Nancy Wirsing was born and grew up in rural South Dakota. She earned a BA in Political Science in 1966 from the University of South Dakota, and in 1968 an MA in International Studies from the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. With graduation began a lifelong fascination with food, not just with how to cook it but, inspired by the great nutritionist and pioneering advocate of unprocessed foods Adelle Davis, with how to cook it right. With health-conscious cooking always the goal, a lifetime of experimentation and testing of recipes followed. The crowning achievement of this experimentation is her book Cooked Alive!, which is both a cookbook and cooking manual.

Some of her life experiences stand out as particularly formative in shaping the unique character of Cooked Alive! A first such experience was raising three energetic sons. During this time Nancy gained invaluable experience with developing traditional family dishes that were pleasing, energy-sustaining, and nourishing all at the same time. The foundation of the attractive, tasty, and highly nutritious traditional dish recipes that form the core of her Cooked Alive! recipes was established.

Partly overlapping early family dish-focused years, Nancy spent long stretches of time abroad. She resided both in South Asia and the Middle East – in India (1969-70), in Pakistan (1985-86), and, part of each year, in Qatar (2008-2015). This foreign residence exposed her to the dazzling diversity of cuisine to be found around the world, and Cooked Alive! recipes clearly bear the imprint of these experiences, particularly her South Asian experience. Foreign residence also opened her eyes to the inevitably close connection between the way people eat and the health problems they suffer.

But nothing has more impacted her recipes than the years she has spent in South Dakota on her farm and ranch, which she began managing in 1993. Along with the more usual prairie-focused activities (such as caring for her horses, planting and caring for trees and wildlife habitat, battling invasive weeds, and observing the natural wonders of the prairie), living on the prairie made possible three distinctive kinds of experiences, each of which greatly contributed to the development and unique character of Cooked Alive!

Of particular importance, Nancy began vegetable and fruit gardening in earnest.  This gardening gave her an invaluable opportunity to experiment with preparing innumerable vegetables and many fruits.  She also gained intimate knowledge of these foods in this process. Already focused on vegetables and fruits as foods playing essential roles in human health, Nancy’s gardening experience led her to make vegetables and fruits central ingredients in her recipes.

From being a gardener Nancy moved to become a regular vendor at a local farmers market. Being a vendor gave her keen familiarity with local customers, and this familiarity provided her the opportunity to closely observe the relationship between her customers and vegetables and fruits. What she discovered was a great void in practical knowledge about how to prepare fresh vegetables and fruits as well as about the importance of these foods to human health. These results affirmed, in Nancy’s eyes, the need and value of providing a basic “how to prepare and use” primer for vegetables and fruits, which is exactly what Cooked Alive! is.

All the while that Nancy was living on the South Dakota prairie she had a front row seat for observing industrial agriculture, which surrounded her. This position put her in direct line of view of the spectacular extent to which chemical spraying is a part of industrial farming. Being fully aware of the deadly effects this chemical bombardment on the health of humans and all other forms of life as well as of the health of the surrounding environment, she become a passionate advocate of organic farming, a commitment which she built into Cooked Alive! But close exposure to industrial agriculture also drew her attention to the direct link between industrial farming and processed food dependence, a health-degrading dependence that cannot be so easily escaped by simply moving to certified organic foods.  Industrial agriculture – by being directed by a business model that allows and encourages endless tampering with food in the name of economic efficiency, lowered costs, and profit — displaces and fundamentally stands in the way of concern for the production of safe and genuinely nourishing food. Breaking of the grip of processed food dependence on the general public requires far-reaching agricultural reform. Cooked Alive! is thus, along with the earthiness and authenticity of its recipes, a persuasive voice for change.

The whole foods cooking techniques put forward in Cooked Alive! have been tested, lovingly and meticulously, over and over in Nancy’s own kitchen; and they have been presented both at local public venues and in numerous private cooking lessons. Nancy is eager to teach her cooking techniques and is currently laying plans for a series of cooking workshops (dubbed Cooking Vegetables Right) at both urban locations in South Dakota and at a family guest lodge near her farm. Nancy is co-author of Ancient India and Its Influence in Modern Times, published by Franklin Watts in its First Book series. Nancy is married and her husband Robert has been absolutely indispensable to Nancy in assisting her bring Cooked Alive! to successful completion.