Edamame, Pirates and Kohlrabi

I don’t know when I first ate edamame, but I do remember when a Vietnamese restaurant opened two blocks from my high school and I could run down there for lunch and order a bag of steaming edamame that was never big enough.

This week we served the soybean snack during lunchtime, where a majority of students had never heard of it before. This happened on national ‘Talk like a Pirate’ day, and students endured my enthusiastic prodding to try it punctuated with “argh!” and ‘ahoy, matey!” During breaks in the lunch line, I grabbed a handful of pods and wandered the cafeteria, prodding kids to taste it and showing them how to suck the beans out of the shells. About half of the students who tried it said that they liked it, and one first-grader returned for third and fourth helpings. Between my pre-lunch snacking and demonstrations, I practically ate my body weight in edamame and am not sure I will ever touch the stuff again.

The next day we had a taste-test of kohlrabi with lunch, which I advertised as a “space vegetable,” and every student received a single raw slice of the vegetable whether they wanted it or not. Despite its bizarre appearance, kohlrabi has an incredibly benign taste, and it was more favorably received than the edamame. Pizza was the entrée of the day, and when students came back for seconds I made many of them take a bite of kohlrabi. I had a show-down with one first-grader who desperately wanted more applesauce, but I said he could only have more if he took one bite of the new vegetable. Grinning, he vehemently protested, and in the end agreed if I took a bite at the same time he would try it. The bite was followed with grimaces and complaints of how sour and nasty it was, but he earned his applesauce.

Although I’d like to take credit for introducing both of these foods to the menu, my supervisor is the one responsible for these awesome ideas. Completely opposite from last year, I am running to keep up with the amazing ideas and innovations this school has. Next week my time is completely booked helping introduce a new garden and nutrition curriculum to 5^th and 6^th graders, making salsa with 4^th graders and fruit smoothies with 1^st graders, hosting the Oregon FoodCorps state orientation and finalizing plans for introducing chickens to the school.

I apologize for my lack of original pictures this week, but my new camera just came in the mail today (thanks, Grandma!) and I will start documenting the overwhelming enthusiasm and excitement I’ve encountered here!

An Introduction to North Powder

The North Powder School Garden looks like a tornado ripped through it. Tomatoes litter the ground; cabbage is scattered like newspaper across the rows and corn stalks are torn and crushed to the ground. Inside the greenhouse, sunflowers hang from the rafters, corn is piled in boxes, on chairs, on the floor, and onions and peppers dominate the back tables. It was not a natural disaster that happened, however; it was fifty middle-school students. Tonight the temperature is supposed to drop into the twenties, but it was the easiest thing in the world to find teachers, students and parents ready to harvest this afternoon. 

My experience in the garden today is the norm at North Powder; and it blows my mind every time I see that many people playing in the garden. While helping maintain the garden, I am also working on bringing composting and chickens into the school and learning the challenges of the new national School Lunch standards. The difficulty of serving here is that there are too many ideas, opportunities, and resources. Even with the short growing season and mountain weather, this community overflows with enthusiasm like I never could have imagined.

North Powder is a town of about 500 people in eastern Oregon, between La Grande and Baker City, with an impressive view of the Elkhorn and Wallowa Mountains. It is also proof that good food can be accessed even in a geographically isolated location, thanks to people who recognize the importance of what they eat and are willing to work for it. North Powder is a new site for Oregon FoodCorps this year, and will also be hosting the state-wide orientation in a couple of weeks. Coming from a heavily Portland-centric perspective, it is amazing to share the great accomplishments happening on the other side of the state when it comes to local food and education.

Sometimes I’m still surprised to see Oregon license plates on the cars because it is so different from the Oregon that I am familiar with, but I am completely enthralled with this community, its people and its energy.

The End (For the Moment!)

The scent of basil wafts across the playground, and I also smell onions. The smell isn’t coming from the kitchen, but instead from the happy group of kids sitting next to the garden. With a single day left in my term of service, I am doing my best to reduce the size of the garden to a manageable size, so the kids have been harvesting everything that can be picked (which is basil and onions). 

Everyone loves raw kale (who would have guessed?)

Eating raw onions has been as popular as the strawberries, both of which disappeared instantly. Other plants have fared the same Our single, somewhat sad kale plant looks like deer have been at it, when in fact it has become a favorite of the six year old boys.

When you can't find a watering can...

I no longer spend hours watering by myself, because throughout the day I am deluged with offers of help. When a watering can goes missing, I simply shout "whoever finds it gets an onion," and two minutes later the can is found.

Munching on basil

Every day when I head outside I am met by eager kids ready to garden, whether it be counting ants or picking onions or following the expanding reach of our zucchini plants.

I have had more fun working here than I ever imagined or expected I could. With extremely limited resources, we not only built a garden, but these kids got the chance to do something that they have never seen before. And, as far as I can tell, they love it!

I haven't had the time I need to really reflect on this past year, so here are some photos to show just how much fun we have had in my final days at the Boys & Girls Club!

When the onions are gone, there's room for digging in the dirt! 

Goofing around

Our gorgeous pumpkin blossom

More kale!

Friends.

The Final Countdown!

 Two weeks from today I will have essentially finished all of my responsibilities as an AmeriCorps VISTA for Montana FoodCorps! My time in Montana is quickly winding down, and I’m starting to take the time to reflect on what I've accomplished over the past twelve months.

It has been an incredibly long year, but I knew that it was going to be like this when I first moved out here. To cope with the isolation and loneliness that I knew would accompany life in small-town eastern Montana (and because I love goal-setting), I wrote three goals to complete by the end of my service; July 21, 2012.

These goals were:

1)      “Read all of the books that I should have already read.” This is fairly open-ended, but has provided great incentive for me to put down my mystery-thriller paperbacks in favor of real literature, and provided a little culture in a world that sometimes seems dominated by french fries and cowboys.

2)      “Finish writing a first draft of my novel.” I’ve been playing with a certain story in my head for the last ten years, and I decided that the fact that this story is still with me means that it needs to be written. My first draft simply requires a beginning, middle, end and basic coherence.

3)      “Learn to play the guitar well enough to justify buying an electric guitar.” I started learning to play the guitar in April, 2011 and decided that this is something I want to pursue. I love playing an instrument that people can sing along with, and making really loud rock ‘n roll music. Electric guitars are expensive, so I need to be more than a raw beginner to validate such an investment.

With the end in sight, I’m starting to examine how well I’ve done on these goals in the past 12 months. 

1)      My reading list:

The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand

Little Big Man- Thomas Berger

A River Runs Through It- Norman Maclean

Les Miserables- Victor Hugo

Hunchback of Notre Dame- Victor Hugo

20,000 Leagues under the Sea- Jules Verne

The Complete Writings of Mark Twain

Great Expectations- Charles Dickens

Bleak House- Charles Dickens

The Princess Bride- William Goldman

Complete Journals of Lewis and Clark

On the Road- Jack Kerouac

Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte

Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens

1Q 84- Haruki Murakami

The Audacity of Hope- Barack Obama

Three Musketeers- Alexandre Dumas

War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy

Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Rebecca- Daphne du Maurier

Around the World in 80 Days- Jules Verne

Gone with the Wind- Margaret Mitchell

Grapes of Wrath and other stories- John Steinbeck

Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy (pending completion)

This year, I reaffirmed my affection for Dickens and lack of enthusiasm for Twain. I was surprised to find that I enjoy Jules Verne and can tolerate the Russian authors better than expected. I confess that although we agree on absolutely nothing, I was reminded of how much I adore reading Ayn Rand. I prefer the movie to the novel ‘The Princess Bride,’ but reading ‘Les Miserables’ was enhanced by the fact that I’ve seen the Broadway show, and was probably my favorite read of the year. I will continue my reading in the coming year in North Powder.

2)      My novel: At present it is 70 pages and has a clearly defined beginning, middle and end, though no title. Although I have a monumental amount of work ahead of me before it will see the light of day, I am thrilled with the progress I’ve made. I love my characters, I’ve been entranced by this plot since the idea first occurred to me, and I’m excited to have finally figured out the ending. Work on this story will definitely continue.

 

3)      The guitar: I started the year with three months of basic lessons  under my belt and a folk songbook "borrowed" from my father. Although I can’t claim to be a good guitar player, I am no longer a raw beginner. I can crank out Elton John’s ‘Crocodile Rock,’ the Band’s ‘The Night they drove Old Dixie Down,’ and McLean’s ‘American Pie’ with competency and have been pushing myself to learn new and harder chords. I’m not ready to join a band, but I’m dying to hear how the Fine Young Cannibals’ ‘She Drives Me    Crazy’ sounds on an electric now that I’ve mastered it on acoustic. 

Though my novel still needs a title, I have 200 pages to go on ‘Anna Karenina’ and I have yet to master the rhythm of ‘Hit me With Your Best Shot,’ these goals have helped keep me busy, and I’m ready to start shopping for electric guitars. Retrospectively, I accomplished a lot this year, and not just for FoodCorps!

Fire-Fighting FoodCorps!

 For the last couple of days I have had a sore throat and a hacking cough, but it is not a summer cold. It comes from the hazy blue smoke haunting Lame Deer, blowing in from the raging Ash Creek fire twenty miles east of Lame Deer. Since last Tuesday, the Boys & Girls Club has been acting as an emergency shelter for evacuees from the town of Ashland as well as home base for the Red Cross and Salvation Army. The electricity has been off and on for days, and the Club staff has been working 16-20 hour shifts to keep the shelter running. This fire is the number one priority fire in Montana, and my housemates and I have had our evacuation bags packed for several days should the wind change.

Despite the fact that this is a horrifying natural disaster, this experience has been inspirational. I’ve been responsible for organizing donations and have put in dozens of late-night hours sorting cans of food to dispense to the shelter in Ashland (taking me back to the days of packing food for Oregon’s Post Office Food Drive). Our gym currently acts as bunk room and mess hall for families who have lost their homes and storage space for the enormous mountain of donations the Club has received. The outpouring of support has been amazing, and volunteers at the Club have been putting in 110% nonstop for the last week. I’ve had the chance to meet some incredible new people and seen the monumental things they can accomplish in the midst of a crisis. We’ve had visits from the governor, both Montana’s Senators and our sole Representative, and Jan Napolitano of Homeland Security may be the next visitor we get. Local TV stations and journalists have become regular visitors, and tomorrow MSNBC will be stopping by.

The last several nights have seen me watering the garden at 2 AM, at the first break I’ve had. Because of the chaos at the Club, our plants have been low-priority. There have been days when Lame Deer has been at risk of running out of water, and so the garden has gone dry. Although it was hard to sacrifice the garden, I am grateful for every little thing I can do to make a difference. Luckily the water is back on, and there were only a few fatalities in the pumpkin patch.  

Life is going to continue to be crazy at least through the end of the week. The Club is going to remain open as a shelter for a couple more days, and we are anxiously keeping an eye on this fire (the “Ash Creek” fire) and the “Bad Horse” fire to the west, both of which remain largely uncontained and unpredictable. A potential thunderstorm tonight could bring relief in the form of rain, but also presents enormous danger because this region is a giant tinderbox, and a single lightening strike could spell disaster. There will be no fireworks this Fourth of July, and the annual Pow-Wow may be canceled. 

With less than twenty days to go in my term of service, I can’t help but laugh that Eastern Montana isn’t going to let me go out on an easy note. Every time I’ve overcome a challenge, a newer and bigger one has risen to take its place. Although I miss spending time in the garden with Club kids, working the shelter is equally rewarding and satisfying work, and I am so grateful for all of the wonderful people I have gotten to know through this experience.

If you want to read my update on the Montana FoodCorps blog, check here:  http://www.montanafoodcorps.org/2012/07/many-hats.html