FoodWISE....Whole, Informed, Sustainable, Experienced

I wrote my new book, FoodWISE (out in October, 2019 with North Atlantic Books), in Dornach, Switzerland these past 6 months. Immersed in a landscape -- both physical and cultural -- of immense beauty. Some of that beauty can be seen in the images below. There, I was duly inspired to produce the two drafts that now comprise FoodWISE: A Whole Systems Guide to Sustainable and Delicious Food Choices. And what's the key word here? Choices. Do you agree?

And so begins, FoodWISE, the narrative:

Some nights, I sit down at my dining table and wonder at the journey of the meal in front of me. Here’s the fork entering my mouth, there’s the kitchen where I prepared all this food. Before that was the store where I selected the ingredients, the trucks that brought the food to the store from the farms. The farms where people planted, watered, tended, and harvested from the soil itself.

Every bite I take connects me to the great agricultural web of sun, soil and seed, distributors and sellers, buyers and eaters. That web is a metaphor for the wider network within which we make our food choices. Each of the slender threads is interdependent. Take a spider’s web: its high surface tension allows it to withstand many natural forces, but one broken thread – a major highway used for food transport floods, trade policy that supports foreign imports of milk -- can make it all collapse.We are all part of that web, connected to agriculture, because we eat.

And the beauty, which was so inspiring to me, in Switzerland, begins with my office, and then the short hike from there: 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/n22nZhnCYw58EaseA

Global Learning: Intensives in the United States and in Switzerland

Summer in Switzerland is a tremendously enriching time. Our destination is invariably a most mystical place -- Dornach, Switzerland. To prepare for the Europe trip in general, students read and then respond to questions in a classroom at our university, Western Washington University. This, and potlucks, is how we begin to form our learning community. In Dornach, we study the mysteries of the universe, as manifest in the social life of bees, as well as develop the social community of cooking, as seen in the glorious images below.

My intensive teaching-learning programs all begin with a first-exam (much like a final or last exam, but in reverse; students take it on the first day of class and are asked to respond to questions on all the readings). This way, we know that we are on the same page in terms of mastering the material that will provide a foundation for our studies.

Master teacher and practitioner Johannes Wirz, lecturing on anthroposophical (phenomenologically-oriented) beekeeping.

Johannes gently adding smoke to the hives, calming the bees as he interrupts their daily routine.

A most unusual beehive in which the frames are rounded.

Our 2016 group in front of the Goetheanum, built in the 1920s according to specifications from Rudolf Steiner. The large hall/theater was built to perform the works of Goethe, in particular, Faust, Steiner's mystery plays, and more.

The group, in front of the Glass House, our lovely classroom, enlivened with Norwegian shake, rounded forms, large windows -- and serious esoteric study.

In our comfortable residence, the beautiful, Begegnungszentrum

In the common rooms, playing music or chatting

Cooking at Bz, Goetheanum potatoes

Tristan, head chef, at the Goetheanum

Most beautiful raw milk cheeses

With sheep milk

With goat milk

Obviously, these esoteric scientists are waiting for lunch...

...which they were well-rewarded with, after an invigorating hike.

 This year, we will spend several days agains in this very beautiful spot -- home to anthroposophical medicine, Weleda preparations, and biodynamic farming on all scales. Sign up is with the Italy program: Switzerland-Italy program 2017

Italy Ecogastronomy 2019!

This is our tenth year for the program, which to date has hosted over 100 student. We are taking 13 more this year.

Pre-departure session dates: Finals week, spring quarter 2019 

Travel dates:

• Florence: June 30 - July 31, 2019
• Includes Switzerland excursion

Program Details

This food studies program begins with culinary intensives in Bellingham, then moves to Florence, Italy, where students study heritage food cultures. Students also study in the prestigious University of Florence sensory taste sciences department, with the renowned gastronomy/sensory taste scientists, Caterina Dinnella and Erminio Monteleone.  Italian family home stays, Tuscan countryside excursions, cultural tours, and hikes. Museum visits included. The cost of this program provides most meals in Italy, including country and palazzo-dining in the Tuscan countryside, as well as conversational Italian and introductory art history as part of the food culture experience.

Additional credits are available through independent study.

Enrollment is limited to 13. 

• Experience Italian farm- and home-cooking with Italian families and in hands-on culinary intensives in Italy, the home of the “Slow Food” movement
• Visit Fiesole (with its Etruscan sites and ruins)
• Visit San Gimingiano (Tuscan countryside)
• Visit Il Palagio (Tuscan countryside)
• Italian cooking classes
• Museum visits included, e.g., The Uffizi (the Louvre of Italy) and the Accademia (where Michaelangelo's David is housed)
• Study sensory taste science with European experts at the University of Florence (4 days)
• Study natural animal breeding and biodynamic farming at Camporbasso in Tuscany
• Observe cheesemaking
• Participate in carbon-offsetting 
• The cost of this program provides most meals in Italy, including country and palazzo-dining in the Tuscan countryside, as well as conversational Italian and introductory art history as part of the food culture experience

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Our classroom in Switzerland

Pre-departure cooking

One of our classrooms in Florence

One of our cooking classes in Florence

Italian culture, etiquette, language

Under the Tuscan Sun -- last day reflections on our university, language, and travel studies

Last meal in Italy, at Il Palagio

Return to the U.S., more meals

Instructor

Gigi Berardi, Huxley professor, received her B.A. in Biology from John Muir College, University of California San Diego and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Natural Resources, Policy, and Planning from Cornell University. She holds an M.A. in dance from UCLA.

Gigi has held four tenure-track positions and has taught at over a dozen colleges and universities – but she has saved the best for last: Western Washington University. Gigi’s research focus is on community vulnerabilities and food. In addition, she is an avid cook, gardener, student-of-languages, and fitness/dance enthusiast!

Gigi co-founded and served as interim director of the Resilience Institute at Huxley and currently serves as Resilient Farms Project co-director. Her current book projectis  entitled FoodWISE.

San Miguel de Allende 2019

One week in (or close to) the dead center of Mexico, 14 students, 1 assistant, and 1 faculty member constituted one of the most intensive study travel experiences I, personally, have had.  In the U.S., 8 months later, we are still processing all that we experienced. It was with the expert facilitation of Jorge Catalan and Wendy Coulson, plus a most gracious hostel host, and exceptional tour guides that we were able to witness so much of the beautiful culture and ever-present challenges of daily life in San Miguel de Allende. We are ready for more, August 15-29, 2019. This time, with service learning.

Our group, each contributing an important life skill, interest, and energy to our travels

Student Kate, Teacher Gigi, and Assistant Dan

Excursion: The nearby pyramids, close to where we stayed at a mystical ranch

The mask museum, San Miguel de Allende

TOPICS

Mexico’s food heritages

The Colombian exchange

Food and identity

Mexico today – NAFTA, the environment, changes and challenges

Colonialism and neoliberalism

Land-reform, revolution, capitalism & narco-corruption Export agriculture, groundwater extraction & migration Organizing, empowerment & revolution

ITINERARY

Day 1: Orientation

Day 2: Guanajuato

Day 3: Caminos de Agua/San Miguel de Allende

Caminos de Agua’s facilities & introduction of water technologies including: rainwater

harvesting systems, ceramic water filter production, biochar production, slow-sand biofiltration,

passive solar water pump, bicycle water pump, sustainable brick manufacture, and sustainable

building practices; Spirulina Viva’s Production (Spriluna Blue Algae Production); Atotonilco, 500-year old UNESCO World Heritage Site

Day 4-7: Food, Soil, and Carbon: Vía Orgánica ranch

Day 8-9: Water/Impact of foreign assistance on development project

Days 10-12: Pozo Ademado Community Center; Participation in the construction of a 12,000-liter rainwater harvesting system during the

days.

Day 13: Post-Service debriefing/assessment

Land-reform, revolution, capitalism & narco-corruption Export agriculture, groundwater extraction & migration

Organizing, empowerment & revolution

Land-reform, revolution, capitalism & narco-corruption

Export agriculture, groundwater extraction & migration

CHEESE -- classes, field trips, excursions to Switzerland, home cheese making

Cheese, a product of hardy dairy animals of all sorts, cultured milk ripening (or not, Our Lady of the Rock creamery on Shaw Island does not add cultures), acidification facilitated by the ripening process, coagulation, and proper curd management -- not to mention the affinage, or aging -- is a transformation of fluid milk into the creamiest, smelliest, most nutritious fat-protein micelles possible. 

In effect, teaching and researching the natural processes of cheese making is nothing less than an attempt to save declining species of cheese bacteria and molds (unique to each particular cheese cave), to preserve efficient nutrient cycling of whey wastes and inputs, and to honor the cheesemakers themselves, who facilitate the life-giving natural processes. Cheese makes it possible to store milk for extended periods of time, in less sweet form.

Master affineurs, such as the Mons family near Lyons, France and professional organizations, such as the American Cheese Society, are safehavens for such processes. I had the enormous pleasure to work with both within the past two years, bringing the results of my study home to students, my colleagues, my family.

Ruth Sofield and Gigi Berardi teaching in their Art and Science of Cheese class, summer 2015, Western Washington University. Next course: Summer 2017.

Field trip to Shaw Island, Our Lady of the Rock dairy

In our classroom, a beautiful cheese spread -- for tasting

At Rhonda Gothberg's long-time goat dairy. Rhonda, a former nurse, is a master cheesemaker and a major force in Washington state for local creameries.

Goat cheese, raw, in Switzerland

The most rich, luscious cheese fondue, in Switzerland

Also in Switzerland, a magnificent spread of raw milk, biodynamic cheeses, charcuterie, homemade jams, and heritage-grains breads

At home, my sheep in their BB&B (Breeding Bed & Breakfast) -- Socks on the left and Sugar on the right, a friend in the middle

A beautiful round, after pressing with light weight

An aging peccorino (referring to the cheese)