A moment, if you will, for blue corn tortilla chips. I love them. Simply, head-over-heels, love them. These little triangles of grandstanding crunch, the rich salt.

What's it for you? Caramel squares wrapped in cellophane? Mozzarella? The first sip of an IPA? The last bite of brisket?

Since last Wednesday's "Leftovers", I've probably eaten two dozen meals, give or take. Each meal: several dozen bites, or moments of chewing.

What holy events.

In his "The Supper of the Lamb," Episcopal priest and "amateur" chef Robert Farrar Capon writes:

It was God who invented dirt, onions and turnip greens; God who invented human beings, with their strange compulsion to cook their food; God who, at the end of each day of creation, pronounced a resounding "Good!" over his own concoctions.

And it is God's unrelenting love of all the stuff of this world that keeps it in being at every moment. So, if we are fascinated, even intoxicated, by matter, it is no surprise: we are made in the image of the Ultimate Materialist.

It's good to remember this, as - at least, for me - food can get messy, confusing, even shameful.

Our love, joy and daily pleasure with food and drink is there for a reason. We're not called to be Caligulas, but, rather, part of Creation designed into relationship with food and drink.

Remembering this, I'm also able to remember the small things. The scrambled egg and the butter it cooked in. The heft of my favorite fork. The color of cork as it emerges from the bottle.

This Sunday, we're bringing you a story we've spent weeks working to tell. We're detailing the hours and hours behind two plates of food.

All of it, begins with one single log.

The lighting of this log? Yes. Same with olive oil, vanilla yogurt, Cabernet, lion's mane from Midway Mushrooms, cauliflower, the chocolate mousse I split with my daughter.

What holy things, what holy events.

Sometimes, one single log can begin the whole story. Here's Capon again:

Food and cooking, therefore, are not low subjects. In fact there are no low subjects anywhere in the physical universe. Every real thing is a joy, if only you have eyes and ears to relish it, a nose and a tongue to taste it. But more than that, food and cooking are among the richest subjects in the world.

Every day of our lives, they preoccupy, delight and refresh us. Food is not just some fuel we need to get us going toward higher things. Cooking is not a drudgery we put up with in order to get the fuel delivered. Rather, each is a hearts' astonishment. Both stop us dead in our tracks with wonder. Even more, they sit us down evening after evening, and in the company that forms around our dinner tables, they actually create our humanity.

• Last week, the Tennessee Farmland Preservation Fund passed the full Senate, while its companion bill goes before the House subcommittee today.

Many of you continue to contact Nashville legislators in support of this bill, which would create a fund within the Tenn. Dept. of Ag. for increased farmland protection through conservation easements.

HB1325 goes before the House Ag. and Natural Resources subcommittee this afternoon.

Subcommittee members include two Hamilton County representatives: Greg Vital and Greg Martin.

Their contact info is here.

Interestingly, the subcommittee will vote on more than two dozen bills today, including one bill regarding nanotechnology in food, another bill introduced by newly elected Rep. Michele Reneau and another bill allowing the baiting of fields for whitetail hunting.

An excerpt from the subcommittee's calendar:  

• . HB0130 by Reneau. (SB0484 by Bowling.)
  Food and Food Products - Amends TCA Title 53 and Title 68, Chapter 14, Part 7. As introduced, authorizes the sale of homemade food items that contain dairy, meat, or poultry to the extent permitted by federal law.
• 25. HB0938 by Capley. (SB0869 by Hensley.)
  Licenses - Amends TCA Title 70. As introduced, creates a bait privilege license to allow hunting or taking of whitetail deer and wild-appearing swine using bait on privately owned or privately leased land.
• Veterans - Amends TCA Title 58, Chapter 3. As introduced, requires the bureau of parks and conservation to designate at least one day per year, instead of just one day per year, during which access to and use of all state parks, including campgrounds and golf courses, must be free of charge for all veterans.

• 23. *HB1099 by Towns. (SB1156 by Kyle.)
  Food and Food Products - Amends TCA Title 47, Chapter 18 and Title 53. As introduced, prohibits the sale of food containing nanotechnology created by humans that is capable of collecting and transmitting data unless the food is labeled as containing nanotechnology.

• Our friend Jim Johnson reached out with a timely question:

Do you have thoughts about the future of the McDonald Farm property in Sale Creek or about Hamilton County rural land use in general?

Oh, yes, most definitely. So many of us have so many thoughts about McDonald Farm and rural county land.

Thankfully, there's a survey for us.

Researchers at University of Tennessee-Chattanooga are collecting public opinion about McDonald Farm and future use of rural land.

The survey can be found here and is available through March 28.

Here's Jim:

This 2,100-acre property, in the MacDonald family for many generations, was purchased four years ago by Hamilton County for $16 million with the intent of creating an industrial park. Many residents have pushed back, wanting to preserve this nearly pristine farm and forest property at the edge of the Cumberland Trail and focus on agricultural, recreational and tourism uses. Much of the property has a deep history and is host to extensive wildlife and plants, some of them endangered.

A recent study noted that there would be a huge cost to develop the property for large industrial use, and the return on investment would be low and could take years or even decades. Other options may prove more feasible and at the same time preserve the natural setting and its history and culture.

• What beautiful weather.

Are you planting a spring garden?

See you on Sunday.

Story ideas, questions, feedback? Interested in partnering with us? Email: david@foodasaverb.com

This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.