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Sorens Blog

Soren's Blog

The quest for slowness, which begins as a simple rebellion against the impoverishment of taste in our lives, makes it possible to rediscover taste. - Carlo Petrini

Food Blog Review

There are over 30 slow food schools in the United States who serve slow food and teach the kids about where the food comes from. Students after a 2-3 years of education about slow food, the students run the farmers markets each week.

"The students are learning about marketing and economics, while also making sure that fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables are making it into their own family kitchens"

This is important because most city kids don't actually know where our food comes from. If children have an education, especially about Slow Food, they will become gastronomes and teach their kids about gastronomy and the whole idea of Slow Food.

http://www.slowfoodblog.org/?p=56#more-56

Letter to the editor

Dear Laura,

I really enjoyed your article, Is Organic Food Really Better for You? December 2007/January 2008, published in Mother Earth News.

It's good to know that more studies are being conducted on organic produce. This one in particular shows that flavonoids in organic products were found in significantly higher levels, (quercetin levels were 79% higher and levels of kaempferol were 97% in organically grown fruit).

I would like to add that Slow Food International, founded by Carlo Petrini can take this research to an even higher level. Slow Food invites everyone to become a gastronome, one who enjoys food at its highest potential and learns where our food comes from and of it's stages of production and marketing until it comes to our kitchen and our plates.

Carlo Petrini says:

“I am a gastronome. No, not the glutton with no sense of restraint whose enjoyment of food is greater the more plentiful and forbidden it is. No, not the fool who is given to the pleasures of the table and indifferent to how the food got there. I like to know the history of a food and of the place that it comes from, I like to imagine the hands of the people who grew it, transported it, processed it, and cooked it before it was served to me. I do not want the food I consume to deprive others in the world of food. I like traditional farmers, the relationship they have with the earth, and the way they appreciate what is good. The good belongs to everyone; pleasure belongs to everyone, for it is human nature.”

If we can become gastronomes we can enjoy our food slowly, locally, and restore our food to its traditional roots. We will receive great benefits in all stages of production, from farmer to market to our plate.

This is how food should be eaten and enjoyed.

I'm sure that flavonoids and other vitamins and minerals would be much higher in locally grown organic foods because they can be picked ripe and do not loose nutrients during transport. This could be a future research study.

Sincerely,

Soren Pearson

Field Trip - 12/12/07

We visited the Farmers' All Natural Creamery in Kalona where we got a tour of the facility. The Creamery is an organic dairy and the milk comes from 25 -30 Amish farms in Kalona.

After the tour we got the chance to taste different kinds of cheeses and taste plain and chocolate milk as well as different flavors of yogurt.

After visiting the creamery, we stopped at the Farmers Hen House, were we saw the process of production and of testing the eggs for cracks and then the final boxing.

I noticed that they had a ping pong table in the lobby, when you walk in the door. This got me thinking that they play more ping pong than egg packaging. Maybe they even use eggs as ping pong balls.

After leaving the egg packaging plant, we went to New Pioneer Coop in Iowa City for lunch.

Lonnie met one of the staff there and she ended up giving us a tour of the bakery which was pretty interesting. I leaned that the cooks come in at 4 AM in the morning to start baking bread. I also found it interesting that they use a natural levening for the sourdough breads instead of traditional yeast.

I also found it interesting that the coop is run by the people who shop there, 17,000 families.

Lastly, we drove to Wilson's apple orchard where the elderly couple served us popcorn and fresh cut apples. They talked about how they started their orchard and what got them interested in apples.

Report on The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens - Daniel Wing, Alan Scott

Click here for an excerpt about Masonry Ovens

I found this book very fascinating and it covers all aspects of bread making.

It covers:

• Grains and flour

• Yeast and natural leavening

• Dough development - this means different ways of kneading (by hand or the use of a machine), proofing (letting the dough rise), forming the loaves and slashing (cutting the slashes in the top of the brea, allows it rise without tearing)

• Baking, ovens and bread - The baking process

• Gives a history of Masonry ovens in American and Europe

• Gives exact instructions on how to construct your own masonry oven and it uses.

The advantage of a masonry oven is that it allows the baker to get a loaf that looks, tastes, and chews and tastes wonderful, the way bread should taste.

If one can’t afford to construct a masonry oven, you can buy a cloche and get the same results as from a masonry oven.

The benefits over supermarket bread:

• Artisan bread has a thick crust that varies in color that is ripped open from water escaping

• Crumb is irregular with different air holes from gas bubbles escaping

• It smells like the grains and a little fermented from the natural leavening and feels springy, dry and you can slice it with a knife and it wont crush like super market bread, you have to chew it

• It is nutritious and provides vitamins and minerals and does not dissolve in your mouth and become gummy

In Europe, the design was in use for over 2,000 years like one outside our classroom from the romans. there one was oven for the whole village and the families used the oven make their own bread. To distinguish bread, the families would slash their loves with their own pattern, so each family got back its own bread. The families also grew the grains to make the flower and shared the natural leaven with other families.

In summary, this is the way bread should be produces and enjoyed to its fullest extent which Carlo Petrini would except whole heartedly. This is a perfect example of Slow food and of a producing community, where everyone is co-producer.

Now, we have lot the connection to making great bread and we need to have more artisan bread tasting, so people know what it is and learn more about it. I'm sure people will end up making their own bread to share with each other and the community.