{"id":89,"date":"2020-10-01T19:04:26","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T19:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/valstastingexperience\/?p=89"},"modified":"2020-10-27T18:10:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T18:10:32","slug":"2-tomato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/valstastingexperience\/2020\/10\/01\/2-tomato\/","title":{"rendered":"#2: Tomato"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lots of tomatoes and peppers for salsa making
photo by Val<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Preparation:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The films I watched this week are:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Anatomy of a Scene prompt:  Jon Chu on Crazy Rich Asians
Food Chains, Dir. Sanjay Rawal
Slow Food Kids: Taste
“We Are Marching Against Injustice” – The March Arrives in Tampa
Lakeland: the Final Day of the March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is so much that is hidden from the everyday public\u2019s eye. Most people have no clue where their food comes from and what it takes to get that food to them. The amount or lack thereof in food workers justice is horrendous. And then you talk about the amount of chemicals put onto our food to keep the pests away. We are currently living in a very backwards way of producing food that is not only slowly killing us as consumers and the workers, but is also killing the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Salsa Preparation<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Since I did a tomato tasting last fall in Sarah’s class Eating in Translation, I knew for a fact that raw tomatoes are not my cup of tea. So I decided to make salsas instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to two local grocery stores in the Milwaukee area. The first was Sendiks, a local grocery store that goes all the way back to 1926 and was started by the Balistreri family who immigrated from Sicily. The second was Outpost Natural Foods, a cooperative based on organic, local, fair trade, and GMO-free values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"JenEhr<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Val<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Sendiks they are smaller, family run grocery store they offer more quality foods than what you would find at a chain store. So I got most of my salsa making supplies here, jalapeno and serrano peppers, red, yellow, and orange peppers, limes, cilantro, red onions, and garlic. I also picked up pineapple and mango here too for my pineapple mango salsa. The tomatoes I picked up here were organic heirloom tomatoes from Canada and Beefsteak tomatoes from Minnesota.
At Outpost I was able to find tomatoes that were from a local farm called JenEhr Family Farm, located just the next county over. I got organic slicer tomatoes and organic San Marzano Paste tomatoes from JenEhr at Outpost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making salsa
video by Val<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CF3fkLMJFTM\/?igshid=1mpgel6yh8ifk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CF3GV1tJU5R\/?igshid=8h44wh7skvpf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making pineapple mango salsa
video by Val<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1<\/td>JenEhr Farms Organic Slicer Tomatoes
Grown in Wisconsin
Pineapple Mango Salsa<\/td><\/tr>
#2<\/td>Organic Heirloom Tomatoes
Grown in Canada
Regular Salsa<\/td><\/tr>
#3<\/td>JenEhr Farms Organic San Marzano Paste Tomatoes
Grown in Wisconsin
Regular Salsa<\/td><\/tr>
#4<\/td>Beefsteak Tomatoes
Grown in Minnesota
Pineapple Mango Salsa<\/td><\/tr>
#5<\/td>Spicy Tomato Combo<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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#2a Tasting Lab: Tomato<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"5<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Salsa Tasting
Photo by Val<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a strong consensus between everyone I had taste all my salsas, salsas 1, 3, and 5 were always the top ones.
Its very clear that fresh local grown tomatoes are the better, tastier choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1New-Tomato-MATRIX-salsa<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Resources\/Required Reading:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/docs.google.com\/presentation\/d\/1vujUpg_X7aWh48Ge38Iz-0DjHjKODbpgjPLYuDSe0iQ\/edit?usp=drivesdk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lab Practice: Tomato Flavor Evaluation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Val’s Notes
Evaluating distinguishing factors between multiple varieties of tomatoes
Supporting ethical and sustainable seed saving practices help us enjoy many more tomatoes
Heirloom<\/strong>
Pink Berkeley
Striped German
Slicing<\/strong>
Big beef
Cherokee purple
Cherry<\/strong>
Sun gold
Black cherry
Saucey<\/strong>
Red racer
Sunrise sauce
Cocktail<\/strong>
Sweet million
Green<\/strong>
Green zebra
Grapes\/pears<\/strong>
Five-star grape
Brads atomic
Visual<\/strong>: oblong, ridged, peaked, wrinkly, soft, orb, spherical, creased, symmetrical, translucent, supple, asymmetrical, bumpy, flat, oval, cylindrical, angular, delicate, odd, concave, curvy, bulbous\u2026..
Smell<\/strong>: rich, dank, sour, skunky, floral, herbal, clean, dirty, fruity, wet, earthy, pleasant, stale, sweet, sour, musty, pleasant, fruity, spicy, pungent\u2026.
Taste<\/strong>: earthy, sweet, tangy, dirty, harsh, spicy, refreshing, old, simple, flavorless, watery, bitter, flowery, sweet, fruity, botanical\u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#2b: Foodoir: Your Story of Tasting Place<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My mother liked to remind revolutionary, Afrocentric, teenage me of these eternally embarrassing moments because she liked to say, \u201cI want you to know no matter how far you go, you need to know how far you\u2019ve come.\u201d Page 28

Another black medieval torture was okra. In our next, kitchen, I remember my grandmother forcing me to eat okra. Page 34

My mother encouraged me to have one bite, but I knew one bite would translate into four bites, so I refused as if I were being sent off to the gulag. Finally, I put a piece in my mouth and marched upstairs to bed, but not before I spat it out in the toilet. Page 34

Food was supposed to be perfect, almost mathematical. I remember being obsessed with the image of a sandwich when we were being taught phonics. It was so perfect and balanced and colorful that I had the idea in my head that food was supposed to be ideal and not rough; tidy and not confusing. Page 35

My first task was to be the official taster when Grammy prepared meals, I learned bite by bite the proprietary taste of our favorite dishes. This was followed by the rolling of dough and cutting biscuits out with a floured mason jar. Page 36

I slowly learned that the best food was homemade, fresh, and from scratch. Page 36<\/em>
–MICHAEL TWITTY<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Trigger Warning!<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"mom<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My mom (Katie Dreyer) and me<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In kindergarten I became the pickiest eater out there, I went from eating hamburgers and egg salad to not eating really besides pastas and grilled cheese. It wouldn\u2019t be later in life that I would come to realize the reason for my funky texture aversion. I had created a texture aversion on most meats, I stopped eating eggs and fish. It took me a while to be okay with eating chicken strips. For most of my life going out to eat was a problem if there wasn\u2019t chicken strips or grilled cheese. It wasn\u2019t until very recently that I figured out, through therapy, my food texture aversion was brought on my childhood molestation. Since then I have been working on trying and expanding the foods I eat. I still have problems with texture, but I am working on just trying new foods. I now eat a much wider variety of foods and now don\u2019t really have a problem going out to fancy restaurants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n