Telling Women's Lives

Farmer Jane Reader Response – Adam Dailey

It’s difficult to choose whose experiences and accomplishments stood out the most while reading Farmer Jane, but if I had to pick one woman I would say Lois Ellen Frank led the most interesting and inspiring life. Her interest and compassion for Native foods is a prime example of how new fields of study are born and then continue to flourish after their inception. Food has always been among the most genuine and positive modes of overcoming cultural differences, as feeding someone is always a gesture of care and kindness but it is also a way of opening yourself up to your guests. When you cook something for someone that has cultural or familial significance for you, you’re kind of opening yourself up to them in a way, and saying “this is who I am”. I think that while it can’t be denied that Lois Ellen Frank was passionate about culturally significant foods by themselves, I think what probably drew her the most was the combination of kindness and openness that they entail.
Through Frank’s initiatives of cooking Native foods she is also raising awareness and respect for the Native American people, and the cyclically positive nature of Red Mesa is also helping to give hope to an astonishingly disenfranchised people. What I like most about Frank and Red Mesa is that it is founded on a premise of kindness and openness, and uses that kindness and openness to help a suffering community.