Farms, History, and Homemade Bread

With the semester winding down and students immersed in final papers and exams over the last couple of weeks, I have had a little extra time on my hands to leave Grounds and continue my exploration of the Charlottesville foodshed.

On Monday, December 9th, head chef Bryan Kelly and I ventured up to the northern part of Albemarle County to tour Currituck Farm. This cattle farm is notable for a few reasons: it is a potentially hyper-local source of grass-fed beef, arriving at UVa Dining halls from just twenty minutes away (processing takes place in-state, as well); supporting this local farm would also mean supporting our own county's economy; and Currituck happens to be owned and operated by one of Albemarle County's very own Supervisors, Ann Mallek.

Currituck is a beautiful farm, and even from a brief visit it was evident that every cow in the small herd is healthy and contented. Students (hopefully) will be fortunate indeed to get a taste of beef raised and processed in such a sustainable way.

At the end of the same week, I traveled down to Raphine, VA, near Lexington, for a visit to the historic Wade's Mill; a still-functioning mill that has been in operation since 1750. I had the chance to poke around the historic structure and learn more about its workings from owners Jim and Georgie Young.

After a delightful local lunch at Jim and Georgie's lovely farmhouse, I mused aloud at the likelihood of Thomas Jefferson himself ever eating something containing flour ground at Wade's Mill. Georgie explained that mills were rather commonplace in the 18th century, and Thomas Jefferson probably consumed flour ground closer to home. This doesn't rule out the possibility, she admitted, of Jefferson's travels to Poplar Forest or to Lexington taking him perhaps right past Wade's Mill, or even along the same road as the mill. Regardless of how close the two ever actually came, there's something compelling about the thought of Jefferson being a contemporary of this steadfast building - and the fact that his writings and ideas continue to nourish our minds, just as the mill still grinds out a product that continues to nourish our bodies.

Over this past weekend, while trapped inside my house thanks to the Blizzard of 2009, I had plenty of time to try my hand at making bread from scratch, using - what else? - Wade's Mill flour. The bread turned out perfectly, and the time and care I put into crafting it, combined with my gratitude for the miller's work, made the eating quite a pleasurable experience. There is certainly a satisfying symmetry to it all.

Wendell Berry: Essayist, Poet, Novelist and Inspirationalist

Last week, UVa was incredibly fortunate to host acclaimed writer Wendell Berry as the latest visiting scholar in the Brown College Environmental Writes and Scholars Lecture Series. He gave a poetry reading from his latest collection, Leavings, on Wednesday, December 2nd in the Rotunda Dome Room, and also gave a talk on sustainable agriculture the following evening, December 3rd, in the Harrison/Special Collections Auditorium. The auditorium was filled to capacity nearly an hour in advance of Berry's lecture -- clearly, there's a genuine and pressing interest within the UVa community to understand this topic more deeply.

If you weren't able to attend the lecture (or couldn't get in), you can download the podcast by visiting the UVa Podcast site and clicking on "Take Me to UVa iTunesU" on the right-hand side of the page. Wendell Berry's lecture is podcast number 63.

I associate Wendell Berry - especially his poetry - with sitting around the kitchen table at Waterpenny Farm, eating a dinner of food grown by our own hands after a long day of working in the field with that same produce, and listening to a fellow intern and English Master's student read aloud to us all Berry's Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. I think Mr. Berry would approve.

Sustainability in the News

Two articles have come out this week regarding University (and Dining) sustainability efforts. The first article comes to us by way of the Cavalier Daily, and it's essentially a review of the sustainability work that took place on Grounds this past semester, with a look forward to the spring. Read the article here: "University departments review green initiatives."

The second article comes from UVa Today, with a focus on tips from University-wide sustainability staff regarding how to sustainably celebrate the holidays. Read here: "Dreaming of a Green Christmas? Holidays Can Be Sustainable."

As a bonus, the University of Virginia Magazine recently produced a segment on the most recent sustainable Dining goings on. Watch here: "Green Dining at U.Va."

Aramark Sustainability Stewards Conference, 11/2-11/4

This is dated information, but I have been remiss in not posting about the Aramark Sustainability Stewards Meeting that we hosted here at UVa last month. Sustainability Stewards and Coordinators from around the country (Arizona, Minnesota, Vermont, Texas, Idaho, Florida, headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and more) gathered in Charlottesville for an intense three-day meeting in which we covered the Green Thread pillars (Aramark's Sustainability initiative), visited local farms, and a lot in between. Every account - not to mention region - is in a very different place than the others, meaning that most of what we dealt with was very top-level and broadly applying to Aramark Higher Education. Consistency is important, but it's also worth noting that some of those differences between accounts are very valuable (Florida's local growing season in comparison to ours, for example) and not to be overlooked.

While figuring out how to strike that balance during the conference, I was fortunate enough to meet the many creative thinkers that make up the Higher Ed sustainability team: I have sent nearly countless emails to some of them in the past month, and appreciate just how important collaboration is in our line of work.

Enjoy a few photos of our time together:

The Armark Sustainability Stewards team

At one of our brainstorming sessions

Touring the Monticello visitor's center with Monticello Garden Director Peter Hatch

Dinner at the lovely Colonnade Club

Panorama PayDirt owner Steve Murray explains his composting operation

The team learns about the composting process

Wolf Creek Farms owner John Whiteside chats with me about his cattle operation

Part of the Wolf Creek herd

Perfect Flavor sorbet at our last conference lunch

UVA Department of Urban & Environmental Planning: Local Thanksgiving

A local Thanksgiving meal brings to mind one word: Yum! Last Friday's dinner -- graciously hosted by UVA's Urban Planning Department -- lived up to expectations and then some, and anyone that argues that local food limits one's diet should have seen the spectacular array of dishes at St. Paul's: - breads, biscuits, cheeses, salads, casseroles, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, squash (of all varieties), stuffing, gravy, applesauce, raspberry ice cream, pumpkin spice cake, and of course Polyface turkey. How amazing to think that each of those food items had been grown and processed within Virginia, and ultimately prepared here in Charlottesville. The only item missing from a regular Thanksgiving feast was the cranberry sauce, but I didn't even notice it wasn't an option until halfway through my meal. I'll happily trade that cranberry sauce for everything else that was on my plate!


On a flattering note, the Planning Department identified a few of us in attendance as VIFs: Very Important Foodies. I'm reminded of all the work still cut out for me, but am driven to continue such work by the palpable sense of community present that night in response to our fundamental need for food -- not only in a survival sense, but also in a social sense. Sure food production is work, but it's also an opportunity to celebrate and build relationships every time we eat. I'll certainly keep that in mind as I gather with my family for Thanksgiving on Thursday.



For more information about eating locally, look to the 100 Mile Diet website (the inspiration for the Planning Department's first Local Thanksgiving feast four years ago). Happy local eating!

NWF Generation E Report

About a year ago I was asked to share my student-initiated food waste reduction success story with the National Wildlife Foundation (NWF), as they were compiling accounts from current and former students from college campuses across the country into a comprehensive student environmental activism report. This report, "Generation E: Students Leading for a Sustainable Future," was just released this week and covers the spectrum of student involvement in sustainability initiatives in institutions of higher education, from greenhouse gas inventories to bicycle share programs, from student eco-rep programs to local food in dining halls.

One of the 35 topics is Trayless Dining: check out page 38 of the report for NWF's profile of (and my account of) UVa's food waste audit and ultimate move to trayless dining. There's even a vintage 2006 photograph of me and Suzanne Pinckney (CLAS '06) scraping plates!

I encourage you to give the report even just a quick look-over: there are lots of wonderfully concrete examples of student activism from a wide variety of schools; UVa could still stand to implement quite a few of those right here on our Grounds.

Movie screening success

Last night's screening of Food, Inc was a solid success: approximately 150 students and Charlottesville community members turned out to view the film! Looks like that publicity push really paid off... The most encouraging part about the audience last night was that the majority of faces there were unfamiliar; it was great to feel like I wasn't just preaching to the choir, but rather (as was my intent) was reaching a group of people that are just beginning their education about sustainable food.

After the film, Dining hosted a reception in the theater lobby and several groups graciously agreed to table the event - thanks to the UVA Community Garden, Slow Food UVA, the Student Council Sustainability Committee, the Nourish(meant) Project, and The Local Food Hub for joining Green Dining in sharing information about the alternatives to our currently petroleum dependent, corn-based, socially unjust, and consumer-disconnected food system.

At the reception, I asked students to write down their suggestions for ways that Dining can change in order to move away from that system, and I got some good ideas. Their suggestions are listed below, with my comments in green:

• Continue advertising the reusable to-go container program and/or make it mandatory - I think going mandatory is a great idea, and will almost certainly happen at some point, especially if there is strong student support.
• Promote vegetarian and vegan options in the dining halls - Food, Inc spends a lot of film time focusing on the problems with today's meat industry, and rightly so. There have been many conversations about a "Meatless Monday" - or something similar - in the dining halls, and I participated in a great webinar yesterday afternoon prior to the film screening that focused a great deal on Johns Hopkins' success with educating students about the environmental impact of consuming meat, as well as making their veggie/vegan options tastier and more appealing.
• Organize a panel discussion re: Green Dining and inform students about the current obstacles to sourcing locally - Great idea.
• Expand composting to all dining halls - All of the current UVA Dining waste at Panorama has been tested and confirmed that it is safe. The first batch of Panorama PayDirt that includes our organic waste was just sold (!) and we're moving forward with the DEQ to start composting at Runk next.
• Work with The Local Food Hub - Local Food Hub director Kate Collier and purchasing & operations manager Alan Moore will be sitting down with Bryan Kelly and myself right before or after Thanksgiving to discuss current roadblocks in our attempts to partner with each other, and how to solve those issues so that Local Food Hub food can make more regular appearances on Grounds.
• Increase amount of local food served in dining halls - Ongoing... Check out the Dining section of the UVa Sustainability webpage for greater details about our current local purchasing relationships and the other four components of our sustainable purchasing guidelines (seasonal, organic, humanely raised, and fairly traded): UVa Sustainability: Dining.
• Take a Polyface farm tour - Dining probably won't organize an official trip to Polyface, since we don't purchase from Joel Salatin, but it is likely that we will organize a trip up to Wolf Creek Farm (in gorgeous Madison County), our current source of local and sustainably raised beef.
• Donate unused portions of food to local organizations that can serve it - The Campus Kitchens Project is ironing out the final details so they can begin taking those unused portions and delivering them to the Charlottesville Salvation Army and other similar organizations.
• Reduce plastic wrap use - I assume this was in reference to the Catering items that were wrapped in plastic for the post-film reception. Some plastic is necessary to avoid attracting flies, etc, as well as to convey to random passersby that the food is not available to them, but I agree that wrapping a tray three times over is on the excessive side (not to mention difficult to unwrap).
• Campaign to reduce food waste - The two food waste audits conducted in the dining halls have both done a great job of putting this issue on students' radars, but I'm sure that re-evaluation is needed on the kitchen preparation side as well.
• Hold cooking classes featuring organic and seasonal ingredients - Great idea!
• Discourage Catering employees from discarding reusable items (plates, cups, etc) after events - I will take a look at the current policies.
• Educate Aramark employees about food waste and the environmental arguments for purchasing organic and local items - Proper food portioning is always good to keep in mind. Jim Bleakley (HR Manager at UVa Dining) and I are working together to start an incentive program to make conservation efforts as routine a part of the work shift as safety currently is.

Further suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email (kendall.singleton@virginia.edu).