Hot on the heels of my recent peek into the peculiar genius of the Gleaner’s Kitchen,
I find myself facing another burning question about our food boundaries …
Would you eat
( . . . . . )
bugs?
Before you answer, let me qualify my query.
I’m not asking if you would pluck a beetle from your yard and …
C-R-U-N-C-H it.
Photo by Bob Peterson via Wikimedia Commons
It’s okay; I’ll give you a moment to recover before I move on …
Ready?
Atta girl.
The bugs that beg the question emanate from a more elegant field of entomology.
Actually, Ento for short.
I’m so proud of our son, Brian. Every year, he invites a kindergarten class to the farm for a field trip. He figures out ahead of time what he wants to teach them and how the morning will go, and afterward seems so energized. He’s such a good daddy himself, and yesterday’s visitors are our future farmers, so thank you, Brian!
Have you had a chance to catch The Perennial Plate?
The Perennial Plate is an online weekly documentary series dedicated to socially responsible and adventurous eating.
Who doesn’t love THAT idea?
Creator Daniel Klein and co-producer/cameragirl Mirra Fine are traveling the world exploring the wonders, complexities, and stories behind the ever-more-connected global food system.
“Klein, who has cooked at the restaurants of Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, and Tom Colicchio … offers a closer look at where our food can actually come from (but often doesn’t) than anything you’re likely to see on the Food Network,” says the Huffington Post.
The episodes follow the culinary, agricultural, and hunting explorations of this intrepid chef.
“Season One took place over a calendar year in Minnesota where, every Monday for 52 weeks, the duo released short films about good food,” reports the Plate’s website. “In Season Two, Klein and Fine traveled across America, taking the viewer on a journey to appreciate and understand where good food comes from and how to enjoy it.”
This season, Klein and Fine are blazing a trail around the world—to China, Japan, India, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, and Ethiopia. Along the way, they’re telling the stories of real food and the people who make it.
In a recent episode called “Do Not Blame the Sea,” the destination was Sri Lanka, where a small fishing family was nearly decimated by the 2004 tsunami. “And yet today, they still fish (either on stilts or in a boat) because they have to do it to survive,” explains Klein.
Even though I’ll never be able to catch up on the site’s bounty of past episodes, I can’t wait to see where they’ll go next.
Who knew I could be an armchair traveler and a footrest foodie at the same time?
If you’re already a fan, share your favorite episode.
Photo by Lars Swanson
Can you help make a wish come true for 6-year-old Miette?
Courtesy of Make-A-Wish Alaska & Washington
This is the pathway that greets our crew every morning, winter, rain, or shine. Yesterday, we were all back to work but the sunshine and warmth from the weekend turned to rain. I spent most of last weekend in the garden planting 50 new perennials in one of our main flower beds (day lily, poppy, columbine, and lupine). How about you? Have you been in your garden yet? What did you do on Mother’s Day weekend? I also took a long Sunday nap. On Saturday I scrubbed the walls and floor of our dairy, cleaned out the cow’s water tank, took photos around the farm, and helped hubby with an excavation project. (More on that later.)
Feeling quizzical today?
I am.
Here’s a trio of terms that tend to trick the tongue and perplex the pen …
If you can’t match the following definitions with the words above, I have a fun exercise for you that I came up with so I can remember the spelling of each.
Take a guess, and then scroll down to find out how I remember these rascally words.
Palate: the roof of your mouth or sense of taste
(spelled plate with an a added)
“My palate is best served when I use a plate.”
Pallet: a wooden bed or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded
(Ma Mallet and Pa Pallet are a team)
“Bring me that mallet so I can take apart this pallet.”
Palette: a flat board an artist mixes paint on or a range of colors
(pal-ette smacks of French, well, because it is)
“The French artist was mixing paints on a palette while wearing a French barette.”
Photo by Jennifer Rensel via Wikimedia Commons
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
