Work and Food May 31, 2008

Last fall I traded some homemade salsa with one of my coworkers for a dozen eggs from her hens. This year we are taking staff trips to the local farmers market in the middle of the day, and bragging about whose CSA was what available each week. It has been a lovely way to get to know the people I work with everyday through our common connections to local places and local food.

Reading this blog post from the Official Google blog, I got thinking about the intersection of where we work and how we eat. Here is a snippet from the Google post:

You Are What You Waste May 31, 2008

I stumbled on this blog post in my ramblings across the world wide web and the headline – “US wastes 27% of food available for consumption” – caught my attention. I thought it might catch yours too.

When I was in college one of the big activities of the Environmental Action student group was a multi-year “Waste-watch” in the campus dining halls. We essentially stood by the trash bins and as students came up to toss their left overs we had them scrape the food waste in one bin and the paper/other waste in another. At the end of the night we would weigh the food waste and post it up in the dining hall – challenging students to do better.

RecipeHacking Number 2 – Results! May 19, 2008

The results are in for our second round of RecipeHacking. The triumphant winner of the Beans and Rice Challenge is Dan E. (with an honorable mention to Dave V. for posting the original bean cake recipe – great concept)! Congratulations Dan! While we appreciated Shawn’s sexy texy-mexy version with green rice, adored the sheer poetry of Brian’s recipe, and enjoyed the images of floating around the Caribbean that Justin conjured up with his coconut and rum flavored concoction – ultimately we just couldn’t pass on the pineapple rice!

Dan – you are catering to this judge more than you know (pun intended). I am pregnant and the one and only craving I’ve had so far is for pineapple. I can’t get enough of it these days! Love the innovative combination of flavors in your recipe – especially the added freshness of cilantro – goes great with the pineapple. Get in touch with us here or via facebook to claim your prize! 

Thanks to everyone who participated in our second hacking challenge! Keep spreading the word and get ready to race to your kitchens – the third challenge is on it’s way! 

Food Songs, part three May 19, 2008

I was first introduced to these two traditional songs via the Nields, who were featured in our last Food Songs post. Notice how food in these songs is taken out of the purely human context and interwoven with the surrounding environment. So much of our food is removed from the natural world around us, these songs are good reminders of the nature of our meals.

Oh, John the Rabbit
Traditional American Folk Song

Oh, John the rabbit, Yes, Ma’am
Got a mighty habit, Yes, Ma’am
Jumping in my garden, Yes Ma’am
Cutting down my cabbage, Yes Ma’am
My sweet potatoes, Yes Ma’am
My fresh tomatoes, Yes Ma’am