November 21, 2023
We cooked for 2 refugee families for Thanksgiving.
our menu was: Roasted Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, cranberry apple sauce and apple galettes.
November 28, 2023
Farm to Table Movement
We learned about the connection between farmers and chefs, and read an excerpt of the book The Third Plate by Dan Barber. We focused on soil health and how farming practices impact the land.
November 14
We continued speaking about food and community by first exploring how the music we listen to and identify with can tell a story about us, and then talking about what food we identify with.
I shared the food that tells a story about me - Shakshukah - and we made two versions of it Green Shakshukah and a tomato/pepper Shakshukah.
We learned how to dice an onion, and you can watch this video to review the method. We also learned how to mince garlic and release the aromas of different spices (caraway, cumin and paprika) in the oil, quickly followed by adding liquids to the pan.
We spoke about Thanksgiving food, and how sharing traditional holiday dishes is a kind of a "welcome to America" for refugee families.
While our eggs were cooking in the 2 sauces we read this article about the Food as Culture.
October 24
Goal: the farm and the community; farmers markets and CSA’s; the importance of supporting our local farmers and food producers.
Cooking: Soup and Soft Pretzels
We began by prepping the vegetables for a Kale and Squash Soup We then split into groups and researched a farm and focusing on these things: tell us what the farm's model is for selling their produce, in addition to the CSA (for example pick your own, farm store, farmers market), and give us 5 details about the farm, its location, its owner, what they grow, how they grow food or any other interesting fact. 1. Stone Barns Center 2. The Hickories 3. Hilltop Hanover 4. Roxbury Farm Next we started cooking the soup and shaped the pretzels/boiled and baked them. Each pair/group made a short presentation.
November 7
We interview Nancy Silver by zoom on her experience being involved in the Chappaqua Farmers Market.
October 10th
The Significance of Local Food
We started off by tasting fresh local apples and store bought apples and compared their flavor, texture and general rating. Most of you preferred the local apples from Wilkens Farm.
We then made personal apple cobblers and while they were in the oven we watched this video to understand the the advantages of local food.
It was such a pleasure to meet you this week. I’m looking forward to getting to know you and taking this journey together.
Here's a short recap of our class, and some links to things you might want to explore independently:
1. If you’d like to read more about the “three sister” you can check out this article. 2. Here’s a link to the series “Salt Acid Fat Heat” by Samin Nostrat on Netflix.
3. And here’s the recipe for the Tomato Tart
As I said, I would love for each of you to take on an independent task, if you have the time, here are some ideas:
1. Design a logo for Grassroots Kitchen
Welcome to our group Grassroots Kitchen 23-24! A space for us to connect and share with each other. Start by posting your thoughts, sharing media, or creating a poll.
May 9, 2023 - Rice
We started by listing rice dishes we know and love and then labeled them according to country of origin. We then looked at this list of illustrated rice dishes from all over the world and see if we knew them:
https://www.howtocook.recipes/40-rice-dishes-from-around-the-world/
We continued by chopping up lots of different herbs to make Sabzi Polo, an Iranian herbed rice dish.
as the rice cooked we read the following article.
We watched some of this video and got acquainted with Michael Twitty's work.
April 25 - Continued
We added salt, garlic and herbs to our focaccia and made some ramp pesto and rhubarb compote to eat with it.
April 18, 2023 - SCHOOL LUNCH
This week we discussed school lunch. We heard from each of you how long you have to eat at school, and what are your favorite and least favorite school meals. We then went on to read the following articles about the history of school lunches in America, and the politics around it:
1.
https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-school-lunch/
2.
https://time.com/4496771/school-lunch-history/
