Nabemono

Winter's chill begs for certain meals to come to the table.

+Caren Grantz Keljik  prepared nabemono, a Japanese winter stew cooked at the table. You can see the portable stove with a ceramic pot, filled to the brim with a lightly flavored stock, slices of daikon and napa cabbage, chunks of tofu, caps of shiitake mushrooms, and lengths of green onion.

After each batch of ingredients cooked, we fished them out of the pot with chopsticks and bathed them in the stock of our individual bowls, flavored with soy sauce, fresh lemon, and green onion.

As the meal progressed, the daikon absorbed more and more flavor, and the "lightly flavored stock" became the most delicious savory broth you could imagine.

We were happy campers.

A "Typical" Day

My grandmother asked me this weekend to describe a typical day of my internship. This is a nearly impossible task, as I switch rotations often and locations even more frequently.

Today, however, I've excerpted a section from my foodservice management journal that represents a fairly typical day. I was at a long-term care facility for four weeks and one of my assignments was to describe each day's activities, challenges, etc. For this excerpt, I have changed names and certain details to protect privacy.

Day 6: Daily Activities

Caroline (foodservice director and my preceptor) and I attended the morning meeting, finally. It happens every morning at 9am, but Caroline had been too busy to attend last week. Odds and ends today:

• Read through “Food Service Director Responsibilities,” which cover HR, accounting, costing, production, education, communication, operations, purchasing, quality, and programs, and “Dietary Services Standards.”
• Observed Nicholas (dietary aide) and Grace (AM cook) serving brunch.
• Discussed garnishing and portion control with Caroline.
• Updated last month's inventory list in preparation for taking inventory at the end of the month.
• Reviewed QA forms with Sandy, the RD, and scheduled a time to go with her on an inspection (next Friday, hopefully).
• Nailed a poster about Employee Rights to the wall in the chemical room.

Challenges Observed

The staffing crisis continues: Tara, a cook, is in the hospital, and Chelsey, a dietary aide, is out to be with a family member (also an employee here), who is in the hospital as well. Caroline and I will work for Grace the next two mornings so that she can cover the weekend.

Interactions Had/Observed

As I walked away from observing brunch, I heard someone say, “Who was that lady?”

“No idea,” her companion replied. Some people thought I was from the state, even though I don't have a clipboard. It's about time I hit the floor and made my presence known! I was cooped up in the kitchen with catering all last week.

Progress Made

Made some progress on the in-service insofar as I read through the material with which Caroline furnished me on garnishing and controlling costs, and I pinned down more precisely what Caroline wants from the staff in in terms of garnishes and portion sizes. Observing brunch helped me understand the limitations on staff to garnish plates – Nicholas frequently had nursing assistants and volunteers waiting for him to dish up another plate, for instance. From Sandy, I learned that starches are most frequently over-portioned.

Spider sauce plating design by thehoneybunny.
Takes way too much time and product
when you're plating 90 desserts.

Revelation #6: The dietary aides do not have the time to make garnishes as elaborate as the ones Caroline showed me.

 

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Another product of cleaning out my in-box: a webinar hosted by the America Farmland Trust, an organization working to save farm and ranch land across the county.

farmland.org

This event was the second in a series entitled Planning for Food and Agriculture: Taking a Systems Approach that highlights success stories from which others can learn. The first webinar focused on the state and region level, and the one I attended looked at community and county activities.

The four speakers each presented a wealth of information specific to their communities (Sacremento, Iowa Corridor, King County in Washington, Multnomah County in Portland). A couple items stuck out to me, which reinforced how one size does not fit all when it comes to local food systems.

First, from Sacramento, the urban-rural edge. This is where farmland abuts city land. The "softer" the edge - that is, the more urban and rural land is mixed together - the more likely the farmland is to lay fallow. The likelihood increases because that field is closer to traffic, pets, invasive plants, and vandalism or theft. And the urbanites might not be too chuffed about the farm next door because of spraying, dust, noise, and odor. Furthermore, land near developments is ripe to be developed itself; so, farmers may find the land more valuable sold than farmed.

Ways to address these potential points of conflict include buffer zones, Right-to-Farm laws, and ag parks.

Wait - what parks?

The Sunol AgPark in San Fransisco

Ag parks! According to the Sacremento Region Rural-Urbans Connections Strategy, an ag park is "a combination of a working farm and a municipal park that is located at the urban edge;" Sunol Water Temple AgPark is the model. Given an ag park's modest acreage and proximity to the city, it can be a good option for small farmers looking for a bit of land.

So that was the first item that stuck out to me. The second was King County's drainage and floodplain issues. Did you know that the ditches draining agricultural areas are often swum by endangered salmon? Neither did I! Maintenance of these ditches is understandably highly regulated to protect the fish and the water quality.

Also, farms in Washington's floodplains are liable to, well, flood. Did you know that some farmers build "farm pads" or "critter pads" to elevate their livestock above Base Flood Elevation? Me neither! The pads require permitting to ensure negligible impact on the floodplain, and can also be used to elevate houses.

Always something new to learn.