Category Archives: Salads

Salads, Schools

Salad Bars in Schools

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I wrote here awhile back that Rep. Sam Farr was planning to introduce a bill that would help install salad bars in U.S. elementary schools. He did introduce the bill on December 3rd.

From sgvtribune.com (San Gabriel Valley, CA):

Farr bill aims to get students to eat their veggies

Posted: 10/26/2009 01:30:47 AM PDT

Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, is renewing his push for salad bars in schools through legislation that would require more fruits and vegetables on campus menus.The Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Act of 2009, which Farr expects to introduce in coming weeks, directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to spend more of its school food budget on produce and provide additional money for cafeteria upgrades like salad bars.

“For the first time, parents are asking school boards what are you feeding my kid, not just what are you teaching him,” said Farr, who represents most of Santa Cruz County. “These kids are too often obese, and we as a government are not leading the way and providing them healthy food.”

The congressman’s push for better eating follows a highly publicized federal report this month that suggests fat- and sodium-filled school meals are not consistent with government dietary guidelines. Needed, according to the findings by the Institute of Medicine, are less saturated fat and salt and more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, changes Farr believes his bill would bring.

“We’re not practicing what we preach,” Farr said. The new bill would move things in the right direction, he said…. (Read the rest here)

The bill Rep. Farr introduced on December 3 is called the Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Act.

More on this at The Packer:

Salad bar advocates head to Capitol Hill

Published on 12/04/2009 03:36pm By Tom Karst

…Slusser was one of several advocates of salad bars on Dec. 3-4 in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the United Fresh Produce Association, to brief lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill.

Slusser asked Congress to provide increased funding so schools can serve more fruits and vegetables and purchase salad bar equipment and other needed cafeteria items so more schools can have salad bars.

The group also scheduled visits with food and nutrition officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture…. (Read the rest here)

It would be great if local produce was available in Hawai‘i’s schools. And, especially, if it was in salad bars.

Alan Wong, Salads

Salad Dressing 201

This past Saturday, I had one of my most enjoyable days ever as a farmer. I was invited to sit in on a class Chef Alan Wong taught called Salad Dressing 201.

I had previously taken Salad Dressing 101, so I met the prerequisite.

Chef Alan loves to teach and he’s very good at it. He explained that fruits can be used as an emulsion—something to keep the solution mixed.

After using mango to make a vinaigrette, he asked, “And what else could we have used? Guava? Okay, good. What else?”

He started demonstrating how to make a spicy tomato dressing. Halfway through he said, “Notice this is the tomato soup that we do. You can do different colored tomatoes and pour them in glasses, side by side. Now add miso, roasted garlic, apple cider vinegar and blend in extra virgin olive oil. You now have spicy tomato dressing, using the tomato as the emulsifier.”

He asked, “Isn’t tomato a fruit?”

“What other fruit could you use?”

He took ½ cup of rice, salt and  ½ cup of water. Blended until syrupy. I’m thinking, “Rice? What is he doing blending rice?”

Rice is a starch, he says, and he asks: “What other kinds of starches could one use?” The class answers, “Sweet potatoes.” “Taro.”

“Good,” he says. “What else?”

“Add 2 tablespoons rice vinegar and rice oil. Blend.” Did I hear that right? Rice oil?

He says, “Make shoyu vinaigrette and add it to the rice mixture with wasabi. That’s the shoyu rice cream wasabi vinaigrette.”

The students tried a spoonful of each dressing. All the while, Chef Alan asked for opinions and suggestions. One had no choice but to be engaged. It was great!

By the way, try this, he said: Hamakua Sweet Tomato raisin. Dried with Balsamic vinegar and sugar.

I need to ask about this. I need to know how to make it.

At the end, Chef Alan made a dish with caramelized tomatoes. Cocktail tomatoes caramelized with one part sugar to one part sherry vinegar. Cook down in sauce pan.

He also smashed a cocktail tomato down in a dish. Put goat cheese on top of the tomato, and parsley and basil on top of that. It was beautiful to look at and delicious to taste.

I came away from the class with so many ideas floating around. I understand the general picture now and am thinking of a thousand delicious possibilities.

Company News, Recipes, Salads

State of the Farm

Richard Ha writes:

We had a short employee meeting at lunchtime yesterday, to look back a bit and see where we are today, and also to catch everybody up on what’s going on.

We had a similar meeting three years ago, when we had a crisis. I told our workers that C. Brewer was selling all of its sugar lands, including the land under our banana farm, which we were leasing. We had two choices: 1) Do nothing, in which case it would be likely the land would be subdivided for home sites and we would probably have to quit farming, or 2) Buy the land.

We didn’t know how we were going to pay for the land but we decided to try. We put in an offer to Willie Tallett of C. Brewer. Our offer was accepted and we had four years to come up with the balloon payment.

That was then. Now, three years later, the land’s value has multiplied by nearly eight times. We’ve been able to sell off some of it and pay down the land note, and we’re still left with 590-something acres.

What a difference this has made. When we leased, we could not do any real, long-term planning. Now we say that we will be farming for another hundred years. And we’re serious.

In the last few years we have diversified into hydroponic vegetable production, and we’re comfortable that we’ve figured that out.

Hydroponics At our meeting yesterday, I informed everyone that we just reroofed our old sugar company warehouse, which we will start using soon as a farm stand. When we’re satisfied that we’ve figured out what we’re doing, we will move to the “Gears”—our new property across the highway, where the big gear stands—and build a farm stand and snack bar there. We hope it will be a venue for community events and festivals.

I mentioned that we are in the middle of a tomato recipe contest with the Hawai‘i Community College culinary program; we are helping our neighbors—the residents of Andrade Camp—upgrade their private water system to county standard; Chef Alan Wong will visit us soon. We were just recently on the semi-finals and finals of the Top Chef show. I asked if everyone saw our new company newsletter, which we are starting to put in each paycheck envelope. The Hamakua Springs brand is growing by leaps and bounds. Things are going well. Let’s eat.

Hydroponics

The company bought lunch, and the office personnel and management served. I even made the salad.

Hydroponics

The food was from Hilo Lunch Shop:

Real crispy fried chicken
Ono tempura
Shoyu Pork
Corned beef hash patties
Macaroni potato salad
Hamakua Springs tomato, lettuce, cucumber salad

Everyone loved the Hamakua Springs salad. I told them it was a recipe that June and I learned from Chef Alan Wong.

Recipe:

5-1/2 ounce container of Hamakua Springs Chef Select Salad. Break lettuce into bite sized pieces.

3 medium-sized beef clamshell Hamakua Springs tomatoes, cubed.

2/3 of a Hamakua Springs Japanese cucumber, cubed.

Place cubed tomatoes and cucumbers in bowl. Marinate with Hawaiian salt and black pepper for 15 minutes.

Add:
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon grey poupon mustard
1/2 tablespoon minced shallots
1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley

Toss.

Make a mixture of 1 part balsamic vinegar to 3 parts extra virgin olive oil. Shake well before use.

Place lettuce in a bowl. Add tomato, cucumber, garlic, mustard, shallot and parsley. Add oil to coat lettuce leaves, toss and serve.

At the end of the day, every worker took home a container of Chef Select lettuce and tomatoes.

Losing Weight, Salads

Eating Well

Richard Ha writes:

Today’s weight: 197.2 lbs. This week’s target weight was 196.0 lbs. I am 1.2 lbs. behind schedule.

Starting weight on 10/15/06: 200.0 lbs. End goal, on 12/31/06: 185 lbs. Since 5/23, I have lost 17.4 lbs.

My goals: To lose one pound per week for 15 weeks, and to lower my resting heart rate to below 50 beats per minute.*

* (Heart rate goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong’s is said to be 32. George W’s was reported to be 47 beats per minute. Out of shape, mine is in the 70s. My best was 52 many years ago.)

* * *

I’ve noticed that when I include a lot of weightlifting in my weight loss program, I develop a voracious appetite and always have to take entire days off from exercising in order to recover. This week I took three days off, and I gained weight. I need to slow down and not try to do too much, so I don’t overeat and also rest too much. Catching a chest cold this week did not help.

When I’m not overtraining, I am in good enough condition that I can comfortably do 90 minutes on the elliptical trainer, twice or even three times per week. When I spend 90 minutes on the elliptical, I use up about 1,200 calories (that’s about a third of a pound). And on the other days of the week, I can still, easily, do 30 minutes. This next week I’m going to catch up and get back on schedule.

Something else I started doing is eating a really good salad for my dinner every night, along with a little meat, fish or chicken. I’m fortunate to know where to get some really tasty lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and watercress. I also make sure to eat a good breakfast and lunch.

I’ve gotten away from the salads but I’m going to get back to them now. As soon as I finish writing this, I’m going to the market to get dried cranberries, yogurt, oranges, anchovies, dijon mustard, bacon bits, green onions, lemon juice, sunflower seeds, grapes and red wine vinegar. I’ll use these ingredients to experiment and make interesting, tasty salads. I’m leaning toward green salads that have fruit in them, and fruity dressings. I’ll report back on what I come up with.

My resting heart rate today is up: 65. I don’t know if the chest cold has anything to do with it. Whatever the case, I need to get it into the mid-to-low-50s.

Rumor has it that George W. is going to ride the Kulani trails with the boys. I know he’s going to be on O‘ahu soon—and I thought I saw the decoy Air Force One doing touch-and-goes at the Hilo airport.