The Future of Food

Just read an interesting article by Makenna Goodman of Chelsea Green, about the movie Food, Inc.

http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/the-future-of-food-ceo-says-some-organic-companies-use-feedlotswho-can-we-trust/

Yup, very interesting and worth exploring more.

Rural Heritage Institute at Sterling

Well folks, it’s here.

Incredibly exciting program with all kinds of workshops, presentations, field trips and fascinating roundtables.

I’m particularly interested in the Farmer’s Roundtable held tonight and moderated by Severine Von Tscharner Fleming of The Greenhorns. It’s a great group of farmers who will be participating and I’m looking forward to the discussion.

The author of American Cheeses:The Best Regional, Artisan, and Farmhouse Cheeses, Who Makes Them, and Where to Find Them, Clark Wolf will moderate a Chef’s Roundtable on Wednesday night after the Local Foods Banquet, of which I am honored to participate in with a group of talented chefs from the area: Eric Warnstedt of Hen of the Wood, Steven Obranovich of Claire’s Restaraunt and Jeff Egan of The Bee’s Knees. I feel humble…

Meanwhile, the staff and myself will be in the kitchen cooking up all kinds of goodies. In particular, the Local Foods Banquet will have much of our own Sterling grown food along with roasted chicken from Gopher Broke Farm; vegetables and greens from Pete’s Greens, Bub’s Best, Hazendale Farm, and local cheese from Bonnieview and Ploughgate. We are putting extra emphasis on local this week, fresh bread coming out of our ears, and desserts that makes our bellies smile.

The Bread Oven at Sterling College

Organized by Heidi Wilson, our Garden Manager, and built by an enthusiastic group of our students along with Bread and Puppet’s Peter Schumann, our new wood fired bread oven sits just outside the kitchen window after being built a month ago. Currently stuffed with grass, twigs, wood, etc., we are waiting for it to cure properly before the first lighting.

Although I was hesitant in my regard how to utilize the oven for our bread and bakery items in such a face paced environment, Heidi’s enthusiasm is contagious and inspiring. She created a student held position to essentially manage the bread oven each semester and I’ve had more inquiries for this position than I know what to do with. Folks are excited! Tune in later for pictures and updates.

Alas, I am woefully ignorant of all the details of how this was built, but I can tell you this: It looked like a lot of hard work from where I was standing…