What's Next?

Even though, or perhaps because, the roads are coated in ice and my feet are perpetually frozen, it’s hard not to start thinking about summer. Packets of seeds are piled up in the greenhouse, and we’re resurrecting plans for a chicken coop and composting pile. My dog runs laps in the living room for exercise and dreams of the day the ice melts and we can hike the Elkhorn and Wallowa Mountains.

Along with making plans for the spring semester, I’m starting to look beyond. This week applications for FoodCorps 2013-14 serve year opened. I encourage you to spread the word, and I’d be happy to share my experience with anyone interested in serving. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbSMvLOJAko is the link to the new recruitment video.) Uncomfortably, however, I have to start thinking about some difficult decisions in my future; whether or not I am going to do a second year of service in North Powder.

I love my job here, and I honestly think North Powder Charter School is the best FoodCorps site in Oregon. The enthusiasm this Farm to School Program exudes makes anything possible, and I am so lucky to be here working with such energetic people. However, well into my second year of living in an isolated rural area, I’m not sure that I can handle year three. I deeply crave living in a well-populated area with friends, stores and entertainment near-by. My FoodCorps term of service ends in early August, and should I not take on another year I need to have another job to move into right away. (Grad school is in the cards for 2014.) I am applying for another FoodCorps term, but will not have to decide whether or not to commit until May or June.

Elk at the feeding station on a freezing cold morning

Although I don’t have a clear vision of my perfect job, I do know some things that I would like. I want to work in collaboration with other people, and less on independent projects (which is why I don’t think I’m going to apply for Oregon’s FoodCorps Fellow position.) I would love not being desk-bound, and to continue educating students in cafeterias and gardens, but I do not want to be a traditional teacher. I am very interested in helping schools and communities build infrastructure facilitating local food access, and the development and revision of agricultural policy to be friendlier towards small producers. Although my experience centers around food and nutrition, I am very interested in working on sustainability and farming issues along with addressing challenges of the rural-urban divide. And finally, the only reason I can think of which would induce me to leave Oregon would be if Michelle Obama hired me to be her Let’s Move! intern. That said, although I demand to once again live in an urban center, it doesn’t have to be Portland.

North Powder, and the Elkhorns in the distance

I am looking for any input my lovely readers might have on organizations I should learn more about, and most particularly introductions to people who work on sustainable food issues who would be willing to give me an informational interview about their job, organization and career advice. It was a brilliantly-timed informational interview with the right person that brought me to FoodCorps, and I can only hope I get so lucky again. I’ve started with EcoTrust’s Farm to School Program (my dream company), but want to learn about other food-oriented nonprofits in Portland. I want to know if there are any urban demonstration farms in Portland (like Montana’s Missoula Urban Demonstration Project), CSAs, or small scale food processors that might have either advice or job openings.

 I am available for hire in early August!

Ratatouille

Although it’s more fun to boast about my successes in getting kids to eat Brussels sprouts or be excited about kale chips, I don’t want to mislead you into thinking that I win every time. There are always days, and foods, that despite my greatest enthusiasm and pep, simply don’t make it with our students.

This week we served ratatouille on the lunch line as a hot side which students were not obligated to try. Zucchini, tomatoes and various herbs made what I thought to be an appealing and delicious dish. Middle school students arrived first for lunch, and not surprisingly most of them passed on these veggies. One girl stopped long enough to look disgusted and say “Ew.” Somehow she escaped without having to pick zucchini out of her hair. I don’t mind students passing on the ratatouille, but such blatant rudeness left me steamed. One other student looked at what I was serving and said, “That’s disgusting,” which was enough for me. Every student who followed these two received a spoonful of ratatouille and a semi-enthusiastic lecture that went something like this: “This is ratatouille, just like from the movie! You don’t have to like this but you do have to try a bite and you need to be polite about.” Older students were also informed that any rude comments would result in the confiscation of their chocolate milk.

While I’m sure most middle- and high-school students didn’t try the ratatouille, the elementary students respond much more appropriately. A chorus of obedient “please’s” and “thank you’s” runs down the line, and when I wander the cafeteria many are willing to try a tiny bite and declare it delicious (although refuse to eat any more.) I had a long discussion with a kindergarten boy who was worried that if he tried the ratatouille he wouldn’t like it. I assured him that it was ok. “If you don’t like a food, do you think it’s polite to make a face and yell, gross?” Pause. “No.” “That might hurt my feelings. Instead, you can say, ‘Ms. Estrem, I don’t care for this,’ or ‘You know, Ms. Estrem, this isn’t to my liking today.’”

He tried a bite, which was followed by a dramatic face and a run to the garbage can. After some prompting, he told me that he didn’t care for the ratatouille. A smattering of students seemed to actually enjoy the dish, and three came back for seconds, to great celebration.

After a long week I was frustrated by the overall reaction to this meal, but now I’m more motivated than ever to come up with new methods for trying new foods.

New Year Ambitions

I have been a very lousy blogger lately. This is not because nothing is going on at North Powder, because in fact vast things are happening. Winter vacation was extended by two days to allow us to “finish” moving into our newly-constructed cafeteria and kitchen.

The cafeteria and kitchen that North Powder has depended upon for decades was located in the basement of the high school. Cold, isolated and too small to fit all of the students we needed to feed, the old kitchen was in dire need of upgrading. Now the kitchen staff is practically giddy with excitement about the stainless steel countertops, enormous pantry, and the office with a window! The kitchen looks out onto the new cafeteria, an enormous room where kids will eat their lunches but will also serve as an all-purpose room thanks to tables which easily fold up into the walls. Although glorious in its own right, the new facility is particularly exciting because it will expand the opportunities for us to work with students and their food. An entire class will be able to fit into the kitchen, and we are now only a minute walk from the kindergarten-5^th grade classrooms. 

The enthusiasm sparked by the kitchen is also expanding to the greenhouse. Although we have some kinks to work out (like some of the ovens don’t work and the greenhouse is way too hot for cold-crops), I anticipate that we will soon be able to bring students out to start planting, cooking and composting. Through some newly-acquired funding, we should be able to buy many of the supplies I’ve been dreaming about; planting pots, a garden cart, a food processor. Though we are starting the year with an overwhelming amount of organizing, sorting, and general chaos, once we are settled in our new space, expect to hear of great things from the North Powder Farm to School program!

Winter Challenges

Back when I was first researching FoodCorps sites in Oregon, I skimmed the paragraph on North Powder, laughed and said, “Hell, no!”

Once I read through the sites in more detail, however, the main reason which made me laugh was the thing that brought me here in the end. I knew from my Montana experience that I was uniquely qualified to live- and thrive in- a small, isolated community.

My placement here has been a fantastic success and I’m having a blast, which means that encountering new challenges has been a disorienting surprise.

This weekend I was supposed to attend a FoodCorps Oregon training in Tillamook, but I couldn’t make it across the Blue Mountains thanks to a heavy snowfall. I joined my peers through conference calls and Skype, which was helpful but also a harsh reminder of how isolated I am out here, and just how long winter is going to be.

 I’ve coped by baking an inappropriate amount of cookies and cupcakes for a healthy food educator, and I’m also lucky to have a high-maintenance dog that constantly needs to be walked or taken to the vet (she’s currently healthy).

Although it is hard living in such an isolated place, I am grateful when I remember all of the advantages I have that Montana lacked: a wonderful supervisor, supportive and friendly colleagues, a fantastic housemate, a puppy and a working heater. These are all things that will make this winter much more enjoyable!

Why Aren't there more Brussels Sprouts?

Brussels sprouts, the scourge of dinner tables everywhere. There perhaps isn’t a vegetable that has been more characterized as inedible by children everywhere. When I saw they were on our lunch menu last week, even I wasn’t sure how to make them a success. My first effort was to advertise lunch as “Beef stroganoff with brassica oleracea.”

Middle school eats first, and every student tried to bypass me and my spoonful of Brussels sprouts. I chased them down, and even threw a couple of the veggies around, but knew this wasn’t sustainable persuasion. My final solution was to take the silverware tray and not let students take a fork until they let me put a sprout on their tray. They were grumpy, but the idea of eating beef stroganoff with their fingers was powerful motivation.

Elementary students were almost as reluctant. “What is that?” “It’s brassica oleracea,’ I told them. ‘It’s related to kale, and we cooked it the same way as kale chips which is why it smells so good in here.” Some nodded, interested, while others shouted out accusatorily, “Brussels sprouts!”

While the elementary students ate, I wandered the cafeteria asking kids to taste the veggie. When they saw the high-fives and crazy dance that was dispensed upon the consumption of each sprout, the cafeteria started to ring with shouts. “Ms. Estrem, Ms. Estrem, look at this!” as they popped sprout after sprout into their mouths. “Look, I ate three!” “Can I have some more?” The kitchen staff giggled as we served seconds and thirds, and students begged for more as they walk out the door to recess. It amazed even me at how easy it was to get them to eat this most despised of vegetables. It was a reminder that in today’s culture eating food often isn’t actually about food- commercials tell us that eating a specific food will make us happy, win us prizes, make other people like us. It turns out watching me boogie absurdly around the cafeteria is enough incentive for our students to chow down on Brussels sprouts.

When the after-school kids were serving up the leftovers from lunch, I heard one second-grader ask plaintively, “Why aren’t there more Brussels sprouts?” I told her they had been finished at lunch, and asked if she could make it until the next time we served them in the cafeteria. She nodded, grudgingly. Imagine, looking forward to Brussels sprouts day!

Roasted Brussels sprouts

Toss Brussels sprouts in olive oil and salt, and bake at 350 until outer edges are crisp.