Global Kitchen Exhibit

On a recent excursion to NYC I visited the American Museum of Natural History.  I was pretty pleased to find a Global Kitchen exhibition.  The theme being “Everything we eat affects – and is affected by – the world around us”  

Trade

“Universal Parts of Global Cuisine:  Around the world policy, economics and culture collide to help determine who eats what.”

Wheat, corn, soybeans, sugar, and palm oil crowd shipping routes over rice and barley.

U.S.A. big import is bananas and big export (no surprise) is corn.  

Some Food History

Europeans first visit to an American Atzec Farmers Market included MANY firsts. 

Foods that caused a sensation:  Maize, potatoes, chocolate, peanuts, vanilla, tomatoes, pineapples, lima beans, sweet and chili peppers, 
tapioca and the turkey 

Foods that were just too strange

Chocolate as money and a new recreational Drug too dangerous for women and children

The Aztec ruler Moctezuma II demanded sacks of cacao as tribute from conquered villages, and reportedly has hundreds of millions of cacao beans in his treasury.

There was lots of other really good stuff at the exhibit.  Hope you get to visit it some time.  Our Global Kitchen  Food Nature Culture   Anyway, thanks for letting me share.

Colleen

Food Production Field Experience at UNH

Farm to Fork to Fertilizer: New Course Takes Salad Greens Full Circle

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Emily McKeen ’14, a student in the Food Production Field Experience course, harvests greens grown by the class for the UNH Dairy Bar restaurant.

Order a salad at UNH’s popular Dairy Bar restaurant, and you join a closed loop of sustainability: The greens were grown on campus, less than a mile away, by students in the sustainable agriculture and food systems major. And that salad got its start in compost created from food waste from the Dairy Bar and other university dining facilities.
The course, Food Production Field Experience, borrows from the structure of community supported agriculture for its 20 undergraduate students to get their hands dirty – literally – by planning, growing, marketing, and delivering food crops as well as managing the operation’s finances. For the full farm-to-fork experience, students supplement in-class time with work hours tending their “curriculum” in two new greenhouse-like high tunnels located on the university’s agricultural land.
“We’re learning a lot about transplants, seedlings, greenhouse management, irrigation, and soil,” said Emily McKeen ’14, a sustainable agriculture and food systems major from Plymouth, Mass., as she harvested leaf lettuce and mustard greens recently. “The hands-on experience definitely helps me remember it all.”

Two new high tunnels growing greens for the UNH Dairy Bar are classrooms for the Food Production Field Experience class.

With academic topics like soil science, integrated pest management, and plant pathology amplified by hands-on work in the high tunnels, the course prepares students to launch and manage their own small-scale horticultural enterprise. “We wanted to follow as closely as possible the year for a horticulture producer here in this area,” says instructor Andrew Ogden, noting that the spring-semester course, with its focus on planning and planting, is part one of two; students are encouraged to return for the fall semester so they experience the harvest season as well.
Key to the success of the class was the recent construction of two high tunnels, season-extending temporary greenhouse-like structures covered in two layers of clear plastic, adjacent to the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center. “The high tunnels allow us to grow vegetables here in New Hampshire while students are actually here,” says Ogden. He notes with pride that the use of high tunnels for season extension was pioneered at UNH by retired professor Otho Wells.
Several times each week, those vegetables – for  now a mix of leafy greens, spinach, and kale plus other cold-tolerant crops like radishes and carrots – are delivered to the course’s primary customer, the Dairy Bar. The restaurant, operated by UNH’s Dining Services in a historic train station (Amtrak’s Downeaster train still makes five stops a day), focuses on fresh, local, sustainable dining, making it an ideal outlet for the fruits and vegetables of the students’ labors.
“We’re getting the freshest product possible,” says Jon Plodzik, director of Dining Services, “and we’re teaching a whole generation how to harvest and grow greens year-round right here in New Hampshire, which is really exciting.”
Closing the loop, food scraps from the Dairy Bar and all UNH dining facilities go to the university’s composting operation several miles away on Kingman Farm. Once the waste becomes rich, nutritive compost, it returns to the high tunnels to help grow the next crop of greens or, as the weather warms and days lengthen, summer crops like tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and peppers.
To Ogden, who works closely with horticultural production coordinator Jake Uretsky ’12G, UNH provides the ideal environment for this full circle of sustainability education, food, and practices. “We have this unique combination of an administration that’s very much in favor of all this, a dining service that’s making buying local, sustainably-raised produce a priority, and this farmland right here on campus,” says Ogden.
The new course and the new facilities are the result of a collaborative effort between the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, the New Hampshire Agriculture Experiment Station, UNH Dining Services, and the Tuttle Foundation.

Originally published by: 

UNH Today

Photography by Beth Potier, UNH Media Relations

Written by Beth Potier | UNH Media Relations

Good Food Books

We never posted a book list before, but 2012 did have a lot of good food books.  Here is a list from the Serious Eats website: The10 Best Non-Cookbook Food Books of 2012  by Leah Douglas 
 

The American Way of Eating, by Tracie McMillanJournalist Tracie McMillan went undercover as a vegetable picker, Walmart employee, and Applebee's waitress. She shares the struggle and discrimination faced every day by workers in difficult service jobs. Her experiences are rigorously recollected, and her writing keeps you turning the page with avid, and sometimes morbid, curiosity. Highly recommended for readers interested in the behind-the-scenes of our food system.

 

Change Comes to Dinner, by Katherine GustafsonThis book highlights food programs across the country that are working to change our industrial food system. Whether by gardening in the inner-city or by growing heirloom beans, the change-makers that Gustafson highlights are making the food scene more delicious. Definitely a pick-me-up! 
 

French Kids Eat Everything, by Karen Le BillonThis book created quite a conversation among commenters when my review first ran in May. Le Billon tells the story of how moving her family to France, and adopting French eating and cooking habits, cured her children of picky eating and made their diets much more healthful. She provides lots of quick tips for parents struggling to introduce veggies or dissuade pickiness. A great book if you're an aspiring or new parent looking for advice, or if you're a seasoned vet interested in comparing your methods to the French.

 

Greenhorns, edited by Paula Manalo, Severine von Tscharner Fleming, and Zoe Ida BradburyGreenhorns tells the stories of many young and beginning farmers from across the U.S. The book is a series of essays, which tell stories of success, dreams, love, and failure on the farm. Many of the essays are beautifully written and all are inspiring. This was one of my favorite reads of the year. 
 

My Berlin Kitchen, by Luisa WeissWeiss is author of the popular blog The Wednesday Chef. In her memoir, she chronicles a young adulthood spent feeling rootless and unsettled. Half-Italian but raised in Berlin, the kitchen was the only place she felt comfortable combining her various heritages. Laced with recipes and a happy love story, this book is an easy read for snuggling by the fire.

 

The Good Food Revolution, by Will AllenWill Allen is a well-known farmer and activist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His greenhouses employ dozens of inner-city youths from Milwaukee, and his trainings draw farmers and allies from across the country. In this book, he tells his compelling story—from growing up on a farm to playing professional basketball, and how he found his life's calling in an abandoned flower shop in the middle of a struggling city. His is an inspiring and joyful story.

 

Uncorked, by Marco PasanellaIn this book, Pasanella shares his experiences opening and running a successful wine shop in New York City. Pasanella is a great writer, and he provides a different perspective on the restaurant industry than many chef memoirs do. He shows us the nitty gritty of running a small business and the unique challenges and joys of being a wine purveyor. Great for wine lovers or for budding beverage entrepreneurs.

Why Calories Count, by Marion Nestle and Maldon Nesheim  Marion Nestle is arguably the country's preeminent nutritionist, often quoted in news sources around the world and a prolific author on food politics. Her newest book explores the question of whether caloric intake directly affects weight gain (her answer, perhaps implied by the title, is yes). This is not just another diet book, though—Nestle is a scholar, and her material is rigorously researched and thoroughly convincing. A great read for any food policy or nutrition dorks out there.

Yes, Chef, by Marcus SamuelssonIn my review of this book, I wrote that it was the "pinnacle of chef memoirs," and I stand by that declaration. Full of compelling emotion and laced with humor and humility, Yes, Chef tells the story of Marcus Samuelsson, an Ethiopian-born, Swedish-raised, French-trained chef who has opened two envelope-pushing restaurants in Harlem, New York. His story is inspiring but human, and left me drooling to eat at one of his new joints.

Birdseye, by Mark Kurlansky

Kurlansky has already proven himself to be one of the most rigorous and prolific food historians of our time with his bestselling books, Salt, Cod, and The Big Oyster. His newest book explores the mind and successes of Clarence Birdseye, who revolutionized the frozen food industry. This history is engaging and personal, and celebrates Birdseye's quirky personality and unique genius.

Get Real! UNH and the growing student food movement

by: Ann Steeves

     Young people have always clarified the morality of our times.  This sentiment was echoed throughout this past weekend as the student organization, Get Real! UNH, had the opportunity to attend the Second Annual Real Food Challenge “Breaking Ground” National Summit.   The Real Food Challenge is a growing student movement working toward changing institutional purchasing power to create a more just and sustainable food system. I’m sure at this point you are wondering what “real food” equates to.  Real food is food that truly nourishes producers, consumers, communities, and the earth.  The Real Food Challenge has more in-depth standards for evaluation comprising of four categories: local/community-based, fair, ecologically sound, and humane.  Get Real! and our peers across the nation are using these categories to evaluate the food served in Dining Halls and work with Dining Administrators to explore different options.
     I’m sure you may be wondering how college students could possibly change the food system?  Students have the power to make real change through their University’s institutional buying power.   Let me provide some perspective: nearly two-thirds of all universities outsource their Dining services (UNH is lucky to be self-operated!).  Of this 2/3, 93% are operated by one of the top three service providers: Compass Group, Sodexho, or Aramark.  All three of these corporations operate internationally and make billions of dollars of revenue annually. Compass Group makes $20 billion, Sodexho makes $19 billion, and Aramark makes $12 billion.  With these numbers in mind, you may be surprised to learn that McDonald’s only generates an annual revenue of $24 billion globally.  Most people generalize that McDonald’s purchasing power has immense control of the food system around the world.  When observed from this perspective, however, it astonishes that only the top three institutional providers generate over twice as much in revenue.  This realization indicates the incredible purchasing power and influence on supply chains that colleges and universities are part of.
     The University of New Hampshire is proud to be a self-operated school and a leader in sustainability.  We are proud to share our inspiring initiatives with our peers across the nation.  Many schools are unable to talk with their Dining Administration, do not have any locally sourced foods, and are completely foreign to the concept of composting food waste to use in University agriculture.  We are very proud of our University’s efforts and recognize how well we compare to other schools.  The Sustainability Institute has a large presence on campus and works with Dining to assess purchases.  Through the Sustainability Academy, UNH has evaluated our Dining purchases and assessed that we have 26% of our food locally sourced within a 250 mile radius.  Get Real! and the Real Food Challenge would like to do further analysis beyond what is local to find out where we stand with national standards.  It is exciting to have a national standard for institutions to be held to.  A standard is meant to be a benchmark of quality.  Too many schools and institutions claim to be “going green” or to have their own standard of sustainability.  The implication of following one’s own standard is completely contrary to the definition of a standard. UNH is proud to be part of the movement to hold institutions accountable to national standards.  
     Our generation will bear the brunt of the current food system.  Many groups on campus recognize this and are involved with food in some way; SlowFood works to preserve and revitalize food culture, Oxfam works to address poverty and women’s rights in agriculture, the Student Environmental Action Coalition works toward changing environmental policies that are often intertwined with food policy, the Organic Garden Club works to grow real food on campus, the Freedom Café works toward raising awareness of human trafficking through serving quality coffees and teas, the Student Nutrition Association works toward educating peers on healthy food choices, and many students are studying aspects of the food system every day through UNH’s academic programs such as EcoGastronomy, Nutrition, Sustainable Agriculture, Environmental Conservation, or Resource Economics.  Get Real! UNH is all-encompassing of these issues and works to spread awareness of the great complexities and intertwined values of the food system.  Our overarching message is that every aspect of society can be connected to the food system.
     Join the fight toward a more equitable world and check out one of our meetings on Mondays from 5:30- 6:30pm in MUB 114F. The food movement is here and gaining power every day.  As Carlo Petrini, Founder of the SlowFood movement states, “We are the fastest growing peaceful army in the world. The politicians don’t understand yet.”

First night helping with Cooking Matters

               On Monday I had the great pleasure and honor to help out for the local Cooking Matters program at Somersworth Middle School under coordinator Alexis Riffel. It was the second week of the six week program so things are just getting started up! During the after school program we had about a dozen middle school students join in on the fun and interactive cooking and nutrition class. We began the afternoon by sitting in a circle discussing what the group learned last week, knife skills and preparing Asian vegetables. Then we began with the lesson of the day: colorful fruits and vegetables! Before the lesson we prepped sampler platters of kale chips, snow peas, sugar snap peas, persimmon, cactus fruit, kumquats, kiwi, and star fruit. We then passed around the platters while the kids decided which new food they wanted to taste together. The nutritionist leading the lesson would let the kids openly describe this new food and to make guesses as to what it was, and then explain after what it is and why it is a healthy snack! It was a lot of fun to see the kids reactions to each of the foods, some received a sweeping appeal while others got somewhat snubbed. I really enjoyed how the majority of the kids made an effort to at least try each of the foods on their plate.

The next activity got the group jumping with excitement: the pizza challenge! We split the group up into two teams who were each responsible for crafting their own pizza with the end goal to be incorporating as many colorful veggies onto the pizza in a presentable manner. After reviewing knife skills we let the groups wander off into their masterpieces. It was great to see each team of five or more kids all working together and allowing everyone to have a say as for what was going to go on the pizzas. One of the boys came up to me and asked if he could put some of the extra fruit from the sampling on the pizza….I told him he could put whatever toppings he wanted! Because I mean…someone had to first come up with putting pineapple on pizza, so who knows…maybe kiwi and star fruit will soon be popular toppings!

While waiting for the pizzas to cook, Alexis shared with the kids a drink recipe to try at home: mixing a small amount of 100% grape juice with seltzer water. The kids went crazy over this and seemed to understand when the nutritionist explained to them that this can cut down on a lot of sugar per cup in comparison to having a full glass of grape juice. It is a really great soda alternative for both kids and families to adopt.

Excitement filled the air as the pizzas came out of the oven. You could see the pride each of them had in creating this delicious edible masterpiece! Each of them got to try a piece of their own as well as a piece from the other group’s pizza. After the lesson the kids all receive ingredient bags with all of the supplies as well as the recipe to bring home to prepare sometime that week with their families. This is great not only for helping to supply a family with food but to also encourage cooking together at home and for the kids to share an experience with the ones they love.

I am really happy to be working with this great organization for the next month or two and I hope that I can continue to help out in other ways in this organization.  

Cooking Matters is a branch of Share our Strength, a national organization with goals to end hunger in America. They have a wonderful website with loads more information as well as links for those looking to help out by donation or volunteering. Check it out! http://cookingmatters.org/