Welcome back to week three of December’s Reader’s Den. As I was reading 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement certain questions came to mind. While these may get you started they are by no means the only ones:

• Are you surprised at how well the immigrants of the book ate and the wide variety of food available to them?
• What gastronomical, historical or cultural facts surprised you the most after reading this book?
• Does the amount of Urban Farming at the time give the reader the sense that it isn’t such a new phenomenon after all?
• Why do you think the author focused on the immigrant groups that she did? Do you wish the author had focused on another group (Polish, Greek, Scandinavian, etc.) that may have lived in the building at the time?
• Have you ever “Kitchened” anything?
• Does reading this book make you, the reader, want to delve into your family’s cultural or culinary history?

Hopefully you as the reader also had these questions or some others. Please leave your interpretations in the comments. Next week will be our wrap-up of this book so please stay tuned for it.