Eating Together! Food, Family and our Community.

So I gave a speech last night at a Chamber of Commerce Event in Vernon. It was only to a small group of folks, but I really took the time to analyze my thoughts about the topic I decided to talk about.
Thanks to my co-worker Nikki, it is much more readable, with my atrocious grammer fixed up!

Eating Together! Food, Families, and our Community


I am, first and foremost, a community participant, food advocate, Tweeting and Facebook HOUND. I have a regular little radio show on 107.5 Kiss FM every Sunday morning called ‘Food for Thought’ and I work with many other community-minded foodie folk across the Okanagan trying to bring awareness and change to how we prepare and eat food together.

In the past I have had the pleasure of working as a kitchen manager with Nature’s Fare Markets, a farm laborer with Friesen’s Country Thyme Gardens and Zelaney Farms and a food server in restaurants such as Hubert’s in Lumby and Paradise Camp on the back side of Silver Star Mountain Ski Resort. All these positions have given me a unique view into how food has shaped our community.

My current full time gig is working as the marketing coordinator for Rancho Vignola Nuts and Dried Fruit in Armstrong. I have had this remarkably satisfying job now for the past 2 years and am very thankful for the opportunities it has allowed me.

Rancho Vignola is a dried fruit and nut distribution company that selectively sources fresh nuts and premium dried fruit from growers and distributors in Canada and abroad. These products are only purchased and distributed during the current year of harvesting. This makes for products that are noticeably fresher and more shelf-stable than the ones available in the grocery store.

On average, eating a meal at home with our families is not an everyday practice. It is difficult, with meetings and our children’s extracurricular activities, to be able to sit down together and enjoy a meal. Approximately 1/3 to 1/4 of Canadian families seldom or irregularly eat together in any given week.

However, I don’t believe many families would choose this separation. We need to be shown how to prepare food together. We need to discuss how even the youngest of our family members can be a part of building a meal.
You share your day, you share your knowledge, and most importantly, you share your time by working together to prepare, eat and clean up after a meal.

Even if it only happens successfully once a week, or it happens at breakfast rather than dinner, having children and teens participating in the preparation of meals will most definitely encourage healthier habits once children grow and live on their own.

Our need to eat has not changed for us as a species, but certainly the choices of what we eat have. We feel much more pressure to eat for the sake of schedules rather than our actual hunger and convenience foods have certainly become a huge commodity market because of this trend.
Though eating is a basic necessity, cooking or preparing food is not! With the amount of instant food marketed to us today at bargain barrel, discount prices, we can easily choose to not prepare meals at all.

However, our health and the well-being of our children is at stake when making such choices. I have come to the realization that teaching parents to prepare meals is one thing, but our resources may be better spent teaching our children. Encouraging discussions about where our food comes from and how it is grown in schools is going to prepare our children strongly for the pressures of eating healthy as adults. Math, science and social skills, interaction, sharing, and basic manners are all a part of preparing and eating food together.

Community participation and the growth of community around the topic of food can help to facilitate this knowledge in children. Whether it’s having neighborhood potlucks, sharing your favorite home-baked goods at bake sales, or sharing recipes with friends and family, these actions show our children the power that food has for bringing people together.

Rancho Vignola encourages alternative buying or bulk buying opportunities once or maybe a few times a year. This means getting friends and family together to coordinate an order large enough that those involved have stocked pantries! Many folks that buy from us, share stories about how they have potlucks and events to bring people together for putting in their yearly fall order. Generations of families purchase together from Rancho Vignola, building relationships with each other that many of us take for granted.

Purchasing products that can be stored for up to a year in our houses is not a new concept. But today in the age of instant satisfaction, purchasing our food for the day or the week is a more practiced alternative. Storing semi-perishable food in cold storage, refrigerators, or freezers encourages people to have on hand nutritious ingredients year round.

Operating on the principle that ‘food is community’ is part of what has made Rancho Vignola successful. From the families who grow the food to the families who sit together and share it, food creates a human bond.
Sharing food has been a powerful marketing tool for the company, and one that is universally needed and accepted.

The vibrancy that exists in our food culture here in the Okanagan is unique. We have a wonderful growing season here and many farmers and gardeners. We have successful and vivacious farmers markets that provide us with not only food, but culture, music, and art, encouraging our friends and neighbors to make an income off of providing us with goods we want and love.

We have community volunteers that work long and hard to provide us with community gardens, community kitchens, and ‘Good Food Box’ programs where we can share knowledge, develop ideas, and eat healthy food at little to no cost! Supporting these initiatives is the key to keeping them. Knowing about them... is a start!

In the United States and Great Britain, Jamie Oliver has pounded the pavement and bureaucratic brains trying to get people to see how what we feed ourselves and our families affects our ability to live healthy, balanced lifestyles. I feel he has done a fantastic job of making the general public aware of this problem. But it is up to us in our community to try to encourage change here.

The Slow Food movement, sustainability, 100 mile diet, food security... these are all words and statements that are hot on the lips of foodies today. All these statements are pointing towards bringing people together over the issue of food - talking about it, thinking about it, considering the pros and cons of your next meal!

Though this might not be exactly what some of you want to think about on a regular basis, thinking about it now and sharing your knowledge with your family, friends, and coworkers is going to encourage a better, healthier aging process with less illness, less depression, and more energy to truly live your passions. More energy to participate in this lively, bright community we call home.

Here are some really good links I wish to share:

www.projectchef.ca
Project CHEF: Cook Healthy Edible Food is an experiential, curriculum-based school program aimed at children in grades four and five that teaches students about healthy food: where it comes from, what it tastes like, how to prepare it and how to enjoy sharing it around a table.

www.soscuisine.com
A site to help families build personalized meal plans based loosely on what is in season in their region. It’s not a perfect match to region yet, but it’s close and the recipes are mostly easy and fast.

http://foodaction.ca
This website is really a ‘one stop shop’ for information about what is happening food-wise in our community. Here is where you find out about programs such as The Good Food Box, community gardens, and community kitchen initiatives. Gleaning projects are also posted regularly on this website. If you have a local company that sells food or you are a food producer, you can add your company to the ‘Local Food Directory/Map’

www.ranchovignola.com
@RanchoVignola also me tweeting for Rancho.
www.facebook.com/RanchoVignola is our Facebook page (Please ‘like’ us!)


@jaymemckillop is my Twitter handle.

http://www.1075kiss.com
Local First radio! Supports many great projects in our community and is a huge supporter of the farmers market.

Your Gone...

YOu left all of a sudden... it felt like.

You forgot to say goodbye... the last time I saw you, you had that sickness...
you know the one that takes your soul and chews it up like zombie breath.

Its too bad to see you gone. I didn't even know where you were...
thought you were home but I was wrong. I'd see you and people would talk,
say you were sad.

Gone. You left again. This time you had more problems and I know its gonna be hard to find you.

I wish you would come out of the zombie grip. You got more than that Man!
You are more than that. I used to cry when you sang.

you had the right passion my friend. Thats what counts. Ive figured it out. You helped piece the puzzle my friend. You

helped to introduce the right magic...

I won't forget though your forgotten. I want to remember and honor your hopes.

You woulda liked it that way I know it. Before when you were you. Its hard to fight through what you've done to yourself.

To know you. You tipped the scales and fell along. YoU rolled down hill.

If you came back I would help you.

I would promise to visit and say the right things.
You deserve it. You dreamed it. I remember.

You're Gone my friend. I would welcome you back.

At least I would try.

Soul

Soul

Passions misplaced.
Set down like dirty dishes stacked high.
Another day will come and go without use of creative juices to fuel the next step.

Years maybe? Feels like it. What so lit me alite before, has only sparked my interest occasionally by others who do it well.

Time. I say. More
As if cramming more hours down my throat would squelch something haunting.

Haunted. Not by fears or expectations, recognition or responsibility.
By sheer need. True possession. Absolute sincerity of self.

Justification.

Soul

Sometimes Inspiration comes in a simple shade of grey...

Im flawed



Im flawed and Im sure of it now. I don’t say it to make you feel sorry for me. I don’t say it to make you look for physical scars or secrets I have kept from you. If you knew me, you would know I wear my secrets like cheap costume jewellery bought second hand.



Im flawed. I don’ t need to say how. Maybe I don’t even know really. Maybe the face I look at in the mirror everyday is simply an image imagined thru the veil of social pressure. Maybe the ‘skinny’ mirror has finally swallowed me whole and left me thinking Im still beautiful.



Im flawed. I had my teeth fixed to try and fix it and Im grateful! For now I have a bright smile with friendly teeth. Straight or not they are mine to rub my tongue over, instruments to begin digestion of food made with love.



Im flawed. I have curves and get called matronly. I have been hurt by that before... robust, curvaceous, buxom, voluptuous... I prefer warm, soft and womanly, words that don’t describe whats my outside, but words that matter when encircled in the embrace of an opinion that matters.



Im flawed. I except that. Not for the sake of you or anyone else. I except that for the me that gets buried under my own hurtful words screaming myself into silence. I except that for the me that try’s too hard to hate what I must present, physically to the world. I except that for the people in my life I hold so dear, who’s physicality has absolutely no bearing on what I think of them.



Im flawed. Im passionate. Im hopeful. Im strong. Im healthy. Im happy. Im flawed.

Need a killer Veggie Pate?

This dip is wonderful as a vegetable dip, serve with crackers or even as a sandwich spread. Delicious!


Toasted Walnut Pate

You will need:

1 hand full of fresh oregano
60g of Feta cheese
1 lemon
4 cloves of garlic (less is fine if you don’t want it too garlicky)
1.5c toasted walnuts
(to toast, put in a dry frying pan over low heat until you can smell them toasting. They burn easily so toss them intermittently).
1 can of tomato paste
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Pinch of salt
A hint of smoked paprika
Fresh pepper to taste.

In a food processor, toss in your garlic cloves and feta. Run until smooth. Add your toasted walnuts, then run the processor again. You will have a grainy paste after this. Take your fresh oregano and chop it slightly. Get rid of any stems or woody parts and throw it in with your can of tomato paste, apple cider vinegar,lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper. Run one last time in the processor until you have a smooth paste.

~Enjoy~

Secrets that comfort on cold winter days

I am totally giving away my secrets with this one... well not really! This is the comfort of comfort food with a couple twists. I have made this in many ways, but this week? This is my fave!


My way Mac ‘n’ Cheese w/ Sesame Seeds

You will need:

Some fresh Thyme (chopped fine)
Some fresh or dried Marjoram (use oregano if you don’t have marjoram)
Whole wheat/kamut/spelt macaroni (the white just don’t cut it in my house)
1.5 cups Monterey Jack cheese (grated)
1c milk
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 tbsp of butter
1 small bunch of broccoli (stem and all)
1 chopped leek
1 lemon juiced
1/4c of sesame seeds
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.Boil water for pasta and add some salt to the water. Get out a sauce pan and place your butter in over medium heat. Soon as your butter melts, add your flour and cook the flour until all the butter is absorbed. Add you milk very slowly and heat through, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Add half your cheese, stir in with your leeks, salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat. Chop up your broccoli into bite size chunks. Add your broccoli to your pasta water about 2 minutes before you strain your pasta. Just until it is nice and green. Don’t over cook your pasta because it still has a trip to the oven to make. Put your strained pasta and broccoli into your pot, pour your cheezy sauce over it all and toss until the sauce is covering every ounce of macaroni. Squeeze your lemon in there, chopped herbs, salt and pepper, then toss one last time. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and place the pot, with a lid, in the oven for 1/2 hour. Done!

~Enjoy~

**Tip** You can add any green, red, orange or blue veggie you want to this dish. If you don’t have sesame seeds? Go with sunflower seeds. Toast them a bit first to really bring out the flavor.

~Them naughty legumes.... ppp Peanuts~

I dunno about the rest of you... but I love Peanut butter!

I know I know peanuts are 'bad' and big, crappy false food companies use their 'no peanut' strategy to sell terrible, chemical laden food to honest folk! I am not of the mind to buy such things though... and if you have an allergy to peanuts, almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, or anything related to nuts... DON'T EAT IN MY KITCHEN.

I'm very sorry! I sympathize deeply with those that are allergic to nuts or peanuts!

I couldn't imagine my life without nuts/peanuts in it.

I have a few problems though with the mistreatment of peanuts. First of all, they are not nuts! They are legumes! Banning peanuts from schools is understandable if there deathly allergic kids. I understand that. But all nuts???? Man oh man! In this day and age where people are eating less and less meat, we have to look at this issue in a different way.



Anyways, on that note... here's how to make peanut butter!!!

2 cups of roasted peanuts
1 x food processor.

(no a blender will not work for this).


Put your peanuts in the food processor and turn it on!

Let the food processor run until you have the most perfect, amazing, wonderful, fresh peanut butter.


If you like your peanut butter a bit salty? Add some sea salt to it. If you like your peanut butter sweet, add a drizzle of maple syrup or honey and run the food processor until smooth. If you like chunky peanut butter, add some pre chopped peanuts at the end of this process and stir them in.
Place in jars and repeat.

Tips: Don't make more than 2 cups at a time otherwise the peanut butter doesn't come out smooth before your motor on your food processor gets over heated. Trust me... been there!

You don't have to use peanuts, you can use pecans or macadamia nuts too. These nuts are as high or higher in oils than peanuts so they work great!

If you want to make almond butter, follow the same instructions but you will need to add a drizzle of almond oil (or grape seed) to smooth it out while the food processor is running. Almonds don't have as much oil as peanuts.

***Note*** I buy raw peanuts cuz I'm spoiled. I then roast my own on a low temperature for a while to make them uber delish'us. I find peanuts that are pre roasted are full of unnecessary oils. Just a hint for those that are interested!