Day 6 & 7: Volunteering Is My New Favorite Thing

On Saturday September 29th, I volunteered at CitySeed (http://cityseed.org/) for the first time. I spent three hours at the Wooster Square Farmer’s Market helping Nadine Nelson (http://about.me/NadineNelson) with her demonstration on tomato curry chutney.

While working with her, I learned a few really awesome techniques. She said with chutneys, it’s all about just putting everything in the pot together and letting it boil down and get thick. The portion of produce can be substituted out with other produce. For instance, we made tomato chutney, but you can make plum by substituting in the same amount of plums as you did tomatoes. Below are the photos I took while helping her:

She was really sweet and treated me to a green juice and a tomato tart (pictured on the left.) It was so fantastic. Each of these items were purchased at the farmer’s market

Standing over the amazingly delicious chutney was a difficult task, but it was very worth it. In the end, she let me take home two small jars. I have big plans for those two jars.

Here’s the recipe for the tomato chutney:
(Makes 3 cups)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
8 vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
1 medium chunk of ginger, diced
1 tablespoon curry powder
sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Place the oil and onion in a saucepan over medium heat and cook for five minutes or until tender. Add the tomato, mustard, vinegar, sugar, curry, salt and pepper and cook until slightly thickened.

For volunteering at the market, I was given a loaf of bread. Throughout the day I was given more and more bread. Pictured to the right is all of the bread I was given. From left to right, they are whole wheat sourdough, peanut and raisin, white sourdough, ciabatta with carmelized onions, and pecan and raisin.

All of them are fantastic. I had the carmelized onion ciabatta with avocado. I had the peanut and raisin as snacks. I froze the whole wheat sourdough for when my partner visits this weekend. I plan to eat the raisin and pecan bread throughout the week for breakfast. I cut the white sourdough into chunks to eat with my meals for the next few days.

Today, Sunday September 30th, I woke up and made scrambled egg whites with spinach, topped with a little goat cheese and the tomato curry chutney. I also had a slice of the pecan raisin bread with some almond butter and a small glass of orange juice fortified with Vitamin D and Calcium (picture left).

It was unbelievable.

I then watched a move about dumpster diving, and people who do it to save food that is being thrown away called DIVE! (http://www.divethefilm.com/) While I would be a little skeeved about pulling food from a dumpster, the impact it really had on me was the amount of food being wasted and thrown away by large food retailers. I thought it was honorable that they talked about what companies were “doing” (and, really, not doing) to help the problem. The main man in the film attempted to contact just about anyone he could in Trader Joes to understand what happens with the food, and they constantly pushed him away. Since the recent peanut butter recall, and other questions about their treatment of meat products, I’ve started to pull from my original semi-liking of Trader Joes to a semi-disliking.

After the film I walked 2 miles to the Yale Sustainable Food Project (http://www.yale.edu/sustainablefood/) aka The Farm. I met Kendall, Zoe, and Adam who welcomed me with open arms. I shovelled gravel into wheelbarrows and helped spread it where it needed to be. After doing that for about an hour and fifteen minutes, I helped plant arugula. I had no idea how tiny arugula seeds were. I’d say they were about the size of a sesame seed. They explained to me that they plant them about two inches apart, and about an inch away from their drip irrigation system. My tiny feet had a slight problem navigating through the thin lines of seeded territory. They told me to come back in two to three weeks to see the arugula. I plan to return every other week. Afterwards, I walked the two miles home and once I returned I wanted to fall onto my bed and never get up again. Now, as I’m writing this, many hours later, my arms are feeling extremely sore, and sections of my legs as well. I know that tomorrow I will be even more sore. But I have been looking forward to this. I wanted better exercise doing something I enjoy, and it seems to me that working on this farm will be that opportunity.

Also, I will announce my change in weight:

9/23 – 174.6
9/30 – 169.6

When I sent this to my partner, he responded: Awesome babe! See I told you that you can do it!! 😉

I will finish this post with an exercise meme I found: