fashion Exhibition

June 2 live at Jisoan Gallery in Gifu, 14:00 – 18:00 for Little Eagle Fashion Exhibition. Telephone 0572-65-2010

June 3 live at MI.CA.LI Gallery in Osaka, 19:00 for Little Eagle Fashion Exhibition

June 9 live at Beach Muffin Cafe in Hayama, Kanagawa, 16:00 for Little Eagle Fashion Exhibition

June 14 live at Cay in Aoyama, Tokyo with Inoue Ohana Band, start 20:00.

June 15 live at Natural and Harmonic Plants (organic mall) in Yokohama 18:00 for Little Eagle Fashion Exhibition

June 16 live at Studio M in Koganei, Tokyo. Doors open 14:00, show 15:00. For information, call Spoonful Cafe at 080 3386 0635

June 19 Art workshop and live performance at Holistic Health Care Institute in Kichijoji, Tokyo. 18:00 – 22:00.

June 21 live at Thumbs Up in Yokohama with Inoue Ohana Band, start 20:00.

June 22 live at Chikyu-ya in Kunitachi, Tokyo, with Inoue Ohana Band, start 19:30.

June 23, live at Yukotopia in Umejima, Adachi, Tokyo, with Ha-Za-Ma, High Blood Pressure and Howdy Groovies. Doors open at 18:30, live begins at 19:00. I play last.

June 24 live at Alishan Organic Center in Hidaka, Saitama, 16:00 start.

June 29 live in Fukushima at Ginga No Hotori (Edge of the Milky Way) Café with Yoshie Ebihara, Inoue Ohana Band and Kaorico Ago. A gift to the Tohoku people from Little Eagle. Doors open at 17:00, start time 18:00.

June 30 live in Ishinomaki at Cafe Roots with Yoshie Ebihara, Inoue Ohana Band and Kaorico Ago. A gift to the Tohoku people from Little Eagle. Doors open at 18:00, start time 19:00.

July 1 art workshop (making fabric picture books) in Sendai, co-led with Kaorico Ago 13:00.  Live with Yoshie Ebihara and Kaorico Ago at 15:00. Location: Akiu Kinoie Center. A gift to the Tohoku people from Little Eagle.

July 4 live at Marunouchi House (close to Tokyo station), CD Release Party for Monk Beat's 2nd CD, Animal Collection.  Monk Beat, Alicia Bay Laurel and Mirrorbowler.  First set begins at 17:00.

July 7 live at Nagoji Temple in Tateyama, Chiba, with Monk Beat featuring vocalist Yae. Doors open at 17:00, show starts at 18:00. A fundraiser for Tohoku survivors. 

July 13-15 – Weekend workshop in beautiful Tamagusuku, Okinawa, co-led with Sachiho Kojima, including nature walks to sacred sites, musical meditation, beach time, live music, and shrine-building art workshop. To join us, or for more details, please contact Sachiho at octagontara@yahoo.co.jp or message Sachiho on Facebook.

July 15 live at Roguii Cafe, Okinawa, with Amana band.  Doors open at 19:00, show at 19:30. Cafe address: 1663 Yogi, Okinawa City, Okinawa. Phone: 098 933 8583.  Hand craft and farmers market at the cafe from 15:00.

The Los Angeles Visionary Association, founded and directed by art historians Kim Cooper and Richard Schave (who are also the owners and operators of the amazing Esotouric), has been holding monthly salons for nearly two years at historic Clifton’s Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles. I’ve been a member since the beginning, but this was the first time I’ve managed to attend a salon. It was wonderful fun.

The opening event was a set of original songs performed by the Ukulady, Thessaly Lerner, and her band (on mandolin and electric autoharp). The Ukulady evolved her act during her years as a student and then a teacher at Wavy Gravy’s Camp Winnarainbow Circus and Performing Arts Camp in Northern California.

Next up was a slide show lecture by the gorgeously attired Dr. Paul Koudounaris, professor of art history at California State University Dominguez Hills, to introduce his book The Empire of Death, a lavish collection of his photos and research on the world’s forgotten charnel houses, ossuaries, and reliquaries.

After the salon, we all trooped out after Richard Schave and Nathan Marsak, who gave us a rousing walking tour and lecture on Victorian Los Angeles.

I particularly loved this wonderful old building and our guides’ tale of how it was saved from destruction by fire by a brave and dedicated elevator operator.

Kim pointed out that the building's elevator grills had little demon’s heads in the filigree.

Even the view out the side door of this building offered a dream scene.

Downtown Los Angeles fascinates with unapologetic Victorian grandeur, …

…ambitious, passionate murals,…

…and unexpected entertainers (that’s a banjo player on a bicycle trailer).

On December 15, 2010, FM YOKOHAMA’s beloved radio personality Mitsumi aired her interview of me on her show “Ine! Good for You!” She translates my answers to the interview into Japanese, but you can still hear some of what I said in English. If you speak Japanese, you will have even more fun listening to the show. It’s 17 minutes and 14 seconds long.  You can listen to it here.

May 13, 2011. Today the t-shirt and towel that I illustrated (both designed by Aiko Shiratori of environmentalist non-for-profit arts organization Artist Power Bank in Shibuya, Tokyo) were posted for sale on their Kurkku shop website. Both items are fundraisers for the survivors of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, and will be sold at the annual music festival Artist Power Bank produces each summer to raise money for its projects.

On each of the webpages, if you scroll down, you’ll find my statements of intention, in both English and Japanese, which I wrote in response to a request from Artist Power Bank.

Here’s the t-shirt web page.

Here’s the towel web page.

OK, birthday candles are in order. The 40th anniversary of the first edition of Living on the Earth (The Bookworks, Berkeley CA) was in September 2010. The 40th anniversary of the bestselling second edition of Living on the Earth (Vintage Books, Random House, NYC) was in April 2011. It’s still in print as a hardbound library edition. The 40th anniversary of  Mariko Fukamachi's translation of Living on the Earth (Soshisha Ltd., Tokyo) was in April 2012. It’s still in print as a paperback book.

It sold somewhere in excess of 350,000 copies, and it’s still selling in English and Japanese, and maybe still in Korean. I heard a rumor that the Provos in Amsterdam made a bootleg translation back in the 1970s (I’ve never seen one of those either, but I would LOVE to have one if it exists!!)

LOTE’s illustration and design style was so revolutionary when it first came out that Publishers Weekly devoted two pages to acknowledging this with an article in handwriting, illustrated with drawings selected from LOTE. I scanned and posted the PW piece here.

LOTE’s illustration and book design begat The Massage Book (and the Random House/Bookworks series), The Moosewood Cookbook series, The Vegetarian Epicure series, Handbook for Survival into the 21st Century, and numerous others. More recently, motivational writer/speaker SARK told me that Living on the Earth’s illustration and design had helped launch her graphic style as well.

Soshisha, Ltd, in Tokyo released a Japanese translation in 1972, with a blurb on the cover from Japan’s poet laureate, Shuntaro Tanikawa. It says, “I want to do everything in this book. If I can’t do everything in this book, then I want to dream about it, because I know that if I do, I will be a better person to the marrow of my bones.”