chocolate event

I never really thought of how chocolate came to be in the nice, sweet candy for that I too often enjoy. I never realized that cacao beans could only be grown within twenty degrees of the equator and thus in only one of the fifty United States. There is a lot that I never knew about chocolate until I attended the chocolate and sustainability talk at Eden Hall.
Since it is virtually impossible to produce cacao beans in the United States they are imported from the cacao belt along the equator. Emily from Taza Chocolate in Boston explained that the chocolate they sell comes from the Dominican Republic. The process varies for every chocolate company in the world how much of the process from cacao bean to edible chocolate is done in the factories of the chocolate companies and how much is done on the farms where the cacao beans are grown. Taza Chocolate gets the cacao beans and baca straight from the farm in the Dominican Republic to their factory in Boston once the beans have been fermented and dried. At their factory they proceed to winnow the cacao seeds by taking off the shell and the germ of the seed and then breaking the seeds into nibs. I tasted some of the nibs and they are not quite as bitter as I had expected them to be, in fact less bitter than a plain coffee bean. Once the seeds have been turned into nibs they are then ground into liquor using stone rather than typical metal machinery. The liquor is then combined with some sugar and eventually sent to be tempered. By raising and lowering the temperature of the chocolate they are able to give it the unique flavor and bite that is associated with Taza Chocolate. Once the chocolate is ready it is then molded and eventually hand packed to be shipped and sold around the world in eco-friendly packaging. I find the Taza Chocolate company to be very intriguing. Since it is hard to make “local” chocolate this company does the best that they can to produce a product that is as sustainable to the area where it is both harvested and finally produced. Since the chocolate made by Taza Chocolate is not the standard smooth milk or dark chocolate there is a stand out quality that allows this brand of chocolate to travel farther than some small chocolate companies. Using a traditional Mexican stone press to grind the cacao nibs and adding different flavors, such as more salt or malino, Taza Chocolate has been able to make a bigger name for a smaller company.
I found it very interesting to hear about the chocolate from the Philadelphia confectionary. Though the chocolate is not produced on the grounds of the company, the confectionary still does its best to make their chocolate local. By including products from local gardens, including schools, to flavor the chocolate the confectionary is able to make their chocolate as local as they can. Not only do they use the foods that are available to them for flavoring they also make sure to keep with what is in season rather than freezing something to have it year round. Keeping the flavorings for the chocolate local and fresh is a great way to incorporate the community into a much larger corporation.
The chocolate from the Grenada Chocolate Company was very tasty and interesting. I had never realized that the majority of the chocolate that is produced today is taken away from the land that it is grown on to be processed elsewhere. The Grenada Company keeps the cacao beans that they harvest on their land and process the beans all the way through the final steps of packaging and selling a dark chocolate bar. This process of keeping all of the chocolate making on the land is wonderful because it allows the workers to no longer feel that they are simply paid labor for a large company on another continent. By watching the pods come off the trees to being fermented to being sweetened to eventually being shipped out as bars is a task that makes the workers feel proud. The Grenada Chocolate Company is one of the few organic chocolate companies, especially since they are able to see the entire production of the food they are producing.
In class we have discussed local food and how that affects the communities that it comes from. Since chocolate isn’t usually produced completely locally the trip that it takes affects even more people. When chocolate is able to be produced entirely locally, like in Grenada, it is still not local for Americans and it is often difficult for us to understand that we can’t have things that are made here be considered local. Even when we can’t make things local it is important to watch the effect that a product has on the environment, the land and the people. Organic farms like the Grenada farm are working towards improving their carbon footprint as are companies like Taza Chocolate who use biodegradable packaging materials to attempt to help the environment once the chocolate is out of their hands. One of the most important parts of a production that often spans countries, if not continents, is the treatment of the workers. The worker run company in Grenada is in good hands but places like the Dominican Republic are often neglected when it comes to workers wages and conditions. I wish I had asked Emily about the workers on the farm where they get their beans, if they might be fair trade or similar.
My biggest question about chocolate and its production is probably similar to that of many Americans who are looking to bring everything to America and not be dependent on as many people: is it possible to grow chocolate in the United States? I know that chocolate can only grow twenty degrees from the equator but would something like a green house make it possible to grow cacao trees in different climates? This said, more importantly would it be worth the cost to build such a facility and to take away work from people who are most likely very dependent on growing cacao beans?

king corn and big river event

Having previously viewed King Corn I had an idea of what to expect but I was blown out of the water by what was produced in Big River. It is pretty crazy how much corn we eat everyday without even knowing it! In my yogurt, frosted mini-wheats, or even fresh eggs I will also be eating corn. Usually because of high fructose corn syrup people eat corn without realizing it but it also appears in meats because of the corn that the animals are fed. America grows so much corn every year that sometimes stock piles over flow. Since it looks like the corn is grown by local farmers then it would seem about right to expect the corn to remain local for consumption by local people or local animals if wanted. This said, the corn that is produced locally in Iowa can’t be eaten by people until it has been processed beyond imagination and there are no local animals because the corn has taken all of the land. Well if the corn doesn’t stay local then it must not be too hard to follow one acre of corn to its final destination but reality is quite different. The corn from Iowa is mixed with all of the corn from all around the state and other states to be shipped out by truck and train to places all around the country and sometimes abroad, in order to be processed. Before any of the transporting of the corn can be done there is a great deal of work that must be done to the land to prepare it for the crop that will suck most of the nutrients from the soil. Top loading the soil with nitrogen fertilizer and adding many pesticides to ward off unwanted weeds the ground is plowed and ready to be planted. Unfortunately once the ground is planted and the first rain comes to aid in the growth of the corn, the rain also washes away some of the pesticides and other additives from the soil. Not only does this cause soil erosion but it also moves the horrid chemicals to larger waterways that will spread to larger numbers of people. The different bills that the government has passed over time have lead the farmers in all sorts of directions and now the farmers that are growing the corn are no longer concerned with the land they are growing the crop on as long as it produces the necessary yield. Unless they have their own private garden farmers are no longer able to eat off of their own land and they no longer care about what happens to the food that they grow or the other side effects that it may bring.
There must be a better solution to dealing with the trouble and side effects that the production of corn has on the environment. The runoff from the land is polluting water for countless miles in places that never expect it. The chemicals that are used on the land also become air born and are very dangerous and caused cancer for Chuck Pyatt’s wife who died because of it. My Year of Meats discussed the serious side effects of chemicals not meant for humans but still come in contact but the full effect hasn’t set in for many people until it is too late. If the farmers don’t continue to produce their mountains of corn then they are likely going to lose their land to giant corporations that want to build mega stores, so what other option do they have if they don’t want to move? The water that travels through many rivers obviously affects many people but so does the corn that is fed to the beef that become the 99 cent hamburger at McDonald’s. In addition the billions of people who drink sweetened, bottled drinks that have high fructose corn syrup are affected by the corn that is produced in a little Iowa town that no one has or will ever hear of.
There must be a way to keep people employed at their current jobs while finding a better way to feed people. Since corn seems to be everywhere it would take very great measures to exchange it for something else but is it possible? Could we exchange half of the corn crop for grass that could be sold to cattle ranchers to feed their cattle? I know that corn fattens the cattle up faster but since it increases the amount of fat and chances of illness in the cattle is it possible to exchange at least half of the diet? I’m not sure how but I think there are ways that we can take a lot of the corn our of our diets and improve our environmental impact and I wonder if there are people working towards that or if they are all simply figuring out how to turn corn into ethanol, which we can then breathe into our lungs and ingest more corn by way of automobiles!

strawberries field trip

Recently when I was home I stopped by my grandparents’ house and they were talking about their neighbor who was getting his strawberries ready. We have talked in class about the strawberries that are on sale in the supermarkets that are not quite ripe yet because the season hasn’t truly started. My grandparents’ neighbor however has hydroponic strawberries and so his growing season is much different than that of a regular strawberry farmer. About five years ago Mr. Schneider added six rows of about twelve hydroponic systems that have five layers of four or five cups on each layer. Each cup holds a strawberry plant that will start to produce around the middle of May depending on the weather and continue until the end of October sometimes. Since he keeps his plants outside instead of in a greenhouse he is limited by frosts but the growing season is much longer than if they were grown in the soil. Mr. Schneider has grown strawberries for many, many years but found that switching to hydroponic strawberries not only lengthened the growing season but also limited the number of fertilizers and pesticides he had to buy. Though he doesn’t use nearly as many “-cides” as some farmers, since he is much smaller, he has found that the initial amount of money spent to buy the hydroponic systems was worth the larger upfront cost compared to what he would save in the future. Though his main concern was not necessarily for the environment, Mr. Schneider does realize the positive impact that his hydroponic strawberries are having compared to other options. The strawberries that are produced on Mr. Schneider’s farm are the sweetest, juiciest strawberries I have ever eaten in my entire life, and I am not exaggerating. Hydroponic strawberries tend to have a lighter and sweeter taste to them than standard strawberries and don’t have as long of a shelf life either. Because they are essentially made from water they don’t stay very well in refrigerators which pull the water out of foods and they tend to become very soft when they sit on the counter for many days. Most people don’t find a problem with either of these since the strawberries are often consumed very quickly and the need that arises is for more to be bought rather than how to store them!
In class we have discussed how to be environmentally stable and to be as sustainable as we can. Being able to buy food locally is one of the best ways that we can do this. Unfortunately more advanced systems such as hydroponics are often more expensive and not as accessible for small farmers but my grandparents’ neighbor has clearly shown me the benefits of splurging in the beginning and receiving many benefits. If there was a way to encourage more people to find more economic friendly ways to produce crops it would be wonderful. However, where I live the farmers are all middle class citizens who sometimes just have to get through the season and can’t find any extra money to splurge on a better system. I think that as consumers who are worried about our earth and our neighbors we must encourage the government to aid small farmers to move in the direction of sustainability. The biggest problem I think is that most of the money that comes from the government goes to the large farms that are commercializing everything. This is only going to cause the small farmers to go out of business and either leave lots of open land or the land will be turned into developments which won’t help anything. If small, local farmers are willing to produce food for us to buy we need to support our communities to keep them up and running.

comfort and food

Is comfort food and food for comfort the same thing? When we talk about comfort food people will often refer to "some deep south soul food" or mom's homemade spaghetti and meatballs, or dad's pancakes on saturday morning. Usually comfort food has a connection to something special but occasionally comfort food can simply be something enjoyable like ice cream or a doughnut. Watching others and experiencing myself, people are most likely to revert back to their comfort food when they are looking to replace a painful, troubling, or annoying event with something more pleasant.
Food given to comfort people is usually grouped differently than typical comfort food but is there really a difference? No matter the answer these both demonstrate how much our culture revolves around food. It is obviously essential that we consume food in order to survive but by finding comfort in food seems to push us from literal survival to mental and emotional survival as well. Sharing a meal with another person typically shows caring from one to another whether the meal is eaten together or not. Sharing, even if not at the same time, is what keeps some people moving from moment to moment. This sharing is what I belive turns food that is given to comfort others into comfort food.
The biggest challenge that I find with all of this food and the comfort that is associated with it is for people who live their lives around food. I understand that as humans who eat food we live around food, but I mean in the extreme sense such as a caterer who's professional as well as personal life is incorporated with food. To find a way to comfort a person who is in desperate need of comfort but may not want to face the food that is associated with her grieving is difficult. As a society that is so immersed in food that is meant to comfort, how can we "be at a loss for words" or food when someone is in a dire need for some edible comfort but is in denial of the situation?

Soul Food

Does the 1997 movie Soul Food accurately portray African American culture and life and is Soul Food a positive or negative portrayal of African American culture and life are two very different questions in my mind. Personally I find there to be two very straightforward and very different answers to each of these questions. Williams-Forson’s article “Still dying for some soul food?” does a very good job of pointing out that Soul Food does not do a very good job of accurately portraying the typical African American family or the time. While there are some truths or similarities between the food that is enjoyed by the Joseph family and particularly southern African American families the movie does a better job at forming a stereotypical image of a Southern African American family. From the relationship struggles to criminal problems to the food that is always consumed at the family’s Sunday supper, George Tillman Jr. seems to have found all of the stereotypes of an African American culture and put them all of the big screen together. I believe that it could have been possible to create a film of African American culture and life that had a positive projection of a family. By focusing on the traditions that do run through many families it would be reasonable to expect a film that could cover the traditional Sunday suppers a family gathers for or the history behind the food that is enjoyed. Unfortunately I find that the many stereotypes that were included in this film drowned out the more positive traditions which were turned into negative stereotypes because of the surrounding events. Since there have not been any other major box office films that cover this genre there must not have been too many people outraged enough by the film to want to paint a better picture for the world. All of this being said, I do believe that Soul Food is a good movie to watch: to understand what is being referred to when people generalize about soul food and the food of the South.

hybrids

The tortilla is an excellent example of a hybrid food. Originally created in Mexico and South America the tortilla was made of corn. When the Europeans came to the Americas and conquered the native people they integrated some of their own ingredients into those of the native cuisine. While the natives prefered to stick with corn as the base for the majority of their cooking their European conquerers prefered white flour to be substituted into the dishes that were prepared for them. As the Europeans moved north they brought with them the foods that they appreciated the most and were what they would enjoy the most. Whether transferred north as servants or on their own free will, some of the native Latinos travelled as well and brought with them their food. Today in the supermarket we can find tortillas almost as commonly as bread, but the majority of the time the tortillas we find and buy are wheat flour tortillas, not corn. Moving north has been able to allow the Latino culture to spread and expand to previously unimaginable places. The down side of all of this however is that while the culture spread it also had to adapt to the new locations. Adapting is almost always necessary to survive but it also causes the newly placed cultures to have to surrendure some of their most prized ideas. Though it is still possible to buy corn tortillas in the supermarket, as well as specialty store, they are not as common as the wheat flour tortillas, at least in most of North America. It is true that selling even wheat tortillas does remind people of the culture they originated from but so often the memories are focused not on reality but what people think is the truth about the past based on what is on the shelf in front of them.

so what is a meal?

So what is a meal? Does there have to be a meat and a vegetable ton constitute a meal? If so, how is it possible for a vegetarian or vegan to eat a "meal"? If this is the definition of a meal then there will be countless exceptions to the rule. Is it possible to have a meal in a fully liquid form or must there be solids involved? Usually when asked what is a meal people are likely to respond that a meal is food eaten at breakfast, lunch, or dinner time. While a morning breakfast, midday lunch, and evening dinner are considered to be typical meal times how does it guarantee that what we are eating at the time constitutes a meal? Does eating a pint of moose tracks ice cream in the place of dinner mean that I ate a meal, or thawing a bag of precooked edimame and eating them at dinner time but as I walk to class, does that constitute a meal? There seem to be hidden rules about what actually equals a meal and what is simply an extra on the side or a snack instead of a full blown meal. Mary Douglas claims that meals and drinks are different but if you turn on the television you are likely to see an advertisement for a meal in a bottle whether it is a drinkable yogurt or slimfast. All of these products that are promoted as having the same nutrients as a regular sit-down meal so what does it mean to have a meal? Typically women are more likely to accept a meal that is in liquid form due to the idea that it will help them lose weight. Men on the other hand tend to want a meal that has a substantial piece of meat. Different cultures are more likely to have different guidelines for pinpointing what a meal is. In addition different classes will be willing to accept different answers for a meal and sometimes even within the different ages of a class. I know people of a lower class who accpet eating meals at McDonald's for any meal of the day but people of an upper class only find it acceptable for children and teenagers to eat at somewhere like McDonald's. So what acctually is a meal? This question I believe depends on who is answering it but in general is likely to include answers such as time, place, and what is eaten.

taste

Taste is a sense that most of the world is privileged to have. Often associated with consuming food, taste however is not just an experience with food but with any other aspect of life. Tasting food nonetheless does form many of the experiences that we have in life. Taste is essential in truly enjoying the food that we eat and being able to appreciate the food, the preparation, and the ambiance of the area. Though we taste with our tongue where we are eating plays a big part in how much we actually taste and savor the flavors of what we eat rather than simply inhaling or scarfing down a burger at a fast food joint. Taking the time to enjoy the people that you are eating with, and if not, at least the actual food that you are consuming really plays into the taste that you receive from the food. Arlene Avakin describes her American relatives as not knowing “the taste of their own tongues” because so often in American we speed through our meals not even realizing what we are eating let alone taking time to taste everything. Class, and in some ways race, often determines the taste that people have because of the food that they often eat. Spending lots of time eating at fast food restaurants and eating food out of cardboard boxes people of lower classes tend to lose any of the flavor that is left in foods by rushing through everything that they eat. We are more likely to find people of an upper class status who have a more developed sense of taste because of the time set aside specifically for dining and enjoying the food that is eaten and the people who they are with. When a person is able to appreciate what they are eating they are more likely to have an appreciation for who made the food and who they are eating it with, if anyone, and are more likely to be able to taste all the different flavors. Everyone has their own tastes that they enjoy and appreciate but often these tastes are shaped by the environment around you and what you have had the opportunity to experience.

cuisine

What is cuisine? Such a deep question can be explained as generally as a system of communication or a code as Mary Douglas or Warren Belasco might put it. Cuisine is a system of thinking about and creating food that often has a “theme” or specific patterning to it that is based from the availability of sources as well as the geography and climate of where the food is produced and made. It is necessary that groups have a cuisine because cuisines lead to cultural identities. Many places are too large to have one specific national cuisine but often the different subcultures have commonalities that can join together to form a general food that can appear to be part of an umbrella cuisine that encompasses a larger number of people. The idea is that cuisine is a form of communication that ties many people together even when they are far apart. As time has progressed more and more people have travelled and migrated to new areas but they have all brought with them the food that has made them who they are. This food that travels with people and doesn’t get lost in the move is what makes up the cuisine of the land that they have left but remains a part of the culture that they are still a part of.
In what is currently Mexico, corn was the main staple of the native diet. With this maize the people made various different dishes but one of the main ones was tortillas. When the Europeans came and conquered the people they brought with them wheat flour that was seen as horrid to the natives. The native people continued to make their tortillas with corn flour even when the Europeans had started to incorporate new foods into their diet. Today in the United States when someone says a tortilla a white flour tortilla is often what comes to mind rather than the traditional corn tortillas that came from the south. Does the change in flour mean that these tortillas are not part of the cuisine that originated in the Mexican area or does this just show that cuisine can adapt to what is preferred for new people? Adapting a food to please employers, the main concept of the tortillas was still kept since it obviously had meaning behind it as well as a connection to other people. Every small group of people is going to have its own specific cuisine but there will often be some similarities that hold all the groups together.
The idea of cuisine is to bring similar people together with food at the center. Soul food originally from the American South has changed as it has moved North but the idea is the same and when someone says “soul food” there is a general idea of greens, fried fish and/or barbeque, and maybe some homemade macaroni and cheese. In the end the exact food served may not be the same but the idea comes from the same place and the smell of the food cooking and the community of people ties everything together and familiarity of the gathering binds the cuisine and the people together.