Kids Rally for A Fair Farm Bill

We are so lucky to live in Berkeley and have parents and neighbors who understand what good food is and what we need to do to

get small and medium farms the kind of support that previously has only been made available to big ag. It is such a travesty that our local family farms are having a hard time supporting their families because big ag is cheapening our food supply and with our government's help, squeezing out our local families who have been farming for generations.

I must also say, that there is a reason that big ag doesn't want you to know about their unethical practices. They are killing your family, slowly. The government subsidies of such corrupt corporations are training Americans to think that food should be cheap.

But the real cost of bringing that chemically processed, unethically produced product to your table and mine is staggering. And it goes against every single thing that your parents, God and the Universe teaches us.

I am truly afraid of what greed buys. Our world, our way of living, our effect on the planet and each other is suffering so greatly.

Isn't it time to STOP? Isn't it time to listen to that inner voice that says, perhaps I shouldn't feed my kid milk which has HFC added? Perhaps I should let cows eat what God made them to eat.....grass? Perhaps I should let that baby cow stay with his mother and let him see the light of day ? Perhaps I should try to understand that the USDA just passed an insecticide that labs use to CAUSE CANCER to spray on our strawberries?

What madness made someone decide that these decisions are okay and how much money does it take to make the very government that we create, suddenly think that giving kids cancer on their summer fruit is the right thing to do?

I just don't get it.

I know, that we are all jaded. I know that we are bombarded with political bullshit and tough decisions in our daily lives. But just like in so many other ways that our country has gone wrong, how long will it take for us to get back to the real issues and for our hearts to find a place again for doing the right thing, just because it is the right thing to do?

My kid knows what is right. Her classmates do too. And somewhere, I venture to guess, deep inside.....in the place where you keep hidden the little child, just learning about the world that you once were....you do too.

Be proud of this one thing that you do today to make the world, your own neighborhood, a better place. Give of your heart today.

I dare you.

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/farm-bill-2012/

Happy Birthday Alice!!

It is no surprise to anyone who knows me even casually that I am president of Alice Waters and the Edible Schoolyard's fan club.

Alice has been so fundamental in my culinary sense and development. As I have become a Mother and grown in my own career as a Chef, I have seen first hand the magic in her philosophy and the work that has been the passion of her life.

I work with kids for whom it has been a big deal to get to go to Mc Donalds. I cook for these kids and their families, who's lives have been filled with nothing but processed foods. These families come to Seneca for help and counsel and I am the lucky one who has the privilege of introducing them to the freshest, local fruits and vegetables. Foods that they never have seen let alone tasted from organic farms grown locally in season. The looks on their faces when they first see an heirloom tomato with its tiger stripes and funky irregular shape! Then, finally, when they screw up the courage to try the thing......a sweet smile of amazement fills their faces as drips of tomato juice drip down their eager chins and I am filled forever and reminded why I do what I do!!

Both my parents, food mavericks in their own ways, and Alice are responsible for this. My career, my joy in the farmers at the markets hawking their home grown wares with the excitement of a new parent, my amazement in sharing my world with my own precious daughter Lucia, my deep appreciation for my sweet husband Troy who's motto since meeting and wooing me has become "shut up and eat it, it will be wonderful", and my devotion to sourcing the best for "my kids" at Seneca.....all of this, I give up to Alice.

Alice.......with all of my heart, thank you for your determination. Thank you for your commitment to all of our children and putting the future of food squarely in their eager hands. And lastly, thank you for your patience, for 30 years, waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.

Happy Birthday Alice!!

Slow Food USA's Time for Lunch EAT-IN, Time for REAL food in schools!

Okay so most of you who know me well, know that I cook for kids and several times a year do special food functions for the CEO of Seneca Center and Alameda Board of Education representative, Ken Berrick. Ken is a master fund raiser and for the 22 or so years he has headed up Seneca, he has been fighting to make things better for Bay Area kids. The meals are important, because they keep Seneca at the fore front in legislators minds.

One thing is common, among all the people who visit Seneca each and every year. They all say what a good job our staff and administrators do in living and modeling our motto "unconditional care" and they say how great the food is.

I have been with Seneca for eight years. In that time, many changes have happened. But constant is the support that I have gotten in planning, ordering and producing good, clean and fair food for my kids and staff here. I would like to think that other therapeutic agencies and schools are modelling this part of what we have done here at Seneca, but alas....they are not.

Kids in most California public schools and in schools all over the country are treated like bargain trash compactors. The schools sell the USDA mass produced product that they get for free to our kids, and as a result, our kids are the fattest, most lethargic and unhealthiest in recorded history. In my opinion, this is due to several reasons....one of the most important being the quality of food that they are being offered and served in schools.

It is bad enough in our society that most of us cannot afford our own homes, and have to choose to put good, clean and fair food on the table or put gas in our cars to get to work each day. No matter what challenges we face as adults, our children deserve to have good food in their bellies. Food that will not only nourish their bodies and minds...but their souls!!

Where our food comes from makes a difference! If you have not yet seen the barrage of politics of food and food supply books and movies out recently, I urge you to educate yourself about this issue if you haven’t already. Books like Fast Food Nation and the Omneviores Dilema. Movies like: SuperSize Me, Food Inc, King Corn and Fresh....show mass food production like it is. When a sick and injured cow is herded by a forklift into the slaughter house, alive and knowing what is about to happen...does that fear that rushes into that poor animal's brain also rush cortisol and adrenaline into the meat that we later consume? My opinion is that it does.

Modern day enslavement and abuse of immigrant and low-income American workers, mistreatment of our livestock and animals, diabetes, disease, death. If these costs were exposed to the average person, they would understand clearly that real, healthy, locally- and fairly-produced food is actually much cheaper than fast-food.

The time to act is now. Legislation for The Child Nutrition Act is a federal law that comes up for re-authorization in Congress every four to five years. It governs the National School Lunch Program, which sets the standard for the food that more than 30 million children eat every school day.

In the last few decades, as school budgets have been cut, our nation's schools have struggled to serve children the real food they need.

The deadline for reauthorizing the current Child Nutrition Act is September 2009. Unless we speak up this summer, “business as usual” on Capitol Hill will let Congress pass a Child Nutrition Act that continues to fail our children.

I urge all who read this to sign the petition and "EAT IN" for change this Labor Day. Around this great country of ours, Slow Food conviviums are organising huge community pot lucks to draw attention to this issue. If you really care about our children and believe that they deserve better food and food education in schools, then please click on the link below and sign up to join us in the fight! You will have the opportunity to eat some great food yourselves, get to know your neighbors and local food activists and learn what you can do to help.

Alice Waters says it best. "Good, clean and fair food is your right...as a human being". Let's work with her and Michelle Obama to make we don't let our kids health slip through the cracks and good nutrition in schools is a great place to start!

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/campaign/time_for_lunch/about/

Sunday Breakfast

We have a tradition since moving to Berkeley.  On Friday night, to celebrate the end of the week we go out to dinner.  Not usually a fancy affair.....though we usually spend more on food than most families I imagine, we pay for quality and support good, local ingredients.  Neighborhood places, owned by hardworking people who are really focused on the food.  But I digress.

The second part of the weekend food celebration comes on Sunday am, after the Saturday filled with taking the train to the City and spending the better part of the day foraging the best ingredients for my job at Seneca Center, elbowing through the amazing mix of locals and enthusiastic tourists at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.  I love my job, I love the market and all the farmers and local producers that  I have built a relationship with over the years working in the food business....but.....I also really love the chance to relax on Sunday mornings with my sweet Husband and daughter, over a meal that I had to do absolutely nothing for, except drag my hiney out of bed!

Berkeley is an amazing town.  Full of wonderful opinionated folks, a well educated bunch, passionate about their place in society.  It is one of the many reasons that we sought to make this our home.  Certainly, one of the most enjoyable things about Berkeley (Oakland and SF too for that matter!) is the availability of local, sustainably produced food and the hardworking folks that bring it to us everyday.  I am so grateful that on Sundays, I am not one of those people, but a benefactor.  

So on Sunday am we get up and without much thought as to where we will go, we head out the door to partake.  Sometimes I do a little internet research ahead of time, looking at reviews from other folk and Michael Bauer.  Sometimes I have a bee in my bonnet about places that I have had in que and wanted to try.  Most times, Troy and I have a brief discussion and we just go!  

Lucia sometimes has something to say about what she wants to eat, but if we gave her a choice about where to go...she most certainly chooses Cafe Fanny.  Cafe Fanny is one of our old standbys.  The people are so wonderful, always greeting us by name and taking joy in seeing Lucia run around, petting doggies that come with their parents, and sipping on her big girl warm chocolate from a bowl.  Her she has two favorite breakfast selections at Cafe Fanny.  The warm and nutty steel cut oats, served with lovely melting butter and maple syrup. But most often, she chooses a soft boiled egg with Acme toast.  My go-getter, not afraid of anything daughter turns into a real little lady at Cafe Fanny, with her napkin on her lap and her tiny little egg spoon, daintily scooping warm, slightly runny egg from the light green shell.  She usually leaves her toast for last, eating it with cream cheese and their homemade jam. 

Troy and I really like a little and popular French place on Shattuck, I am sure that you will already know of it, it is one of the most popular places for breakfast, it is called La Note.  I always order the same thing.  Softly scrambled eggs with goat cheese and herbs.  It comes with a side of the most delicious oven roasted tomatoes and I suggest that you splurge and get the buttery, crusty croissant or the huge half a baguette instead of the toast.  Leave the butter that it comes with alone, and spread it with the lovely not too sweet raspberry jam that is a house specialty here.  Pure breakfast heaven!!  

We also really like 900 Grayson.  However, we dont get to go here as often as we would because they are not open on Sundays. We usually choose this tiny little heaven of slow food if we suddenly get a wild hair and go out on Saturday morning instead, but as I said before, my Saturdays are usually packed full with the market...so the opportunity does not happen often.  

We really like walking to Bette's on 4th Street. Consistently great food but sometimes the wait is just too much for hungry parents with a five year old.  I have a special place in my heart though for the folks at Bette's because my niece Brittany used to wait tables here.  

Meal Ticket, Cafe M and Leilas are all pretty good but for me uneven.  

Recently on a Sunday am when we decided to venture into the city for a meal, we took a chance and went to the really hipster, upscale Slow Club.  We had to wait more than an hour for a table, and had to really work to keep Lucia occupied for that huge amount of time (thank God for color books and washable pens!) but when we finally got to a table, we had an amazing meal. Lucia was happy with the oatmeal and I ordered a warm flat bread with wilted wild rocket, pecorino and a fried egg.  And...they serve Blue Bottle Coffee. Can you say YUM?  Fabulous is the best word that I can think of.  This place is on our short list for further ventures.

After our meal, we find a nice place to walk some of it off.  Coming prepared with LuLu's pink skitter helps to make it more fun for her, and we get a leisurely start to the end of our weekend. 

I love my job.  I love everything about it.  But I must say, at the end of a busy week being up at 5am, a wife, a mother, a chef and nutritional manager, a housekeeper, gardener, laundress and dog owner....I am most grateful on Sunday morning meals out with my family!