A Collection of Rural Sociology Christmas Feasts

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The Rural Sociology Course “Food Culture and Customs” wrapped up just before Christmas.

As a side-project (read: homework for no credit), I asked students to photograph their holiday meals and share the pictures so that we could all get a little taste of Christmas around the world.

Here are some of the photos. 

Traditional Danish Christmas dinner! White potatoes, caramelized potatoes, pork roast, duck, red cabbage and gravy

Traditional Danish Christmas dinner! White potatoes, caramelized potatoes, pork roast, duck, red cabbage and gravy

Slovak Christmas Dinner

Slovak Christmas Dinner

France foie gras de canard with fig jam

France: foie gras de canard with fig jam

South Africa Christmas day lunch Leg of lamb on the braai cooked ham and not-so-authentic butternut & couscous and beet carpaccio

South Africa: Christmas day lunch Leg of lamb on the braai (BBQ) cooked ham and not-so-authentic butternut & couscous and beet carpaccio

For the Hungarian Christmas, the student noted:  “This “was our “main dish” setting. Not completely authentic, because my grandma recently started watching cooking shows.”

Hungarian Christmas

Hungarian Christmas

Over to Italy for dessert!

Italian Dessert Classic panettone and panettone dressed with pistacchi and torrone

Italy:  Classic panettone and panettone dressed with pistacchi and torrone

Finally, one student was couchsurfing in Haifa, Israel and staying with an Argentinian restaurant owner: all the weekly leftovers turned into an amazing tapas dinner. She wrote: “This morning at 5 we were making empanadas. Shalom!”

Israel-Argentina Empanadas

Israel: Argentinian Empanadas

And, in case you were curious about what is eaten on New Year’s Day in Mexico City…

New Years Lunch in Mexico City

New Years Lunch in Mexico City

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About FoodGovernance

Jessica Duncan is Associate Professor in Rural Sociology at Wageningen University (the Netherlands). She holds a PhD in Food Policy from City University London (2014). Jessica’s main research focus concerns the practices and politics of participation in food policy processes, particularly the relationships (formal and non-formal) between governance organizations, systems of food provisioning, the environment, and the actors engaged in and across these spaces. More specifically, she maps the diverse ways that actors participate in policy-making processes, analysing how the resulting policies are shaped, implemented, challenged, and resisted, and she theorizes about what this means for socio-ecological transformation. Participation and engagement is at the core of her approach. In turn, she is active in a broad range of local, national and international initiatives with the aim of better understanding participation processes with a view towards transitioning to just and sustainable food systems. She is involved in several research projects including ROBUST, HortEco & SHEALTHY. Jessica is published regularly in academic journals. She recently co-edited the Handbook on Sustainable and Regenerative Food Systems (2020). Her other books include Food Security Governance: Civil society participation in the Committee on World Food Security (2015) and an edited volume called Sustainable food futures: Multidisciplinary solutions (2017). Jessica has received several awards for her teaching and in 2017 she was awarded Teacher of the Year for Wageningen University (shortlisted again in 2018 and 2019, longlisted in 2020). With the funds she has received for these awards she launched a story-telling workshop for students and faculty, with storytelling trainer, Emma Holmes. Jessica is on the Editorial Board of the journal Sociologia Ruralis and is an advisor to the Traditional Cultures Project (USA). She is a member of the Wageningen Young Academy and sits on the Sustainability Board of Experts at Wageningen University.

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