Food Course: Food For the Household

Monday started with a class session discussing gardens, meals, and cooking. Mary Ruth talked about the gardens in The Bible. Eden and the garden where Jesus was laid in the tomb act as bookends to the salvation narrative. (I think the tree of life on each side of the river in Revelation 22 probably is a more fitting bookend). The garden of Gethsemane falls in the middle, a symbol of the opposite of both Eden & the world after Jesus' resurrection, despite its beauty. We talked about the 'more than' essence of Christian life, and the role gardening plays in being more than just producing food.

Meals are a means of celebrating culture, family, history and being mindful of God. Mary Ruth talked about creating a meal culture that cultivates these through table settings, companions, and thankfulness to God.

Our cooking discussion focussed on how we learn and teach basic cooking skills, practice economy, use gardens and make decisions about what we eat (or don't eat). My quote comes from Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food. "To eat slowly, then, also means to eat deliberately, in the original sense of that word: ‘from freedom’ instead of compulsion." (The subtitle is a good summary of his book: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.")

We then went to visit an organic 6-acre farm at the north end of Galiano, owned by Donna and Hans (friends of the Wilkinsons). It is a self-sustaining garden, that produces enough to supply a number of households on the island. Donna runs a CSA-type of arrangement with these families, makes preserves (like her yummy Kiwi, Blackberry & Orange Jam) and sells any extra veges at the local market. This place also reminded me of my grandparents' garden, but Grandad doesn't have to set (humane) beaver traps to protect his orchard!

While most of the class remained to help in the garden for an hour or so, I returned with my group to prepare our 'mindful meal'. More about that next post!