Originally Published Jan. 12, 2012:

Several years ago, Judith DeWoskin began offering a culinary extra credit assignment for her students in American Literature. The students all have an opportunity to bring in homemade pies for the entire class, which earns them 15 extra credit points. DeWoskin’s extra credit comes from a reading assignment out of the book Love Medicine, a novel the class reads a chapter of in the beginning of the class.

DeWoskin believes that the food mentioned in books is important. She teaches her students how food reveals a lot about the characters in the books and about their lives, but it can also serve as a metaphor. In Love Medicine, the broken pies serve as a metaphor for the family; once a pie is broken, it is impossible to put it back together again.

“The women in that chapter are making pies as a healing technique; they have lost one of their relatives, she’s died, probably committed suicide. They’re sad, they’re grieving, and they come together, just like in any holiday, and people congregate in kitchens. I personally believe that kitchens are the center, or should be the center, of every household.” Dewoskin said. Although she never enjoyed pies during her childhood, and thought they were “yucky”, she jokes that homemade pie dough is “essential for a happy life.”

Although Dewoskin mainly offers the extra credit pie project for its literary representations, she also wants her students to be more in touch with the food they prepare and eat. “I think that it’s really important to wash your hands, and get your hands in it. I think it’s really important to touch the food we eat.” Being out of touch with food doesn’t necessarily mean that Americans need to stick their hands in everything they eat, but that they need to start paying more attention to where their food comes from and what goes into making it. She believes that this is part of America’s obesity problem, and that a lack of knowledge about ingredients, and a tendency to eat whatever is convenient (such as fast food) contribute to our society’s disconnected diet.

Another solution to this problem is making our foods from scratch, a practice that has become less common in a world where everything can be purchased ready-made and frozen, waiting to be heated and served.  This is why Dewoskin requires her students to make every aspect of their pie, from the crust to the filling. “I want them to be involved with the food in a way that puts them in touch with what they eat, and I want them to prepare what they eat, so they know what they’re eating. I want you to read labels, and cook with fresh produce. You know one of the things I say about those pies is, you have to make the filling. You don’t just open those cans of goo.”