A Busy Food Week

Fabulous Mural at Roast House.

Tuesday Part 1: Roast House Field Trip

It's been a busy week in ethical eating.  On Tuesday I took my class to Roast House for a tour and discussion about coffee. They were impressed and we all had a really good time learning about the roasting process and how Deb and Dave choose which coffee to buy and how it meets their ethical and gustatory standards.  I always learn a lot and have a great time visiting them at their place.

Deb and Dave are great educators about coffee and how we can choose better quality coffee that is also more ethical.  I don't know if they think of themselves as teachers, but they are. I really ought to ask them if they do think of themselves that way.

Dave in his element--teaching about roasting!

One of the interesting things I learned has to do with coffee itself.  Perhaps I should have been able to figure this out myself, but I hadn't.  I knew that roasting coffee differently made a differently tasting coffee.  But it really had never occured to me that roasting the same beans in different ways made for completely different but perhaps an equally palatable finished product!  And, I had no idea that a just warmed green coffee bean would smell like a mixture of grass and fresh cut alfalfa.  But it does!

Mubarak, one of my students, asking a question.

Deb told us that part of the reason that specialty coffee prices are going up has to do with Americans buying good coffee.  The demand for the best beans has extended to the countries that grow them making those beans in far greater demand.  Coupled with some bad weather in coffee growing regions, expect prices to go up.  Given that--find some place that sells a good product and buy direct from them if you can.  And when I say good -- I mean at minimum fair trade (farm to cup or relationship is still to be prefered I think), organic and shade grown.  If you are in the Spoakne area--check out Roast House.  They even sell in Yokes now!

Tuesday Part 2: Spokane Regional Health District Meeting

Tuesday night I headed pretty much straight from class to a meeting sponsored by the Spokane Regional Health District.  It featured Jeremy Smith, author of Growing a Garden City, a wellness consultant, an economist interested in sustainable food and a presentation by the Heath District on the information gathered in their food assessment of Spokane county.

Smith was entertaining and inspiring.  I even bought a copy of the book which he inscribed "To Ellen, Keep Growing! Jeremy."  A simple sentiment that in the quest to educate about sustainable, ethical food, means a awful lot of things.

But the information that was the most important and disturbing came from the Heath District.  I knew things were likely to be bleak--too many kids living in poverty without good access to fresh food, too much fast food available, etc.  But food deserts in Spokane county?  Really?  We grow so much food here.  A food desert up in Green Bluff where there are all those farms, orchards and u-pick places?  It breaks my heart.  The USDA has defined "food desert" (like so many other important terms about food) in a really complicated way.  But the idea is that there are some areas where there are no grocery stores.  People therefore do not have reliable, easy access to fresh, healthy food.  They USDA now even has a "food desert locator" where you can put in your zip code and see if that region qualifies. 

Wednesday: Farmers Market

Went to the first Wednesday market of the season to get some produce for cooking in class on Thursday.  Chatted with my favorite farmers, bought some rhubarb for the crisp, some fresh parsley, onion, and zucchini.  For myself I bought some leeks, radishes and peas.

Thursday:  A great mail day and Cooking with Class

Good Mail!

Thursday's mail came early, or was it Wednesday's I never picked up?  In any event, I got two cooking magazine's, a spice catalog and some other nice mail and no bills!  I've looked through them all and there are some great ideas for things I have never made or haven't since last year--cherry clafutti and a coffee granita look so good!  (A coffee granita with Roast House Batzchocola?  How good does that sound?)

I am going to cooking this weekend even though it is already busy, I just know it!

I ran to the co-op to get a few things for my class's cooking adventure--I needed canned tomatoes and olives, vegan "cheese" and some margarine.  The mushrooms and summer squash looked so good that I picked some of the up and a red pepper.  The vegan pizza came out really well, except for some reason that bread dough for the crust required a lot more kneading and working than it has in previous makings.  Thankfully I had a student who really knew how to work with it and was a great help. He even explained to the other student working with the dough what he was feeling and when to change his approach.  It was like having a pizza dough teaching assistant!

alma mater.

Phew.  Is the week over yet?  Well, Fridays I have off so, sort of.  But I have a couple ethical eating ideas in the works--one given to me by a student who asked about the chocolate in nutella.  And much to my surprise, it appears that making a nutella type spread isn't too difficult and with more ethical ingredients, I think I can make that student's day!  I'm planning on testing it out first, though.  More on that later!