一个精神收获:教孩子们种植粮食

当你给这个世界带来了一个孩子,你最重要的工作是让他们活着。你喂他们,爱他们,教育他们;生存的基本需要。母亲的乳汁滋养,他们喜欢通过接触和鼓励,教会生活的必需品。我们的孩子学会走路,说话,阅读和写作。最后,他们被教导算术、科学、历史和公民。随着他们的发展和其潜在的扩张,他们学习社会学,经济学,也许艺术,木工或者另一种语言。孩子们能够获得的技能,甚至掌握造型的年龄几乎是无限的。然而,出于某种原因,不平凡的孩子学习如何种植食物。似乎只有自然,我们将通过如何生产的基本原则,收获和准备我们需要的燃料才能生存。 Human beings are the only species on Earth who, by and large, are not taught these skills by their elders. However, for a few schools in Milwaukee, grand strides are being made to impart this vital knowledge to students. Erin Dentice has been working withParkside艺术学校湾认为过去七年;最初编写能力。是她的一个拨款给学校的机会与斯威特沃特合作有机物,安装一个aquaponics”系统在学校的实验室之一。在过去的三年里,她找到了一个普通家庭在同一实验室,作为学校的简约Aquaponics”和农业项目协调人。一个程序,顺便说一句,不会存在如果她没有创建它。Dentice,或“女士。艾琳”,因为她知道她的学生,更多的是一种比大师gardening-enthusiast园丁。和更多的,“很好的厨师,”(她的话)比一个专业厨师。但她可能缺乏美食或园艺排骨,她弥补组织技能的融合,努力把事情做好,激情,“改变我们看待食物的方式。“潮湿的一个星期六的上午,7月下旬,我收拾我的车和我的标准的户外烹饪演示工具包和前往一个农贸市场的社区花园6日在湾视图和霍华德。市场5月启动,启动和协调由你猜it-Erin Dentice。 To bolster attendance and engage market-goers, Erin put out a public call to chefs who might be interested in demonstrating vegetable-forward, multicultural dishes for market patrons to taste and hopefully recreate in their own homes. I answered the call and assembled the ingredients for Salmon Vera Cruz, a staple in my personal culinary canon. Salmon Vera Cruz is an ideal summer dish that features salmon stewed with tomatoes, bell peppers and tarragon in a light garlic broth. It was an opportunity to highlight many of the produce items on offer this time of year at markets around the city. As I organized my booth and made my final preparations, I heard a child’s voice say, “I think there’s something fishy going on over here.” That child was 12-year-old Gabe Winkler. Gabe is one of three triplets, and brothers Max and Ethan sidled up on either side of him followed by Mom, Becky Winkler, drawing in the reins. Gabe and Ethan are both on the autism spectrum; all three are seventh graders at Parkside School of the Arts. Before I could gather my thoughts enough to introduce my demonstration, the three brothers began bombarding me with all the questions I was preparing to answer. “What’s that?” “What are you going to cook?” I introduced myself to the boys and the assembled crowd of ten or so onlookers and began preparing the dish. The Winkler boys, or “Winklets” as they are sometimes called, were transfixed. Every ingredient I added, every step in the process, they were asking questions and cracking jokes. And when it came time to taste the dish, they couldn’t get enough of it. Max and Gabe both came back for seconds. Gabe assured me, “You did a really good job!” Since fifth grade, the Winklets have been in Ms. Erin’s program, learning about vegetables, canning and even developing menu concepts for food trucks using produce grown at the school. On the day I met them, they were excited to see the full circle of how the food we grow becomes the food we eat. The peppers and tomatoes I had incorporated into my dish were the very same they had grown.