Only in Southern California can you learn to preserve ripe, delicious, bought directly from the farmer, strawberries in DECEMBER! This past week I undertook the project of turning 11 baskets of strawberries into strawberry jam. The driving force, and much needed guide, for this project was my good friend Hillary. She had previously introduced the idea of jam making when she returned from home with jars and jars of strawberry, raspberry and blackberry jam, that she’d made with her mother. Though I have the luxury of fresh fruits and vegetables year round, I still loved the idea of learning to make my own spread. Just one more way I can learn to provide for myself. Now, I’ll be eating strawberry jam with toast, crackers, ice cream, cookies, french toast (the list goes on) for months!

Last week Hillary and I set out to gather all our ingredients. Surprisingly enough, canning supplies are not readily available in December - honestly, I don’t think they’re ever readily available. So, we went to the ever resourceful internet, and found the answer on a CHOWHOUND question board. For those who haven’t heard of CHOWHOUND or CHOW, I definitely recommend taking a look. I particularly like CHOW’s highlight of recipes that are In Season Right Now.

It took some serious searching but we finally found jars at the local Smart and Final, pectin on Amazon (they sell groceries in bulk?!) and strawberries (well they were easy) at the Larchmont Farmer’s Market. Hillary and I gave the strawberries a week to ripen, my roommates and I used all our will power to not eat them beforehand, and then we set to our project.

Ingredients:

6 C. mashed strawberries (appx. 6 baskets)

1 box of pectin for every 6 cups of mashed strawberries
1/4 C. granulated sugar

4 C. granulated sugar

Canning jars

Directions:

Begin by running the canning jars through the dishwasher. You’ll want them to be well sanitized, so keep them in the dishwasher until you are ready to pour the jam.

Next, rinse your strawberries and chop off the heads. Cut the berries in half, for easier mashing.

Throw your berries in a large bowl and begin mashing. We used a pastry blender with great success. Continue mashing until strawberries are crushed, not puréed.

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Were you chastised as a kid for pushing your peas and mushing your mashed potatoes?  Well perhaps if you had played with your  food a little more creatively your efforts might have been celebrated, just as AnnatheRed is receiving praise for her food art.   A former art student, AnnatheRed designs miniature scenes using bento box ingredients.  Here’s an edible Wall-E one of my favorites:

Check out more at kickintheheadcomic’s Flickr photostream (her boyfriend) and some favorites from the design site baekdal.com.

takepart by learning more about where our food comes from in the upcoming Food Inc., and then build your own food creation using AnnatheRed’s guides.

We’ve been blogging about Pressure Cooker for a little while now here on TakePart because we’re all very excited about the film - and now all you New Yorkers will have a chance to see it (and to be as excited as we are!) The film will be screening as a part of one of my most favorite NYC screening series, Stranger Than Fiction.

Pressure Cooker follows three seniors at Philadelphia’s Frankford High School as they embark on a culinary journey in the kitchen of Wilma Stephenson. “A legend in the school system, Mrs. Stephenson’s hilariously blunt boot-camp method of teaching Culinary Arts is validated by years of scholarship success. Against the backdrop of the row homes of working-class Philadelphia, she has helped countless students reach the top culinary schools in the country”

The screening takes place on December 10th @ 8pm and there will be a Q&A with the directors after - which always makes seeing any film more fun.

For more information about the screening visit the Stranger Than Fiction website and be sure to takepart with TakePart’s social action campaign for the film - when you see how inspiring the film is you’ll be glad you did!

Earlier this fall I had the opportunity to sneak a peak of Pressure Cooker at Slow Food Nation.  I was blown away by the inspirational story of inner city teens finding strength and leadership skills in the kitchen.  It seems the film has begun resonating with former students of the program about which the documentary is based.  The young Chef Luck was touched by the film:

I don’t know where I would have been if they hadn’t given me a chance to change my lifestyle and stop making some bad decisions that could have ended with serious consequences.

takepart with the social action campaign for Pressure Cooker, and find screening near you.

Thanksgiving is second in a slew of holidays at this time of year that have become one extended caloric nightmare.  Marketers have successfully driven consumers to celebrate these holidays in an atmosphere of frenzied food consumption, often from everyday pre-packaged products festooned with special holiday cheer.  However, you can say no to the pre-packaged cheer and have a hearty, sustainable meal.  Below are 10 tips to a healthier, humane, sustainable, “low carb(on)” and labor friendly Thanksgiving from some fantastic organizations, some of whom we’re working with for the Social Action campaign for our film, Food, Inc.

1. Buy produce from your local farmers market.  Rather than eating grapes from Mexico, apples from Argentina or potatoes from China, purchase as much of your holiday produce from a local farmer! takepart with the Eat Well Guide to find one near you.

2. Buy organic produce whenever possible.  Organic produce is safer, tastes better than conventional produce and is readily available at farmers markets and supermarkets nationwide.  Also, look for organic wines, beverages and condiments.

3. Support a farm worker.  Thousands of migrant workers labor in dangerous, brutal conditions for little pay to bring food to our table every day. takepart to help to improve the lives of farm workers and their families through the United Farm Workers.

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I have to say I’m a bit jealous of the students at the Young Chefs Academy, a national chain of cooking classes for kids.  Ranging from ages 5 to 14 their culinary education has probably surpassed my toast-making skills of younger years, and this month’s “Make a Difference” curriculum they are also learning to ways to help eliminate hunger and homelessness.  Impressive.  Each week the cooking lessons revolve around a particular charity, including Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, Second Harvest, and Share Our Strength. In addition to their mind-expanding multidisciplinary approach:

Young Chefs Academy offers a great outlet for your kids in these tough moments. In addition to teaching them an essential life skill, YCA is helping kids understand the importance of giving back and helping those in need by integrating four charities into their cooking lessons this month.

The closest I came to sharing my culinary exploration at that age was daring my friends to try a “mystery mix” made whatever gross-out ingredients I could get my hands on.  So, three cheers for these kids!

takepart by donating non-perishable food Young Chefs Academy and Parenting magazine’s Holiday Cook and Care, which will be donated to local food banks in time for the holidays.

This Fall DoSomething.org and Participant’s upcoming film The Soloist are partnering up for Feed the Need, an initiative to get kids across the country to help fight hunger in their communities.  With the goal of collecting one million pounds of food, high schools, middle schools, orchestras and church groups across the country are running food drives to bring hope to communities in need.  Here’s High School Musical’s Corbin Bleu to explain:

takepart by starting your own drive. Find a local participating food bank near you with the widget below and follow these simple steps from DoSomething.org.

Earlier this year, Andy wrote about the connection between climate change and kidney stones.  The NYTimes reported last week that doctors have seen a significant increase in the number of kids with kidney stones.  I agree (as do the experts) that kids are not the traditional kidney-stone demographic. The first group that pops into my mind when I think of kidney stones is middle aged men.

So why the rise in kids? One culprit seems to be salt which has found its way in increased levels in their diets through packaged foods such as chips, fries, soups, sandwich meats and sports drinks. Some experts also think this rise in kids kidney stones is partly a spill-over from the obesity epidemic. There are a lot of easy, healthy solutions to address this problem. First, start with the simple step of kids drinking more water. Yes, yummy, delicious plain water is really important, especially since kids don’t drink enough of it. And, reduce the amount of processed salty foods kids eat. takepart for some useful healthy eating tips and recipes for kids:

My dear friend Annie at Growing Chefs posted an awesome piece about oil yesterday. Not the crude kind but that which comes from fruit.  The Italian olive oil industry is the subject of a sustenance scandal: fraud, investigations, arrests and even a gourmet police squad (no really, gourmet police).

The Telegraph reports that oil producers were adding sunflower, soybean and other imported oils from Greece, Spain and Tunisia but selling it as extra-virgin olive oil.  Determined to stop these fraudulent practices, Italy trained 20 officers to distinguish between fake and authentic extra-virgin olive oil.

Earlier in March, police arrested 23 people and confiscated 85 farms after an investigation and in April another 40 people were arrested and 25,000 liters of suspect olive oil was seized.

Perhaps when the people were arrested they said: You are in contempt of the culinary courts!

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Tired of mealy, pale tomatoes that have been gassed and shipped from who-knows-where?  Yeah, me too.   So, we here at TakePart created a how-to series to help you capture the flavor of fresh tomatoes by canning them.   Using local produce reduces your carbon footprint by shortening the distance your food has to travel,  and canning allows you to enjoy those treats year round!

The following videos will provide a clear picture of the steps involved in canning tomatoes, (something I wish I had the first time around), however, we insist that you read the USDA home canning guidelines and follow the Tomato Queen’s definitive guide for safe and detailed directions and follow them closely.   It’s a fun and straightforward activity that you’ll quickly get the hang of, we just want you to be safe.   Trust us, you don’t want to get lazy and start messing around with Botulism.

takepart by donating food or lending a hand at a local food pantry and help bring an end to hunger.

Let’s get canning…

(VIDEOS AFTER JUMP!)

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