"Did anyone visit Calypso last year?"
In my life I've had a few opportunities to visit places that I've loved and left. Leaving home for college and returning after graduation, visiting Cortona Italy with my family after high school and returning during my junior year of college study abroad, going back to DC for Obama's inauguration after graduating from George Washington University and currently my return to Calypso Farm to help with their fall field trips.
My first experiences in all of these places were ones of growth. Each place taught me about myself and the world around me. It is because of these initial moments that returning to these places feels like coming home. There is a familiarity with the culture, the surrounding environment, and old hang out spots. But in returning, I have found that I need to be aware of the changes that have happened since I left. Most times these changes are small, almost unnoticeable until looked at more closely.
These are the feelings I've been working through since arriving back at Calypso. Nevertheless the past few weeks in Alaska have been great. I have reconnected with the amazing Calypso community and hurtled myself back into the large, and sometimes hectic, field trip coordinating routine. The garden here is just past it's peak of production and large carrots, kale, potatoes, beets, lettuces, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, squash and more are being harvested. I am constantly amazed by the amount of produce and the variety of vegetables that can be grown together in one place.
I am also still learning new things about the Ester community. Last summer I discovered the gold mining operations in Ester gorge, and I saw the gold mining dredges. I knew that Ester had been founded by prospectors searching for gold during the gold rush. But last week, for the first time, I got to see a prospecting operation up close! Judy, a beloved Calypso volunteer, invited us to tour her husband's gold operation... right in their backyard! Judy and her husband are both retired from their full time jobs but her husband keeps busy following his own gold "vein" (as miners call the streaks of amethyst where gold can be found). The day we visited it was raining, but Bob brightened the dimness of the weather with his jovial explanation of how he found his "vein" and how one sorts through rocks and mud to pan for gold.
"you can't pan in the river, if you ever go panning in a river you know it's a fake operation. You gotta have a bin to catch anything that falls out. Then you can just re-pan instead of it flying off in the current."
Bob took us through the archeology of the site, how he found his vein, and the long... painstaking process of finding gold dust, gold nuggets and gold lines. He also explained how his operation is different from the big mining operations.
"if you're like the high school kids around here, you know that to pay for school all you have to do is go search through the old dredge piles."
Apparently, gold dredges are only built to sort for gold dust-anything bigger like a gold nugget the dredges toss out like a rock because nuggets are so rare to find. By running a small prospecting operation, Bob is able to catch all of the above.
As Fall rolls in and the trees change to yellow, I only have a month left in Alaska. I still don't know what will happen after I am done at Calypso. The uncertainty is exciting, but I am also fighting a slightly nervous feeling. I'll keep you all informed as I know more about my next steps.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Got Veg.
Got Veg? New Holly Youth and Family P-Patch does...
I realize that there is a lot to catch you up on. Especially since I have now officially completed my 2009-10 AmeriCorps term, and I honestly don't know if I can catch up on everything that has happened over the past year on this blog. Never the less there is one thing that I do want to devote time to writing about.
Whether your family, friends or random internet reader interested in organic food and food systems, I think that you will be able to relate to this entry. In the United States there is a huge gap in youth education concerning where the food they consume comes from. I've read about cafeteria lunches consisting mostly of greasy pizzas popped in a microwave right before being served as that days hot lunch, accompanied by heated up frozen tatter tots that count as the lunch vegetable. I've also heard youth grown at the thought of eating a fresh garden carrot with a little dirt on it, stating they'd prefer to get their vegetables from the Safeway down the street (at least they're eating veggies). But statements like this blaringly highlight the evidence that there is a disconnect between American youth and the food they eat.
Yes. I know that these days I am preaching to the choir. there are literally hundreds of efforts across the U.S. to improve school lunches and connect youth to the environment. Despite these efforts, the bills that are being passed in Washington DC are not making big enough changes. Most recently I read an article about the newest bill entitled "Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010", which grants .6 cents more per child to healthier school lunches... (you can read more here http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2010/06/improving-nutrition-for-americ.shtml). The bill also promises more access for students who are eligible for school lunch programs, and also justifies the small increase in funding by saying it is the first increase in 30 years. It's better than nothing, and probably will help students in the long run. But it is a very small step to solving a problem that has been growing for the last 50 years or more. If government continues to avoid solving the problems in youth nutrition that it has caused through supporting organizations like Mansanto and subsidizing crops that ultimately make us an obese nation, than we will definitely not meet the goals set by Michelle Obama's Task Force to reduce childhood obesity by 2020. Not to mention our youth will continue down their current path of becoming the first generation to dye before their parents (BIG DEAL!).
I realize that there is a lot to catch you up on. Especially since I have now officially completed my 2009-10 AmeriCorps term, and I honestly don't know if I can catch up on everything that has happened over the past year on this blog. Never the less there is one thing that I do want to devote time to writing about.
Whether your family, friends or random internet reader interested in organic food and food systems, I think that you will be able to relate to this entry. In the United States there is a huge gap in youth education concerning where the food they consume comes from. I've read about cafeteria lunches consisting mostly of greasy pizzas popped in a microwave right before being served as that days hot lunch, accompanied by heated up frozen tatter tots that count as the lunch vegetable. I've also heard youth grown at the thought of eating a fresh garden carrot with a little dirt on it, stating they'd prefer to get their vegetables from the Safeway down the street (at least they're eating veggies). But statements like this blaringly highlight the evidence that there is a disconnect between American youth and the food they eat.
Yes. I know that these days I am preaching to the choir. there are literally hundreds of efforts across the U.S. to improve school lunches and connect youth to the environment. Despite these efforts, the bills that are being passed in Washington DC are not making big enough changes. Most recently I read an article about the newest bill entitled "Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010", which grants .6 cents more per child to healthier school lunches... (you can read more here http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2010/06/improving-nutrition-for-americ.shtml). The bill also promises more access for students who are eligible for school lunch programs, and also justifies the small increase in funding by saying it is the first increase in 30 years. It's better than nothing, and probably will help students in the long run. But it is a very small step to solving a problem that has been growing for the last 50 years or more. If government continues to avoid solving the problems in youth nutrition that it has caused through supporting organizations like Mansanto and subsidizing crops that ultimately make us an obese nation, than we will definitely not meet the goals set by Michelle Obama's Task Force to reduce childhood obesity by 2020. Not to mention our youth will continue down their current path of becoming the first generation to dye before their parents (BIG DEAL!).
In March I also began to organize a garden club at New Holly for Middle-High School students. I originally started the club as a way to connect older New Holly youth to the P-Patch program, but I also wanted it to be a safe place where youth could come to learn and share nutritious healthy meals. So, with the help of some of the other AmeriCorps in my program, everyother week we cooked dinners and on other weeks we worked in our P-Patch plot. The club was a success drawing over 20 youth to the New Holly Community Kitchen and P-Patch garden. We made dinners of stuffed red lentil/rice peppers, fried eggplant, kale chips, egg drop soup, stir-fry and spring rolls-just to name a few. We also fixed the New Holly Youth and Family P-Patch fence, planned and planted a garden, learned how to make compost and harvested veggies to use in our dinners! The youth who participated were amazing and really fun to work with. They came to meetings excited to cook and share meals. I learned a lot just from planning club meetings and interacting with the youth. To check out a video that was made about the club click here: http://pugetsoundoff.org/
It feels good knowing that even though government isn't moving fast enough in terms of food policy, there are still programs that allow people like me to make a small difference in youth education around food. In fact AmeriCorps programs such as AppleCorps are begining to pop up all around the country in the form of FoodCorps. Until the changes we need are made higher up I can only hope that AmeriCorps volunteers, nutritionists, gardeners and others in the food movement keep up their efforts to teach and expose students to healthy, fresh, nutritious food.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)