2020: A year of Relief, Recovery, and Resilience When food insecurity intensifies, local markets shift and shudder, online learning becomes the new way to connect, and home gardens spread like seeds in the wind – we all remember why local food community matters. The global food system staggered and revealed its weakness. But local producers,…
As the Sandhill Cranes return to the prairie, they remind us that it is time to reflect on another year past and what our future holds. Their arrival seems even more poignant as we approach the end of what may be one of the most difficult years in memory. Like so many in our community,…
When COVID hit it became glaringly obvious the food system was broken. We knew to some degree it wasn’t working, but it took the gears screeching to a stop in our economy. Overnight, milk was being dumped, produce was being left to rot, animals being killed because there wasn’t room to keep them. It wasn’t…
From Chef Ashley Rella This is a great recipe to help use up two of those crops coming in right now. If you don’t have any growing at home, be sure to check out local producers from High Spring Orchard and Bakery, Frog Song Organics, and Siembra Farms, Softer persimmons like Haichau or Sajio can…
2020 has been a challenging year across the globe, in our community, and here at Working Food. In March, when the full realization of the pandemic hit, Working Food sprung to action to help our community with food access, while simultaneously shifting the way our programs operated. We had the opportunity to work with new…
Written by Melissa DeSa It’s been a whirlwind since the last seed dispersal in February when shortly after, COVID struck and sent all our energies frantically re-aligning to keep both our doors and hearts open to this community during the crisis. Although it has been a rough ride to say the least, it presented an…
By Ashley Rella It has only been in the last few decades that our palates have turned away from aspic jiggly and gooey loving dishes to rubbery, and firm bites. Maybe it’s because of foodborne illnesses that have made our institutional recommendations on internal cooking temperatures to cook the hell out of your food until…
Several years ago I was gifted these stunning tiny seeds with a jade-like color that were nestled neatly in their long slender little seed pods. The Edible Plant Project had been saving and sharing Molokhia and I was excited to try growing and eating this unknown (to me) vegetable. Like most plants, it has many…
Are you tired of salads? We are too. If you are getting CSA’s or finishing up your winter garden then you have been definitely working greens and lettuce into every meal. It may be time for shaking up the recipes to get you through the last haul before we are loaded with tomatoes and squash!…
by Melissa DeSa with excerpts from Janisse Ray’s The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food. Never before has such an interest in seeds and home gardening been so popular, except for during World War II when 20 million “Victory Gardens” sprung up, in a massive and coordinated effort to provide homeland food security.…