Reflection: EcoGastronomy Experience

                                                 December 2011, Shannon Jasie

I find myself sitting here at the end of my college experience, with a stress level through the roof, excitement of graduation on the not-so-distant horizon (next week!!), a large class of organic Frey wine, and a flashing cursor on a blank white page.  What could I possibly write as a reflection on my years and experiences with the EcoGastronomy program at the University of New Hampshire??  Could I write anything that would do it justice?  Perhaps I should strive for some philosophical and profound conclusion.  Something novel.  A radical insight into the secret world of EcoGastronomy… But I don’t think that would be congruent with the underlying purpose of this program.  EcoGastronomy is simple.  It’s all about getting back to basics, the fundamentals, clarity.  Cutting out all the crap, the bullshit, the clutter, the brainwashing.  Restoring the core values that should be the framework for our food system.  Instead of making a fancy conclusion, I will speak to you from the heart, like a friend.  As one of us Eco-Geeko’s, as Ryan Millian likes to call us.  I will weave you my Slow Food story, starting where any proper story should commence… way back at the very beginning.  The day that EcoGastronomy entered my life.

I remember where I was sitting.  I was in one of my weekly Student Nutrition Association (SNA) meetings, in a conference room on the third floor of the MUB.  At the conclusion of the meeting, we allowed for peer announcements to share events, speakers, or University news.  One girl, who I now cannot remember, made an announcement about a new program in development called EcoGastronomy—something I could barely pronounce.  She explained the premise of the program, and I was immediately intrigued.  However, to my dismay, the program had not yet launched, and as a Dietetics student, I had very little flexibility in my schedule for electives.  Never mind studying abroad!  I dismissed the idea of enrolling in the dual major when it came to fruition.  As the weeks passed and I delved deeper into my nutrition courses, I found myself frustrated and irritated quite frequently while sitting in my lectures or doing homework exercises. Why should a person, by choice, consume fat-free cheese?  Doesn’t that violate everything that cheese stands for?  Why the hell would I recommend for someone to eat mass-produced canned peas as a viable vegetable source?  Shouldn’t we focus on PREVENTING occurrences of diseases of excess, rather than memorizing drug-nutrient interactions for diabetic patients?  As I sat in class, rejecting 50% of the ideas that came from my professors’ mouths, I found that EcoGastronomy was slowly creeping back to the forefront of my mind.  EcoGastronomy addressed some of the issues that I had within the Nutrition Dietetics program.  My frustration with the American Dietetic Association curriculum guidelines drove me to contemplate dropping out of the nutrition program all-together.  I thought about becoming a psychology major, an English student, a marketing scholar… Anything to get away from dietary exchanges and metabolic syndrome.  If only EcoGastronomy was offered as a stand-alone major of its own, my problems would be solved!  It was almost as if my prayers were answered by the University Gods of Creating Majors.  Within the Nutrition department, a new option was in the works: Wellness.  This new program emphasized health on a more holistic level with some new course requirements, including stress management, exercise, health promotion, and teaching health.  Additionally, this new nutrition option allowed room for studying abroad or picking up a minor…. Or in my case, picking up a dual major: EcoGastronomy.  I officially enrolled in the second Introduction to EcoGastronomy course offered, which was in the fall semester of 2009.

I embraced the class with a newly discovered scholarly passion, which had previously been lack-luster at best in my other nutrition courses.  I was hooked.  After each class, I would call my mom and try to teach her the wonders of Good, Clean, and Fair.  I frequently communicated with Emily Goldman and Sara Hartley who were studying abroad at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy at the time, and I absolutely couldn’t wait for my turn to go to Italy.  In the mean time, I attended farmer’s markets and events, worked at the UNH Organic Garden, read books, watched films, worked at an organic and local pizza restaurant in Portsmouth, and joined up with other foodies who shared my passion for great food.  Eventually, my time came to hop on the plane for Italy, and one of my most life-changing experiences to date (followed by a close-second summer experience in California).  I suppose the details of my study abroad experience can be examined at length in the Study Abroad Report that precedes this reflection, but I will say this: I made friends with some of the greatest, most interesting, complex, and beautiful people.

My study abroad group definitely had some characters, I will be the first to admit, but it is these quirks and personalities that I am able to look back and realize that those eleven girls became my EcoG family.  We laughed together, cried together, got drunk together, hated Chiara together, got lost together, missed buses together, traveled and saw the world together, cooked and ate together, and grew together.  To be Sara Hartley for just a moment, I will say that it was a magical life experience.  And I mean that, in every sense of the word.  While compiling journal entries and photos for this portfolio, I lost myself in the memories that EcoGastronomy has provided me over the years.  I think about the 3-mile walk home from school in Pollenzo, through the farms outside of Bra.  I think about being served raw veal for lunch on our very first hungover day at school.  I think about late-night gelato shop visits with my roommates.  I think about Alanna getting locked in the basement bathroom of the Wine Bar.  I think about the steamy dance floor of Café Boglione playing Michael Jackson all night long.  I think about getting yelled at by our apartment’s management for our “stinky cooking.”  I think about our obsession with cappuccino at all hours of the day, although we learned it is socially acceptable only in the morning.  I think about the nights that we rotated “family dinners” at each of our four apartments—laughing, drinking, and eating late into the night.  We developed deep bonds with one another, bonds that did not dissipate once we reached the United States again.  I have developed a friendship with these girls where we can pick up right where we left off.  They know me better and deeper than many of my friends. 

Perhaps I should have made a scholarly connection between my primary major and EcoGastronomy, or maybe I should have reported in detail about my opinions of our current food system with substantial evidence from reports and studies.  But to me, that was not what my EcoGastronomy experience meant to me beyond the classroom.  Sometimes I find it to be silly that food has changed my life.  And not in a nutritional sense.  Not in a “daily dietary recommended value” fulfillment sort of way.  In a way that heals your soul and your spirit.  I have met some of the greatest people who share my foodie ways through EcoG, I have experienced life and culture through my gastronomic travels, and I have learned the importance of food in our daily life.  I no longer view food as a vehicle for delivering nutrients to our bodies as suggested in my nutrition coursework, but rather, food is a way of nourishment that extends beyond caloric intake.  It nourishes your mind, your body, your relationships, and your happiness.  Food brings people together. 

Food is love. 

Blog post contributed courtesy of Shannon Jasie

UNH Sophomores and Juniors of All Majors are Invited to Apply for the Carsey Social Innovation Internship

Applications are now being accepted for Carsey Social Innovation Internships http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/social/social-internships.html. Whether you're already committed to a career at the intersection of mission and business, or curious how to apply your major's skills towards social and environmental good, the eight-week Carsey Social Innovation Internship will:  

• Connect you to leading for-profit and nonprofit organizations for a rigorous and meaningful summer internship;
• Provide UNH training in social entrepreneurship; and
• Support you to mobilize your UNH peers during the school year.  
• All this, along with a $2500 stipend! 

 Students will be placed at one of ten leading organizations. While each host has described its summer project and target skills, passionate generalists are also encouraged to apply. We seek idealistic, high-achieving, impact-focused student leaders. 

American MoJo, an apparel company that offers sustainable employment to single moms (operations internship)

Dare Mighty Things, a management consultancy for large-scale programs that affect vulnerable populations (research and curriculum development internship)  

Earthtec, a manufacturer of sustainable clothing that features recycled PET and natural materials (marketing internship)  

Humanitarian Organization for Local Development (HOLD), an Afghan non-governmental organization (program development internship)  

More Than Wheels, a nonprofit that provides financial services through the car-buying process (marketing internship)

New Hampshire Innovation Commercialization Center (NH-ICC), a technology accelerator that creates jobs and drives economic development (marketing internship)  

Pax World Management, an investment advisor offering sustainable investing solutions (research internship)

Revolution Energy, a provider of innovative renewable energy projects and financing options (marketing/engineering internship)  

ROC USA, a national nonprofit helping residents of manufactured housing communities (marketing internship)  

Veris Wealth Partners, a national sustainable wealth management firm (program coordination internship)

Application deadline March 23. Interviews with qualified applicants will be scheduled on a rolling basis throughout March.

UNH sophomores and juniors of all majors are invited to apply. Click here to learn more about the host organizations and their 2012 internships and to apply. For more information, contact Yusi Turell, Executive Director of the Center on Social Innovation and Finance at the Carsey Institute, at 862-3697 or yusi.turell@unh.edu. 

The Carsey Institute conducts policy research on vulnerable children, youth, and families and on sustainable community development. We give policy makers and practitioners the timely, independent resources they need to effect change in their communities.

Summer Farm to Table Course in France with Professor Serita Frey

North American "Honey"

 

By:

Alice Tognacci

University of Gastronomic Sciences 

2010 Summer UNH Student

Today, during our field trip in Vermont, we saw a maple forest with plastic tubing system for sap collection. I’ve never seen it before, so I’ve decided to write a paper about the two mains methods of extraction that today are used to produce maple syrup.

Maple syrup is a natural sweetener well known in North America. I’ve tested it five years ago thanks to my ex Canadian roommate, who use to make me pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast.

In Italy, this “honey” is not so common and well-known, for this reason was interesting know more about its production.

This syrup is made from the sap of sugar maple trees and 40 gallons of sap make 1 gallon of syrup.

The maple sap is extracted between March and April, during the “sugaring season”, when the sap goes up to the tree thanks to hotter temperatures of the spring. There are two main ways to collect it. The traditional method consist in make holes in the trunks of the maple, insert spouts into the holes and than hung a bucket from the end of each spout to collect the sap. In this way, the sap slowly fills the buckets, drop by drop.

At this point, farmers have to gather sap, bring it to the evaporator house, where the boiling process can begin and it takes more or less 8 hours, without add any addictive.

This technology remained quite the same until 1970s, when farmers could no longer effort to collect all the buckets and haul the sap to the boiling process. During these years, syrup makers adopted the tubing system, thanks to which the sap comes directly from the tree’s trunk to the evaporator house.

Making syrup was so labor intensive and this innovation helped farmers to facilitate the sap harvest. For this reason, after years, also a vacuum pump was added to the tubing system.

Today, sap extraction using these tools is preferred by most maple syrup producers because the use of buckets system is more labor intensive and requires a larger economic effort than the newer one. Nevertheless, some little farmers continue to use this traditional method and many families use to produce maple syrup at home as it is shown in several web sites, which explain step by step how to make a good and safe maple syrup at home.

This is a strong signal that underlines the important of this “sweet nectar” in North America and some U.S states, as Sugar Momma has taught to us…

WSBE Gourmet Dinner Co-hosts Benefit with Granite State Fish and Seacoast Local.

Sunday March 4th

Welcome and reception 4:30-5pm

Dinner 5-7pm 
The evening will entail learning opportunities about the state of the local fishing industry.

Area chefs, fisherman and researchers will be present as guests—join the conversation and learn about the hurdles and opportunities for our local economy. And, the Advanced Food and Beverage Management students from the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire will provide an excellent three course dinner featuring local seafood—off the docks to your plate. Proceeds will go towards local fish industry research.

The event will be held at the Thompson School of Applied Science on UNH's main campus in Durham. 
Thompson School of Applied Science, Cole Hall, 291 Mast Road, Durham, NH  03824  (Mast Road is off the Main Street rotary)

To purchase tickets: http://guide.seacoastlocal.org/local-fish-dinner

Congressional Hunger Center offers Anti- Hunger Fellows Positions

The Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program Description

The Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program, a project of the Congressional Hunger Center, is a unique leadership development opportunity for motivated individuals seeking to make a difference in the struggle to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Each year 20 participants are selected for this eleven-month program. Fellows are placed for half their term of service with community-based organizations all over the country involved in fighting hunger at the local level, such as grass roots organizing groups, food banks, economic development agencies, local advocacy groups and faith-based organizations. They then move to Washington, D.C. to complete the year with national organizations involved in the anti-hunger and poverty movement, including national advocacy organizations, think tanks, and federal agencies. Through this unique program, the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program develops effective leaders with a deep understanding of hunger and poverty at both the local and national level that enables them to find innovative solutions and create the political will to end hunger.

Deadline

The application deadline for the 2012– 2013 program is January 17, 2012.

Selection Criteria

Commitment to social justice

·         Demonstrated leadership qualities and skills

·         Commitment to anti-racism

·         Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience 

·         U.S. citizenship or permanent residency

·         Flexibility and ability to adjust to new situations

·         Creativity and initiative in problem solving

·         Willingness to learn from experts in the field, and commitment to the search for new models in anti-hunger and anti-poverty work

Application Timeline

January 17, 2012: Applications Due
February & March 2012: Interviews with semi-finalists (via telephone and/or in person in Washington, D.C.)
April 2012: Notification of Emerson Fellows Class of 2012-2013
Late August/Early September: 19th Class Fellows begin their service

http://www.hungercenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Emerson-National-Hunger-Fellowship1.pdf

Jewish Food With a Twist by Mollie Katzen via JointMedia News Service

During brunch one Sunday, my friend pointed an accusatory finger at my meal-a lox and cream cheese bagel, overflowing with onions, cucumbers, and a host of other vegetables-and said that it wasn't 'Jewish.' I looked to see what specifically he might have been addressing, but it turns out he was referring to the bell peppers on top of my lunch. My confusion sparked a debate at that moment--and a question that has stuck with me since: What is Jewish food?

When I was a young girl in upstate New York in the late 1950s, bagels were still considered to be ethnic bread. There were only a handful of bagel bakeries across the U.S., and most were centered in the lower east side of New York City. Our bagels were flown up from the city only on Sunday mornings (in very limited editions), and delivered directly to Mr. Rasnick's tiny grocery store, where they sold out in a matter of hours. And then we had to wait a week for more.
We knew there were only two kinds, plain and poppy seed- and as far as my family was concerned, there were only three acceptable ingredients to eat them with: butter, cream cheese, or lox. Bagels were Jewish, bagels with cream cheese were Jewish, and bagels with cream cheese and lox were Jewish, and that was Jewish food.
It never went further than that for me, until I moved to Berkeley decades later, and began serving the by-then available-everywhere-far-inferior California bagels with a platter of vegetables. And it was then that I received my friend's shocked declaration. I responded that whether or not he thought my food was Jewish, I was, it was, and that was all good enough for me.
That was when I realized that the definition of a non-Jewish food is whatever your family didn't eat.
Jewish food is by its nature subjective. There is not one kind of Jewish food-nor can we boast of a bona fide cuisine. Diaspora Jews have lived all over the world and we have adopted the cooking customs from wherever we've lived. So affected have Jews been by our locale's foods, that it has, at times, influenced religious tradition (rather than the other way around). Sephardic Jews, for example, are permitted to eat kitniyot (maize, peas, beans) on Passover, while Ashkenazi Jews are restricted from it. So Jewish food has always been subjective by geography, but as my friend demonstrated, it is also sentimentally defined by each family.
While often extremely creative and adventurous in many other areas, we humans tend to hold on to the familiar when it comes to food. The meals we grew up with remind us of our childhood, giving us stability in a world that can change at the drop of a hat. We form an emotional attachment to it.
So all of these things-geography, family, and our sense of personal connection- weave together to define Jewish food as whatever our mothers and grandmothers made.
Keeping all of this in mind, I have been having fun incorporating a few ethnic flavor touches into the infrastructure of the foods we're used to. For the more conservative palates in our families, I took three staple Ashkenazi Jewish dishes, and gave them a twist. You might call it goyish, but enjoy it anyway.
Mexican-Style Chicken Soup with Chile, Avocado, Lime - and Jewish Fried Onions
Chicken soup is the diplomat of foods, with some form of it existing in almost every culture. Although we Jews feel like we own it, with just a few little turns of the wrist it can travel around the world and acquire other accents. And it can still be "ours."
Mexicans make beautiful soups, and to give chicken soup a Mexican twist, we don't have to go the route of cooking beans or pressing homemade tortillas (although both are nice). We can take a bowl of chicken soup south of the border simply by adding a squirt of fresh lime juice and a pinch of chili flakes. Float some tortilla chips on top, garnish with sliced avocado, and Mexican-style chicken soup is all yours.
Chai-Spiced Kugel with Cinnamon, Raisins, Saffron, and other Indian spices
For most families, especially those with eastern European roots, noodle kugel is a baked rectangle of noodles, sour cream, cottage cheese or cream cheese, and cinnamon. Not sweet enough to be a dessert, it's more of a fun brunch dish, and best of all-it can easily become chai flavored.
Going beyond the cinnamon already in the kugel, dissolve a few strands of saffron in a tiny bit of water or milk, and stir that into the noodles. Toss in pinches of cardamom and turmeric, and the combination of the spices will start to taste like chai. Bake with a topping of chopped almonds and pistachio nuts, and serve with a dollop of yogurt, and it becomes an Indian-style kugel that you will likely want to make repeatedly.
Morroccan-Style Latkes with Chermoula Sauce and Yogurt
Potato latkes are perfect for this time of year. To give them a Sephardic angle, add some minced jalapeno-or just dump in a 4-ounce can of Ortego brand diced green chilies and a large pinch or two of whole cumin seeds.
In addition to serving with sour cream, consider chermoula-a Moroccan green sauce, similar to a pesto, and usually served with fish. Chermoula can be made by pulverizing fresh cilantro in a processer with olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and pinches of cayenne, cumin, and salt. It's very nutritious, almost like topping the latkes with a serving of green vegetables.
***
As you prepare these dishes remember that the one thing people will want to be unchanged is texture. People will accept different flavors, but will tend to expect the mouth feel to be something familiar. That is why these three recipes don't recreate the food, but rather build on the original template of each dish.
So, for those of you who'd like to keep your Jewish food traditional (whatever that means to you), but are yearning for a taste adventure, or even just a slight variation, give the dish a little twist. Keep it familiar, but let it run with new flavors.
Mollie Katzen is listed by The New York Times as one of the best-selling cookbook authors of all time. Largely credited with moving healthful vegetarian food from the "fringe" to the center of the American dinner plate, Katzen has been named by "Health Magazine" as one of "The Five Women Who Changed the Way We Eat." She is best known as the creator of the groundbreaking classics"Moosewood Cookbook" and"The Enchanted Broccoli Forest," and has authored 15 cookbooks overall.  
JointMedia News Service (JNS) is an independent, objective wire service that provides international and national news and features to primarily Jewish print and electronic media throughout the United States and the English-speaking world.