Oregon Orientation

Every state which hosts FoodCorps service members has an orientation at the beginning of the service term, to help introduce site members to each other, to the sites and to the myriad of rules and regulations we need to know as food service workers.

This week, North Powder was incredibly lucky to be the host for Oregon FoodCorps Orientation, 2012! As well as spending time on food safety and teaching to standards, my fellow volunteers had also asked for some work they could help me with here. Because this community is overwhelming in its generosity and enthusiasm, on Tuesday we taught approximately 110 students in kindergarten-5^th grade how to make fruit smoothies, dehydrate apples, harvest and season sunflower seeds, and make salsa. Initially I was panicked by the amount of work we faced in just over two hours, but as soon as the teaching began I saw we were going to be okay. One of the other service members led the kindergarteners in making fruit smoothies, and even I was enthralled to watch her as we ripped kale apart and put it in the blender. The other service members were equally phenomenal as we taught knife skills to fourth graders, mixed different colors in the blender for first graders and learned about seed saving with the fifth graders as we plucked sunflower seeds from the dried-out blooms. As well as being exhaustingly exhilarating, I found this a great learning experience. The other FoodCorps members reminded me that we are all really good at what we do, and that I am perfectly qualified to share my knowledge and enthusiasm with this school.

Two days later I put this into practice by making crock-pot applesauce with the second grade, which was the first time I had interacted with these students. By mid-afternoon, the entire elementary-school building smelled like apples and cinnamon, and serving up the warm applesauce made me an instant friend to all of the second graders, and everyone else in the vicinity! This week was an appropriate reminder that I have the best job in the world in the most receptive community I could have imagined, and I need to take full advantage of this.

A summary of this week would also not be complete without an introduction to my new puppy, Juniper (Juni for short)! She is a one-year-old German Sheppard/Coonhound mutt whom I have adopted from the animal shelter. Highly energetic and largely untrained, she’s going to keep me very busy!

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!