Expression through Growing Food and Cooking: the Craft Consumption of Food

This article applies Campbell's (2005) theory of craft consumption to contemporary food culture. It argues that, besides cooking and the preparation of food, certain modes of domestic food growing can also be regarded as the craft consumption of food. At its core it tries to identify the conditions and possible motives for both modes of the craft consumption of food that can shed light on social, symbolic, expressive and economic specifics of the new forms of food practices and help describe how they differ from their traditional patterns. Last but not least, the article argues that insomuch as craft activities are by definition always leisure activities the application of the notion of the craft consumption to food culture can also provide us with a better understanding of cooking and home food growing as leisure activities.