A New Beginning

From AwfullyBigAdventures by Jessica Harrell

January 5, 2010

My roommate brought home a flyer for a CSA the other day, and I have to admit I felt a little bit of pride in the excitement I noticed on her face. We haven’t known each other all that long, but I was afraid I had been a little over-exuberant with my food philosophies when we were getting to know each other. She actually asked me if I was going to go to culinary school. (Maybe I shouldn’t talk so much about food and cooking and kitchen appliances all the time.) I don’t have a desire to be a chef, but maybe that is a bit surprising, even to me.

This all started when I spent a semester in Italy - or maybe before, with my Italian professor who kept talking about Slow Food. We, my classmates and I, were a little confused by all this Slow Food talk. I do remember attempting to explain the concept to someone later. All I knew to say was, “It’s like the opposite of Fast Food,” which I suppose is true, but not nearly the whole story.

So, then I lived in Italy for four months, then I read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Now I live in Portland, OR, the home of what I’ve heard are some pretty great Farmer’s Markets - Oh Spring, come quickly! And now my roommate, after hearing me talk for months about eating local, fresh, in season food, is looking forward to joining a CSA with me for this coming harvest.

So I went out and bought Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors, and I’m looking for other advice about using all that produce - canning, making jams. I’m new to this part. I’ve moved so many times in the past two year, I haven’t had a chance to store up, but this year is going to be different. I can’t wait!