Max Watman's Books

Harvest: Field Notes from a Far-Flung Pursuit of Real Food

By: Max Watman

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Harvest: Field Notes from a Far-Flung Pursuit of Real Food

By: Max Watman

Max Watman’s compulsively readable memoir of his dogged quest to craft meals from scratch. After an epiphany caused by a harrowing bite into a pink-slime burger, Max Watman resolves to hunt, fish, bake, butcher, preserve, and pickle. He buys a thousand-pound-steer—whom he names Bubbles—raises chickens, gardens, and works to transform his small-town home into a gastronomic paradise. In this compulsively readable memoir, Watman records his experiments and adventures as he tries to live closer to the land and the source of his food. A lively raconteur, Watman draws upon his youth in rural Virginia with foodie parents—locavores before that word existed—his time cooking in restaurants, and his love of the kitchen. Amid trial and experiment, there is bound to be heartbreak. Despite a class in cheese making from a local expert, his carefully crafted Camembert resembles a chalky hockey puck. Much worse, his beloved hens—"the girls," as he calls them—are methodically attacked by a varmint, and he falls into desperate measures to defend them. Finally, he loses track of where exactly Bubbles the steer is. Watman perseveres, and his story culminates in moments of redemption: a spectacular prairie sunset in North Dakota; watching 10,000 pheasants fly overhead; eating fritters of foraged periwinkles and seawater risotto; beachside with his son; a tub of homemade kimchi that snaps and crunches with fresh, lively flavor well after the last harvest. With infectious enthusiasm, Watman brings the reader to the furthest corners of culinary exploration. He learns that the value of living from scratch is in the trying. With a blend of down-home spirit and writing panache, he serves up a delectable taste of farm life—minus the farm.

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Page Count

220

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393243168

ISBN 13

9780393243161

Chasing the White Dog

An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine

By: Max Watman

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Chasing the White Dog

An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine

By: Max Watman

In Chasing the White Dog, journalist Max Watman traces the historical roots and contemporary story of hooch. He takes us to the backwoods of Appalachia and the gritty nip joints of Philadelphia, from a federal courthouse to Pocono Speedway, profiling the colorful characters who make up white whiskey's lore. Along the way, Watman chronicles his hilarious attempts to distill his own moonshine -- the essential ingredients and the many ways it can all go wrong -- from his initial ill-fated batch to his first successful jar of 'shine. It begins in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, where drunk and armed outlaws gathered in the summer of 1794. George Washington mustered 13,000 troops to quell the rebellion, but by the time they arrived, the rebels had vanished; America's first moonshiners had packed up their stills and moved on. From these moonshiners who protested the Whiskey Tax of 1791, to the bathtub gin runners of the 1920s, to today's booming bootleg businessmen, white lightning has played a surprisingly large role in American history. It touched the election of Thomas Jefferson, the invention of the IRS, and the origins of NASCAR. It is a story of tommy guns, hot rods, and shot houses, and the story is far from over. Infiltrating every aspect of small-scale distilling in America, from the backyard hobbyists to the growing popularity of microdistilleries, Chasing the White Dog provides a fascinating, centuries-long history of illicit booze from an unrepentant lover of moonshine.

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Age

Page Count

306

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

143917024X

ISBN 13

9781439170243

Harvest: Field Notes from a Far-Flung Pursuit of Real Food

By: Max Watman

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Harvest: Field Notes from a Far-Flung Pursuit of Real Food

By: Max Watman

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

220

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393243168

ISBN 13

9780393243161

Book's by Max Watman

Harvest: Field Notes from a Far-Flung Pursuit of Real Food

Harvest: Field Notes from a Far-Flung Pursuit of Real Food

Chasing the White Dog

Chasing the White Dog

Harvest: Field Notes from a Far-Flung Pursuit of Real Food

Harvest: Field Notes from a Far-Flung Pursuit of Real Food

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