Thursday, August 28, 2008

not necessarily cooking...

I think no matter what your political persuasion is you have to agree that being dependent on foreign oil puts the US in a difficult position.

I clearly have a dog in this fight, but I thought this article was interesting and important as many Oles are in Turkey right now.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Recent Olaf News

I don't know how often you guys check out the college mainpage, but recently there have been several articles pertaining to mission of our house. Two spotlight Menning's Dad and Kristin Johnson.

Links for your reading pleasure:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/26423049.html?page=1&c=y
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=521347
http://www.minnpost.com/brianvoerding/2008/08/12/2915/when_st_olaf_students_say_bon_appetit_they_really_mean_it

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Food Culture

As summer is winding down, and I am actually getting time to thoughtfully read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle a very interesting topic stuck with me, the idea of a food culture. Coming back from a camping trip and being secluded in a car for hours on end I began to think about it. Do we have a food culture? It is easy to think of other food cultures, we eat them here all the time; Indian, Thai, Greek, Italian, Chinese (sort of). It begs the question, what is "American Food"? Greasy McHamburgers made from more high fructose corn syrup than anything else? I hope not.
Can we come up with a food culture for ourselves? I know as a kid a big part of my food culture was hotdish and potlucks. Meat, potatoes, and greens were present at every dinner, even when potatoes or peas weren't growing in my grandpas garden or anywhere else within 500 miles for that matter. Is it even possible to eat seasonally in Minnesota when we have long, cold winters? This is what I am hoping to find out through the Wendell Berry House and experiment with the other guys who have decided to cook their own meals. Barbara Kingsolver relates how they were able to eat seasonally and locally for an entire year, but is it feasible for a college student living in a smaller community to do the same? If I haven't reverted to Easy Mac and Ramen by the end of the year, I think it will have been a worthwhile experience.