Harvest Time explores chocolate

I mentioned before that the Slow Food NYC Harvest Time program had started a blog, and today they're talking about chocolate.

The most poignant part of the blog post:

They showed us real cacao beans from the Dominican Republic and Madagascar. Some of us are from the DR and didn't even know they grew chocolate there. We got to grind our own roasted cacao beans.

The most astute quote from the post:

The dried cocoa beans were really weird. We disagree about whether we like them. At first when you chew them, they taste like flowers, but after a while they start to taste like dirt. We think the chocolate probably tastes like what grows around the cacao plant.

And a tie for the funniest quote:

Did you ever see the movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? We did, and so when we went to The Mast Brothers Chocolate Shop, we were disappointed that there were no oompa loompas.

versus

When we got back to school, we met Virginie, a French chocolatier. We were disappointed because she didn't wear a berret.

Overall, it sounds like they had a wonderful time (and - shhhhh! - they may have learned a thing or two)!

Eat, drink, and support your local school programs!

Career Day at P.S. 144

Tomorrow - Friday, May 15th - I'll be a speaker at the 20th Annual Career Day at my daughter's school. This will be the first year I'm doing it, and I'm feeling both nervous and excited. Interestingly, I'm not only speaking as a librarian but also as a blogger and a culinary student. I hope to show the kids that, if/when you have a 9:00 - 5:00 job, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can't seek out new responsibilities, follow a passion, or take a new career path.

I want to say a warm GOOD MORNING to the awesome students at P.S. 144!!!! Thank you for hosting me at Career Day!

Another reason to love Oregon

I posted my Ode to Oregon a few weeks ago, but now MC (my mother-in-law) has just upped the ante: South Salem High School (in Salem, Oregon) has a CULINARY ARTS TEAM!!!!  And they're competing nationally at the ProStart Invitational in San Diego, April 24-36!  Good luck, Saxons!

* Apologies for the stupid ad that you can't turn off...

Garden-Based Learning

I was in North Carolina this past weekend and had an interesting conversation about schools and teachers with the Soul Twin. Between my experiences with Bug in the public school system and the conversations the Soul Twin and I have had with teachers we know, I'm just feeling sad about the state of education. With the testing and the standardization and the pre-packaged curriculum, it seems teachers are left so little room, if any at all, for innovation or for tailoring their lesson plans for the individual needs of their students.


However, this morning Civil Eats had an inspiring blog post for me about garden-based learning (GBL). I think she is right on the money and it makes me feel so hopeful. I'm excited to get involved with projects like this and, once I get my culinary degree, I hope I can help out even more. Here are some links for you to peruse:

Life Lab Science Program

French Fry: Learning about Food in School

Garden-Based Learning, Dept. of Horticulture, Cornell Univ.

University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources

Collective Roots

CitySprouts

And that is just a sampling of all the organizations and websites dedicated to garden-based learning - there is A LOT more available.

Stand up in the cafeteria and stab them with your plastic forks!*

It's been a difficult couple of days for me in the blogosphere.

First, through Bitten, I found this article by Tom Lee, which takes Alice Waters to task for elitism relating to her proposal for school lunch programs. Let's start with Bittman's comment: "...we forget that most people in the United States neither know nor care about such things, and that a large percentage of those are not, in general, eating well." I get what he's saying: we foodies can get a bit "precious" about our food. But I also have real problems with the thinking that, just because people don't know or care, we shouldn't try to raise awareness, fight for the integrity of school lunches, and share our passion with any who will listen. When it becomes elitist is when someone - let's take Bittman as an example - sits in their fancy kitchen, waxes poetic about organic school lunches, but doesn't actually do any real work to make it so. By definition, I am an elitist. Alice Waters is not. She has done the real work.

I get what Tom Lee is saying and I did agree with him that Waters is shooting for the moon and we might want to think more practically. BUT I don't think she's "dicking around" by using terms like "organic" and "locally produced". Not only that, but I resent his saying so. She's done most than the rest of us with the Edible Schoolyard, proving that it's viable and it can make a difference. And I have real problems with a system that has made "organic" and "locally produced" so difficult to procure: why should these be the hallmarks of the elite and pretentious? They shouldn't be. Alice Waters is right. I could really go off on this for ages, but I fear that I have already proved that I can't be terribly articulate about these sorts of things. But do read the article and think for yourself about it. Because I think we can all agree this isn't going away anytime soon.

The other article I read was from this week's NYT Dining section: "What's Eating Our Kids? Fears About 'Bad' Foods" by Abby Ellin. It just rubbed me wrong. Or maybe I'm only having one of those weeks... I guess I should have expected some backlash. But it just seems to me that the article is focusing on such an extreme example and holding it up as truth to all us foodies: Beware! Your kids could end up like this! Even the graphic accompanying the article is ridiculously sinister and foreboding. The article is focusing on the sensationalistic, the extreme and the alarmist. I'm disappointed.

Along these same notes, I have had some interesting discussions with Adam lately about drug addicts, religious fanatics, and foodies...and how they're all related. I made some flippant comment about religious zealots being a bit like drug addicts. Adam disagreed, pointing out that, if you were to ask a drug addict, they would probably agree that the whole world should not be addicted to drugs. The difficulty with the fanatical religious folks is that they think everyone should be addicted. Well, there's also a bit of this in the foodie too...and I have to admit there are certainly parallels. I've talked here, here, and here about the "conversion experience" and I totally want everyone else to have one. I don't understand why more people don't care and I desperately want to make them care: if only they could see, they would understand. I want people to see that the life of a foodie is the right one. Definitely parallels, I can't deny it.

I have some book reviews coming up so stay tuned. I promise they'll be frothy and fun...no more of this heavy dwelling. A little less coffee...more Champagne, please!


* Pleeeeeeeease forgive my blog post title. It's a quote from Pump Up the Volume. I couldn't resist.

Back to the Blogsphere: the Children's Lit Version

Lots happening in the kidlitosphere, starting with that book. Oh, you know the one. The plastic surgery book. Read here, here, and here. Never mind that, by talking so much about it and ranting about its evils, we’re actually promoting it. Controversy is the best publicity.

Age ranging is coming to the UK, and books will begin to be labeled with the ages for which the subject matter is most appropriate: 5+, 7+, 9+, 11+ and 13+. I have mixed feelings about this for all the reasons you’d guess. First, this could be so helpful for parents browsing books on their own, and I know lots of librarians and teachers would appreciate this feature. However, I also believe that it’s just one more way that the thought and judgment process is being taken out of reading. Naturally, this is not going to alleviate the issue of all those parents who stomp and protest that a book isn’t appropriate for their child. I mean, you can say that the age range is for subject appropriateness, but anyone in libraries, schools, or bookstores will confirm that parents will not read it like that: “My 8-year-old reads at the 7th grade level.” But then they’ll throw a hissy when their child asks them about breasts, snogging, and wet dreams. Also, this is another way in which customer service is disappearing from our culture: why bother with booksellers and librarians when you can find out the age range online? Never mind that booksellers and librarians will have likely read whatever book is in question and might be able to tell you if it’s what you’re looking for or not… So while I think it’s a nice idea, I really question how much good “age ranging” is going to do.

The Monkey Speaks has a nicely worded post about information literacy and the disappearance of media specialists from schools across America. Go read Walter’s post since he is often more eloquent than I am. But take my generally snarky attitude, combine it with my bold mood today, and I have to point out that while the role of a school librarian is being undervalued and unappreciated in America, Laura Bush is awfully busy with the media outlets, promoting her new book about the importance of reading. Said book includes a boy who is directed to the school library by his teacher…little do they know, that there isn’t a professional there to staff it! Apparently Good Day Elementary School was the victim of budget cuts made in the name of No Child Left Behind.

I know, totally snarky, right? I’m being so against my better judgment, I assure you. I could very well live to regret this.

I also have lots of delicious (but not necessarily food-related) news about a certain Mr. David Fickling (of Random House) and the launch of his new comics line. But that will have to be saved for an entirely separate post. Stay tuned!

Crushing on John Green

Oh goodness, I think I'm in love.

Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for the link.

Whoa! Whoa! I Gotta Go...Back to Schoool...Again!

Whoever knows which musical movie that blog title comes from is my new best friend...

Welcome back to me! For three days, I have barely logged on to my gmail, let alone my blog. It was a lovely weekend of wine and antipasti in Central Park, shopping with my mom, and discovering a new favorite restaurant, The Popover Café. Overall, one of the best spent 3-day weekends in ages. Now I’ll be counting down the days until Columbus Day which, thanks to my public sector job, I get off work.

I posted two reviews so I’m feeling all productive.

The kiddo is back in school today – here’s hoping for a good school year. It’s going well already, I suppose, since we got a letter from the principal yesterday that informed us that 1) the first grade students have a dedicated reading specialist to help with those struggling, which is good news for us because, contrary to popular belief, children of librarians are not automatically strong readers, and 2) the school got its own full-time music teacher! How many modern-day public schools can say that anymore? We’re very fortunate. And in honor of that, you have to check out this article, “Teachers: Be Subversive” from Salon. I love the rallying cry for teachers to rise above and beyond No Child Left Behind and thank Fuse #8 for the link, thus giving me such great motivation on the first day of school. Here’s a quote from the article that had me practically cheering at my cubicle:

Francesca once said to me, "I'm damned if I'm going to" -- I don't think she said "damned," because she's too polite; maybe "darned" -- "treat these little babies as commodities or products. Why should they care about global markets? They care about bellybuttons, and wobbly teeth, and beautiful books about caterpillars." I think we have to protect those qualities.

YES! Now let’s all go forth and promote in children all things free-thinking and creative!