“An intelligently written narrative refreshingly free of personal admonitions... Kauffman comprehensively presents the history and the momentum of the organic food revolution while foraging for the keys to its increasing desirability and crossover appeal. An astute, highly informative food expose that educates without bias.” — Kirkus Reviews

“An outstanding food and cultural history…In this informative, briskly paced first book…Kauffman details how the concept of health food ‘evolved in the kitchens of young baby boomers’…Kauffman is equally thorough in tracing how these early innovators inspired the food co-ops and whole food stores that exist today.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Kauffman describes a time when a simple bowl of brown rice...and dashes of tamari could be an act as politically symbolic as hitchhiking to San Francisco with flowers in your hair... Alongside playful prose the great joy of Hippie Food is its rich cast of characters.” — Wall Street Journal

“Kauffman’s research left him with a fascinating picture of what longhairs ate and where they got it.” — NPR’s The Salt

“Briskly entertaining… I thought I knew this story, but Kauffman has added a lot to it, in the way of both fresh information and narrative verve.”
— Michael Pollan for the New York Times

Sprouts, tofu, granola, brown rice, whole-grain bread: suspect foods fifty years ago, omnipresent today. Journey back a half century in time—to the 1960s and 1970s—with food writer Jonathan Kauffman, who tells the story of how a coterie of unusual men and women embraced an alternative diet that would change how modern Americans eat. Impeccably researched, Hippie Food chronicles how the longhairs, revolutionaries, and back-to-the-landers rejected the square establishment of President Richard Nixon’s America and turned to a more idealistic, wholesome, and communal way of eating.

From the mystical rock-and-roll cult known as the Source Family and their legendary vegetarian Hollywood restaurant, to the free brown bread served by activists known as the Diggers in Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love, to the rise of food co-ops and the origins of organic farming, Kauffman reveals how hippie food became part of our diets. He tracks its journey from California to Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Vermont, and from a niche oddity to a cuisine eaten in every corner of this country.

A slick mix of gonzo playfulness, evocative detail, and elegant writing, Hippie Food is a lively and informative read that deepens our understanding of our culture and our lives today.