Gleaner Article: Dinner on the Farm

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20101223/cook/cook2.html

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2011/01/the_caribbean_goes_organic
The Caribbean Goes Organic
There's something delicious going on in the islands. Grab a fork and dig in.

By Jon Paul Buchmeyer
January 2011

The Christmas Diet Song

Twas the night before Christmas and all round my hips were coconut drops that sneaked past my lips. Fudge brownies were stored in the freezer with care in hopes that my thighs would forget they were there.

While Mama in her girdle and I in chin straps had just settled down to sugar-borne naps. When out in the pantry there arose such a clatter I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the kitchen I flew like a flash tore open the icebox then threw up the sash. The marshmallow look of the new-fallen snow sent thoughts of a binge to my body below.

When what to my wandering eyes should appear: a gazzada Santa with eight chocolate reindeer! That huge chunk of candy so luscious and slick I knew in a second that I'd wind up sick.

The sweet-coated Santa, those sugared reindeer I closed my eyes tightly but still I could hear; On Diet A, on Diet B, on weak one, on TOPS a Weight Watcher dropout from sugar detox.

From the top of the scales to the top of the hall now dash away pounds now dash away all. Dressed up in loose frocks from my head to nightdress my clothes were all bulging from too much excess.

My droll little mouth and my round little belly they shook when I laughed like a bowl full of jelly. I spoke not a word but went straight to my work ate all of the candy then turned to nyam jerk.

And laying a finger beside my heartburn I gave a quick nod toward the bedroom I turned. I eased into bed, to the heavens I cry if temptation's removed I'll get thin by and by.

And I mumbled again as I turned for the night in the morning I'll starve . . . 'til I take that first bite.

Burb! Burp!...'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky!~

Holiday Dieting Tips

• If no one sees you eat it, it has no calories.

• If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, they cancel each other out.

• When eating with someone else, calories don't count if you both eat the same amount. (the equalizer effect)

• Foods used for medicinal purposes have no calories. This includes any chocolate used for energy, brandy, spiced black fruit cake (eaten until righteously tipsy), Devon House Pharmaceutical ice cream.

• Movie-related foods are much lower in calories simply because they are a part of the entertainment experience and not part of one's personal fuel. This includes popcorn with butter, paradise plum, toffee, busta and juju's.

• Cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breakage causes calorie leakage.

• If you eat the food off someone else's plate, it doesn't count.

• If you eat standing up the calories all go to your feet and get walked off.

• Food eaten at Christmas parties has no calories, courtesy of the Santa "pass card".

• STRESSED is just DESSERTS spelled backward.

Bon Appetit...Least Likely Foods Affected by Pesticides if Price of Organics is an Issue
...foods which seems absolutely localvore for us... kindly supporting our local farmers, distributors and their roadside vendors!

www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Save-on-Sustainable-Gallery-440328 08

Buying local foods encourages local farms to stay in business, which is especially crucial now: (In the US) Every minute, two acres of agricultural land are lost to development ...(American Farmland Trust).
Where will food come from if too many farms convert to housing or other uses?

www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/definitions/Localvores-Localtarians

Edible SchoolYards...Liz Solms...Sandy Bank School

A recent pilgrimage to Chez Panisse Restaurant*, a foodie's shrine in Berkeley California, introduced us to a revealing side issue to localvore-organic nutrition philosophy.
(*Chez Panisse: one of the World's 50 Best Restaurants)

Alice Waters, the restaurant's founder and an educational activist has helped create a middle school project called the Edible Schoolyard to assist in the the teaching of nutrition (including weight management & food prep), science and even history and art through the influence of food.

Some have accused Ms Waters of appealing to an elite, do-gooder clientele in her restaurant philosophy which espouses organic-local foods and the support of the farmers who grow them.

The much higher prices for the meals served at Chez Panisse, as compared to neighbouring establishments, reflect partially the greater costs in bringing her food to the table. With books touting the restaurant's menus and rustically elegant presentations, it's not strange to understand Chez Panisse's esteem & reputation in the foodie world.

There's even a whiff of self-righteousness that emits from a promoter, often whispered to be Saint Alice.
(Wiki: Waters has been cited as the most influential person in food in the past 50 years, and has been called the mother of American food.)

I believe that Liz Solms, through the Treasure Beach Ital Farmers Association (TIFA) has identified with the "slow-food", localvore-organic movement and an objective to promote awareness of organic agriculture in Jamaica, may have some familiarity with Waters' Edible Schoolyard project.

If she is a reader of this forum, there is a curiosity if anything like Edible Schoolyard has been attempted at Sandy Bank Primary. Would 'Dull' McLean (at Round Hill) or any of the TIFA farmers be interested in assisting the teaching the youth some of these aspects of "freshness, tastiness, healthiness and sustainability" in an academic-yard setting?

Mission & Goals of the Edible Schoolyard Programme:
www.edibleschoolyard.org/mission-goals

VIDEOS:
Alice Waters & the Edible Schoolyard
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVrnqZsghHk

Edible Schoolyard (from the Food Fight Documentary)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qApx7O6phWo

Liz Solm Quote:
Jamaica teaches you to have a form of resilience and perseverance in its purest state. It's sort of like: Ok, there are obstacles, but so what? Despite economic and infrastructural restraints, we've managed to pull off a world class program. This truly speaks to the power of persistence, which is something I see as culturally engrained in the fabric of Jamaican society.

Alice Waters Quote:
“I believe that how you eat, and how you choose your food, is an act which combines the political – your place in the world of other people – with the most intensely personal – the way you use your mind and your senses, together, for the gratification of your soul. It can change the way we treat each other, and it can change the world.”

Inspiring Example of Elementary School Inner-City Agriculture: Wash DC

"The (school) farm has become an outdoor classroom and part of the school curriculum. All students get to participate in cultivating the land... 'the farm provides unlimited opportunities for students to strengthen and extend academic skills from all areas of existing curricula.'
A prime example is photosynthesis in science class, where the children experience a tactile, real interpretation of the subject in the garden. The list goes on, from insects to geometry, to growing sunflowers, painting them, and then relating them to the brilliant renditions of Van Gogh.

One more important lesson the children are learning is to share and help others"...

www.hillrag.com/CCN_Website09/images/papers/DCN/Dec/1210/pdfs/32-33_MCDC_1210.pd f