"FOOD, WHAT?!"

FOOD,WHAT?!

The day was spent threshing wheat by hand, clearing garden beds while dodging hail, and making crispy whole wheat pretzels.

We began the pretzel making process by lashing the wheat stalks with cut sections of garden house. We scooped the flowers, seeds, and stems into bowls, then broke up into pairs to "winnow" or sift out all but the wheat seeds.

We dropped the wheat seeds and chaff from one bowl held above another while a partner fanned it to blow away the loose chaff.

When the seeds were collected we ground them into fresh whole wheat flour and added yeast, flour, sugar, salt, and luke-warm water.

Then all hands worked in unison to knead the dough; smashing and rolling the light brown putty in order to stretch wheat glutens and expand it with air.

The dough was rolled into a lump, placed under a damp cloth to keep its moisture, and left in a warm place to rise for an hour.

While the dough grew, we learned about the nutritional differences between whole grain products and processed grain products.

Industrial milled and processed grains go through about 21 steps of production to make flour, during which the grain is stripped of all its beneficial vitamins, minerals and fiber until only starch remains. Then, after all that work and energy, nutritional value is to be added or "enriched" back into the grain with artificial chemicals. Why take out the nutrients in the first place?

Whole grains, in contrast, are ground up with all their vitamins, minerals, fiber, oils, and starch. None of the grain's nutritional content is discarded as waste in the process.

MAKING GARDEN BEDS AND PLANTING SEEDS!

After the instruction, we set to work in the garden. We skimmed the cover crops from the topsoil of two garden beds.

With garden forks, we loosened the soil and spread compost. Then we placed rows of radish and pea seeds, and carefully covered them with a loose layer of soil.

WHOLE WHEAT PRETZELS

After planting we finished making the pretzels.

The risen dough was distributed between the group and rolled into pretzel shapes. The doughy bits were then dropped into boiling water with baking soda before placed into our hot cob oven.

Then we poured salt and cinnamon on top, and bit into the warm crunchy pretzels.

Week 4: Growing Healthy Plants and People

2011-04-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

As usual, we began the day with a energizing group-building game. We had to figure out how to keep us all safe on our "life rafts" with limited numbers of hands and feet touching the raft...

2 feet, 2 hands.......3 feet, 2 hands .... We're safe on our raft!

We then continued to the greenhouse for a lesson on propagation and seed sowing. Baby plants have similar needs as humans - heat, air, light, water. We start seeds in a greenhouse to help protect and nurture them while they are small. A greenhouse also allows us to start seeds before the outside ground enabling us to have food earlier.

Today we are sowing sunflowers and spinach.

RULE OF THUMB FOR PLANTING SEEDS: plant a seed two times as deep as the seed is long

EAT A RAINBOW: We then learned about how different colored fruits and vegetables help different parts of our bodies. For example, RED fruits and vegetables tend to help our hearts and memory function. YELLOW and ORANGE fruits and vegetables help out vision and strengthen our immune systems.

We ended the day by eating a rainbow: Veggie Fried Rice with beets, carrots, broccoli, purple cabbage, onions and garlic... MMM DEELISH!

Most everyone said it tasted better than they expected. "Who knew that healthy food can taste good?"

2011-03-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

FOOD,WHAT?! March 23, 2011

Ezequiel, Gerardo, Francisco, Tiffany, Taylon, Paulino, Kevin, Salina, Oscar, Moises, and Carlos; FoodWhat 2011 interns from P.V. high school, Costanoa, Y.E.S, and Pacific Collegiate braved ominous clouds, chill wind, and gusts of rain to attend FoodWhat on Wednesday, March 23. This week we learned to transplant, bake cornbread, make stone soup, and speak confidently in public.

After starting the day with an ice-breaker especially suited for the blustery day, “Where the wind blows,” we went to work in the greenhouse.

As rain, then hail, then bright sun fell upon us, we transplanted succulents, lavender, marigold, artichoke and fox-glove.

We gently loosened the potted plants, flipped them over and caught them as they fell out of their containers. Then the plants were placed into new, larger containers.

After working in the greenhouse, we went to the kitchen to prepare the day's meal. We learned how to read recipes and how to measure ingredients in teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups. Then we identified and prepared ingredients for stone soup.

We chopped kale, high in vitamins A and C, onions and cabbage, full of Vitamin C, and Winter Squash, a source of fiber. We also made cornbread batter with honey, corn meal, and Straus farms milk.

While the cornbread baked, and the Stone Soup boiled, we collected in the garden for a workshop on public speaking. We identified traits to emulate; like speaking clearly and standing up straight, and traits to avoid, like fidgeting and looking at our feet.

One by one, we made a short speech about our favorite food or sandwich. We practiced speaking loudly and evenly, maintaining eye contact and keeping a straight face.

The day ended in golden light; the storm clouds scattered for the evening. We spent a few minutes making our first entries in hand-bound journals, which we will use until the end of the session.

Then we warmed up with steaming-hot Stone Soup with crumbly, delicious, golden cornbread.

Food,What?! Spring Program Week 2

2011-03-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

FoodWhat?! Interns from Coastanoa High School made herbal lip balm, learned how to re-pot plants, picked kale and made veggie quesadillas Thursday, March 17.

Ana, Dianna, Max and Max, Jacques, Andy, Irma, Joan, and Salvador started the day by pairing up and linking body parts; elbows, knees, hips,and toes, and asked each other questions provided by Doron.

After the ice breaker the group went the kitchen to make an herbal salve. They mixed lavender, calendula, yarrow, beeswax and plantain leaves with olive oil in an old coffee carafe. The carafe was placed in a shallow pot of water, and left to boil under Abby's watch.

The interns went to the greenhouse to learned to repot plants that had outgrown their containers.

They carefully turned the pots over, let the plant drop out, then loosened the root ball and set the plant into a container with potting soil. They filled two flat wagons full of rosemary, sage, and coastal grass, safe in new homes.

Then Doron led the group out into the glaring midday sun to pick Kale from the CASFS fields. The kale stood in a long thickly leafed green-red row. Each student picked a few leaves a piece, and brought them back to the kitchen.

The interns assembled in the garden-shade to escape the sun and play Fast Food Jeopardy. They split up into team Nature Swag, and team Star, and answered questions about the fast-food industry and practices.

The questions were tough and the answers were shocking: It takes 6 hours to walk off the calories in a double quarter-pounder with cheese. And only ten cents goes to a farmer out of the $3.50 spent on an order of fast food fries.

After the game, evening approaching, the Interns made a rush at the sinks to scrub their hands before cooking supper. They chopped and stir-fried carrot, onion, broccoli, kale, cabbage, and garlic.

When the veggies were golden brown the students threw tortillas onto a hot plate with cheese. The veggies were spread on top of the tortillas, with salsa made by FoodWhat 2010. We all chowed down.

Interns from Coastanoa stood back to back during the ice-breaker.

The group crushed herbs into a carafe for the salve.

Andy added olive oil to the mix. (from left to right; Dianna, Irma, Andy, Ana, Max, Max, and Abby)

Max grates beeswax into the salve.

The salve-to-be, boiling.

Jacques strained the herbs and oil through a cheesecloth.