Ando Muneno

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Today is Food Day 2011 and restaurants around the Valley including Cibo and Windsor and at least one food truck (Short Leash Hot Dogs) are primed to participate by serving locally procured vegetables, harvested yesterday by a group of volunteers at the Roosevelt Growhouse in downtown Phoenix.

Student Apinaya Arunkumar carefully harvests arugula.

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Courtesy Vynnie MacDaniels

Tomato seedlings.

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He suggested five edible plants that people could start now and enjoy for months to come. They were selected for these simple reasons:
1. Easy to grow from seeds or transplants.
2. Easy to care for and harvest.
3. Grows quickly to a point where it can harvested and can be continually harvested for some time.
4. Makes seeds that are easy to harvest and replant for next year.
5. Versatile in cooking.

Vynnie's recommendations after the jump.

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Oh man, this website is GE-NIUS! It's called Smart Gardener and it will actually make you smart at gardening. You will learn about what elements to consider when planning your garden in a simple guide -- like soil testing, sun direction, and plot size. You are also led to some suggested plants based upon the historical weather patterns of your zip code. It will also conveniently lead you into their partner online shops where you can buy your chosen plants (tho' you could just head to your favorite local nursery).

 

Matthew Moore

Artist Matthew Moore wants you to see where your food comes from.

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Over the past few years, Phoenix-area galleries have displayed Moore's large scale illustrations of the encroachment of suburban developments and shopping plazas on his farmland. He also introduced a video project called "Lifecycles," which captured buying habits of shoppers at a Utah grocery store via video footage that later aired at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Moore's latest effort, the Digital Farm Collective, involves long-term filming of the growing process. The project was inspired by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway -- also referred to as the "Doomsday" seed project.

"That sounds so negative," says Moore. "It's an indication of how desperate we are. We have no idea where our food comes from." Moore hopes to steer the conversation in a more positive direction and educate consumers on the growing process by placing time-lapse cameras on farms across the country. The footage would be displayed in grocery stores and used for school programs.  

Jennifer Woods

​Just when we think we're going to have an easy dinner filled with interesting preschooler conversation about sandboxes and spiders, it ends up like this:

... Stop talking and eat your food. Stop playing and eat your food. Sit down and eat your food. Don't just pick out the fruit, eat the whole thing. The green parts are good for you. Look, Mommy likes it.

And it frequently sinks to... If you eat your ______, you can have dessert.

Oh yes, we have meals like that, even at my house, even as a Professional Veggie. But sometimes we have successful days and overall I would say my kid is an adventurous eater. So Chow Bella asked me to compile a list of what's worked in my house. Here you go:

1. Try featuring it in a completely different way.
I know some families who serve their kids frozen peas in the frozen state. Hey, if it works. I tried making the tastiest (read: sweet) salad dressings and then drenched the salad in it. Nope. When I set out a plate of just dry leaves and told my son to eat it like a dinosaur, he loved it. We've offered dressing on the side for him to dip each leaf and that was a winner too.

2. I can't take credit for this one, (my twisted husband can) but for kids that love gross out stuff, tell them they're eating brains and eyeballs and guts. I thought for sure that would turn off our kid one night and he totally bought it and enjoyed it.

3. Actually take them to where food comes from. Grow lettuce or radishes in your backyard or container on the porch. Take them to an actual working farm. Take them to the ground it grows in and let them eat the food from the dirt (provided you know it's clean dirt). My kids love this. It was a great intro to eating their greens. If you can't take them, there's always youtube.

Jennifer Woods

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4. Let them choose what everyone is having for the meal. Give them two choices and then go with the one they choose.

5. Get them to cook it! My older kid is still pretty small but I let him do as many safe things as he's able to do. He has a plastic lettuce knife that he uses to cut most everything but the hard vegetables. I showed him how to grip his hands and fingers and saw the food. He's also proficient in dumping and stirring and will be graduating to flipping in a few years.

Get the rest of the tips after the jump.

Courtesy of the ASU Art Museum

Clare Patey

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Patey's an artist and a curator whose work revolves mostly around food. Her explanations of her projects, as well as her definitions of "art" and "museum" will be up for discussion on Tuesday night as part of ASU Art Museum's Re-Thinking the Museum.

The series has invited artists, museum professionals, and scholars to discuss the current state of the museum world and to share their thoughts on a new kind of museum future.

More information and event details after the jump ...