Episodes
Thursday Feb 28, 2019
iEat Green - Onika Abraham-Director of Farm School NYC
Thursday Feb 28, 2019
Thursday Feb 28, 2019
Onika Abraham, Director of Farm School NYC, is a farmer and educator with more than 15 years of experience as a senior nonprofit manager with an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship from City University of New York’s Zicklin School of Business.
Onika joined Farm School NYC as Director in May 2014. Less than six months into her tenure, Farm School NYC faced a crippling financial situation when it did not receive a renewal of its USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program funding. With Onika’s leadership, the School streamlined staffing, galvanized volunteers, forged new partnerships, restructured its earned income structure, developed an individual giving program, and organized the School’s first fundraising events including a film series and a play premiere. Due to these efforts, in 2015 Farm School NYC continued to offer all 20 courses to more than 50 individual students and graduated 14 certificate students – more than double the number of graduates in any prior year—with 1/6 of the budget and 1/3 of the staffing of the prior year.
A Farm School NYC teacher before she was the Director, Onika has always been drawn to growing and teaching. After leaving her position as Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Safe Horizon in 2010, she spent the next five years with her hands in the soil—learning as much as possible about growing sustainably. Onika’s first formal training was the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Brooklyn Urban Gardener certification program, an experiential, participatory course that focuses on sustainable horticultural practices suited to the urban environment, street tree stewardship, community engagement practices, effective teaching methods, and greening resources available in Brooklyn.
In 2012, Onika completed the Farm & Garden Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) in Santa Cruz. The Apprenticeship provides intensive training in the concepts and practices of organic gardening and small-scale farming. The full-time program is held at the Center's 30-acre CASFS/UCSC Farm and 3-acre Alan Chadwick Garden on the UCSC campus. The Apprenticeship training program offers 300 hours of classroom instruction and 700 hours of in-field training and hands-on experience in the greenhouses, gardens, orchards, and fields.
At CASFS, Onika valued the hands-on agricultural training but was concerned by the lack of focus on social justice—one of the pillars of Agroecology. She served on the Social Justice Action Committee, helping expand the curriculum, diversify staff and faculty, and create more support systems for apprentices of color, including hosting the first CASFS People of Color Reunion, now an annual event which has drawn farmers from across the country each year.
Onika’s work to support farmers of color and increase the number of black farmers nationally, in particular, predates her time at CASFS. She is one of the co-founders of Black Urban Growers and has helped organize three national Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conferences since 2010. Her commitment to this work continues in her efforts to recruit Farm School NYC students that reflect the diversity of New York City, especially those from low resource and socially disadvantaged communities, and help them achieve their professional farming goals.
French Lentil Stew
1 cup French lentils, rinsed
4 cups vegetable broth
1 onion, cut in half, then sliced into crescent moons
2 carrots, cut into chunks
1 celery, diced
1 turnips, cut into chunks
1 Tbs. minced garlic
2 Bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
½ t. pepper
2 Tbs. Khmeli Suneli, ( a Georgian spice)
2 Tbs. chopped cilantro or parsley
Lemon wedges for serving.
Rinse the lentils well and pick through them. Place in saucepan with the broth. Bring to a boil and add the vegetables and bay leaves. Lower heat to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes.
Add the garlic, salt, pepper and Khmeli Suneli. Continue cooking for 10 more minutes until desired consistency is reached.
If you would like, you can add some mixed greens to the stew, such as kale, swiss chard, spinach or arugula at this time, and just cook them until wilted.
Garnish with cilantro, and serve with rice and a lemon wedge on the side.
Thursday Feb 21, 2019
iEat Green - Anita Lo- Chef Author – Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One
Thursday Feb 21, 2019
Thursday Feb 21, 2019
ANITA LO is an acclaimed chef who worked at Bouley and Chanterelle before opening the Michelin-starred restaurant annisa in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village in 2000, which she ran until it closed in 2017. Food & Wine named her one of ten Best New Chefs in America, and The Village Voice proclaimed her Best New Restaurant Chef. She has appeared on Top Chef Masters, Iron Chef America, and Chopped; in 2015, she became the first female guest chef to cook at the White House. She lives in New York City and on Long Island.
Miso Vegetable Chowder with Wakeme
8 cups water
5 cloves garlic
1- 2”-3” piece of ginger
1 cake of tofu (soft or firm, whichever you prefer)
1 organic onions, chopped
2 organic carrot, washed and chopped
1 turnip, peeled and diced
1 organic broccoli, cut into florets
2 Tbs wakame- soak in 1 cup of boiling water to reconstitute
3 Tbs white miso
3 Tbs. red miso
1- 8 oz package ramen noodles, cooked according to directions
Fill a large pot with the water. Add the onions, carrots, garlic, ginger and turnips and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the broccoli and tofu. Drain the wakame and add to soup. Cook for another 10 minutes. Remove 1 cup of broth only, and in a separate bowl, dilute the 6 Tbs of miso in the cup of broth. Add the miso mixture back into the soup pot. Add more miso if desired for taste preferences. DO NOT BOIL THE SOUP ONCE THE MISO IS ADDED!
Keep the noodles separate and add individually to each bowl, to prevent the noodles from getting over cooked.
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
iEat Green - Dave Chapman Executive Director of The Real Organic Project
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
Dave Chapman has been an organic farmer for 39 years and owner of Long Wind Farm in Vermont. The farm started as a mixed vegetable operation, but transitioned to growing tomatoes in soil on 2-1/2 acres of glass greenhouses. Today, Long Wind Farm sells most of its crop through the wholesale market to stores around New England.
For the past six years, Dave has been actively working to reform the National Organic Program (NOP). He is a co-founder of Keep The Soil In Organic, a grassroots effort to change the NOP. After the National Organic Standard Board failed to protect the integrity of the NOP in Jacksonville in 2017, Dave became a co-founder of the Real Organic Project, where he is the current Executive Director. The Real Organic Project is a coalition of organic farmers and advocates who have come together to protect the integrity of organic farming. Organic farmers believe this effort is needed since the current USDA National Organic Program is now permitting hydroponics and CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) to be certified as organic. An integral part of organic farming includes improving soil fertility and that animals have adequate outdoor access and pasture, and our current system is falling short of that.
Dave is also a proud member of the Organic Farmers Association and serves on its Policy Committee, in a continuing effort to reform the NOP and represent organic farmers in Washington
Mushroom Bolognese with Cashew Mascarpone
1 Ib. Organic Rigatoni (whole wheat, brown rice, semolina)
1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1-1/2 cups hot water
3 stalks celery, diced fine
3 carrots
1 red pepper, seeds removed, diced
1 onion, chopped
10 oz. assorted mushrooms, chopped
3 Tbs. tomato paste
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup cashews, soaked for 2 hours
½ cup red wine
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 t. dried basil
½ t. dried thyme
2 Tbs. minced garlic
¼ t. red pepper flakes (optional)
3 Tbs. chopped fresh Italian parsley
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Coat bottom of cast iron pan with olive oil. Sauté onions, carrots, celery for a few minutes, then add garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Drain the porcini mushrooms (reserve the mushroom water) and dice. Add the porcini mushrooms, along with the assorted chopped mushrooms, the dried herbs, and the tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes. De-glaze the pan with the red wine and the reserved mushroom water, and let the mixture cook down for about 10 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by half.
In a food processor, mix the drained cashews with ½ cup of fresh water. Pulse until completely smooth, scraping down sides of food processor to incorporate all of the cashews. Add cashew mixture to the sauce. Taste and adjust salt, pepper and add the parsley.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to directions in salted water, (al dente). Time it, so that the pasta just comes out of the water, when you are ready to mix it with the sauce. Reserve some of the pasta water to add to the Bolognese sauce if it needs to be thinned out. Garnish with parsley.
Tuesday Feb 12, 2019
iEat Green - Qiana is the Executive Director of Just Food
Tuesday Feb 12, 2019
Tuesday Feb 12, 2019
Thursday Jan 31, 2019
Thursday Jan 31, 2019
Seth Itzkan is Co-founder and Co-director of Soil4Climate. He is an environmental futurist investigating innovative means of land management that offer hope for reversing global warming. He is a TEDx speaker on restoring grasslands and with planned grazing. He has consulted for The Boston Foundation, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and the US Bureau of the Census. He is a graduate of Tufts University, College of Engineering and the Studies of the Future Program at University of Houston-Clear Lake. His private consultancy is Planet-TECH Associates.
Karl Thidemann is a Co-founder and Co-director of Soil4Climate. He serves on the board of the Somerville Community Growing Center, a quarter-acre, urban oasis offering organic gardening experiences, as well as artistic and cultural programs, to the public. Karl is also Co-founder of Somerville Climate Action. Karl holds a B.A. in chemistry from Wesleyan University. His focus is climate communications, including poetry.
Cauliflower Fried Rice
*Designed to meet the standards of the Whole30 Diet
4-6 servings
Ingredients
1- 12 oz. package of organic riced cauliflower
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tbs olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 stalk celery
1 Tbs minced garlic,
1 Tbs grated ginger
1 cup frozen organic peas
2 Tbs. coconut amino acids
2 t. dark sesame oil
¼ cup cilantro
1 lg or 2 small carrots, diced
1 t. hot sesame oil
Procedure
- In a wok, sauté onions, celery and carrots in olive oil with garlic and ginger for 7 minutes.
- Add the riced cauliflower, and peas.
- Add the cilantro, coconut amino acids, and the hot and dark sesame oil.
- Taste. Add salt and pepper to taste
*Feel free to add other vegetables. I was serving it on the side of a Vegetable Stir-Fry, so I didn’t want anymore veggies.