Carrot vs. Carrot

I had the pleasure of picking carrots on the farm this morning. I had this romantic idea that I’d reach down and pull out a long, pointed bright orange carrot (dirt free!) and take a huge bite, exclaiming, “What’s up doc?” The first carrot I pulled, which did not jump from the earth easily, looked like a crossed legged lady. There were TWO carrots, twisted around each other. Weird one, I thought. The next carrot was long and pointed, but had a bulbous sidecar attached. Another weird one, I thought. The third that Sara pointed out to me looked like a phallus. Okay, these are all weird! As we were all gathered and pulling carrots, we couldn’t help but hold up all the unique shapes and cry, “check out my carrot!”

For the most part, baby carrots all look alike. Sure, some have a little more girth but I generally feel like I am eating a uniform snack. This is a lie we are feeding our children! And it’s not going to get clearer, not with the new “eat ‘em like junk” craze that’s hitting the vending machines. Here’s the article from The Philadelphia Inquirer that introduced me to the latest packaged snack food:
http://www.philly.com/philly/restaurants/20100923_Rick_Nichols__The_25_million-dollar_baby_carrot.html

The most interesting thing I took away, as I mentioned in class, is “scarrots,” a clever ploy to replace Halloween candy with vegetables. It’s all about the marketing! Personally, though, I believe only dentists should be handing out veggies on Halloween. ☺

The article concludes with the point, “As long as kids don't forget that apples grow on trees.” But if the only way to successfully market carrots is shape them perfectly and package them like processed junk, how will they get this message?!! There’s a world of difference between pulling the carrots from the earth, as I did this morning, with putting coins in a machine and opening my fresh package of Halloween themed scarrots.

Mailliard Reactions

As the lone biochemistry major in the food class, I figured I'd try to focus my blog posts on a little bit of the food chemistry. I always like to think about what exactly is going on with my food, from the molecular transitions that a carrot undergoes when exposed to high heat, to the changes in yeast activity in bread dough as it ferments at different temperatures, to what exactly is going on when I make ice cream. I like making something taste good, but I love when I know exactly why it happened that way. Luckily, I found a kitchen companion that always seems to offer a viable explanation. When in doubt, I turn to Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking," a reference book that has become the staple to answer most basic questions on food science.

As weather starts to get chilly in Hamilton, New York, I become more desperate than ever to eke the last few uses out of the grill. I think that almost anything is better when prepared on a charcoal grill, but perhaps my favorite vegetable to grill is sweet corn. The other option to grilling corn is usually cooking it in boiling water, which, don't get me wrong, is great, especially when the corn is good; however, I believe corn reaches another level when prepared on the grill. This new found flavor complexity is due to a series of important reactions known as the Maillard reactions.

When you boil corn, the hottest temperature it can reach is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. On the other hand, when corn is cooked on a grill or even in an oven, the surface of the corn is able to reach temperatures as high as 500 degrees. This higher temperatures allows for a series of reactions known as Maillard reactions to occur. In this series of reactions a carbohydrate molecule an amino acid react to form an unstable intermediate which degrades into hundreds of different by products, leading to a much more complex and full flavor. These flavors are associated with meat and caramelzation and in my opinion put grilled corn miles ahead of its boiled counterpart.

Food Safety Concerns

In many ways, the American food supply is safe, provides consumers with many choices, and is relatively inexpensive when compared to the rest of the world. But, there is an associated cost with an abundant and cheap food supply. Think of all the recalled food products in your lifetime and you can quickly name a few right off the bat: ground beef, spinach, peanut butter, and the recent nation-wide recall of a half billion eggs for possible salmonella contamination.

The food industry is facing huge risks in sustaining itself because of an increase in safety concerns. One would think food inspection should be an answer, but it is actually part of the problem. A recent New York Times article discusses that recent opposition has stalled the legislation of a new bill on food safety regulations. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 aims to "establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect health by preventing food -borne illness" (NY Times, 2010). It would give the FDA “more authority to recall products, require more frequent FDA inspections of food -processing plants and better recordkeeping by food companies for keeping food safe” (NY Times, 2010).

Consumer confidence has certainly declined from all these recalls and I would think after the recent egg recall, the bill would pass. Here are some statistics to think about:

· Roughly 76 million Americans suffer annually from food-borne illnesses each year

· Salmonella-tainted peanut products resulted in more than 700 illnesses, nine deaths and one of the largest product recalls in US history.

· Four years ago spinach, tainted with E. coli O157:H7, infected at least 204 people in 26 states.

· More than 23,000 tons of dry dog and cat pet foods from more than 100 different brands were recalled between 2006 and 2008.

In addition, there are enormous costs: The peanut butter recall cost peanut producers $1 billion in lost production and sales and the Kellogg Company alone lost $70 million because of the outbreak. One can also look at the alarming health costs. Health costs associated with food-borne illnesses totals $152 billion annually in the U.S. (Produce Safety Project, 2010) Keep in mind: Health care costs have been rising for several years as it is.

We need to focus on preventing contamination in the first place—before the food ends up in Americans’ cupboards and refrigerators. How many more recalls are we going to have to deal with until change is made for tighter regulation and more progress in the food safety industry? Hopefully sooner than later.

http://www.producesafetyproject.org/reports?id=0008

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/health/policy/19food.html

ways to contribute to the food revolution

A friend pointed out this great blog post on ways to truly become part of the new food revolution: http://www.honestmeat.com/honest_meat/2010/09/so-you-say-you-want-a-food-revolution.html

Purple Potatoes and the Art of Food

These are my purple potatoes. When I got them at the farmers market last weekend I noticed the deep purple skin, but just figured they were like red potatoes but darker. But when I peeled them, there was beautiful purple swirled throughout! They were gorgeous and very surprising. This picture doesn't do them justice. But the unexpected beauty of my potatoes got me thinking about the aesthetic of food. Of course there are foods that are ugly as the day is long but perfectly delicious. For instance, creamed chipped beef. It looks not entirely unlike vomit, but it is one of those comfort foods that makes me dance. And then there are foods that are very beautiful, but not too tasty. Like fondant on wedding cakes. Makes cakes sleek and pretty, tastes pretty awful.

But I digress. This has all gotten me thinking about food and art. There are some obvious examples of food as visual art. Beautiful sugar flowers, elaborately decorated cakes and intricately crafted marzipan. But in these cases it seems to me that in these cases the fact that these things are edible is a secondary characteristic; marzipan is like clay that happens to be edible. But what about taste? For someone looking at the experience of eating, aren't flavor and texture what is important, followed by appearance? There are chefs who explore this art of taste in what has been termed molecular gastronomy. This is a bit of misnomer since molecular gastronomy is truly the chemistry of cooking, but these chefs exploit a chemical knowledge of cooking to create wild and interesting food experiences. They combine unique flavors with visually stimulating designs and create what I can call food art. So rather than rambling on about the visual and gustatory aesthetics of different foods, I will let their creations speak for themselves.

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Tomato

Bacon

While I'm sure these meals are not especially filling, they represent a different perspective on food. Not as a means of sustenance or source of nutrition, but as art, to be enjoyed both by the eye and the palate.


And as far as my purple potatoes are concerned, I roasted them with rosemary and onions and they were very beautiful indeed.

Return to Eating :)

Posting satellite here, from my home in Philadelphia. Home with my fully stocked food cupboard. Isn’t it nice to come home and tear through the cupboards, nibbling at all the comfort foods you’ve always associated with home? I’ve been a bit excessive the past 24 hours, but for good reason.

I’ve missed food!!!!! It’s weird to think of eating as something I take for granted, since it’s so essential to survival. But the variety and quality of food I am able to eat is definitely something I take for granted. Earlier this week, my intestines decided to give up on food and reject anything I put in my body. In order to give them a few day rest, I was hooked up to a protein/sugar solution the consistency of runny glue, allowing nutrition to bypass the gastrointestinal process and be inserted directly into my veins. No chewing, no hassle! But I wasn’t necessarily enjoying it. I did not feel hungry, per se, but I was far from satisfied. And the fact that I am now home testing every food item in my house as if its about to expire attests to this void I’m trying to fill.

I am now easing back into eating. In my quest to consume only “easily digested foods” my thoughts of “good nutrition” have been turned upside down. Avoid complex carbs, grains, raw vegetables and fruits. Choose white bread, canned fruits, sugar and fat are fine. Seriously, it’s all on the fact sheet I received from my doctor.

It’s interesting that we ended class last week with a debate concerning the role of quick high calorie foods. We discussed Gatorade, and the use of Gatorade to relieve diarrhea. I too will be easing into a balanced diet with the aid of a concocted super drink. Carnation instant breakfast. Advertised as containing more protein than an egg and your daily value of calcium! I’ll admit I find them delicious. The variety pack comes with malted chocolate, strawberry, and French vanilla, and when mixed with a little whole milk its as sweet as a milkshake. So I suppose I’d currently place myself in the camp of in favor of high caloric easy meals. But again, I am using these in addition to regular meals, to ensure I cover all bases. Moving solely to a diet of carnation instant breakfast, processed foods or the like…. I think that is seriously dangerous territory.

Steak-Off

As I was leisurely walking through the Hamilton Farmer’s Market, I had a conversation with a friend discussing the merits of grass-fed beef over grain-fed beef. We talked over the specifics of feeding and the differences in the quality and flavor of meat. After much debate, many questions remained unanswered such as:

Is grass-fed meat healthier than grain-fed meat? Are there environmental advantages to grass-fed meat? Do they taste different?

We decided there was only one way to tell: A Steak-Off. We decided to purchase sirloin steaks: one from a local merchant (grass-fed) and another from Price Chopper (grain-fed). We then planned to cook both for dinner that night and compare any differences.

After a 3-minute drive to my townhouse and $17.60 poorer, I thought back to my meat consumption growing up. As a child, I did not think meat had much variation. Sure I knew the difference between a steak and lamp chop, and heard of the various types of meat like tenderloin, porterhouse, flank and rib-eye. However, I never really considered how the nutritional value of the product, environmental impact, and treatment of the animal all come into play. I mostly cared for the taste, especially when it came to my mom’s famous lamb chops on the grill. However, with all these unanswered questions lingering in my mind, I sought to understand how and why an animal's diet can have a profound influence on not just us, but on our society as well.

After researching a bit on the topic, I found that there are several differences between grass-fed and grain-fed products. Grass-fed products tend to be much lower in total fat than grain-fed products. Also, grass-fed meat gives you up to six times more of the "good" fat known as omega-3 fatty acids. These fats play a vital role in every cell and are particularly essential for your brain. Interestingly, the reason that grass-fed animals have more omega-3s than grain-fed animals is that omega-3s are created in the leaves (particularly the chloroplasts) of plants (Animal Grass Fed Beef, 2010). When cattle are taken off grass and shipped to a feedlot to be fattened on grain, they lose their valuable store of omega-3 fatty acids.

Traditionally, all beef was grass-fed beef. This makes sense considering these animals are designed to forage. I can just envision an idyllic scene of a cow outside in a pasture happily chomping on grass. Their happy go-lucky lifestyle reflected beneficially on our health as we did not have diseases like diabetes and obesity that are extremely prevalent in society today. After the switch to grain, we can see that there have been profound effects on the cow’s health, our health, and on the environment. Grain-fed animals can be harmed in a variety of ways. Michael Pollan wrote in the New York Times about the consequences to cows when they are taken off of grazing lands and put into feedlots to be fed grain:

“Perhaps the most serious thing that can go wrong with a ruminant on corn is feedlot bloat. The rumen is always producing copious amounts of gas, which is normally expelled by belching during rumination. But when the diet contains too much starch and too little roughage, rumination all but stops, and a layer of foamy slime that can trap gas forms in the rumen. The rumen inflates like a balloon, pressing against the animal’s lungs. Unless action is promptly taken to relieve the pressure (usually by forcing a hose down the animal’s esophagus), the cow suffocates” (NY Times, 2002).

Furthermore, when cattle are grain-fed, Pollan adds, “This can cause a kind of bovine heartburn…this condition can lead to diarrhea, ulcers, bloat, liver disease and a general weakening of the immune system that leaves the animal vulnerable to everything from pneumonia to feedlot polio” (NY Times, 2002).

Despite these alarming consequences, the meat industry insists on grain-fed (primarily corn based) in order to make them as fat as possible as fast as possible. It is all part of the profit gain for these big meat companies that have to compete against one another. On the other hand, grass-fed beef has other advantages. It is more environmentally friendly as it uses less fossil fuel and environmental pollutants than grain-fed beef. These environmental advantages coupled with the fact that is it far healthier, more humane, still left out one question which my dinner for that night would answer: What (if any) are the differences in taste?

So, after marinating both steaks with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried herbs, 12 minutes total grilling time (6 minutes per side), I came out with slightly overcooked steaks. Nonetheless, I was determined to complete this taste test. In terms of appearance, the grass-fed steak had little to no visible fat or marbling as compared to the grain-fed steak. As for taste, the grass-fed steak in my opinion was more flavorful, but a tad chewier. However, I for one would give up some tenderness for its flavor. I also felt that the grass-fed beef tasted clean—without all of the antibiotics and hormones—if that makes any sense.

The verdict: Grass-fed is the way to go. I will certainly try to purchase products from animals that have not ingested anything other than mother’s milk and pasture—just as Mother Nature intended. It is important that people are informed about where their meat comes from and thus become aware of the potential harmful consequences of their choices. After this Throwdown, I thought about my next undertaking. Thoughts on Wild Atlantic Salmon versus its Farm-Raised Counterpart?

http://www.americangrassfedbeef.com/grass-fed-natural-beef.asp

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/31/magazine/power-steer.html?pagewanted=6

Sugar

This week for class we've been reading Sweetness and Power, a book about the effects of sugar on world history and its effect on our culture. After reading most of this book during the week, I left this weekend for a leadership conference during which I was stuffed routinely (and I'm talking during every meal and every break) with sugar. Cupcakes, rice crispie treats, sugary granola bars, cookies, fruit roll-ups, soda, you name it. I have never been so aware of the many ways that sugar creeps into the American diet-- and it's not just in dessert!

In light of this realization and some inspiring recommendations from last year's Food Class, I have decided to test our dependence on sugar by trying to go without it. Here it is, I'm writing it on the blog so I can't back out: no refined sugars until next Monday. Of course, in addition to Sweetness and Power, I have also read Steingarten's reassuring Murder, My Sweet, so I'd like to clarify that I'm not undergoing this business for health's sake. I am interested in categorization of our food. If I cut out sugar, what's left? With a diet that relies heavily on pre-packaged food that I can transport in my backpack, what options will I have if I eat the way I would have to without that now-normal commodity? How much this ingredient that my ancestors lived without for most of our existence snuck into my daily routine? These are the questions I'm looking for answers to.

Now, I'd like to lay out some rules for this week:

1. No processed sugar. I can still eat fruits, and I am allowed to put honey in my tea.

2. I'm starting to get a cold, so I'm making an exception for cough drops and Emergen-C.

3. No "sugar free." If I'm craving ice cream, I can't get out of this by going the sugar-free route. Ice cream and the need for a sugar-free variety wouldn't have come about with the absence of the real deal.

Tune in next week for the exciting results of "The Girl Who Gave Up Sugar." Wish me luck!

Good Food, Bad Food

I don't know about everyone else, but I have a food dance. If I take the first bite of a meal and it is especially delicious, I do a little shuffle with my shoulders. It is almost involuntary, like when you hear your favorite song and you just have to move to it. When my boyfriend and I eat out, it is the meter by which we measure the quality of the meal.
"How is it?" he'll ask.
"Pretty good"
"No food shuffle though?"
"Not shuffle-worthy, no."

I think this speaks pretty strongly about my relationship with food. (And maybe a little bit about my relationship with my boyfriend) I'm an emotional eater, on several levels. There is the classic, downing-a-whole-bag-of-chips-after-a-bad-day kind of emotional eating, of which I am guilty. But there is also the fact that food just makes me happy. My sister, a splenda and skim milk kind of girl, thinks this is ridiculous, that food is for sustenance and not for entertainment. But how boring is that? I realize that I can't depend on food to make for my happiness, but why shouldn't I take joy in something I am going to do anyway, even if it means eating real butter and sugar instead of the "healthier" chemical substitutes. If the food is good, food-shuffle worthy good, I don't feel bad about eating it, even if it is full of dietary sins.

Also, logically speaking, if good food makes me happy, does that then mean that bad food makes me unhappy? And what is bad food anyway? For the first question, the answer is pretty simple. After a mediocre meal I do feel a little let down, a little saddened. Somewhere in my mind I see each meal as an opportunity for a positive experience where I might try a new flavor or find a new favorite dish. So when the food lacks flavor, is not well-cooked or is just not something I like, it is a bit depressing.

The second question is infinitely more complicated. As far as adjectives go, it doesn't get much more general than "bad". There is food that is bad for you, full of salt and nasty fats and things your body was not meant to absorb. In the emotional sense, I would not call this bad food. Sometimes when you need a french fry from McDonalds, you need a french fry.

And then there is food that just tastes bad. Maybe the textures are wrong or the flavors don't mesh properly. This is food will probably leave me displeased and unsatisfied at the end of a meal, even if it is healthy and nutritious.
The most depressing is when these two kinds of bad meet in an unholy union of terrible cuisine. To me, the epitome of this is bowling alley pizza. I've heard the saying, "pizza is like sex, even when it's bad, it's still pretty good." This is false. Some pizza is just bad. At Roseland Bowl in Canandaigua, New York, the pizza is bad. The crust is doughy and soggy, the cheese is lukewarm and the cheap tomato paste sauce coagulates in a ring around the outside of the cheese. This is a meal that would leave me feeling sad. Sad because I just ate all kinds of "bad stuff" and it wasn't worth it; it didn't even taste good.

To get the bad taste of that pizza out of my mouth, I'm going to leave you with a list of a few of my top shuffle-worthy foods (in the order that I think of them.)

1. Caprese salad
2. Well-prepared guacamole
3. My Mama's chili, with sour cream and tortilla chips
4. Tostadas from Rio Tomatlan mexican restaurant in Canandaigua
5. Homemade mashed potatoes and gravy

So go forth and eat good food. That is, food that makes you happy.

Eating Together

I miss Frank Dining hall, and not necessarily because of the food.

In my house, family meals are the everyday norm. Every night the five of us would all sit down together, finding a time that did not conflict with the various other activities of the evening. My sister and I rowed crew in high school, and practice did not end until 8pm. Nonetheless, at 9pm we would all sit down together. If we wanted to eat a meal out with friends on the weekend, it was still customary to sit down at the table and engage in conversation and possibly a “pre-meal” snack.

I even remember the importance of social eating in high school, when as soon as the schedules were released I would call my closest friends and ask them which lunch period they had received. Every day we would sit down at the same table, same seats, and debrief the morning classes.

As an upperclassman, I am struggling most with the fragmented eating patterns of my friends. We find it impossible to set a time to sit down and eat together, engaging in a needed break from the hustle of the day. One problem is our altering schedules—some of us eating late lunches and late dinners, others the opposite. With the loss of the meal plan, our habits have morphed into a “grab and go,” choosing to eat take out while catching up on reading or even while driving to theater rehearsal. Though we were all excited about using a kitchen at the start of the semester, I think I have seen the burner on the stove lit twice…. Once for tea.

There’s a reason we are not allowed to remove food from Frank, though this initially annoyed me after I was caught smuggling a zip lock of cereal to last through the week. Frank promoted a culture of sitting and eating amongst friends, an aspect of my first two years I miss the most. Frank was a sea of familiar faces all partaking in the exact same activity- eating. For the most part, we were only eating, as textbooks and other distractions rarely made their way into Frank apart from early morning cramming sessions. The lifestyle I am currently engaging in makes me feel disconnected and even Mintz comments that eating alone is “barbaric.” Reflecting on my unhappiness, I brought up the issue among my friends. We are going to make a conscious effort to sit down together over a home cooked meal once a week (it’s a start!) I will keep you updated on our progress.

Grandma's House

I know that this might be an unconventional first-blog, considering that we went to the farm for the first time this week, but this weekend food was on my mind in a very different way.

I am lucky enough to have two very active and wonderful grandparents that live only an hour away from Colgate in Skaneateles, New York. Whenever things get crazy at Colgate (as they did this weekend) I escape to their house for a lot of love and an inevitably wonderful home cooked meal. Our family is Italian-American, and food has always been an important part of our lives-- we basically worship meals when we are together, but when we are apart phone calls to remember family recipes or report on the status of our tomato plants keep us connected across state and now country borders.

This weekend, my grandmother's cooking was in particularly good form. As I pulled into the drive she and my grandfather were picking basil in their small back-porch garden, which I knew meant that they were cooking her all-time specialty, pesto with spaghetti. The smells of that basil brings me to memories of hot summer nights when our family sits out on the back porch for hours on end eating pesto and enjoying each other's company.

Also on the menu Saturday was a simple tomato salad with tomatoes (also from this garden), figs and prosciutto with balsamic vinegar (which I literally inhale whenever they are set out as starters), and fresh baked bread from Rosalie's, an Italian restaurant in town that bakes amazing bread fresh every day. In true Italian style, my grandmother allows the fresh ingredients to be the star of her meals, sticking to salt, olive oil, and in rare occasions, butter, to pull everything together. A meal like this seems so close to the ground it came from.

As we sat down over this remarkably simple but delicious meal, I marveled at how effectively my family has been able to use food as a tool to bring us together--just the thought of this pesto sends me running from Colgate right into the arms of my grandparents and their fragrant kitchen, keeping me grounded even when college life seems to take over. Between cooking, harvesting, and talking about food, I know that a lot of aspects from this class will become the topics of our family email chains and skype conversations, and especially those precious meals with my grandparents.

First Day on the Farm

Growing up in a suburb of New York City, my family rarely made it out to a farm. On our few visits to Muscoot Farm in Katonah, NY I remember quite vividly strolling through the barns visiting with the animals. I was particularly in awe of the big Tamworth pigs, which are ginger red in color and known as gentle giants because of their affectionate disposition. I learned that one way to tell if pigs are happy is to look at the tail. Pigs with curly tails are happy pigs; pigs with straight tails are upset or angry.

Last Thursday I completed my first day of work on the Common Thread Community Farm and I certainly learned a lot more than just how to determine a pig’s mood. While I learned about the physical and emotional challenges involved in maintaining a farm with limited capital, I also learned the fulfillment of sharing products of this labor. It was certainly an eye opening experience.

My farm work for the morning included harvesting onions, placing garlic into bags for the shareholders, and sorting the good tomatoes from the bad ones. Right when we arrived, we were put straight to work. We jumped on to back of the truck and held on tight as we were led to our farming site. We split up into two groups- one group to harvest the onions and the other to harvest the squash. I worked on the onions and did not hesitate to get right into the dirt. We worked together to collect all the onions, both white and red ones. Despite the slight rain and mud on my pants, it was great to be outdoors. There is definitely something about leaving the Colgate campus and forgetting your concerns, obligations, and class work and just enjoying your time out in the open field.

Working on an organic farm, I immediately realized the hardships that Chris and Amy face since they don't use pesticides. In other words, weeds are abundant. I had to tackle the weeds growing in a row of onions which at first seems simple enough. However, when I saw the delicate onions happily situated on the ground and weeds growing entwined, I knew it would be difficult. I had to use my hands to get at those pesky weeds, while trying not to have the weeds hit me back in the face.

Another task involved sorting the tomatoes. I did not realize the innumerable amount of choices when it comes to heirloom tomatoes, which come in a multitude of colors, shapes, sizes, and a vast array of flavors. It was interesting seeing the oblong, heart shaped, ruffled, flat with ribs, pepper like (and hollow just like peppers) tomatoes at the farm after being so accustomed to seeing only a few types of tomatoes at my local supermarket.

Cutting into a tomato today that I received at the farm, I was immediately shocked by its flavor - it tasted so fresh and sweet unlike the commercial tomatoes I buy, which are probably picked green and ripened with ethylene gas days or weeks later. The flavors of the heirloom varieties grown at this farm and others range from very acid to very sweet with many degrees in between. I was particular surprised by the green with stripes tomato, known as the Green Zebra Tomato. Hopefully, I’ll be able to try that one soon.

I recommend anyone to check out the many sizes, shapes, flavors, and colors of heirloom tomatoes for yourself. For tips on how to successfully and uniquely incorporate them into your daily diet…well perhaps some interesting recipes will soon follow. Happy Farming!


-RStahl

So it begins.

This post was intended to be published a week ago, but in a moment of technological brilliance, I failed to publish it. So here it is now.

*****
Yesterday was my first day at Common Thread. The weather was dreary and damp, but it was still exciting to be out in the air, removed from classes and textbooks. Still, I fear I may not be a very good farmer. My first task was to harvest winter squash, acorn and spaghetti squash to be precise. My problem was a problem of color. The ripe spaghetti squash was a pale yellow orange, while the unripe ones still had a green cast. This fine color distinction was lost on me, so I ended up alternating between being too liberal in my judgment of ripeness, picking slightly green ones and being too conservative, leaving ripe squash on the ground. Chris was nice enough to pretend that "they look more yellow now in this light" as he picked the ones I'd passed over. I appreciated that.
Acorn squash were far easier to deal with. If it is a deep, dark green, you pick it. If not, you don't. However, even as the task of deciding which to harvest was easier, the task of finding the squash was much harder. They hid, camouflaged in green, shielded by thick vegetation. So I stomped about, kicking through leaves trying to uncover the fruit. I kind of felt like a wilderness explorer, or maybe a gatherer from pre-agriculture times.

At this point, I have to express my amazement at Chris's ability to catch slippery, muddy squash. To get the squash in an easily to collect row, we would throw it to Chris who would place it by the edge of the patch. I had some truly terrifying wild pitches, but he caught almost everything, seemingly with ease.

Finally, I have to say, I'm tired. Maybe that has a lot to do with my 8.20 class, but still, my legs hurt from dragging big buckets of onions into the green house, and my back is sore from bending to harvest the squash. I think this is going to be a tremendous and challenging experience and I think I will walk away with a great respect for the physical and mental strains of being a farmer. But it has only just begun.

CORE 333: Food

This is the blog site for the Colgate course, CORE 333: Food, a course that examines the cultural, political and ecological implications of food in our lives.  This semester students in the course will be reading a variety of texts that explore these dimensions of food (see list below) as well as working for a few hours each week at Common Thread Community Farm, a local farm that follows the CSA (community supported agriculture) model.  Some of the students in the class will be contributing their thoughts on food through this blog, so please check back often for more insight.


Required Books in "Food"
Harper, Douglas, 2001. Changing Works: Visions of a Lost Agriculture.

Ingalls Wilder, Laura.  Farmer Boy.

Lyson, Thomas, 2004. Civic Agriculture: Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community.

Mintz, Sidney, 1986. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History.

Pollan, Michael, 2009. Food Rules.

Steingarten, Jeffrey, 1998.  The Man Who Ate Everything.

Watson, James and Melissa Caldwell (editors), 2005. The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating.