Eating Locally and Seasonally

"Think globally, eat locally." Right now, most of the food we eat travels an average of 1500 miles from the farm to our plates. That's half way across the country! When you go into a supermarket you can buy anything you want, whenever you want it. You wouldn't even know there were seasons! But what if we ate mostly what was in season and grown in our local region? Many people think eating locally and seasonally is a good idea because it's better for communities, farmers, the environment, and our taste buds. Eating locally means adjusting our diets to nature and the seasons. It means enjoying fruits and vegetables at their peak and experimenting with new vegetables when familiar ones are out of season. Many foods grow in different places and at different times for various reasons, primarily differences in regional climates.

Growing Food, 2007 Teachers College Columbia University

Please visit NYS Dept of Agriculture and Markets for the harvest calender:
http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/HarvestCalendar.html

High School Food Interns Garden and Cook

This summer we have been so fortunate to have a small group of dedicated High School students work with us in the garden and cooking clubs. We've tackled all kinds of different projects from writing our own personal food stories to keeping a food journal and setting goals for making one healthy change to our eating habits. We've weeded and watered and harvested in the garden. We've made smoothies and salads and Kale Chips. Each student has a different reason for wanting to learn how to eat better--whether it is to loose or gain weight or simply learn how to take better care of themselves--we've discovered during group conversations that opinions and experiences which have shaped our relationships to food vary widely. Here are some links for you (whether you're a student or a grown-up) to start thinking about what's shaped your own relationship to food and also some resources for helping you set yourself up for making healthier choices. Let us know if you take advantage of them and what your experience is.

Evaluate Where You Are:
1. Calculate and Assess Your Body Mass Index (BMI) here.
2. Track Everything You Eat for 1 Week Using this Online Food Journal's (Free Trial Version).
2. Monitor How Much Exercise You Get Daily. Adults need about 30 minutes a day and kids need about 60 minutes a day.

Set Some Goals
1. Based on your weight, your food diary and your daily activity what changes do you need to make? Do you need to gain weight, loose weight or increase your physical activity? What does being healthy look like to you?
2. What are two small lifestyle changes you are willing to make to help you achieve a healthier you? Write them down. Enlist your friends by sharing your goals so they can support you. This guide to a healthier you is great!

Learn to Cook and Enjoy More Fresh Whole Foods
1. Most of us are comfortable cooking the foods we grew up with or have eaten throughout our lives. In the Standard American Diet this unfortunately often doesn't include many fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, and lean proteins. (Not familiar with what the Standard American Diet is? Check out this great interactive timeline about how it has evolved from the NYTimes.) There's still a place in your life for fried chicken, but you'll achieve a greater balance if you seek out and learn how to prepare for yourself some healthy and delicious options.
2. Become an Educated Eater.
Learn to read labels, ask questions at the grocery store and the farmers market, plan your meals and use your network to find out what other people enjoy eating. Avoid empty calories and instead eat a diet rich in various plant foods. Make meat more of an occasional treat or flavoring agent than the main event.

What's for lunch? July 14th 2011

Todays Lunch Menu features Turkey Bolognese, Fettucini, Sauteed Spinach.

Spaghetti alla bolognese, spaghetti bolognese, esparguete à bolonhesa or spaghetti bolognaise in a form popular outside of Italy, consists of a meat sauce served on a bed of spaghetti with a good sprinkling of grated Parmigiano cheese. Although spaghetti alla bolognese is very popular outside of Italy it never existed in Bologna, where ragù is served always with the local egg pastas tagliatelle or lasagne.

In recent decades, the dish has become very popular in Australia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway. It is called spagetti med köttfärssås, in Swedish, spagettia ja jauhelihakastiketta, in Finnish, spaghetti og kødsovs in Danish, and spaghetti og kjøttdeig in Norwegian, especially among children. A version is popular in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term 'bolognese' is sometimes applied to a tomato-and-ground-beef sauce that bears little resemblance to the ragù served in Bologna.

What's for lunch? July 13th 2011

Buon Giorno!

Todays Lunch Menu features Chicken Marsala, Orzo and a Brocolli/Cauliflower Medley.
But wait..... What is Orzo?

Orzo pasta is a type of pasta which is made in the shape of a grain of rice. Orzo pasta is often about rice-sized, as well. This pasta is very versatile, and it can be used in a range of recipes, with many people consuming orzo in soups. Many markets carry orzo pasta, and several options may be available for consumers to choose from.

The word orzo is Italian for “barley,” and a reference to the size and shape of the pasta. You can also see orzo called kritharaki, manestra, rosa marina, reiskornpasta, or pasta gallo pion. This pasta is very popular in Greece especially, although it is used in other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations, and in some parts of Germany as well. The small size can make orzo a very fun pasta to work and cook with.

The classic use of orzo is in soups. It can also be used in pilafs. The Greeks have a number of pilaf recipes which call specifically for orzo pasta, but it is also possible to use a rice pilaf recipe, substituting orzo for the rice. Orzo performs very well when baked in casseroles as well, and it can be used in things like stuffed peppers and stuffed squash. The pasta
absorbs flavors very well and acts as a filler in these dishes.

Lessons in Sustainability From a Harlem School Garden to a Local Farm

Tomorrow a group of 6th grade students from Promise Academy will celebrate the last day of the regular school year (they attend a modified program through the summer), with a visit to Stone Barns a non-profit farm and education center located just 25 miles north of Manhattan in Pocantico Hills, New York. According to their website, "Stone Barns operates an 80-acre four-season farm and is working on broader initiatives to create a healthy and sustainable food system."

In preparation for the trip, the students spent some extra time this week in our own school garden talking about what a sustainable food system means, understanding pollination, sampling and comparing Swiss Chard to Dinosaur Kale, and defining our own local food system. We even created our own set of sustainable vocabulary words to study on Dictionary.com. One thing that came up continually is the distinction between the food that's locally available and the food that's actually local. If you walk down 125th Street in Harlem you'll encounter nearly every national Fast Food chain serving up $1 Cheeseburgers and buckets of Fried Chicken. Several students were curious if this counted as local food?

Local food is actually food that is GROWN within a 100-mile radius of your home. Food that's available right outside your front door is not necessarily local. In fact, most food served at national fast food chains (besides being heavily processed, high in all kinds of questionable ingredients, calories and fat) travels pretty far to get to that storefront in Harlem. This is where the concept of "Food Miles" is helpful. Students learned to ask the question, how far has something traveled to get to my plate? As we chomped down on fresh Kale from our own school garden, we smiled at the sweet taste of fresh food that had traveled just an arms length from the ground to our mouths!

Eat Local. Think Global.

Today is the Summer Solstice in New York (hello, longest day of the year!) and in the garden we've been talking about several key terms that relate to the change of season. Yesterday we discussed what it means to "Eat Local. Think Global." This catchy phrase has been circulating around the food world for years now (if I knew it's origin I'd give the person some serious props!) and it's a concept that we want our students at Promise Academy and HCZ to really understand. In fact, it's one of the headlines on our cafeteria posters which we promised to do a follow-up series of blog posts about...so, let's get started.

First let's make sure we understand the terms we're using. What does it mean to "eat local?" Local food comes from your region. If you live in New York City, eating "local" means that you get most of your food from farms in the nearby counties in Long Island, Upstate New York, New Jersey and maybe even Pennsylvania rather than raising it yourself. Imagine yourself as the center of your world (probably not that hard for some of us!) and draw a 100-mile radius around yourself on a map. This is your local food region. If you manage to "eat local" you'll be considered a locavore. (You may be surprised to learn that most of the food we serve at Promise Academy including all our produce, dairy and meat is locally-sourced. Find out more about the food in the Cafeteria here.)

So, why eat local? From the posters our students, learn that local food is fresher, seasonal, and more nutritionally dense. It hasn't traveled thousands of miles to get to your plate which means it tastes better and its better for you and for the environment. Plus eating local food supports your local community and the regional economy. Pretty cool, right?

So what about eating seasonally? This is actually probably a little more challenging for the modern America. We're so used to having access to everything all the time, it's hard to reign in our habits back to what nature is serving up according to our local season. This has contributed to the fact that we eat fresh tomatoes (or bananas) year round that are shipped in from distant countries. It has also made us less connected to the joys of the cycle of the season. Eating seasonally actually can save you money, because the produce that's in season is usually the least expensive. Eating locally and seasonally actually go hand-in-hand, if you start by trying to eat more local foods, you almost can't help but eating more seasonally, which brings us finally to the last point: the big picture.

Thinking globally means you engage the big picture. (Remember that map of you as the center of your own local food community? Picture now that you are zooming out from your local community, keep zooming so far out that you disappear and now you've got an astronaut's perspective on this beautiful blue planet.) In the grand scheme of things, you are just one small part of the whole system of the world, the universe. That doesn't mean you aren't important or can't make positive change, but it just puts things in perspective. Surprise! The world revolves around the sun, not around you. Still your actions are significant, because while you may just be one person you are one of nearly 7 billion people on this planet. To maintain balance with our environment, we all have to consider how our actions impact those around us and the planet. Together we can create a sustainable future.

And that gives us much to look forward to as we celebrate the Summer Solstice here in Harlem! So go outside today and salute the sun and consider how you can eat in a way that is more in step with the earth's seasons and your unique place in the world.

What's for lunch? June 22th 2011

Chicken Cacciatore, Rice Pilaf, Steamed Broccoli with Garlic Oil.

Cacciatore (English pronunciation: /ˌkɑːtʃəˈtɔəriː/) means "hunter" in Italian. In cuisine, "alla cacciatora" refers to a meal prepared "hunter-style" with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, herbs, often bell pepper, and sometimes wine. Cacciatore is popularly made with braised chicken (pollo alla cacciatora) or rabbit. The salamino Cacciatore is also a small salami, popular amongst Italians.

There are many different variations of this dish based upon ingredients available in specific regions. For example, in southern Italy, cacciatore often includes red wine while northern Italian chefs might use white wine.

A basic cacciatore recipe usually begins with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil heated in a large frying pan. Chicken parts, dusted with salt and pepper, are seared in the oil for three to four minutes on each side. The chicken is removed from the pan, and most of the fat poured off. The remaining fat is used to fry the onions, mushrooms, peppers or other vegetables for several minutes. A small can of peeled tomatoes (drained of liquid and coarsely chopped) is added to the pan along with some oregano and a half cup of dry red wine. The seared chicken parts are returned to the pan which is then covered. The dish is done after about an hour at a very low simmer.

Come joins us for lunch!