The More You Know

Sorry for the delay in a new post. I got sidetracked with a bunch of happenings at the end of May and the first week of June. I am happy to report that I get to spend the next three months with a much smaller carbon footprint due to a bicycle commute to a job much closer to home! Yay! So now I will gift you with a really long blog to make up for my absence.

What's been on my mind the last few weeks? The way that we try to justify the convenience items and systems in our life that are disposable by citing the status quo. We consume what is made available in the market, including instant and pre sliced fruits and vegetables, electronic gadgets and use products that are made to be disposable because the alternatives take a lot of effort. Interestingly, the "effort" that it used to take people to cut their own foods and write out and mail a letter meant that we expended 3 to 5 times more energy per day as we do now with our items of convenience like pre cut veggies and online bill pay. No wonder we are all getting soft. Those that try to buck trends and go beyond the standard consumer market are seen as trail blazers or hippie weirdos as a result of their decision to change the way they consume. In Oregon it can be easy to say that going against the norm is just a hipster trend, along with fair trade coffee tastings and fixed gear bikes. I just read an article about how butcher classes are becoming the "in thing" in Portland so that people can buy a share of a CSA pig and then slaughter it themselves. While I applaud the fact that these people are taking ownership of the way they interact with the meat industry, I also found the article reeking of hipster musk when it mentioned that the classes are taught by some foodies who apprenticed in France for a few years (why wouldn't a domestic butcher suffice?) and the classes are followed by wine and charcuterie tastings. Sounds more like a date night, then a skill building class. Except for the $250 price tag. I'm a much cheaper date than that.

Don't get me wrong - I  get excited to learn that people are taking up skills that were essential trades a few generations ago. But then I get infuriated when I see that the "classes" are being offered at a price tag that the majority of society cannot afford. $250? No effing way. I'm saving for a trip to Yosemite!  That's why I'm super stoked about the Oregon State University Extension Service.

For the past six weeks I have been enrolled in the Family Food Education aka Master Food Preserver class of the Linn/Benton County branch of the extension service. This class wasn't free - it was $40, which might sound really expensive but isn't considering that it meets for 6 sessions for 7 hours each time, and students get to take home the food made during the class. So far we have learned how to properly freeze foods, process canned foods, make jam, jelly, preserves, chutney, pickles, sauerkraut, kimchee, various salsas and cheese, flavor vinegar and this week we will be dehydrating all kinds of tasty morsels like fruit and jerky. Beyond making delicious foods, we have learned how to inspect and test pressure canners for accuracy, properly pack a freezer, prevent food spoilage and been scared by a new understanding of food born illness, like botulism, the neurotoxin produced by the bacteria Clostridum Botulinum. After the last class (today!) we are encouraged to take the state certification exam to teach the public what we learned in the class, as Family Food Education volunteers. I appreciate the expectation that I will pay my knowledge forward and help my community learn the safe way to take advantage of the great fresh foods available in the valley! I should add that all the recipes we use are available online for the general public to access.

The OSU Extension Service offers additional classes beyond food education. The public can take courses to become a Master Gardener and a Master Recycler. Low income single mothers are offered nutrition courses and early childhood development classes. The extension service will also identify insects that the general public brings in. Awesome! There is a lot of overlap in the Master Food Preserver class with people who have already taken the other extension courses. I once described my classmates to Steady J with a Venn diagram. In the middle was the Master Food Preserver course and in smaller overlapping circles were things like, "raises chickens", "likes composting", "bakes bread", "knows how to pronounce and use quinoa" and "has strong distrust of cake from a mix". It's a pretty great group of people in the class, aged from late twenties to mid sixties who live around the Willamette valley. Some people have previously canned a wide variety of things and are in the class to renew their family food education certification, others are newbs like me.

You might wonder why I made a big effort to learn a bunch of depression era farm skills when I could buy organic canned and dried goods and farmers market vegetables, jellies and jams. I did it because I wanted to reduce my consumption of commercially packaged/preserved food and make a bunch of food taste the way I like it. The glass canning jars I can reuse, unlike aluminum cans and Aseptic cartons. I can pickle quarts and quarts of the beets I planted and cut them in all sorts of fancy shapes! Apple sauce? Sure, I'll make it and put in as much or as little cinnamon as I please. This class has given me another outlet to be creative, not to mention the ability to make a lot of exciting gifts during the holidays. And overall, I just think the whole idea of preserving my own food is really exciting. I'm a D.I.Y. person. I always find it satisfying to know how to do something new. The more you know is what it's all about. And I now know food preservation.