TOC Special Event: REDWALL
Traveling through Mossflower Wood for a bit of scoff at the Abbey
Readers of Content,
Over the years we’ve been lucky to cook some amazing meals from books that seeded early ideas of Tables of Contents. Our first meal, based on The Sun Also Rises, brought a shimmer of a college-aged idea to life. My Side of the Mountain channeled a favorite childhood story of escape rooted in food and survival in the Adirondacks. And Their Eyes Were Watching God was, for me, a chance to cook through a story set in the town next to where I spent my early childhood, in central Florida.
There’s another book — or really a series of books — that’s near, if not at, the top of the list of dream literary meals. It’s one I’ve talked about with lots of folks at TOC readings and holiday parties, and a series that my brother Matt and I especially loved growing up and still have a deep fondness for now: Redwall.
The response to mentioning Redwall has consistently fallen into two categories:
A pleasant, vacant, oh that’s nice smile upon hearing about the adventures of the woodland creatures who make up the stories in this series.
An immediate: OH MY GOD I LOVED REDWALL!
For those of you in the second column, you’re probably already hurtling back in time and through waves of pages to land in the warm Cavern Hole or Great Hall of Redwall Abbey, the smells of candied nuts and mint tea and mushroom and leek pasties and deeper ‘n ever pie wrapping you in a warm blanket of the memory of those imagined feasts that peppered every few chapters of each book in the series.
For the rest of you: well, hopefully that begins to set the scene. The food in Redwall is as central to the pleasure of reading the books as the heroes, adventures, villains, battles, and slowly unraveling mysteries that fill their pages. It’s been a dream of both Matt’s and mine to try to bring some of the food from Redwall to life, one that I think has been shared by many a former reader.
Part of capturing the spirit of the meals in Redwall is trying to mimic the feeling of Redwall Abbey itself, where the greatest of the feasts take place. The place that’s come closest to that spirit, for us, is Glynwood, the home of our artists residency in Cold Spring, NY. And this year we were able to find a date at Glynwood that worked for both of us, and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. If you've visited Glynwood, you know how incredible the location is, and how perfect it will be as a home for this meal.
So on Saturday, October 12th, Matt and I are going to be simmering up shrimp and hotroot soup, mixing strawberry fizz, pouring October Ale, and laying a table thick with brown bread and golden, nut-studded cheeses alongside some deeper ‘n ever pie and a spread of top notch Abbey scoff that would make any young hare or mousemaid proud.
These larger TOC dinners are always a bigger lift than our monthly reading series, and as such we need to price tickets higher to meet the costs. But we think this will be a very special night, especially for Redwall fans but also for those who are new to the series. Not to mention there’s still plenty of time to dive into a couple books; Matt recommends starting with Mossflower and following it with Redwall…we can offer other suggestions from there.
In addition to seats at the Redwall table, we’ve got the very special chance to offer rooms for overnight stays at Glynwood for those who want to curl up in a comfortable bed after some glasses of pear cordial by the fire, and wake up to some fresh bread, cheese, and a few more pasties for breakfast the next morning.
We have a very limited number of seats reserved for discounted admission for those who can't afford a full-priced ticket. Please let us know if this ticket price is prohibitive for you and we’ll find a way to get you a seat at the table.
As befits a Redwallers’ feast, this meal will be pescatarian (fish and shellfish), though vegetarians will be able to eat the majority of the dishes. Unfortunately it will be difficult for folks with dairy-free, gluten-free, or vegan diets to fully enjoy the meal and we won’t be able to make additional accommodations this time around.
Please write us at biscuits@tablesofcontents.org with any questions, and see you in the Great Hall soon,
Evan, Matt, & the TOC team
I live in Cold Spring!