News & Views

I was excited to see an article in this Sunday’s local paper entitled “Alimentos, Por que no saben como antes?” (“Food, why doesn’t it taste like it used to?”)

The article discusses fruits and vegetables and the fact that what is available today does not taste like what was available in the past. In an optimistic tone however, it goes on to say that there are alternatives to return to the pleasure of the flavors of the past, and highlights various options such as seeking out organic and local agriculture, saving seeds to grow your own, eating seasonally and generally restructuring or re-prioritizing one’s philosophy of life. 

 With a mission of “providing access to healthy food for all by cooking and eating together,” Our Community Kitchen

If you live in Minneapolis, and are a local food junkie, you might have heard some rumblings about the Urban Agriculture Zoning Text Amendments that are coming before the City Council's Zoning and Planning Comittee on March 1. This process, prompted by Homegrown Minneapolis way back in 2008, has been a long time coming in terms of making urban agriculture a legal use of land in the City of Minneapolis. After a two-year process in which stakeholders, urban farmers, city officials, and neighborhood residents have agonized over striking the right balance between the entrepreneurial urban farmers’ needs and neighbors’ peace of mind, these amendments to the Minneapolis zoning code are in danger of being severely weakened to the point of undoing all of the careful work by city planners, citizen advisory committees and urban farmers.

Could you work up an appetite to rally around the cause of expanding access to local foods? A rallying of 70 community supporters came together in Fillmore County recently to do just that. Peggy Hanson (hilarious blow-by-blow how-to-use-a-CSA blogger for Featherstone Farm from 2009 to 2011) and Frank Wright (local gardener extraordinaire and rhubarb crop specialist) hosted the event in their home, the former Cady Hayes House bed & breakfast establishment in Lanesboro. But the real engine behind the affair was a cluster of passionate 20-somethings who recruited food donors, planned the menu, signed up cooks and orchestrated all the logistics. The dinner was a gala of volunteers, each sharing his or her authentic specialty, be it food, food prep, or flying through a pile of dishes. 

On January 17th, someone was filling their cart with bulk goods. Another happy shopper was buying a smoothie, while yet another perused the fresh made bakery items. It seemed like just another day at the Wedge Co-op in Minneapolis. Yet, above these shoppers strange things were happening. People were gathering, some giddy, others chatty, some--like me--were curious.

On an evening in mid October we pulled our car into a neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis. As we stepped out into one of the first really crisp fall nights of the season we followed a crowd of people walking from parked cars and bikes to a well lit house. Brazenly parked in front of the house was a school bus with the words "Sister Camelot" painted on the side. Inside the bus was a fully equipped kitchen where a feast was being prepared. Though I was tempted to stay outside and investigate, it was quite chilly so I made my way through the gathering of people into the house where the Eat For Equity(E4E) event was being held. 

If you haven't yet, check out part 1 of my exploration of food issues from Argentina.

As I have attempted to continue writing about the food traditions, habits and beliefs of my acquaintances in Argentina, all seems to turn to the topic of the social life here. While food rituals are shared by families and include specific familiar dishes and routines, the social culture, and its rules and expectations dominate most interactions, and thus, any shared experiences of eating.

Leaves had fallen and forecasters told ghastly stories of a fast-approaching cold front with resulting snow. While the neighbors switched out their wardrobes, strung their Christmas lights and tapped in their snow-markers, we were busy packing our bags full of t-shirts and summer pajamas. My family was heading out of town, we were going down south for two weeks. Houston, Texas was the get-away destination.

Once a month, when I was a kid growing up in the 70’s in Minneapolis, my entire family would pile into the car and head over to North Country Coop on the West Bank. We would go into the ‘back room’ where giant blocks of cheese waited for someone to cut and wrap them. In exchange for our contribution as working members of the coop, we received a sizable discount on our organic fruit, vegetable, dairy and bread purchases. This was my first exposure to the culture of organic and sustainable foods and the cooperative system of bringing this food to the public. It was not fancy or grandiose. In fact, it was more like a warehouse than a grocery store. 

When I discovered the "What-If" Food Challenge on the Wedge Co-op's website, I had to learn more. I love the idea of testing ourselves and learning by doing. By the time I even found it, there was only one more post left so there was plenty of reading to do. I read through each post, which painstakingly documents Elizabeth Archerd's daily discoveries while living on a tight food budget.