Sign up for the revolution…
We were very excited to watch Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” last week on ABC. If you have not had a chance to see it, I do think it is worth watching. Jamie has made a crusade of getting back into our kitchens and moving away from processed foods, both in our schools and in our homes.
To celebrate “Food Revolution” Aidan and I picked several recipes out of Jamie’s cookbook, “Jamie’s Kitchen” to make for dinner last Friday. We made the chicken stew, balsamic roasted tomatoes and the grape and rosemary calzones for dessert. I also made a cauliflower gratin for a side. We ran around the farm that afternoon picking out our ingredients. All of Jamie’s recipes stress fresh, seasonal produce and herbs. His cookbooks are also very instructional, showing even the basic techniques needed to complete a recipe, in case you need a little extra help. His recipes are not hard, but the outcome was fantastic.
His show is shining a spotlight on what is being served in school cafeterias and the impact that is having on children, their eating habits and the potential health dangers. It was so heartbreaking to see the children he was working with unable to properly identify a potato or completely confused when allowed to use actual silverware in their school cafeteria. It is so appalling and shameful that this is considered as acceptable.
I have been personally concerned about this same issue at my son’s school. My own revolutionary strategy has been to make Aidan’s lunch every day. It doesn’t seem like much, but I learned the value of it all too well. On one of the few days he had to buy his lunch at school, I had a very excited seven-year-old who later informed me that he got to have a certain sugar-filled cereal with colored marshmallows for lunch. I could not believe that this was what his school was serving. Even a kid who spends his days on an organic farm is hard pressed to turn down colored marshmallows when offered. I was horrified that this was even an option.
I have not missed a day of packing his lunch since.
Watch “Food Revolution” tonight and get inspired. Trust me, Jamie’s message can’t be stressed hard enough. Get this junk out of our schools!
McClendon's Select 
Hi, Kate!
I, too, have been really moved by what Jamie Oliver is doing, and I am so inspired that you are doing your own bit of food revolution right here in the NW Valley! Please keep up your good work, and I will too, on behalf of my 2 preschoolers and their compadres. As an aside, I’m reading a great book that reinforces the notion of bringing domesticity back to the forefront in the American family–it’s called “Radical Homemakers” and is written by Shannon Hayes–she also has a family-owned farm, but their farm is more for free-range beef and the like. Anyway, you might enjoy it. I’ll look for your family’s produce–I didn’t know of it until reading the article in the paper–terrific! I’m from Calif., and I miss the plethora of incredible produce–seems with your farm I won’t need to miss it as much :).