I must have that recipe!

Today marked the first Slow Food University event that I have organized: a book talk and potluck with local author and culinary adventurer, Nani Power. She's my kind of woman. In fact, we have quite a bit in common:

1. We share a persistent search for meaning, love, and community through food.

2. Food is officially an obsession.

3. We find cooking therapeutic.

4. We are both just itching to get ourselves to India, primarily for the food.

We probably share a lot of ideals that I don't even know about yet. I need to get myself a copy of her latest work, Ginger and Ganesh, which tells the story of her life-changing experience learning to prepare authentic Indian cuisine from women all around her native Northern Virginia -- a two-year adventure which began with a simple ad on Craigslist offering to supply ingredients + $10 per hour for in-home cooking lessons from Indian women. Yep, I do believe this may be next up on my reading list. And I'm pretty sure quite a few of the 40-some folks at the gathering were thinking the same thing as we stacked chairs and bid our adieus at the end of the event.

So, yes, in spite of the past 48 hours of hand-wringing... and fear that nobody would show up... or that a bunch of people would arrive but wouldn't have brought any food... or that the guard would be home sick and hadn't unlocked the building... or... I swear I'm not a worrier (that's dad's specialty)... it was a resounding success. It's not just my own impression, either, I swear. Our esteemed speaker asked if I might be able to gather some of the recipes for the food offered by our humble Slow Food DC community this evening. A number of attendees seconded the request.

As I await the recipe for the divine coconut burfi made by my friend (and former teaching colleague) Carol, I offer my own Indian-inspired concoction. No, not the curried chickpeas with sweet potatoes and kale. (What can I say, I was worried people wouldn't bring enough food, so I made a few dishes.) I'm talking about the

Dark Chocolate Torte with Cardamom and Ginger Whipped Cream
...which is not so much authentic Indian as inspired by Indian spices...

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Brush an 8 or 9-inch cake pan with butter and dust with flour.

Melt in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently:

• 7 oz dark chocolate, cut into pieces
• 1 1/2 sticks (12 TBSP) butter, cut into pieces

Remove from heat and whisk in:

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• seeds from 6-8 crushed cardamom pods
• a dash of ground allspice

Let cool for about 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, beat together until thick (6 minutes or so) with an electric mixer:

• 5 large farm fresh eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup raw/brown sugar

Gently fold chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until just mixed (uniform color). Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 40-45 minutes.

Cool in pan, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen if needed, and then turn out on a wire rack or plate to slice.

Serve with fresh whipped cream beaten with:

• a few spoonfuls of powdered sugar
• a dash of ground/powdered ginger

Yeah, pretty delicious. Let me know if you try it at home!

A semi-spontaneous group picnic: Oct 24

So October is officially Food Month, featuring:

Oct 1-16: the Right 2 Know March (to advocate for the labeling of GMO foods)
Oct 3-7: DC Farm to School Week (to encourage schoolkids to eat more healthfully)
Oct 8: dad's birthday dinner
Oct 9-10: prime time for garlic planting (can go until Nov 1, according to Farmer Mo)
Oct 16: World Food Day (focusing this year on mitigating the global food pricing pendulum)
Oct 24: CSPI's more domestically oriented Food Day
Oct 31: when I invariably find myself wearing some kind of food-themed Halloween getup....

Let's focus here on Oct 24 -- Food Day -- and its infinite potential for ways to celebrate healthy, sustainable, and fair food. There are tons of ways you can participate, no matter where in the country you happen to be on that Monday in late October: cook dinner with friends, have lunch with a colleague and maybe even share a little something you made yourself, make an effort to eat something local/seasonal that day, patronize a restaurant known for its conscientious procurement and labor practices....

Should you find yourself in DC, however, I invite you to join me and Ollie downtown for a semi-spontaneous picnic lunch! Yes, take a break from work for a REAL lunch break, celebrating good food and conversation in the out of doors. (Or indoors -- I have some thoughts on a rain location.) Bring your friends/colleagues, a picnic, and a blanket. Those who bring a dish with at least one local/seasonal ingredient get a big hug, and the first 75 or so will get... a surprise Food Day memento. (Ooooh, the anticipation!)

Relax, it's not a rally. It's not a protest. It might be considered a flash mob, but one that the cops have nothing to worry about. It's a picnic... with a few hundred of my closest friends and DC-area food lovers to celebrate Food Day. The location will be announced the morning of the 24th, but I can tell you that it will be metro accessible.

May 21: Join the (rescheduled) DC Urban Farm Bike Tour

+

After many, many requests from urban farmers, cyclists, and food activists for information on a rescheduled DC Urban Farms Bike Tour, I am elated to let you all know that you can break out your bikes (and helmets, ahem) in less than two weeks. And there are two exciting new additions to the tour, bringing us up to five -- yes, five -- stops around the District. It's going to be GREAT!

Here's the schedule:

9:00am: Pray for sunshine....

1:00-1:45: Neighborhood Farm Initiative site
100 Gallatin Street, NE (near Fort Totten metro station)

1:45-2:30: Biking: head toward Washington Youth Garden

2:30-3:15: Washington Youth Garden
The National Arboretum, R Street entrance (near 24th Street, NE)

3:15-3:45: Biking: head to The Farm at Walker Jones

3:45-4:15: Walker Jones (w/ Vinnie Bevivino of Seed & Cycle)
New Jersey & K Streets, NW

4:15-4:30: Biking: head to City Blossoms' Marion Street intergenerational garden

4:30-5:00: Marion Street garden
1517 Marion Street, NW (Shaw neighborhood)

5:00-5:15: Biking: head to Common Good City Farm

5:15-5:45: Common Good
V Street, between 2nd and 4th Streets, NW (Ledroit Park)

5:45-6:00: Biking: head to Big Bear Cafe for happy hour

6:00-8:00: Happy hour
(featuring Arcadia's Farmer Mo with a word on the Greenhorns MidAtlantic chapter)
1700 1st Street, NW

The sites will all have water, so bring your water bottles. I'm working on getting some snacks, but I'd advise those of you with similarly ravenous appetites to bring a little something to nibble on. And don't forget your helmet and a sturdy bike lock.

Please RSVP to me (ibberoo2@gmail.com) so the farmers know how many to expect for workshops (and I know for snacks). See you at 1pm on Saturday, May 21!

Strawberries & Salad Greens: food education in DC schools on May 25

You, too, can be a food educator. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join DC Farm to School's annual Strawberries & Salad Greens extravaganza.... (Have I mentioned how much I love the folks over at DC Farm to School?)

Call for enthusiastic, passionate farm to school volunteers - May 25^th, 2011!

Are you interested in child health, local food, and farm to school? Are you enthusiastic and enjoy working with kids? If so, the D.C. Farm to School Network invites you to volunteer during our upcoming Strawberries & Salad Greens event on May 25, 2011. Schools in Washington, DC will serve local berries and greens in their school meals on that day, and we’re looking for dedicated, enthusiastic volunteers to engage students in school cafeterias at “Where Food Comes From” educational tables.

For more information about the event itself, visit http://www.strawberries-salad.blogspot.com. Learn more about volunteering at a "Where Foods Come From" table in a school in this Table Volunteer One-Pager. Still have questions? Read these Table Volunteer FAQ's. If you're interested in volunteering at a table, fill out this Table Volunteer Form. For more information about this volunteer opportunity, email Nora White at nora@dcfarmtoschool.org.

Making Good Food Work

In spite of my instinctive desire to avoid any and all forms of public speaking, in February my friend (and former boss) Erin and I had applied to co-lead a series of work sessions on the mobile farmers' market that I have been developing for Arcadia. As fate would have it, we were accepted. At the last minute, Erin was unable to attend, which left me to represent Arcadia and lead sessions on mobile market project development. (Eep.) Erin was there in spirit, though, and I have gushed about the conference daily since my return.

Exactly two weeks ago today, I was heading to BWI airport, "just a girl with a dream and an old school bus," bound for the Making Good Food Work conference. Here I am on Day 2 with the mobile market working group, those folks who (whether out of excitement or pity or curiosity or an inexplicable desire to get their hands on one of the snazzy Food Bus buttons -- I may never know) elected to join my group after the opening "pitch" given by each of the 13 workshop leaders on the first morning.



Yes, this was my dream team. My own personal band of angels from around the country, come together to help me hash out some of the as-yet-unresolved matters relating to the project that has consumed nearly every waking moment of my life for the past four months. (I've mentioned the mobile market project once or twice on this blog, I believe....)

Organized like a "start-up weekend" (popular among the tech community, and usually held over a long weekend), the intensive 3 days of work sessions were structured to provide open resource and knowledge sharing among folks bringing varied expertise to the table in support of 6 thematic working groups and 7 projects. People coming together specifically to help me work out things I have needed help with for weeks? Does it get any better than this? Oh, and I should mention that the conference took place in Detroit, one of my all-time favorite American towns (though I have to say it felt a little bit weird not being on a bicycle this time around). How fitting that this hotbed of food activism would be the site for an incredible conference bent on getting good food to more people around the country.

I left the conference with new ideas, feedback on things ranging from logistics to market prediction to fundraising, and dozens of new friends from around the country (some of whom directly helped raise the remaining $3,600 over the final four days of the project's online fundraising campaign). In some ways, I feel eternally indebted to this most supportive of food communities and hope that some day I can similarly support other food activists. You all are truly making good food work for communities around the country.

So, dear MGFW organizers and participants, thanks for everything!!! Really. (And also: sorry that this post of thanks and celebration is so long overdue.)

Greenhorns report

So this Saturday's urban farm bike tour that was so meticulously planned... was rained out. But the screening of The Greenhorns went rather well. Those who braved the storms were rewarded with a beautifully filmed documentary, piles of great, local food (and so much beer we didn't even break open the last keg), and great tunes. Hopefully this is the beginning of a Greenhorns MidAtlantic chapter. How cool would that be?

Of particular culinary note was the farm-themed parsnip cake with cream cheese frosting, complete with rows of veggies and even fences -- beat it, Bambi -- donated by the good folks at Buzz Bakery. How cute is this cake??

Thankfully chef Tiffany, the creative force behind the farm cake, remains unaware of my own cake decorating... experiments. Whew.

Anyhow, folks, I will let you all know when the urban farm bike tour is rescheduled. It may be a few weeks: getting five or six community garden groups to agree on a single date on which to hold workshops is a bit like herding cats. Very environmentally and socially conscious cats. Stay tuned. (Meow!)

An irresistible fleet of bicycles is coming through DC on April 16!

It's really happening. I have been enamored with The Greenhorns for a few years now. The posse of like-minded young, sustainable farmers and food advocates kindly helped to promote my bikeable feast project from afar and now, at long last, I'll get to meet a few of them in person because they are coming to my hometown! Oooh, I can't wait to show 'em around....

For those of you readers with ADHD, here's the short version:

(Hey, pay attention! Hey, over here! Stop looking at that shiny thing!)

WHO:
The Greenhorns and you!

WHAT:
DC Urban Farm Bike Tour, Greenhorns documentary screening, and reception

WHEN:
Saturday, April 16th, 2011

Bike tour/workshops from 1:00-6:00pm

Film screening and reception from 6:30-9:00pm

WHERE:

1pm meet @ Mamie D. Lee Community Garden, 100 Gallatin St., NE (Fort Totten)

6pm @ Letelier Theater, 3251 Prospect Street, NW, Upper Courtyard (Georgetown)

COST:
$10-30 sliding scale for film and reception (bike tour/workshops are free)

RSVP to my friend, Farmer Mo (only necessary for film attendance, as seating is capped at 90). If you have questions about the biking part of things, drop me a line. Otherwise, just show up. Those of you cyclists who have been following this blog KNOW not to show up without a helmet. I'd bring a bike lock, too. And a water bottle. And maybe some sunscreen. (And I'd pray for sun that day.)

Isn't this poster gorgeous? Kudos to Laura Cline, who does all of the Greenhorns' fantastic artwork, and who teamed up with local artist Karri Roberts on this project. Just need to add on a few more logos for additional groups who recently contacted me about donating tasty, local food.... Oh, this is going to be good.

Even Ollie's excited. Look, she's donned a new sticker for the event (freshly painted over with clear nail polish so it lasts more than 5 minutes...). Come join us on April 16!

Mardi Bus

Mark your calendars: two weeks from today (March 8, 2011) you will be attending one of the most fun events the District has ever seen.

Yes, officially called the "Bus + Beer Bash," this Mardi Gras make your way to Churchkey from 4-8pm for good beer and complimentary nibbles. Those who make a donation using the on-site laptops will earn a complimentary beer -- I've been slowly making my way through their menu myself, and highly recommend the lovely Canadian hibiscus wheat beer that I stumbled across last week -- and very possibly a hug from me.

It's the kick-off event for my online Kickstarter fundraising campaign to raise money for the mobile farmers' market. (If you can't make the event, but still want to contribute to this project and learn more, details can be found here.)

Because I need one of these:

to bring more of this:

Come celebrate with good food, beer, and people! You might just find yourself calling it Mardi Bus next year....

Getting back to my roots

I love Rooting DC. It gets me all kinds of worked up. No, in a good way. Heck, I left the urban composting demonstration at the 2009 event with a bee in my bonnet that was buzzing nonstop until I got myself an Oscar the Grouch trashcan to set up my own backyard bin. Once again, the speakers and presenters helped demystify all kinds of projects I'd been hoping for some time to tackle myself, things ranging from small-space gardening to growing shiitakes on logs. I was just as fired up this year, leaving the Coolidge High School auditorium with all the seed packets I could stuff into my handbag and a conviction that the time had come to grow my own mushrooms.

I sat mesmerized as Nazirahk, who runs Purple Mountain Organics in nearby Takoma Park, talked the group of us through how to set up our very own shiitake logs. (Finally, some perk to having a mostly shaded back yard! Not that I don't love my little garden plot, but the tomatoes last summer were a bit put out by the lack of sunlight.) I learned about different types of spawn, application techniques, and even what varieties of logs to seek as host sites for my future motherlode of mushrooms. I was right up in the front row as our workshop leader broke out the high-powered drill and started showing us how to prepare our logs. Wood chips were flying everywhere, even into my hair, but I wouldn't've traded that seat for the world as I scribbled down notes on how to start cultivating my own mycelium. I couldn't stop thinking about fungus during the bike ride back home. I must get myself a decent maple or oak log and inoculate it asap with some wide-range shiitake spawn. Unless I come across some poplar and want to try my hand at oyster mushrooms. Or maybe I can do both. Now, where to find myself a free log....

A few hours later, while out salsa dancing with friends, I met a guy who happened to mention he had been hauling around fallen tree limbs earlier in the day. I wish he'd told me about the 5"-diameter, 3'-long oak logs that are PERFECT for growing shiitakes before I'd given him a fake phone number. Darn. Well, hopefully we'll run into each other again and laugh about it. I mean, seriously, I thought he'd get the 80s reference....

So, step 1 is to get myself a log. Step 2 is to find a few folks to go in on a bag of sawdust and mushroom spawn with me. (It appears that the $25 bags will seed a good 20 logs or so and I can hardly talk my way into 20 free logs. Though I could probably eat 20 logs' worth of shiitakes.) Step 3 is to borrow a high-powered drill....

At present, I have no log nor spores nor equipment, but I've got shrooms on the brain. I couldn't resist picking up this little bunch at the Dupont market earlier today. Apparently others who attended yesterday's workshop had beaten me to the mushroom stand, as they were fresh out of shiitakes. Hmmm.

Busy bee

Faithful readers, I must apologize for my negligence of the esteemed duty of keeping you abreast of sustainable food goings on and adventures in biking this past month. It's been a busy time, and I am immersed each and every day in fascinating research and engaging conversations with food activists, educators, farmers, and cyclists.... and used school bus salesmen, food truck operators, small business owners, filmmakers, policy advocates, and government officials. It's not that there's nothing to blog about; it's that there's no time to blog!

Okay, okay, that is sounding like me making excuses. As the line between my awesome job and my personal love of all things food continues to blur, I've been talking, writing, thinking, and dreaming about food constantly. In truth, I have been writing quite a bit. About the adventures in bus stalking as I continue to research vehicles for my mobile farmers' market project. About my upcoming workshop on fermenting foods at the (free!) Rooting DC Forum. About seasonal recipes. About pastured meat. (Oops, this last one isn't available in print until next month. If you don't have a subscription, you can pick up a copy of the March issue of Acres USA at your local food co-op soon.)

But you're right -- I can almost see you giving your computer monitor a stern look right now, brow furrowed, lips pursed -- I've been slacking here with the Bikeable Feast. Stay tuned for a write-up on this weekend's TEDx satellite event: my first public speaking opportunity on behalf of Arcadia. (Somebody take the microphone out of my hand. Please.)

Farm to school week

You may have heard about Bike to Work Day... National Walk to School Day... International Talk Like a Pirate Day. (Yarrr!) I even recall during my time teaching at a public high school here in DC a couple of years ago a celebration of National Punctuation Day. I love themed days that raise awareness and get people thinking a little differently about their everyday choices (especially if the focus helps to improve the general public's understanding of how to use an apostrophe correctly). Tomorrow marks the beginning of DC Farm to School Week.

Yes, folks, school food reform is so important that it gets a whole week. Having witnessed the slop that passes for food in most public schools these days, I'm surprised nobody has issued a code red food quality alert. (I mean, we already have such a system for air quality and terrorism threats, and yet obesity-related diseases kill far more people each year. Then again, who can take these alerts seriously when we're always at code orange? Maybe I'm a touch grumpy about the transportation security measures that seem to get increasingly more ridiculous. I mean, have you been to the airport in Salt Lake City? Good lord.)

The overall poor quality of school food is a systemic problem, with cafeteria offerings just as abysmal in NYC as they are in DC. It's not just urban schools, either. I didn't have a chance to follow Jamie Oliver's attempts to fix things in rural West Virginia schools -- Ollie and I were somewhere in the Southwestern deserts dodging scorpions, I think -- but I heard it wasn't pretty (though things seemingly ended well). The problem seems to be universal, according to the documentary "Two Angry Moms." I know I've written about the need for better food in schools a few times now, but with initiatives like the first lady's "Chefs Move to Schools" -- love her! -- and the passing of the Healthy Schools Act, we Americans are, at long last, doing something about it.

Now, the outsourcing of school lunches is far from a new concept -- my own former school in Southeast DC trucked in loads of fried, frozen, and otherwise unrecognizable trays of gov't surplus slop to the stoveless cafeteria -- but the approach this time around is very different. With a funding stream designed to encourage more fresh fruits and vegetables and provide cafeteria food lower in sugars, salts, and fats, the Healthy Schools Act has the potential to help public school lunch programs come around an important corner. Revolution Foods and DC Central Kitchen, for example, have both won contracts to privately cater school food at a handful of locations around the District, sourcing some ingredients from local producers and emphasizing seasonality and lots of produce in their menus. These are pilot programs underway that, if successful, could revolutionize the way school food is sourced and prepared.

Want to learn more about improving school food in the District? Check out the goings on this week: http://dcfarmtoschool.org/week/. A number of DC schools will be preparing and serving farm-fresh foods. There will be student-led education booths, farm field trips, and chef demonstrations to help DC area families learn about their local foodshed and get excited about healthy food options. Me, I'll be slicing and handing out local apples at the kick-off event at Thurgood Marshall Academy tomorrow afternoon. (So long as I don't have to use my multi-tool for slicing, nobody should get hurt.)

Hooray for good food in schools!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Two steps forward, two steps back

It took me a little while to recover from the inadvertent 12-mile detour between Caledonia State Park and King's Gap State Park -- scenic, yes, but also quite hot and also hilly -- on Wednesday. After a day of rest and recuperation at Don & Caroline's lovely home in Carlisle, PA, I marveled at what a few naps, good food, and charming company can do. I feel great. Ollie's looking well-rested, too.

Yesterday, I traveled with the friendly folks at The Rosemary House to help out at the annual Herb Festival in Baltimore. (Yes, Baltimore, putting me just about a day's ride from where I started nearly a month ago. Don't think that little detail escaped my notice or that of my dad who could not help but point out that my route thus far has been less... efficient... than it could have been. I noticed the same thing when traveling through Bedford and seeing the "Cumberland: 34 miles" sign last week. This journey is about learning, so I'm hoping I become a better mapper as I go along....) Anyway, back on point, the festival was pretty cool. While my master plan to secure for myself a cone of lavender ice cream (my current obsession) was foiled, I did learn quite a bit. David -- an amazingly knowledgeable herbalist -- on the drive down helped me clear up some confusion surrounding my understanding of the relationship between "natural medicine" and "homeopathy." I had always equated the two, but it seems this is a common misconception. (The fact that I did not sack out on the drive down -- we had woken up at 4:45am to drive to the festival -- is a testament to the engaging and thoughtful nature of David's conversation.)

At the festival itself, I spent most of my time devouring a quart of fresh strawberries and (wo)manning the used book section of the Rosemary House booth. I was in my element. I mean, used books on gardening and cooking?? I think I did a fairly good job on sales, but I also managed to read up on using plants to control various garden pests and got somewhat sidetracked thumbing through a book on using herbs and flowers to make natural soaps. I also had a bit of a reprieve from the heat when I went to a talk in the chapel called "Enhancing your health with culinary herbs," given by near-Dr. Andrew Pengelly, a charming and somewhat self-effacing Australian gentleman. It was here that many of my instincts surrounding the curative and preventative nature of herbs and spices were confirmed. I learned new things about some of the health benefits of some of my favorite spices, too. Of note were

• garlic (eating as little as a half of a raw clove per day has been shown to reduce cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood clotting, never mind that your garlic breath keeps most swine-flu-bearing folks at a safe distance)



• parsley (high in iron and also good for GI issues)



• ginger and turmeric (anti-inflammatories -- I still stand by my claim that tea made with lots of chopped, fresh ginger and honey cures just about everything from sore muscles to insomnia to allergies)



• cinnamon (believed to help prevent/control diabetes due to its glucose/insulin-moderating properties).

I also learned about some preliminary clinical studies on the health effects of various herbal extracts. In Asia, for example, a study of the elderly in relation to the amount of curry they consume -- lots, some, or none -- seemed to have a direct correlation to their cognitive function. Now, obviously there are many factors and biases inherent in such a study, but imagine -- just imagine! -- if we could prevent or drastically reduce the onset of Alzheimer's, dementia, or other memory loss afflictions by periodically consuming curries and other flavorful food. I believe in modern science and medicine (ahem, Justin) but I also can't help but note that for so many years and in so many other cultures there are natural, food- and herb-based remedies that work. (Don't worry, Rudy, I'm steering clear of coffee enemas....)

I'm hoping to learn much more about the growing, storage, and use of herbs over the next few days. For those who might be interested in lavender ice cream (and making me green with envy: I will be somewhere in Connecticut by then), you should check out the PA Lavender Festival, which runs from June 19-21.