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The Art of Food Rituals
regenerative farm-based food intervention. This notion was greeted with enthusiasm by the farmer
and preparations began to curate this edible experience on one of his biodynamic felds.
Addressing and engaging with the personal and political dimensions of oppression through
emancipatory practice motivates all of Miche’s work in the world. As a woman with Jewish heritage
born white into the colonial regime of Rhodesia, Miche recognises and engages with the multiple
dynamics of oppression. Aware of how white body supremacy has conferred privilege on her life
(Menaken, 2020) she is also tuned into how her human existence entwines within other systemic
discriminations which segregate, marginalise and exploit. Her contemporary food rituals arise from
a body of work which is committed to intervening in and countering the separation between ourselves, each other and the multisentient communities of our planet. Through creating liberatory
conditions for embodied experiences with the living food cycle these convivial encounters prepare
a common ground for fostering respectful, inclusive and celebratory relationships.
Given the legacies of apartheid in South Africa and on-going land contestation coupled with
food insecurity the invitation to host the food experience FieldTable was politically dynamic. The
durational ritual was conceived as a convivial intervention for participants from diverse ethnicities,
cultures, ages, classes and genders to gather around a dining table in an unfamiliar context to share
different experiences, perspectives, aspirations and vocations. Those at FieldTable included agroecology students and educators, gardeners and farmers, organisational leaders and activists, bakers
and chefs, scientists and ecologists, journalists and researchers and artisan food producers. This
kinship of people emerged from relationships Miche and Flora had developed during the 3-month
artist research residency at the Sustainability Institute. Everyone round the table shared a dedication
to agroecological food cultures and regenerative artisanal food production within the region. The
event was thus a communitas for the guardianship of soil, water and land as a practice in social,
ecological and food justice.
On a September Saturday, the ritual process began with a sensorial travelling experience in a
lavender-strewn truck where 22 participants were driven up to a farm track. Continuing on foot, all
walked towards a feld of grazing cattle where a dining table stood amongst the meadow grasses. As
the participants approached FieldTable, they were invited to pause at a shrine, the liminal threshold
which signalled the bounded container of a ritual space. The ritual shrine was in honour of the feld
and its genius loci and was composed of large slice of tree trunk and a selection of matterful objects
including a granite touchstone, kalahari salt, a vessel of water, a bowl of soil and a ball of red thread.
Miche welcomed people and offered gratitude to the soil and water. Here she invited participants
to consider the question ‘What are we hungry for’? and to hold this during the food sharing. Once
seated, Miche introduced the evolution of FieldTable, and before beginning to eat, participants were
asked to pause for a minute of silence in contemplation of their surroundings and with the food on
their plate. The mainly plant-based menu of dishes was hand-prepared and cooked using culinary
artisanal traditions to enhance the nutritional value. All the produce was sourced and donated from
the gardens and farms of local growers who sat around the table. The simplicity of fare included
the fresh, the fermented, the raw and the cooked, all composed from the season’s local harvests.
Sourdough breads from heritage grains were specially baked in woodfre as small baguettes for
sharing between two as a gesture of companionship. Seeking to amplify the vitality of the food, to
give it voice and allow it to reveal its own nature, the food on the plate displayed a vibrant composition of natural colour, form and texture – food to awaken the senses.
As part of the ritual dining experience, some of the participants stood up to share their passion
for their culinary, artisanal and agricultural practices, thereby stimulating the spontaneous refections and stories of others. Once the food was eaten, leftovers from the plates were collected into
bokashi bins to activate a fermentation process that enables foodwaste to become natural fertiliser
for the land. The fnal phase of FieldTable opened a space for self-refexivity where participants
were asked to respond in writing with the question ‘How has your hunger been satisfed’? This
was followed by closure through exchanges of thanks and farewells (Figure 18.2).
As a durational food ritual, FieldTable was a provocation for the bodymind, enlivening people’s capacities to come to know through the senses, the imagination, emotion, intuition and
The Art of Food Rituals
regenerative farm-based food intervention. This notion was greeted with enthusiasm by the farmer
and preparations began to curate this edible experience on one of his biodynamic felds.
Addressing and engaging with the personal and political dimensions of oppression through
emancipatory practice motivates all of Miche’s work in the world. As a woman with Jewish heritage
born white into the colonial regime of Rhodesia, Miche recognises and engages with the multiple
dynamics of oppression. Aware of how white body supremacy has conferred privilege on her life
(Menaken, 2020) she is also tuned into how her human existence entwines within other systemic
discriminations which segregate, marginalise and exploit. Her contemporary food rituals arise from
a body of work which is committed to intervening in and countering the separation between ourselves, each other and the multisentient communities of our planet. Through creating liberatory
conditions for embodied experiences with the living food cycle these convivial encounters prepare
a common ground for fostering respectful, inclusive and celebratory relationships.
Given the legacies of apartheid in South Africa and on-going land contestation coupled with
food insecurity the invitation to host the food experience FieldTable was politically dynamic. The
durational ritual was conceived as a convivial intervention for participants from diverse ethnicities,
cultures, ages, classes and genders to gather around a dining table in an unfamiliar context to share
different experiences, perspectives, aspirations and vocations. Those at FieldTable included agroecology students and educators, gardeners and farmers, organisational leaders and activists, bakers
and chefs, scientists and ecologists, journalists and researchers and artisan food producers. This
kinship of people emerged from relationships Miche and Flora had developed during the 3-month
artist research residency at the Sustainability Institute. Everyone round the table shared a dedication
to agroecological food cultures and regenerative artisanal food production within the region. The
event was thus a communitas for the guardianship of soil, water and land as a practice in social,
ecological and food justice.
On a September Saturday, the ritual process began with a sensorial travelling experience in a
lavender-strewn truck where 22 participants were driven up to a farm track. Continuing on foot, all
walked towards a feld of grazing cattle where a dining table stood amongst the meadow grasses. As
the participants approached FieldTable, they were invited to pause at a shrine, the liminal threshold
which signalled the bounded container of a ritual space. The ritual shrine was in honour of the feld
and its genius loci and was composed of large slice of tree trunk and a selection of matterful objects
including a granite touchstone, kalahari salt, a vessel of water, a bowl of soil and a ball of red thread.
Miche welcomed people and offered gratitude to the soil and water. Here she invited participants
to consider the question ‘What are we hungry for’? and to hold this during the food sharing. Once
seated, Miche introduced the evolution of FieldTable, and before beginning to eat, participants were
asked to pause for a minute of silence in contemplation of their surroundings and with the food on
their plate. The mainly plant-based menu of dishes was hand-prepared and cooked using culinary
artisanal traditions to enhance the nutritional value. All the produce was sourced and donated from
the gardens and farms of local growers who sat around the table. The simplicity of fare included
the fresh, the fermented, the raw and the cooked, all composed from the season’s local harvests.
Sourdough breads from heritage grains were specially baked in woodfre as small baguettes for
sharing between two as a gesture of companionship. Seeking to amplify the vitality of the food, to
give it voice and allow it to reveal its own nature, the food on the plate displayed a vibrant composition of natural colour, form and texture – food to awaken the senses.
As part of the ritual dining experience, some of the participants stood up to share their passion
for their culinary, artisanal and agricultural practices, thereby stimulating the spontaneous refections and stories of others. Once the food was eaten, leftovers from the plates were collected into
bokashi bins to activate a fermentation process that enables foodwaste to become natural fertiliser
for the land. The fnal phase of FieldTable opened a space for self-refexivity where participants
were asked to respond in writing with the question ‘How has your hunger been satisfed’? This
was followed by closure through exchanges of thanks and farewells (Figure 18.2).
As a durational food ritual, FieldTable was a provocation for the bodymind, enlivening people’s capacities to come to know through the senses, the imagination, emotion, intuition and