A Leap Forward

Hope you come with me.

Gypse Rose Lee finding time to write at her day job.

I did not anticipate that America Eats! would grow to 900 subscribers when I started out 3 1/2 years ago. Substack mailed the first issue to my tiny list of contacts—45 or so friends and family who, willing or not, began to receive America Eats! in their mailbox each week. I’ve never been good at promoting my work and I soon stopped doing what Substack said I should do. This especially pertained to social media which always seems to slurp up more energy that I have.

Still, America Eats! grew. The subscribers dribbled in, joining ones and twos. Many are here because other writers recommended me to their readers. All of you are a constant source of inspiritation, especially when I’ve lost my way.

By now, the newsletter has become my full-time job, often extending into a seven-day week, sometimes more than 10 hours a day. I hadn’t anticipated this either. I thought I could toss them off in a minute or two. I made up an ambitious schedule that quickly proved exhausting. An editor I hired to help with my atrocious spelling strongly suggested I should post pieces from my books and old magazine articles. That didn’t help because I ended up rewriting them whole because I felt they needed more in-depth research and reporting. Unforeseen personal stories, even when they didn’t have much of anything to do with food, materialized. Exhausting to write, they have often proved to be the most popular, the ones that engender an immediate, intimate connection with readers. It makes what I write viable.

America Eats! has always been free, but I am now activating the paid option. The new funds will open new reporting and research opportunities. It will defray the rising cost of ingredients needed to cook for you.

And it will cover the printing of the America Eats! Library. Right now the Library consists of two booklets. The first is a reprint of Southern Cooking by Eudora Welty that she wrote for the Works Progress Administration. It provides a unique insight into how she was able to portray a character in just a few sentences—often in just one—while somehow coaxing them to share family recipes. The most recent booklet, Invalid Cooking, A Few Old Remedies for What Ails You further unearths recipes from the 17th century to the early 1900s that were once used to tend to family member’s illnesses and injuries. The 11 recipes will help you prepare for the upcoming cold and flu season.

Paying subscribers will automatically receive each booklet. Free subscribers can purchase them at a nominal cost to cover their publication. They make terrific gifts, too!

I don’t believe in putting up a pay wall—that just seems rude. Everyone will be sent special stories and offers. The cost of a subscription is the lowest Substack will allow—$5 a month. An annual subscription is much cheaper—$35.

So help America Eats! grow. I promise it’ll be worth it!