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Announcing the first annual Farm and Food Photo Contest!

Do you believe that food can be a force for positive social change? Do you have the photos to prove it? Submit your best pictures to reap/sow and help us to illustrate the world you wish to create. Our revolution might not be televised, but it is being photographed!

Entries will be featured in a photo gallery in an upcoming edition of reap/sow. Photographs must be submitted with a short caption that (a) identifies the photographer and location of the photo, and (b) briefly explains what the photo means with a sentence or two, a quote, or even a short poem.

We’re looking for photos that show the many aspects of this movement: the inspiration, the humor, the unexpected, the creative, the joy, the sweat, and the beauty. Photos will be judged in these categories. We welcome submissions by people of all ages, although all photos must be by, for, or about the youngest generation-those 30 and under. If you are over 30, your photo should feature youth and young adults or you should explain in your caption why your photo is one that you want young people to see. There is no limit to how many photos one person can enter.

Email photos, contact info, and caption to Rowan Dunlap at rdunlap@thefoodproject.org by February 20, 2007. Please include your mailing address so your prize, Wil Bullock’s Time for Change CD, can be mailed to you.

by Rowan Dunlap

The approach of summer in Alaska is marked by the return of daylight and vegetation, warming the heart of every Alaskan. Our world of darkness, forty below weather, and blankets of white snow obscuring all color is replaced by lush greenery, wild flowers and fresh produce, something many do not expect from an artic desert. The water stores up through the winter in the form of snow and the long days of sunlight (reaching nearly 24 hours of sunlight on the solstice) fuel a vibrant agricultural community.

As a child in Fairbanks, Alaska, the Tanana Valley Farmers’ Market was a destination only topped by the state fair for excitement. People bring their families, their pets, make new friends and run into old. I went with my mother when I was too young to drive and later it was a favorite rendezvous spot for my friends and me. This farmers’ market is one of many in Alaska that serves as a thriving community gathering spots and a source of prized local produce in a state where 90% of food products are imported.
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By Monica Pless

Warning: don’t go into this movie expecting what you read in the book. Like biting into an oatmeal raisin cookie when you believed it was a chocolate chip, you will likely be disappointed. However, this movie does come away with some worthwhile lessons.

The new movie “Fast Food Nation”, based on the book by Eric Schlosser, was released in theatres nationally this November. It bears resemblance to ” Thank You for Smoking” in its celebrity-laced docudrama style. It follows a marketing exec of the fast food chain “Mickey’s” to a Colorado town to explore the issues surrounding the food and culture the chain both builds and depends on. The exec (Greg Kinnear) is coming off of successful marketing campaign for “The Big One,” and for his next assignment, is sent to find out why there are such high levels of E. coli in the meat. Through interviews with old time ranchers and the brokers for meat packing plants (with a cameo appearance by Bruce Willis), Greg Kinnear determines that in fact, there is “sh*t in the meat.” That said, the shock-value of the climax of the movie, showing the kill floor of a meat packing plant, drilled in the message not to eat meat. (more…)

Beef and Vegetable Jhun (Korean Pancake)

My holiday feasts are a collision of eastern and western cuisine when I celebrate Christmas and the New Year with my German grandmother and Korean grandfather. Bratwurst nestles next to jhun in perfect harmony, and kartoffelknodel form tidy rows alongside mounds of bulgogi. Perhaps it is weird, but my childhood palette was so accustomed to this unusual combination of dishes that I once asked a fifth grade classmate, “What?! You don’t eat Korean Pancake for Christmas?” It didn’t seem to me a ridiculous question at the time.

I will focus on the centerpiece of our holiday meals: the beef and vegetable jhun. Our family calls this Korean Pancake, and it is one of our favorite New Year’s dishes, together with mun doo. There is no greater culinary accomplishment in our family than a perfectly-executed batch of jhun. All of us in the family are self-proclaimed experts at tasting the subtle differences between one batch or another, and the preliminary taste-testing of the batches was as big an event as the eating of the final product. “A little too much salt,” we would say, or “needs a wee bit more flour.” Corrections would be administered, and the finished jhun would never fail to bring gustatory bliss and acclaim for the chef.

The best part is that almost all the ingredients can be found at your farmers’ market or vendor of local foods (compromises are unavoidable with soy sauce). (more…)

This recipe has been a part of my life and the life of my family for a very long time. However, my understanding of where this recipe came did not surface until recently. I recently returned home to visit my family and was fortunate enough to accompany my grandma, Dee, who gave me this recipe, to the Germans from Russia Museum in Fresno, California.

Here I learned that two centuries ago a group of Germans fled because of political, economic and social persecution, to Russia to an area along the Olga River. They found this area productive, especially agriculturally, as it was very similar to where they had previously come. Unfortunately, the Russian did not like these Germans very long and again, the Olga Germans, as they are called, were forced to leave and find a new home.

They did find a new home in fact, in the United States, in places like North and South Dakota, Colorado and the Central San Joaquin Valley of California, which is where I grew up. As they traveled from Europe to Russia and later to the United States, they brought along with them tasty meat and cabbage filled breads called Beerocks. Although some of my colleagues here at TFP have been skeptical as to their tastiness, I can attest that these are a hearty and tasty meal, especially when cabbage is in abundance. Go ahead try them on.

Ingredients
Filling**
2 lbs. ground beef, browned
1 large white or yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 head of cabbage, shredded
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Bread Dough***
3/4 cup water, warm (105° to 115° F)
1 package active yeast dry
2 Tbs. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup potato mashed
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 Tbs. water

Instructions
Combine water, yeast, and sugar; let stand 5 minutes or until bubbly. Add salt, potatoes, 1 egg, and oil; beat until well mixed. Add 1 1/2 cups flour and beat for 2 minutes. Stir in remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until a stiff dough forms. Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

Preheat oven to 350-275 degrees

In a large skillet, brown the beef and salt and pepper to taste on medium-high heat. After the beef has browned, turn the heat onto medium-low and add shredded cabbage. Let steam for 5 minutes, or until cabbage is soft, but still retains some of its firmness.

Roll out dough into large square and cut into 12 square pieces. Spoon a small portion of the beef and cabbage mixture onto each square. Fold the sides in, like an envelope, pinch the middle to seal, and place the beerock on a cookie sheet, opening face down (smooth side up). Space beerocks a half-inch apart to prevent them from touching during baking.

Bake at 350-375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Makes approximately 12 beerocks

**You can also add shredded carrots or Monterey jack cheese.
***You can use any type of store bought bread mix