Five members of the Campus Kitchen at the University of Virginia (CKUVA) went gleaning with DC Central Kitchen to round out summer operations as students returned to Campus, and they saw potential in the peaches.

The peaches were Red Haven Yellow Freestones, and set to peak in late July to early August, so by August 12, they were more than ripe for the picking. But University of Virginia volunteers picked up something more during their day at Hollin Farms in Delaplane, Va. : a new drive to infuse their meals with fresh produce through gleaning trips run much like DC Central Kitchen’s.

“I’m going to try and contact some places around Charlottesville about gleaning apples,” says Atlee Webber, CKUVA’s coordinator.

“DC Central Kitchen chopped up all of the peaches and froze them to save for the winter, when fresh produce isn’t readily available.” Webber says she hopes to do the same for CKUVA with apples.

Webber says she also sees value in encouraging volunteers to do something different than meal shifts, bringing them outside, and allowing them to interact with other people in the food production mix.

“Farmer Tom actually got us to eat the peaches right off the tree to see if they were good,” she says.

The group, along with a larger volunteer group from Whole Foods, filled the buckets DC Central Kitchen brought in just one hour. They gave their peaches to DC Central Kitchen to freeze this time around, but they got a gleaning test run out of the experience, and also a new understanding of Campus Kitchens’ parent organization and mentor.

“A lot of people didn’t know about DC Central Kitchen before this,” says Webber. “That was a great example of operations that are well run. It was good to see our potential.”

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Gleaning – or the gathering of leftover crops from the field after harvest – is in full swing for D.C. Central Kitchen and many mid-Atlantic area Campus Kitchens. And good news for Campus Kitchens who are not close enough to Washington, D.C. to pay our local farms a visit: there’s still time to make gleaning partnerships with your nearby aggies and collect what’s left from the season.

Campus Kitchens might want to partner with pick-your-own berry farms, which see  produce beginning to ripen in May and continuing until September, depending on geography. A few extra blueberries on a salad, or blackberries in a fresh-baked cobbler could be just the extra oomph (and antioxidants) community partners are looking for.

D.C. Central Kitchen recently took its interns on a gleaning trip to Germantown, Md. to Butcher’s Orchard berry farm. Volunteers went to work filling as many blueberry containers as possible with almost over-ripe berries – sweet enough to pop in your mouth right then and there – to take back and put in kitchen pastries and cobblers.

The blueberries were so ripe and plentiful in the 12 rows that Butcher’s Orchard graciously let volunteers pick, that clumps of them fell off into their hands. In less than two hours, volunteers had gathered more than 40 pounds of berries.

So what are you waiting for? Read up on gleaning and get to work forging farm partnerships. The harvest will leave your community partners satisfied.

Some additional advice from D.C. Central Kitchen’s Gleaning expert, Joelle Johnson:

“Gleaning programs can be a great asset to any Campus Kitchen as they provide fresh produce for summer meals at no cost. Local gleaning programs are also beneficial for farmers as it allows them to donate their surplus crops (that would otherwise be left on the fields) to those in need.

If you’d like to get your Campus Kitchen involved with gleaning before the summer is up, check out your state’s Department of Agriculture website, search for your county, and get in contact with the farms listed there. You can also go down to your local farmer’s market and tell them about the program and let them know that if they are interested in getting involved to contact you.

Many farmers do have email addresses, so gather their contact information and send them a brief one-pager explaining the program and how their donation will help to feed many in need in their community.”

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That’s just what volunteers and staff with D.C. Central Kitchen did on a recent Thursday morning during a trip 45 minutes Southeast of Washington, D.C.  to a farm in Owings, Md.

the youth group from Kansas City arrives

Amidst the fun, the group of ten volunteers – a youth group from Kansas City who came to D.C. with the Center for Student Missions – also helped D.C. Central Kitchen harvest pounds of green produce to bring back to the kitchen.

Bagging the Chinese cabbage

The girls and boys, ages 15 to 17, helped stake and string tomato plants, weed an onion patch, pick broccoli, and cut off lettuce, bok choy, and Chinese Cabbage heads from 9 a.m. to noon.

Farmer Jim watches over us.

Farmer Jim, who owns the Lambs Quarter farm, graciously welcomed the group to participate in gleaning from his organic produce fields – about 5 acres in total.

Bringing home the loot

At the end of the day, D.C. Central Kitchen had accumulated bags and boxes of produce to add to the 4,500 meals that go out each day – giving the hungry a little extra helping of healthy.

The students, who readily jumped to work outside at a beautiful farm harvesting produce, probably had the most fun carrying the Chinese cabbage back in trash bags, perched atop their heads, in single file.

Looking to learn more about Gleaning with D.C. Central Kitchen? Visit the web site and get in on the action!

Several Campus Kitchens have already planned gleaning trips:

Saint Andrews Episcopal High School (will become a Campus Kitchen in Fall 2010)– July 22, August 5

CKWM – August 3

CKUVA – August 12

CKUMES – October 28

View more pictures from the Gleaning trip:

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This cookbook will come in very handy over the next few months as gleaning and donations bring in a surplus of whatever vegetable happens to be in season. When you find yourself running out of ideas for dishes calling for collard greens, reach for this book and you may find some inspiration.

Unlike other cookbooks, this one allows you to search by ingredient! So long as you know your ABC’s this cookbook will be a breeze! Another fun fact about this book is that it was created by a Madison, Wisconsin CSA (MACSAC), specifically for people who had recently purchased CSA shares. The hope was that it would provide their shareholders with creative ideas for preparing the (sometimes unique) produce that they would receive.

So to jazz up your summer meals, head on over to their website and purchase this cookbook directly from their CSA!

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CKUVM Students Pose at a Mardi Gras Celebration

One Campus Kitchen will get more than salad dressing from Newman’s Own this March: The Newman’s Own Foundation is granting 5 to 25 thousand for one standout, do-good organization per campus in the America East Conference.

The Foundation partnered with the America East Conference to choose one leading, service-focused student group – that is closely affiliated with a non-profit – at each member university. Other nominees include University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Project Health, which connects low-income patients and their families with resources they need to be healthy and University of Albany’s Students of Albany Against Cancer, which raises awareness for early cancer prevention and detection.

Participants from the nine schools in the conference will be evaluated on the level of the group’s involvement with an affiliated non-profit as well as the degree it reflects Paul Newman’s spirit of creativity and commitment. Judges will also consider mission and programs, and the impact the grant money will have on the populations served.

The Campus Kitchen at the University of Vermont was nominated in connection with the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf and the grant would help fund gleaning and nutrition programs.

One student group will receive a grant of $25,000, $15,000, and $10,000, and six will get $5000. The Campus Kitchen is among the three finalists to receive between 10 and 25 thousand. Grant recipients will be profiled throughout America East’s men’s and women’s basketball championships at the University of Hartford, March 4-7.

The Campus Kitchen at University of Vermont’s volunteers are keeping their spoons crossed to win the grand prize of $25,000 in an awards ceremony March 7!

CKUVM on the Local News

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Campus  Kitchens – especially when they first fire up operations (like St. Lawrence University, Union College, UMass Boston and University of Virginia this year) – look to answer a plethora of food security questions about their city to better serve the community.
Some Campus Kitchens that have or will start gleaning programs are looking for a number of farms with direct sales in the area.  Others are trying to assess what kind of access certain communities have to grocery stores. Still others are looking to form partnerships with local restaurants for food donations.

What if all these answers – and more – were in one place, with a customizable map? Look no further than the Food Environment Atlas, brought to you by the United States Department of Agriculture.

The map allows for setting specifics on categories such as food prices, food insecurity, availability of food stores, local food, and socioeconomic characteristics. There is even a county selection advanced mode where campus kitchens can search for counties in need of hunger relief.

Once you’re finished with your query, the application lets you print and save the map. How’s that for a kitchen utensil?

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It is a color-coded list and each item links to a page that provides you with details about nutrient content, recipes, varieties,  and tips for storage. I also found it eye-opening how long some produce can be stored for! (Keep this in mind if you plan on doing any gleaning this summer for your Campus Kitchen.)      Enjoy!

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Owning a pressure canner is your gateway to eating fresh and local, all year round. It is a safe, easy, and fun way to save those bountiful summer harvests and to make sure you’ve always got something in your Campus Kitchen pantry. Here, I will  provide basic, step-by-step instructions for canning tomato sauce when harvests reach their peak and tomatoes are plentiful near the of summer. Come winter, you will be able to crack open these jars to make spaghetti sauce, chili, lasagna, or any other tomato based dish.

With a 23-quart pressure canner, you can fit 7 quart jars at a time (plus several smaller jars).

You will need:

• 23-quart pressure canner ( I recommend Presto 23-qt pressure cooker/canner. About $80)
• 1 large pot (for scalding tomatoes)
• 1 large bowl of ice water
• Jar Funnel (I recommend buying a canning set)
• Jar grabber
• Quart-sized mason jars (Ball or Kerr jars can be found at most grocery stores or dollar stores, like Wal-Mart or Big Lots)
• Large spoons and ladles

Step 1: Pick your Tomatoes! A bushel of tomatoes weighs approximately 53 lbs. and will yield about 12 quarts of sauce.

Step 2: Sterilize the jars and lids. This is most easily done in the dishwasher. Start your dishwasher before you begin anything else, so that it will be done by the time you are ready to fill the jars with sauce. If you don’t have a dishwasher, you can boil a large pot of water and submerge the jars and lids in there.

Step 3: Scald the tomatoes. This is to remove the skins. Submerge the tomatoes, a few at a time in boiling water for 1 minute. Quickly transfer them to a bowl of ice water and then slide the skins off.

Step 4: Drain excess water from tomatoes. Slice them in half and place them in a strainer as you work through the bunch. Draining the water greatly reduces cooking time and results in a thicker sauce.

Step 5: Transfer tomatoes to large pot. Bring to a boil and let simmer until the volume is reduced by about one third (thinner sauce) or one half (thicker sauce). Stir a bit to break up large tomato chunks.

Step 6: Fill jars. Using the funnel and a ladle, transfer sauce to jars, leaving ¼ inch head space. Add 2 tbsp lemon juice/quart jar to help prevent spoilage and to retain color and flavor. Then, using a dry and clean cloth, wipe the rim of the jar before covering with the lid and tightening the ring.

Step 7: Pressure canning! Follow the directions that came with your canner.

Step 8: Finishing up. Once the time is up, remove the jars with the jar grabber, making sure to not bump the other jars. Place them in a cool, draft free place, overnight. As the jars seal you will hear “pop!”. You can check to see that they have all sealed by gently pressing in the center of the each lid. If it pops up and down, it is not sealed.

For helpful tips/questions see my favorite, trustworthy canning website

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 The conference got underway Friday morning and, might I say, was a huge success. The whole weekend was catered by the amazing Fresh Start catering program through DC Central Kitchen. At the conference, students got to hear from many guest speakers and gained valuble tips and insights from them, as well as from fellow attendees. Topics at the conference included: fundraising, local food, nutrition, grant writing, community relationships, social media, leadership, and nonprofit professionalism. The conference came to a close on Saturday evening at a delicious local restaurant, Busboys and Poets. DCCK/CKP founder, Robert Egger, gave the closing speech and left the students and staff with a renewed sense of purpose.

The CKP staff would like to thank everyone who attended the conference as well as our awesome speakers and the generous donors and sponsors who made it all possible! Another successful conference as we enter into ‘Our New Millennium’…

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