Posts By Annamarie Sysling
10 Restaurants Serving Up Hyperlocal Dishes
July 25, 2016 | Annamarie Sysling
Austin’s Odd Duck is part of a growing movement of restaurants pushing the limits of local sourcing. Photo taken by Richard Casteel.
Ten years ago, finding a restaurant where you could eat fresh, locally sourced food would have either cost you your entire paycheck or been impossible to find. Today, the farm to table dining scene is proliferating, and with it comes a proliferation of intense one-upmanship when it comes to the thoroughness of local sourcing that has some of us wondering if the day will come when diners will be expected to simply place an order for which raised bed they’d like to eat from and pull up a chair. In the meantime, we have the idea of “hyperlocal” sourcing, which has restaurants running their own farms, raising food inside the dining room, and grazing cows outside the dining room window. Below is a list of 10 restaurants doing everything they can to put their local food systems on a plate. Read More
Women in Food: ‘Kid Chef’ Cookbook Author Offers Food and Life Lessons for Chefs of All Ages
July 6, 2016 | Annamarie Sysling
Photographer, food stylist, cook, and author Melina Hammer is on a mission to change the way people treat and think about food in her debut cookbook “Kid Chef: The Foodie Kids Cookbook: Healthy Recipes and Culinary Skills for the New Cook in the Kitchen.” Photo courtesy of Melina Hammer.
Photographer, food stylist, cook, and author Melina Hammer is on a mission to change the way people treat and think about food. In her debut cookbook, “Kid Chef: The Foodie Kids Cookbook: Healthy Recipes and Culinary Skills for the New Cook in the Kitchen,” aimed at aspiring eight to 13 year old chefs, Hammer offers more than 70 recipes, drool-worthy photographs, and helpful tips. Seedstock recently caught up with Hammer during a visit to her hometown of Detroit to discuss her inspirations, her strategies for changing the food system through teaching, and the challenge of eating healthily in an area with limited access to fresh food.
Seedstock: What is your goal with this cookbook?
Melina Hammer: The current landscape of seduction in food advertising makes it more important than ever to clarify what good eating really is. Creating a book with the skills to empower kids seemed like the perfect place to begin. My goal is to provide the tools and confidence for kids to take the reigns in the kitchen. I want to empower kids – and adults! – to make good food: from developing a discerning eye in sourcing quality ingredients, to refining and mastering various culinary skills. Read More
Southern California School District Takes Students Out of Classroom and Into ‘Farm Lab’
June 22, 2016 | Annamarie Sysling
Organically grown lettuce heads being raised at Farm Lab for school lunch in the Encinitas Union School District. Photo courtesy of Farm Lab Director Mim Michelove
A public school district in Southern California is enhancing its curriculum with an interactive learning center known as “Farm Lab.”
The Encinitas Union School District is rolling out the mixed-use educational space on a donated 10-acre plot of land in the prominent horticultural hub of Encinitas, California. Central to the plan is a roughly five acre educational garden that will produce fresh organic produce for the district’s school lunch program. The lunch garden will eventually be complemented by a nutrition lab, a science lab, a maker’s lab for visiting students, an educational space for local organizations, a one acre community garden, and a one acre hands-on educational garden. The site is also bordered by a food forest that will be used to grow other organic produce for the community.
Farm Lab has been in the “pilot phase” since the end of the 2014-2015 school year and has so far leveraged its space as a tool for offering hands-on lessons and experiential learning to students at all nine elementary schools in EUSD. Farm Lab Director Mim Michelove says Farm Lab is using a “D.R.E.A.M.S.” approach to education that focuses lessons on Design, Research, Engineering, Arts, Math, and Science. The hope is that students can spend an entire day in a centralized location and experience a variety of educational activities that require more time than typical classroom lessons. Read More
St. Louis Org. Embraces Urban Agriculture to Empower Individuals and Strengthen Community
June 16, 2016 | Annamarie Sysling
Gateway Greening’s mission is to educate and empower individuals to strengthen their communities through gardening and urban agriculture. Photo credit: Gateway Greening with permission from Jenna Davis.
Gateway Greening has been taking a holistic approach to urban agriculture, gardening, and education in St. Louis for more than three decades.
“Our mission is to educate and empower individuals to strengthen their communities through gardening and urban agriculture,” Gateway Greening’s Communications Manager Jenna Davis says.
While the group started out as a gardening club focused on ornamental, native, and perennial plants, Davis says it has since blossomed into a three-pronged catalyst for grassroots community building. Read More
New Orleans Chef Explores Heritage, Race Through “Blackness in America” Dinner Series
June 15, 2016 | Annamarie Sysling
Chef Tunde Wey is using a traveling pop-up restaurant featuring cuisine from his native Nigeria to facilitate conversations on “Blackness in America.”
Acclaimed Nigerian-born chef Tunde Wey is exploring issues of race and identity in America through a traveling dinner series called “Blackness in America” that features traditional Nigerian food and a rotating cast of featured guests. Following stops in New Orleans and Detroit, Seedstock caught up with Wey to discuss his background and what led him to create this unique culinary project that blurs the lines between food service, cultural study, and community forum.
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