Currently...

1. Listening to NEWEST COUNTRY HITS on Comcast t.v.
2. Eating nothing but craving CHOCOLATE
3. Drinking freshly brewed MINT TEA
4. Wearing BLACK SWEATS
5. Feeling ANXIOUS...school starts tomorrow
6. Weather is currently BREEZY... remnants on Hurricane Irene but the SUN has made an appearance :-)
7. Wanting ONE MORE WEEK OF SUMMER VACATION :-(
8. Needing FOOD for lunch this week
9. Thinking "I SHOULD GO TO THE GROCERY STORE AFTER POSTING".
10. Enjoying this relaxing SUNDAY --- Daniel and I watched Limitless and Despicable Me --- nothing gets better than kicking back and  watching movies with the person you <3

Prepping for the School Year!

Over the past few weeks, I have been hooked on Pinterest! Every time I visit the website I find a  new, fun, creative project to do --- whether it is for around the house, a cute accessory, or something neat for the classroom. Last evening, I completed my first DIY crafty idea that I found on Pinterest --- a photoframe message board. I actually made eight of them! Now, you are probably thinking, 'wow, she went way overboard on the number of message boards', however, I didn't! Last year, interactive whiteboards were installed in every classroom in the school that I teach and when mine was  installed I lost my only white board space in my classroom. I really didn't mind because what I wrote on my white board, I incorporated into my flip-charts (similar to power point presentation, but interactive), however, I missed having my vocab words and homework assignments displayed throughout the whole unit instead of just a 25 second glance as I went about teaching the lesson. My original plan was to post vocab using the old school method - 'printed words, bordered with colored paper, and them laminated', however, that idea went to the wayside when my school schedule kicked into high gear  and I never posted all of the vocab like I had hoped... well after a few visits on Pinterest, I found the answer to my vocab posting dilemma --- dyi photoframe message boards. Here are my creations! I hung them in my classroom today!

 

I love this idea because the vocab from each unit can be written on the message boards with a dry erase marker and then erased easily at the end of the unit --- no more wasted hours cutting, pasting, and laminating.... even better yet, I now have a place to post my homework! Just FYI, all the scrap booking paper is designed, some of the images you can't really tell --- they just look plain --- but they are all cute and match my new curtains in my classroom!!! 

Happy 2011-2012 School Year, Everyone!

Wordless Wednesday

From the Field to the Table

Well --- it has been a while since my last post... way too long --- life has been quite busy lately and this summer has been full of travelling - from sunny California, to the suburbs of  D.C., onward to Latrobe, PA and back home to my old stomping grounds of Shickshinny, PA! However, that isn't the only reason I haven't blogged...truth is, I really didn't have much to say about anything until...well now!

In July, while in California, I was having a conversation with a friend about eating organic and how I loved summer because of the wide variety of fresh produce available locally. She then told me about CSAs or Community Supported Agriculture programs. Say what?... I had no clue what she was talking about --- never heard of such a thing...growing up supporting the local farmers around my home meant patronizing the stand at the end of the driveway. I can not believe growing up in rural (farm-country) Pennsylvania, that I had no clue what a CSA was... thus the reason for this blog!

I am sure that I am not the only one  that had no clue what a Community Supported Agriculture program was... so I am here to tell you all about it --- keep reading :-) In the USA, there are approximately two million farms... roughly 80% of those are small farms and are for the majority family owned and operated. We are all aware that the large scale chemical farming that we now see in the USA is damaging the soil and polluting our water, so buying local produce directly from your community farmer can put a dent in this harmful trend. Local Harvest  is a great resource to find local organic farmers that participate in CSAs near you! Just plug in your zip code, click search, and the results will appear! There were 24 hits (CSAs) for the Harrisburg area alone and for my family back home in Shickshinny, there are 5 within miles of my house! Ok...so now that you know that there are CSAs available in your community, I bet you are know DYING to know what in the world a CSA is... 

Community Supported Agriculture is an opportunity for consumers to purchase local, seasonal foods (vegetables, fruits, farm fresh eggs, grass fed beef, etc.) directly from the local farmer. FarmDirect had the greatest analogy to explain CSAs... "what if, instead of getting a news magazine every week, you got a big box of produce from a farmer down the road, a box of fruits and vegetables picked that very morning, bursting with flavor and nutrition? That's what you get when you subscribe to a CSA." Community Supported Agriculture is known as "subscription farming". Community members purchase a subscription at the beginning of the growing season and in return over the 16 weeks (or so) of the growing season will receive  a share of fresh, locally grown produce, farm fresh eggs and meats (as long as your CSA participates in all three). CSAs aren't a new farming concept. They have existed for many years, back to the time when people knew exactly where their food came from, when we only ate foods that were currently and season and we enjoyed it because it was delicious, healthy, and fresh! We all know now that when you visit the Wegmans or Giant, especially in the winter, that those nice bright red tomatoes  were picked GREEN, thousands of miles away, weeks before you even stepped foot into the store and were sprayed with ethylene gas to make it turn that bright red before it was perfectly placed on the produce counter! Unfortunate, what we as consumers have gained in convenience having produce at our fingers tips, we have truly lost in flavor, freshness, nutritional value, and the truth of knowing where our food truly comes from. However, when you become a subscribing member to a local CSA you can have FLAVOR, FRESHNESS, NUTRITIONAL VALUE, and KNOW where your produce is coming from ---- what a great deal! From May to October, your share box will be full of fresh fruits and vegetables --- of course it will be full of what is currently "in season"... Don't be alarmed when you don't see that juicy, vine-ripened tomato in May, simply enjoy the luscious lettuce, spinach, and asparagus that is waiting for you to devour! I promise you, in August, your share box will be full of tomatoes that are full of flavor and do not taste like cardboard!

CSAs provide more than just food, they offer ways for consumers to become involved in the ecological and human community that supports the farm. 

The best time to join a CSA is at the beginning of the growing season...and since we are roughly four months into the season, many CSAs may no longer be accepting subscriptions for this year... HOWEVER, there are a few farms, especially in the Harrisburg area that have a few memberships still available and will prorate the membership for the final few weeks of the season! However, I suggest that perhaps this year may not be the time to officially become a member... Do your research! Since July, I have been searching for the "right" CSA to join and exploring the ins and outs of membership... So far I learned that:

• There are two types of subscriptions: a full share and a partial share --- for families of four or more a full share will feed you all with fresh produce for the entire week, thus a partial share looks like the route I will be taking next year!
• Check the "greeness" of the local CSA by using Ecovian, a web-based search engine that will give you the percentage of local and organic produce that is grown on a particular farm or CSA in your community. 
• Research the CSAs in your community.... many offer different crops throughout the growing season and some seasons are longer than others... I have found that some CSAs in Harrisburg have only an 18-week growing season, while if I drive up the road 10 miles, a CSA in Duncannon has a 24-week growing season with many other added perks such jams, jellies and a weekly brown bag surprise with the weekly share! Use LocalHarvest to find CSAs in your community!
• As previously stated, becoming a member mid season may be difficult, however, some CSAs are still offering prorated memberships for the remainder of the season.

I challenge my readers to do a little more research on CSAs... we can start a revolution to eat REAL food...support REAL farmers...and create a REAL sense of community!!! 

Ever Find Something Pinteresting?

Over the past few months I have found some great websites that highlight the creative, innovative works of people from all across the world. The first site was Etsy and the only reason I came across this interesting site was because a friend from high school sent an invite to her online store to her friends on Facebook.  Etsy is a marketplace were artists, creators, collectors, thinkers, and doers showcase their artwork and products. You can find anything from books to furniture, pottery to needlecrafts on this site. If you have not visited this site yet, I highly suggest that you take a minute or two to explore the amazing creations... I guarantee that you will come back daily to see what new items have been posted and also bookmark items for your "wish list".

This original acrylic painting by Tim Lam can be purchased on Etsy --- Just follow the link for more details! There are so many amazing products on this site...I know that my wish list keeps growing and I have found a ton of  great gift ideas for family and friends for the holiday season! 

Now, if you are not familiar with the next site, you are probably wondering why the heck I spelled interesting wrong in the title of this blog post... because I didn't! Thanks to my friend and fellow blogger, Breanna, she now has me hooked on pinning! Pinterest is an online community that connects people all over the globe through the "things" we find interesting. Once a member of Pinterst, one can organize and share all the creative, innovative things one finds on the world-wide web from yummy recipes to decorating ideas by pinning to a 'board'. Members can browse pin boards created by other people and by doing so, one will discover new things and perhaps gain inspiration to go out and try a new crafting project or even find bulletin board ideas for the classroom. I know that after only two days of being a member of Pinterst, I have created nine boards ranging from Artistic Visions to Celebrating Others and have pinned over 80 interesting, creative ideas! If you are interested in becoming a member, let me know, I would be happy to send you an invite! 

Now, to put all my "pinning" to good use... I can not wait to make this cute "almost no-sew" tote that I found on Pinteresting today... You can link up with Susan Harris' Blog and find the quick, easy directions to this very cute crafty idea! 

What will you find Pinteresting? 

Take the Taste Test

I recently attended the National Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America Conference (NLC) in Anaheim, California. While at the conference students and advisers alike can take part in workshops, seminars, and demonstrations all while networking with peers from all 50 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Over the past three years of attending this conference as a teacher, I have made connections with amazing Family and Consumer Sciences teachers. These connections have given me hundreds of ideas and lesson plans that I have used in my classes over the last three years. Many of you, especially my teacher friends have heard me rant and rave over lessons that have been a hit with my students, especially in May of this passed year. Through Facebook updates and face-to-face talks, many of those people close to me heard about "Chopped on a Budget" --- the 2 week project that I did with my 8th graders using the Food Network show Chopped as a theme! Going into my fourth year of teaching (my how time flies), I now have more fun, interesting ideas to share with my students that I recently learned about at the NLC. One new project in particular that I hope to try with my students is "Tricking Your Tastebuds". While attending a workshop on "Teaching Food Science", I and many other educators learned of something the presenter called the "Miracle Berry".

The miracle berry fruit is a small red fruit orginally grown in Africa. The active ingredient in the Miracle Berry Fruit is called miraculin which has the ability to change the tasting properties of the tongue making sour, acidic and bitter foods taste sweet.

We all know what happens when we eat a slice of a lemon... our faces start to pucker up and all we taste is SOUR.

While listening to the presenter, he asked for several teachers to volunteer in the "Tricking Your Tastebuds" experiment. Unfortunately, I wasn't chosen, however, myself and the other unlucky teachers were still able to witness the "miracle" of the berry by seeing first hand the faces and then hearing the responses of the volunteers. Because the shelf life on the miracle berry fruit is only 1 - 2 days after harvesting, the presenter gave each of the participants a Miracle Berry Tablet. The all-natural tablet contains the freeze dried extract from 3 whole miracle berries preserving the active ingredient miraculin. The participants placed the tablet into their mouths and let it dissolve. In order for the miraculin to work properly the tablet can not be chewed ---the tongue must be coated so that the taste bud receptors responsible for sour, bitter, and acidic flavors are blocked. While waiting the 5 minutes or so, I conversed with the teachers around me to get their thoughts and learned that one FACS teacher has already done this experiment with her students after learning about it while watching an Episode of "Future Food" on Planet Green.  The hosts of this show, Homaro Cantu and Ben Roche, are world renowned chefs at MOTO, a restaurant tucked among the loading docks and 19th century warehouses of Fulton Market, Chicago's lively meatpacking district. In the episode "Future Food", the team at MOTO came up with several dishes to try out on their diners, using plants, cactus, flowers, and weeds that are never eaten because of their bitter components. The dishes that were created were concentrated, highly-nutritious, but of course horrible tasting. The diners will presented with the Miracle Berry Fruit then ate the same dishes prepared with grass, flowers, and weeds as before... and ta-da, the diners now had a palatable, nutritious dish since their taste buds were altered from bitter to sweet. Pretty cool, huh? However, I never saw the episode, nor did I ever hear of this miracle berry, so being the sceptic I am, I wanted to see it with my own eyes...

The five minutes passed...the miracle berry was dissolved in the participants mouths and they were presented with three fruits that we always associate with sourness: Lemon, Grapefruit, and Lime. First up the lemon, each of them ate it --- NO PUCKERING... and the response "it tastes like a sweet cup of lemonade"...and guess what else, they even ate the RIND... if you have ever zested a lemon, you know that you only zest the "yellow" because as soon as you hit the white you are going to make your  dish extremely bitter! They ate the grapefruit --- same results, and then the lime --- and all reported that they never tasted such flavor and sweetness in the lives.


Well, there you have it... the ability to turn those sour, bitter, usually undesirable foods into sweet, palatable dishes. I think this would be a great lesson to do with my students after teaching about the essential nutrients... many times the sour fruits are avoided but they are loaded with Vitamins, the rind full of fiber, and of course it is hands on!

So far people who have used the Miracle Berry fruit tablets have reported that Guinness tastes like a chocolate milkshake, tomatoes taste like peaches, and rhubarb is irresistibly sweet.

To my teacher friends out there, I hope you can use this idea in your classroom --- its a great way to incorporate science into Foods classes. To my non-teacher friends, take the challenge and try the miracle berries for yourself --- these flavor enhancers may change your mind about the bitter, sour foods you try to avoid!

Wordless Wednesday