Growing, cooking and eating good food

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Growing, cooking and eating good food
Grow, Cook, Eat is the name of the new cookbook that chef (and cooking/gardening teacher) Richie Hirshen has written and published with his students at Sherwood Montessori public K-8 charter school. It follows Smart Garden, the cookbook that Hirshen and Sherwood students produced in 2011.

Hirshen recently came down to the CN&R office to show me a digital version of the cookbook. He was clearly, as he put it, “proud as a papa” to show me, page by page, the end result of his and his students’ love and hard work. The book is filled with photos of and quotes by students and, of course, an assemblage of yummy, healthy recipes.

Hirshen’s main goal for Grow, Cook, Eat, he said, is to get local educators to start (or expand, as the case may be) their own garden-kitchen programs as an essential part of providing students with “a sustainable education.”

A book-signing event for Grow, Cook, Eat will be held in Chico State’s Bell Memorial Union auditorium on Thursday, March 6, at 10 a.m., following Hirshen’s 9 a.m. presentation about his work at Sherwood Montessori during the university’s This Way to Sustainability Conference IX. Due for release next week, the book is also available by contacting Hirshen at 828-8890 or chefrichie@msn.com. Cost: $10 (tax-deductible).

HOP for health
Reid Seibold, Chico Certified Farmers’ Market vendor and board member, sent me a press release detailing a new partnership between the farmers’ market and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. The two entities have teamed up to offer the Sierra Nevada Healthy Opportunities Program (HOP), which will provide quarterly vouchers—“HOPtimal Weight Incentive” rewards—to brewery employees for use at any of the CCFM’s five Butte County farmers’ markets.

HOP is “aimed at providing employees an incentive for reaching, maintaining or working toward a healthy weight,” as the press release said. Brewery employees will “be able to buy the fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats, eggs, cheeses and other products available at the Saturday morning farmers’ market at Second and Wall streets in downtown Chico.” Additionally, the release noted, the CCFM’s other four markets will be open during the months of May through November for similar purchases: on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Paradise, Wednesdays in Chico, and Saturdays in Oroville.

Go to www.chicofarmersmarket.com for more info about the CCFM.

Farewell, Origin!
Chico Chai brewmistress and Origin Tribal Bellydance belly dancer Sarah Adams reminded me that the Origin troupe is breaking up after 10 years and will offer a finale show—titled “It’s Not You, It’s Me”—tonight, Feb. 13, at 8 p.m., at Duffy’s Tavern (337 Main St.). Sarah promises it will be “one last epic performance!” I believe her.