The Far Out History Of How Hippie Food Spread Across America

Frustrated with the Vietnam War, The Man, and the general state of the nation, hippies set out to do everything differently. They founded rural communes, dabbled in psychedelics and cultivated a laissez-faire approach to personal hygiene. But, like everyone else in the world, they had to eat.

Mainstream fare — Wonder Bread and frozen vegetables — clashed with their politics. So they explored and invented new foods, then enthusiastically shared their creations. And despite the disbanding of communes and the persistence of capitalism, many of those culinary contributions were long lasting. Jonathan Kauffman’s new book, Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat, follows the people and places throughout the country that brought organic vegetables and whole wheat bread into the counterculture, and then, eventually, mainstream supermarkets.

Growing up in Indiana, Kauffman was raised on hippie food. Early exposure to carob didn’t turn him away from the cuisine; he still delights in the atmosphere of food co-ops. “There’s this smell that’s always the same, I’m not able to pinpoint what it is, but it’s a mix of bulk spices, essential oils, roast coffee,” he says. “It just makes me feel at home.”