The Story:

For all the fans of flavor out there, let’s talk about herbs. Herbs are tasty, smell great, have impressive medicinal value and can take any dish to a new level of deliciousness. While herbs are readily available this time of year at the store and on most farmers’ market stands, they also happen to be especially easy to grow. They tolerate a wide range of conditions, many are perennials that will come back year after year, even in containers, and even if you don’t have tons of garden space, you can grow herbs in window boxes, indoors, on the back steps of an apartment, in hanging baskets attached to a chain-link fence, and even in cracks in pavement. For ideas about how to grow your own herbs, click here.

Whether you are growing your own or gathering from elsewhere, herbs are great fresh and dried. In preparation for colder months when fresh herbs aren’t as readily available, drying them is an ideal way to ensure that you can still add lots of flavor to any meal, year round.

What You Need:

-         Fresh herbs

-         String or rubber bands (for easy bunching)

-         Cool, dry place with good ventilation

The Process:

1. Wash the herbs and dry them with a towel, making sure that no excess moisture remains.
2. Arrange your herbs so that all the stems are pointing one direction.
3. Bunch the stem end with string or a rubber band.
4. Hang bunched herbs in a cool, dry place.
5. Once the leaves are crispy and the stems are dry and brittle, strip the leaves. On a flat surface, spread a double sheet of newspaper under a large, wide bowl. Hold the bundle of herbs over the bowl, pull off the rubber band, then, taking one or a few stems at a time, remove the leaves with a quick downward motion of your free hand.
6. Store herbs in labeled jars or bags in a cupboard away from light.
7. Don’t forget to use your dried herbs to add flavor to your food. Click here for ideas about which herbs to use with different types of food.

For more useful hints about herbs, check out the Herb Companion Magazine website or head to this colorful blog post.

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Campus Kitchen students hold a range of interests: we’ve met marketing majors, public health students, political science junkies, and literature gurus.

After that initial Campus Kitchen volunteer cooking shift, there’s one more interest that reverberates across all Campus Kitchen volunteers: a passion for, or interest in, food.

It’s something about suiting up in hairnets, aprons, and gloves and digging into “secret” ingredients Iron Chef-style that permeates every regular Campus Kitchen volunteer, makes him into a foodie, or food activist, community gardener, food event planner, or kitchen liaison.

For most, the marriage of academia and food will halt with graduation, at the end of Campus Kitchen involvement.

But thanks to a growing national interest in food, universities are starting to offer accredited undergraduate and graduate degree programs that focus on food, food systems, and community food solutions.

The Sustainable Food Jobs blog recently published a detailed list of all degree programs food lovers and food policy-shakers can get their spatulas into. We chose to highlight the details of three of the graduate programs they profiled (given that most Campus Kitchen volunteers are already in undergraduate programs.)

Take a whiff of the interesting world of food study in higher education. Tell us you’re not hungry for more.

Seattle, Washington/Antioch University– Master of Arts in Environment and Community with a specialty in Sustainable Food Systems

What you are studying: Food from soil to plate, following the social, ecological and political issues of food systems

Recommended for: People working in organic farming, permaculture, ecological agriculture, urban and rural sustainability, community supported agriculture and food services.

Favorite class: Political Ecology of Eating and Consumption

Department: Center for Creative Change – the name itself gets points!

An Alternative: You can also choose to get just your certificate in Sustainable Food Systems

Boston, Massachusetts/Boston University – Master of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy

What you are studying: Offers a holistic view looking at food throughout history and in contemporary society

Coolest part: They have culinary arts laboratories and wine studies courses

Favorite FAQ: Do you eat in class?

Answer: Yes, we very often eat in class! Cooking, sharing, and hospitality are major elements of experiencing food culture. Students and faculty alike bring theme-related dishes to class to share during breaks. Other courses take food-related field trips or have meals together outside the classroom. We learn much about our fellow students including how well they cook!

Awesome, Campus Kitchen-friendly, Concentration: Food Policy

Also: They accept students and rolling deadlines and hold courses at night

Portland, Oregon/Portland State University – MBA in Food Marketing and Logistics

What you are studying: The program helps you “understand the industry structure, key players and value chain” of food

Core Courses: Purchasing and Logistics in the Food Industry and Consumer Product Marketing

Favorite Elective: “Negotiations”

Study Abroad Option: Tuscany : Sustainability in City and County

For a complete listing of programs, click here.

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Looking to add an insulated bag to your Campus Kitchen? Hoping to expand meal deliveries? A new contest open to all members of The Campus Kitchens Project could provide you the extra space needed to make delivery shifts easier and more organized.

In an effort to gather up-to-date volunteer email lists from the 25 Campus Kitchens, CKP announces a contest that will provide one lucky kitchen an insulated bag in your choice of color.

The rules are simple:

You: Gather your Campus Kitchen list of current email addresses and deliver them to us on an Excel document. Please only provide email addresses of people who are associated with your Campus Kitchen (volunteers, community partners, etc…) or those who signed up to receive more information from the Campus Kitchen.  A listserv of volunteers that you send regular emails to is perfect.

We: Count the number of names and addresses on your list (you can provide as much information as you’d like, but we need a name and email address to count it), which is due on or no later than 5 p.m. EST, September 10, 2010. The kitchen coordinators that provide us the most valid names and addresses will receive one insulated bag in their choice of color.

We will announce the winner of this contest the following week, September 17, and provide you further instructions on how to obtain your new bag.

Why a contest for email addresses? The Campus Kitchens Project has a revamped, monthly e-newsletter that shares stories about Campus Kitchen successes, volunteers, and community partners. We’re looking to update our old email lists to ensure you receive news about Campus Kitchens happenings as efficiently as possible, and see all the great work happening around the country from volunteers just like you.

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Campus Kitchens participate in some aspect of service-learning every day – and most of them either are housed on a public school campus or somehow work with a public school through a community partnership.

As State Farm and Youth Serve America announced today, these Campus Kitchens are also eligible for a $1,000 grant to complete a semester of service for or with a public school.

The State Farm Good Neighbor Service Learning grants will allot money to programs in the United States and some provinces of Canada that engage youth in service-learning, an effective teaching and learning strategy that promotes student learning, academic achievement, workplace readiness, and healthy communities.

Projects for this grant should follow Youth Serve America’s semester of service guidelines, beginning on MLK Day (January 17, 2011) and culminating on Global Youth Service Day (April 15-17, 2011) – a format familiar to many of The Campus Kitchens Project’s past MLK Day sub-grantees.

To apply, visit the YSA website, take the eligibility quiz, and create a login and password to start the application process.  The application deadline is October 15, 2010.

YSA will host two application webinars, September 7 and October 7, for applicants to learn more about developing a successful project. To register, please sign up by filling out the form here.

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The Story:

On sandwiches, as a side dish or straight out of the jar, pickles are a fun and easy thing to make. Pickling was invented at the dawn of civilization in Mesopotamia. It was – and still is – a great way to preserve for out-of-season consumption, and important to the many cultures that pickle a wide array of produce and other foods.

Many people eat pickles when cucumbers are in season just because they like the flavor. Pickles are so popular that Americans consume more than 2.5 billion pounds of them a year! Though we missed International Pickle Week by a couple of months, it is one of the country’s longest running food promotions. There are many different kinds of pickled cucumbers; at the store you will find varieties like Bread and Butter, Sour, Kosher, Dill, Relish and more. Below is a recipe for fresh packed pickles designed to be ready to eat in about 2 weeks.

What you need:

-        4 lb pickling cucumbers, quartered length-wise

-        3 cups water

-        2 3/4 cups white vinegar

-        1/4 cup pickling salt

-        6 teaspoons mustard seed

-        6 tablespoons dill seed (though I used Coriander Seed instead)

-        3 teaspoons dillweed

-        6 bay leaves

-        6 cloves garlic

-        1/2 cup minced dill

-        6 wide-mouth pint jars

-        Water Bath Canner or Deep Sauce Pot with a rack at the bottom (I know that a water bath canner is recommended for this process, but I just used a deep sauce pot with a rack at the bottom…hopefully this will work, but if not, the canners are not too expensive and easy to use).

The Process:

1. Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil.
2. Prep wide-mouth pint jars and lids by cleaning them thoroughly and washing them with hot water.
3. Place 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon mustard seed, 1 tablespoon dill seed (or coriander), and 1/2 teaspoon dillweed in each jar.
4. Add the cucumber spears and one clove garlic to each jar. Evenly divide the dill among the jars.
5. Pour in the vinegar mixture.
6. Close the jars and process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath
7. Allow to sit 2 weeks before eating. Refrigerate after opening.

This recipe was courtesy of Coconut & Lime. More great pickle recipes can be found here.

For more information about Preserving, click here.

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As Campus Kitchens and other thought-leaders in the poverty community gear up for Hungry for Justice: Social, Economic, Environmental – a collaboration between Baylor University’s Poverty Summit and The Campus Kitchens Project – one café quietly continues to feed the Waco, Texas residents and build community, one plate of food at a time.

Gospel Café builds on the idea of pay-what-you-can restaurants as a means for feeding everyone, regardless of his or her financial status. Those who can afford more can give more money for their meal to make up for those who can afford less.

Café’s like Gospel – which sprung out of CrossTies Church and is housed in a blue and white Victorian on 10^th and Cleveland in Waco – are heating up ovens across the nation to ease the growing hunger need. Just take the Panera store in St. Louis made into a non-profit café or a pioneer of the movement: SAME (So All May Eat) in Denver.

At Café Gospel, they’re working to feed a population with a 28 percent poverty rate. But it doesn’t seem to deter staff and students from neighboring Baylor University from joining in on the family-style lunch. An article published in The Lariat Online in 1999 highlighted several staff who made weekly visits to the café.

One faculty member explained: “It is very good home-cooked food, usually with three or four entrees to choose from.”

A post on the Bread for the World blog highlighted some of the community interaction that goes on inside Gospel café, which is open from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. daily for lunch.

Sherry Castello, one of the café founders, wrote: “We marvel about the people God has called to minister with us in unexpected capacities: a nurse practitioner who felt drawn to begin the free medical clinic, a psychologist who wanted to begin working at the café one afternoon a week, a woman eager to help us begin Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous groups…”

The welcoming eatery has clearly impacted many since it opened in 1995, and is helping to start the ebb to the flow of poverty in Waco with a simple plate of nutritious food. Hopefully, the minds (young and old) behind Hungry for Justice will continue that ebb, in Waco and across the nation.

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Melissa Caron and Matt Medeiros turned wedding favors into something that would continue giving.

Some people give bubbles and CDs full of love songs, but in place of a wedding favor for guests at their June 5 wedding, Melissa Caron and Matt Medeiros gave something to the Lexington, Va. community that would keep on giving.

The couple chose to replace a trinket for dozens of wedding guests with eight portable burners to serve potentially thousands at the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee. This Fall, the burners will act as the primary cooking tool behind CKWL’s new Healthy Cooking on a Budget classes.

“The portable burners make it a portable class,” said Campus Kitchen coordinator Jenny Davidson, who also said she was looking into different funding options for the burners before she received the donation.

The class will give participants step-by-step instruction on how to make healthy, affordable, and delicious meals without breaking the bank.  It focuses on educating all age groups, bringing adults in with their children to hold a “cooking with kids” session and working with food pantry clients for “cooking from you box”, which shows people how to turn canned and dried goods into full meals.

Caron and Medeiros gave Butane gas camp stoves because of Caron’s work with the Campus Kitchen in the past (she once served as a Campus Kitchen intern) and her work alongside Davidson now as part of the Shepherd Program. Davidson says Caron was into reading wedding blogs and probably got the idea of giving a donation over a wedding favor there.

Donations like Caron’s keep the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee expanding operations and finding creative ways to reach all populations.

The portable Butane burners will serve as a portable classroom.

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As Campus Kitchen students prepare their whisks for a new year of cooking up some service, we wanted to share some footage of a fabulous event the Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College put on last year to celebrate reaching 10,000 meals served and 20,000 pounds of food recovered. The video highlights the “10 Ton Relay”, which all Campus Kitchens might want to try hosting themselves as an activity to get new and returning volunteers interested in filling this year’s meal shifts.

Enjoy!

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With under two months to go to Hungry for Justice: Social, Economic Environmental (a joint effort by Baylor University’s Poverty Summit and The Campus Kitchens Project Conference), many participants are making arrangements to arrive in Waco, Texas for the poverty event, October 8 – 10.

As we clarify details of the conference, we will post information here. For those who have not yet seen it, here is the latest (and still tentative) schedule of events for what’s shaping up to be the most active and diverse (think documentary screenings, a Justice Exhibit, and service opportunities) conference yet.

October 8-10, 2010

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Friday, October 8

10:00AM           Registration Opens

12:00PM           Boxed Lunch, Welcome: Judge Kenneth Starr, President of Baylor University

1:30 PM            Hands On Network/Point of Light Breakout session

2:30PM             CKP Breakout 2

3:30PM             CKP Breakout 3

4:30PM             CKP Breakout 4

5:30PM             CKP Breakout 5

7:00PM             Dessert Reception, Keynote: Robert Egger, Founder and President of DC Central Kitchen and Campus Kitchens Project (confirmed)

8:00PM             Justice Exhibition Opens

Saturday, October 9

9:00AM                        Keynote: Shannon Sedgwick Davis (confirmed)

10:00AM           Breakout Session 1

11:00AM           Breakout Session 2

12:00PM           Boxed lunch and Hunger Panel Discussion

1:30PM             Breakout Session 3

3:00PM             Off-Campus Service:

• World Hunger Farm, Inc.
• Caritas
• Salvation Army
• Urban Gardening Coalition

6:00PM             World Hunger Educational Banquet: Jimmy and Janet Dorrell, Mission Waco

8:30PM             Documentary on Fountain Mall- Lunch Line

Sunday, October 10

9:30AM                       Closing Keynote: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (invited)

11:00AM                     Church Under the Bridge OR Departure

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The Story:

Think sauerkraut, and you might dredge up images of bratwurst or hot dogs recently dressed from Frank’s can or a Bubbie’s Jar. But there’s more to sauerkraut then our current popular culture definition – and two good reasons why you might want to consider creating your own.

First, it’s healthy. The sauerkraut fermentation process creates a live-culture “probiotic,” which helps to maintain the body’s beneficial bacteria. It’s also packed with all sorts of other good things like fiber, iron and vitamin C. As fermentation enthusiast, Sandor Elix Katz of Wild Fermentation says: “Wild fermentation is a way of incorporating the wild into your body, becoming one with the natural world.”

The real thing is also quite tasty. Fresh sauerkraut has a crunchier texture, a delightfully tangy flavor and a much greater potential for interesting recipes. As the abundance of cabbage continues through the Fall, transforming it into sauerkraut is a great and easy way to preserve the produce and all of its nutrients for the upcoming winter.

What you need:

-         Cabbage (as little as one head)

-         Non-iodized Salt (I recommend a coarse sea salt)

-         Quart Sized Mason Jars with Lids

-         Cutting Board

-         Knife

-         Large Bowl

The Process:

1. Chop the cabbage into any shape you like. I personally like to give it a rough chop, which I do by cutting it in quarters and then chopping it crosswise. This creates long, crisp strips.
2. Layer chopped cabbage in the bowl. As soon as the bottom of the bowl is covered, liberally sprinkle salt over the cabbage. The salt helps the cabbage emit a liquid that will serve as the brine that the cabbage will ferment in.
3. Continue layering and salting until all the cabbage has been chopped and transferred to the bowl.
4. Allow the cabbage to sit at room temperature for a while to encourage the development of more liquid. If you want, go do something else for a while. The beauty of this process is that it requires no timers and or other restrictions, allowing you to take your sweet time doing it.
5. When ready, beginning filling your cleaned mason jars with your salted, chopped cabbage, taking care not to spill or waste the liquid that the salt has extracted. As you fill the jar, attempt to crush the cabbage down into the jar to fit as much as possible. Once full, top with remaining liquid from your cabbage bowl. Don’t worry, there will not be enough liquid in which to submerge your cabbage. That’s okay. Top with water, making sure that all of the cabbage pieces are submerged beneath the water’s surface.
6. Repeat this process with remaining cabbage. Screw tops on mason jars, and set them on the counter somewhere where you will remember to check them daily. And don’t screw the lids on tightly.
7. Now you wait. Your cabbage will begin to ferment. If you’re new to this, it is important to check your jars of cabbage daily in order to observe and therefore better understand the process. This will also help you determine how fermented you like your kraut. Eventually you will see a change in the color and texture of the cabbage and liquid. White cabbage will yellow, while purple cabbage will become pink. The volume of cabbage in each jar will decrease. Some water may evaporate, in which case you must be sure to add more so that the cabbage remains submerged at all times. The liquid in your jars will also begin to bubble. This is why it is important not to screw the lids of your mason jars on tightly, as there is the potential for the water to bubble out when opening.
8. Once it gets to your desired flavor and texture, pop the jars into the fridge for use at your convenience. The cabbage will continue to ferment in the refrigerator, but at a much slower pace.
9. Enjoy on sandwiches, salads, soups and straight out of the jar! Click here for interesting recipes that use sauerkraut.

Recipe courtesy of The Willy Street Co-op, Madison WI

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