Creating a Community Supported Kitchen: Interview with Jessica Prentice of Three Stone Hearth plus Chef Jem's Vision for Waldorf CSKs.

Date:   11/13/2010 4:37:08 AM ( 14 y ago)

I consider Jessica Prentice to be the high priestess of Community Supported Kitchens (CSKs). She is the co-creator of "Three Stone Hearth" in Berkeley. I have been "observing" the kitchen remotely over the last several years since it has come into existence.

In the last week I discovered what I think of as (something on the order of) a daughter CSK (to Three Stone) that was founded by Tressa Yellig.

Jessica says: "It has always been our goal to create a model that would be replicable. So far, Tressa is the only person who has done that in Oregon, taking what we're doing and morphing it into what would work for her. She's been in business a few years now. She's been doing well.":

http://havefundogood.blogspot.com/2010/08/creating-community-supported-kitche...



"We have a lot of health care practitioners that refer people to us. That's how we get a lot of customers: people who are told by a doctor, 'You need to eat these pastured bone broths.' People either don't have the time, or they are not well enough to make them themselves. ... the basic concept is ...: very nutrient dense, healing food is accessible to more and more people. "



I am so glad to hear this! It validates my vision!

Health care practitioners who are introduced to the local CSK can then write nutrition therapy prescriptions for their patients that can be filled at the CSK! Those patients who are interested can also be offered food as medicine workshops at the CSK. Some of the practitioners may need orientation as to the medicinal foods that can be available from the CSK and their use in natural healing programs. (The other day my friend "Your Enchanted Gardener" had a revelation regarding the medicine of gelatin and the quantity that can come from cooking a whole pasture-raised chicken in a slow cooker!)

I commented at the Have Fun Do Good blogspot:

"Thank You Britt and Jessica!

Can hardly tell you both just how encouraging it is to hear this conversation! The sharing of this communication between the two of you is greatly valued here! Communication is life and it is also the foundation for community and I get a lot of life and a deep sense of community through what is published here!"

http://havefundogood.blogspot.com/2010/08/creating-community-supported-kitchen.html

I am inspired on a daily basis with the vision CSK. I now see it as a fulcrum point between manufactured foods of commerce and real nourishing foods that come from nourishing farms that are then prepared by and for real people (as opposed to manufactured products for "consumers". A nourishing culture includes close connections, relationships and conversations between food sources, the kitchen alchemists and the community all with a community-building spirit and soulfulness that are just not part of the business equation with most "foods of commerce". The contrasts are profound! The real heart of this vision is a very well nourished community! I believe this deserves to have great works of art expressing in many ways the beauties and joys that a CSK offers against the dark background of a decayed food system. (One positive note is that you can compost those products! ;-)



I see real nourishment as a four-fold culture that includes:

1.) The nourishing substances,

2.) All the individuals who participate in the "culturing nourishment" process,

3.) All the processes involved,

4.) All the individuals who are being nourished.



Chef Jem's list of "Nourishing substances":



1.) In my thinking, the very, very first nourishing substance for humans (and all mammals) is mother's milk. However, not all mothers nurse their children or continue nursing them for the full cycle of time that children can be nursed. Then "Real Milk" can be considered if it is grass-fed, whole and raw. After all, mother's milk would not come pasteurized, would it? Real Milk also includes all the various forms of culturing the milk into kefir, yogurt, soured milk and more! Finding the right milk is a worthy process! I personally like goat milk! Dr. Bernard Jensen highly recommended it and especially still warm, right after the milking (which will be possible with a CSK located on or right next to a farm)! (I intend to try camel milk some day.)




Regarding milk for children - Rudolf Steiner recognized the that the infant "does not have the strength to deal with earthly substances, so nature provides a nutrient substance, milk, which demands no forces of its own from the infant and thus makes the incarnation possible."
From: "The Anthroposophical Approach to Medicine". Preview at Books.Google.com

2.) The next nourishing substance is Broth!:

http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1490352



Here is a very nourishing food that I would virtually always have working in a CSK. Traditionally "stock pots" worked continuously. It's practically a lost art.



3.) And soups that are made from these broths!



4.) Then possibly juices (for which there are hundreds of books on all the different kinds of juices that one can possibly have). This either requires a juicer (so that you are getting the freshest possible juice) or this is another food process that may be best in a CSK. I once worked for a juice company that had an industrial size press that was based on the famous Norwalk Press.



5.) Traditional Beverages.

There are dozens of lacto-fermented beverages that are nourishing, super-hydrating, thirst-quenching, and most delicious!



6.) Lacto-Fermented vegetables.



7.) Eggs from pasture-raised poultry.

Another of many reasons why I recommend having the CSK on a farm.



"Eggs from pastured chickens contain vitamins A and D – eggs are a sacred food in China. A nursing or pregnant woman in China will eat up to ten eggs per day, if she can afford them. The Chinese recognize that eggs are a brain food, ensuring that the child will be very intelligent if he or she gets the nutrients through her mother’s pre-natal diet or through her milk."
http://www.nourishingourchildren.org/Study_files/study-guide.pdf

8.) Living soil! I am now declaring living soil as an important nourishing substance that needs to be considered for inclusion in the CSK environment. Wherever a CSK is located it can at least have worm bins. The worm castings can then be included in a potting mix and at the very minimum the CSK can grow baby greens. These baby greens can be potted in small starter pots that can be a source of very fresh greens for the CSK subscribers. One of my favorite greens is beet tops! "Your Enchanted Gardener" says: "plant a beet and you're a gardener"! Then you can harvest the beet tops and they will continue growing back! The CSK can plant the beet and then the subscriber can take home "Keep the Beet" and just harvest the greens! Although anyone can do this virtually anywhere I still hold a vision for a CSK on a full working farm with the animals! (There you can have enough living soil to roll around in! ;-) And the compost piles that can be built on a farm are so far beyond the limited composting that is possible in the city! But in any case start composting where you are and at least grow some soil!



Consider "Soil as Medicine"!



Dr. Dale Jacobson, DC (DJ) in "Raw Milk: The Whole Truth" says: "Pasteurized and sterile are like magic words in this society. People are in love with those concepts. What they don’t understand is that’s what's killing them."



Mark McAfee: "That’s exactly right."



DJ: "The kids who eat dirt in Mexico don’t have mineral deficiencies. The people in this society that wash everything and sterilize and use Listerine, they are walking candida cases."




Fortunately, you may not have to "eat dirt" to benefit from having living soil in your environment! However, it is a link in the circle of life (and there are nutritional therapy and other remedies that include clay as a healing agent)! In any case connecting with living soil can bring you closer to the literal foundation of the many nourishing foods that come from the soil! Children say grace: "Earth who gives us food to eat". It is the living soil that makes that possible!

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