Photo by Val

Preparation:

This week I watched:
Anatomy of a Scene prompt: Downton Abbey
Seed: The Untold Story clips
RAD TV: Radicchio Seeds: Uprising Seeds
The Outsize Importance of the Tiny Organic Seed
RAD TV: Radicchio Cultivation and Types
Gete-Okosomin: Cool Old Squash
This week I read:
Gliessman ch.17, 21
A Chicory to Dismantle Late-Stage Capitalism
The Best Winter Greens Aren’t Green—They’re Pink
The Age of Radicchio Is Upon Us
The Cooking Gene: ch 14-16

#8a: Tasting Research: Culinary Breeding Network + Radicchio Tasting

Lane Selman: Culinary Breeding Network Zoom Conferance

Italian Radicchio
The cultivation of the first red chicory dates back to the first half of the 16th century in the Venetian regions.
Types of Radicchio
Rosso di Treviso
Rosso di Verona- mass selection between 1950-1960
Escarole
Variegato di Castelfranco- hybridization with Endive
Varegato di Chiaggia- mass selection in 1930
Rosso di Treviso Precoce- mass selection between 1965-1970
Rosso di Treviso Tradivo

#8b: Foodoir: Your Story of Tasting Place

“Once you beging embracing your own heritage and culture and you interweave it with what you’re doing; it transforms into a soul completion journey of ‘Finally I am home.’ I am coming back to Africa, coming back to love, coming back home, and most of all coming back to a place of healing. From there, I began looking at my idenity through food.” Page 278
-Michael Twitty

Life for me really only started a couple years back for me. Most of my life I dealt with crippling anxiety and depression. My only escape was through horses. It wasn’t until I found the right therapist did my life start to bloom. I soon found out about a study abroad to Barcelona at my community college, and decided this is what I needed to do. Never in my wildest dreams before would I have ever thought I would be leaving the country to be studying on my own in a foreign place, where I did not speak the language.
My first trip to Spain was the start of my exploration into food. Food was one of the main issues I was afraid of and had many conversations with my therapist about what I was going to do when I got to Spain. I was unprepared for how fresh all the food was going to be. I spent a lot of time wandering grocery stores and fresh markets. I also spent much of my time looking up and enjoying restaurants. Barcelona had a wide variety of restaurants from the regular Spanish and tapas restaurants to Italian, and Mexican restaurants and they are all amazing. I don’t think I found a restaurant that I did not like.
My mom joined me in Barcelona when my quarter ended and we spent a little over three weeks making our way around Spain. We enjoyed our time wandering around looking for places to eat, the late nights dinners with a bottle of wine, and laughing and enjoying the Christmas lights on the walks back to the Airbnb past midnight. Every city we stopped in we looked for nummy food and wine items to bring back with us. In Seville, my mom booked us a tour with Devour Tours. We spent well over 4 hours on a tour of Seville, learning about its history and stopping at some of the best and well known restaurants, tapas bars, and bars in the city. This experience changed my view on food. Now I wanted to learn more about Spanish history and culture and do more food tours.
When I went back to Spain for the third time, and my second study abroad, I was hoping to be able to work on my Spanish and get an internship with Devour Tours for this year.