Sharing a meal - how food can help community connection

I went out for dinner with a couple of friends last night. This used to be something I did regularly, but being a student and not earning money this year, has made it a rare occurrence.  Apart from eating some fantastic Greek food, my friends and I shared personal stories, talked about politics and mostly had a really good laugh. I came home feeling relaxed and connected to a world broader than this little computer and my uni work. It's made me think about how important food is in bringing people together.  A lot of cultural and special events are organised around food. If you look at major religions in the world, the majority of them have some rules or rituals that include food.

So food provides more than just sustenance. But do we still connect as much as we used to around food?
I don't know about others. but my partner and I are in the bad habit of often eating in front of the TV. I know,  it's not a great thing to do,  but it seems to be a time to catch up on current affairs and to zone out for a while. I wonder how many other families in the Western world eat in front of the TV. I guess TV dinners weren't invented for nothing!

Every now and then we make a conscious choice to leave the TV turned off. It's amazing how much more connected and calm we feel as we catch up on the current affairs of our own lives.
So how does this fit into food sustainability? It's something we're looking at in relation to culture and identity (that's related to SOSE in case you didn't notice!). That's why we have an In Our Kitchen page, to explore our connections to food and to share some of the yummy recipes we love to share with our friends and family.

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

What does the average family eat each week?

Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio set out to answer this question and present their photographic study of families all around the world in a book called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.

To look through the gallery in three parts follow these links:

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats Part I
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats Part II
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats Part III

As you look through the galleries ask yourself, what does this tell us about food sustainability and the connection of these people to the land they live on? Imagine the kinds of lives they lead and compare it to your own.

rocket is not rocketing

While Jess and Storm are having exciting and interesting experiences with their fair tests, my rocket is steadily growing away ... at an extremely slow and disappointing pace!

My yard isn't the ideal place to grow things though. We originally had a grassy open back yard but my parents didn't have much luck in growing things, after many attempts they admitted defeat and decided to pave and patio it all! We now have a select few plants that grow in the retaining walls that line our backyard and some pot plants.

Because of the lack of light in our backyard throughout the day I struggled to find a place that the plants would have enough sunlight and shade.They now reside on the side of the house (also fully paved) in their pots and look very displaced in our concrete backyard. 

I wonder if brown thumb is genetic.

It's important though, that in undertaking this fair test and in the experience of attempting to grow our own food we learn to work with the environment we have. Not everyone has the luxury of a backyard or a patch of ground to grow veges and herbs in. For our future students this will be a powerful lesson, we might not be able to do much with what we have, but we should do what we can.

Every little effort makes a difference.

It's up to us to see the value of that small contribution and pass it on to others. See this article on David Suzuki's website that outlines some ways you can make a difference too.

Organic, bio-dynamic and fairtrade. What's the difference and why does it matter?

Northey St City Farm has organic markets every Sunday.

All the stall holders are certified organic, but some of them have also suggest they are bio-dynamic or that their produce is grown to classical music. I bought some bio-dynamic eggs from one stall holder and it made me think about all the different terms that surround the notion of eating more sustainably. Or, I guess at least being more conscious about where the food we eat comes from and how it is grown and manufactured.


So what does it mean to be certified organic? What is bio-dynamic and why would food grown that way be better for us? How would bio-dynamic practices promote a better life for the chickens that lay the eggs?

We've started to unpack some of these terms on the Words section of our blog. If you are as confused as we were, check it out as a starting point.

My peas growing into their pods

One of the underpinning themes of our investigation is determining if engagement with the learning experience will foster a behaviour change. To this end we have decided to plot our mood levels when we water, weed or otherwise tend to our plants. Because what better way to foster change than to build a personal connect with what we're doing?

So each morning, I wander down to the garden beds  (in my slippers and PJs mind you), water each plant and make notes about their appearance. On Sundays and Wednesdays I measure their growth as well. Then I decide how I'm feeling based on this activity.

Upon reflection, I've noticed that my moods generally correlate with the 'important' things that are happening that day - uni assessment, field placement, tutoring, lazing around.

But the days I note a change in my plants (so, usually Sundays and Wednesdays), well I cannot contain my excitement! When I observed that the vines from my pea plants had started to curl around their stands, I rushed out and took some photos; I was that excited!

I've also found that I am talking about my peas. A lot. To my husband. To Jess and Shirin. To my family. To my friends outside of uni. I've started to make predictions in the back of mind about what will happen when I go out the next morning. I'm also secretly hoping for a particular plant to be the 'best'. And I cannot wait until pea pods start growing. Now *that* will be an exciting day! :)