Watch my video: This is Salvi. He is from the Bronx NY. During these eight weeks of FoodWorks we have explored the big topics of Local and Organic food, of which the State of Vermont has historically been a strong leader. We have listened to people talk about their initiatives and strategies to push for more local, organic and sustainable. In the end, the discourse about food here is the same as about decision-making: it has to come up from the grassroots and be healthy  […]

About a month and a half ago, I attended a three day punk festival in Montreal. Late one night, exhausted and hungry after spending the previous hours crashing and clashing with the crowd at Dillinger Four, I and a couple of the folks that had been spending the weekend with went in search of sustenance. Given the hour and our budgets, we ended up at a greasy pizza joint, trying to figure out what exactly the alarmingly orange pellets on the “Montreal” were. Our confidence  […]

The definition of a weed is a plant growing where it is not wanted. That’s all. This means that what is and is not a weed varies across time and place. In fact, a plant may simultaneously be considered a weed and not a weed by two different people (or even two competing opinions in one person’s mind!) observing it at the same time and in the same place. A lot of my time these days is spent weeding, so I have plenty of opportunities  […]

Partway through this past semester I brought my family’s waffle iron to school. I was living in a suite with some friends, and we used the iron to make sweet and savory waffles for snacks and meals. Having the waffle iron reminded me of the times my parents had made waffles when we had relatives over, during relaxing weekend mornings, or for special occasions. It was also exciting to experiment with different types of waffles. We made waffles with a variety of ingredients including rice  […]

This past school year I was an RA in a sophomore dorm, so I used “building community” as a justification for my stress baking habit. I have found that people are more willing to offer a sentence or two when I trade cookies for words. Although I made some meaningful and some shallow connections this year when there was food involved, I have had repeatedly meaningful eating experiences at the farmers’ market that we frequent on Saturdays in Louisville. Rowan is always introducing us to  […]

Four days a week for my internship, I help prepare a meal for 40 people give or take, the vast majority of whom are economically poor. Sure, the food is part of it. We have to make sure enough egg salad sandwiches are ready, along with two main dishes, a green salad, and whatever deserts and sides have been donated. The food is the time-consuming part but in the end, it is the easy part of the meal prep. The hard part of the meal  […]

In the past three years after I came to the United States to study, I didn’t have as much time eating with my family. I miss home food and those time with my family. One of my most favorite time of the year is meeting with my whole family for Tomb Sweeping Day. Because my family has a Chinese blood, every year we go to the ancestral gravesite to glorify our ancestors and clean the site. It is one of the most important time of the year that all of my family  […]

Ever since I read the book “Goat Song,” by Brad Kessler, I’ve been in love with the concept of “terroir.” It’s a term that belongs to the world of winemaking, and refers to the unique environmental conditions that create the inimitable taste of a certain wine. Subtle differences in soil, temperature, humidity, and numerous other factors mean that no two bottles are ever the same, at least in the eyes of an aficionado (which I am most definitely not). Once upon a time, I saw  […]

As I read today’s blog prompt, I realized that my last post about dinner at Claude’s house nicely answers this prompt as well last week’s. I think that goes to show the consistent themes among Berry’s writings from section to section and time period to time period as well as the importance of preparing and/or eating food with others. The example which I’ll describe in this post has many similarities to that of the dinner at Claude’s house, and is equally as memorable of an  […]

When I was abroad in Madrid, Spain, my friends and I celebrated Thanksgiving. What made this special was the fact that our differences brought us together. We were celebrating Thanksgiving in a different country and we were sharing a part of our culture to other peers from different countries. It was a bit difficult to find a whole turkey and all of the staples that we may be used to in the United States. However, this allowed us to improvise and make the dinner unique.  […]