The Jerusalem Artichoke is the ugly step sister in the world of root vegetables. Even the lowly parsnip is more appealing-looking, and maybe this accounts for its almost complete anonymity. No one seems to know what it is or what to do with it. And yet, here is an indigenous vegetable, native to our area, that is easily grown in any garden, and quite tasty if prepared with imagination.
First, let’s dispense with the myths. The Jerusalem Artichoke is neither an artichoke nor from the Holy Land. It is a member of the sunflower family, and its stems and flowers are very much like small sunflowers. There are several theories about the “Jerusalem” part; the one I like is that it’s a corruption of the Italian for sunflower: “girasole.” Samuel de Champlain, the early explorer of much of eastern Canada, sent samples back to France and said they tasted like artichokes, so maybe we have him to thank for the mistaken “artichoke” part of the name. Current practice is to call the plant “Sunchoke” in order to get away from the Jerusalem/sunflower misnomer, and one promoter tried to popularize the name “Canadian potato” without any success.
It is the root or tuber that is cultivated, and it grows vigorously. If left alone, it will quickly spread and take over your whole garden. The root is gnarly and irregular in shape, usually around 10 cm long, and light brown. Sunchokes (let’s call them that from now on) are not too common in grocery stores, unfortunately, but from time to time they will appear in the produce section. The tuber is rich in fructose because, like other members of its family, it produces inulin rather than starch and is used in the production of sugar, thanks to its high crop yields and ease of cultivation.
Unfortunately, the Sunchoke has a strike against it as a table vegetable: many people don’t digest inulin very well, and this leads to a… um… indelicate after-effect. In the words of Gerard’s Herbal (1661) quoting planter John Goodyer, “which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men." OK, this is over the top, but there is no question that in some people, the Sunchoke has the same effect that beans are famous for. Enough said on that subject.
Sunchokes can be eaten raw or cooked, but require a delicate hand in cooking; they cook much faster than potatoes and can become mushy quite quickly. Steaming is a better option than boiling. Raw, they may be chopped or shredded and used in salads as a tasty and unusual addition. Young, freshly harvested ones are best for this purpose, as they are more tender and have a finer texture. Like potatoes and apples, Sunchokes will darken with exposure to air, so once they are cut, mixing them with a little lemon juice will keep them from discolouring.
Most often, Sunchokes are used as an interesting alternative to potatoes or parsnips in virtually any recipe. There are many recipes for Sunchoke and leek soup, Sunchoke and potato gratin, and Sunchoke chowder. I have put them in the roasting pan to bake alongside roast beef, and they absorb some of the beef dripping flavour… a very nice side dish served whole on the plate with sweet potatoes. Just don’t overcook them: about half the time that potatoes would take is enough to make the Sunchokes firm but tender.
The Pelham Slow Food Convivium has its own page on the Slow Food Canada website, where events and activities are announced and reviewed www.slowfood.ca .
To contact Renée Girard, the leader of the Pelham Convivium regarding membership, activities, or other information, write to prima_renee@hotmail.com .
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Slow Food Pelham's January Meeting
Slow Food Pelham's meetings are gastronomic events in themselves. This month, Renee specified that our pot-luck theme would be Scandanavian food... a decision that was not met with universal enthusiasm, but which turned out to be inspired. The Slow Foodies seated communally around Renee and Daniel's long table in front of the fireplace were treated to pickled herring with red cabbage, home made gravlox with capers, potato and vegetable casserole, fried Scanadavian-style bread cheese, boiled potatoes with various sauces... and for dessert, licorice pudding, whipped cream-stuffed buns, and fruit soup. Not a Swedish meatball in sight.
We'll soon be posting all the recipes from our pot-luck dinners on the Pelham Convivium section of the Slow Foods Canada website.
This was a planning meeting, so various projects were put forward and these will form the framework of our upcoming year.
We'll soon be posting all the recipes from our pot-luck dinners on the Pelham Convivium section of the Slow Foods Canada website.
This was a planning meeting, so various projects were put forward and these will form the framework of our upcoming year.
- a Slow Food cycling tour around Pelham and neighbouring regions. This will be in the form of a map-brochure which will outline routes that will take cyclists past local food producers, from cheese shops to market gardens to organic growers to bakeries. Once this has been completed, we will discuss having a one-day cycling event.
- a Slow Food oriented dinner at the Keefer Mansion in Thorold
- a repeat of last year's Cassoulet evening... this time to be held at Alvento Winery in Vineland
- an arranged tour of Upper Canada Cheese
- a repeat of the tour of Clos Jordanne
- visits to local farms and gardens such as Vivek's greens, and Mr. Knight's exemplary garden in Ridgeville
- a "foraging" evening featuring wild plants, vegetables, and mushrooms, along with game... in conjunction with a talk by Adam Shoalts who writes the natural world column for The Voice of Pelham
- a presence at the Pelham Market, perhaps in the form of comparison tastings of local and imported produce
- and the annual Featherstone Winery lamb roast in early September
Saturday, January 2, 2010
January: Cooking Under Pressure: Slow Food… Fast
The term “Slow Food” is often misunderstood. As I’ve noted in this column in the past, when I first heard of the organization I assumed it was devoted to taking a long time to cook savoury meals. Instead, the term was coined in reaction to everything that “fast food” represents, from poor quality ingredients of unknown origin to hastily gobbled meals served in plastic environments. “Slow food” can actually be cooked quite quickly, so long as the ingredients are of high quality and locally produced, and the meal is consumed in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere. A stir-fry, for example, can and should be very quickly cooked from the highest quality ingredients.
However, it is often the case that “slow food” is, indeed, the product of cooking techniques that take time. I think of slow-cooked stews and pot roasts, pasta sauces and soups, chili, pulled pork, and tagine. The slow cooker is an ideal technique for these dishes and provides an excellent method for busy cooks to produce slow-simmered meals easily and conveniently. Another, and in many ways superior, method of cooking these hearty “winter” meals is the pressure cooker.
Apparently, interest in the pressure cooker is reviving in Canada. Very popular in the post-war years, the device suffered from poor manufacturing standards and difficult to use technology and fell into disfavour in the 1960’s after widely publicized kitchen disasters involving exploding pot roasts and kitchens redecorated with pressure-applied soup. In Europe and Asia, pressure cookers never disappeared, and it is manufacturers from those parts of the world that are now supplying the high-tech, safe, foolproof pressure cookers now on the market here.
Why use a pressure cooker? There are four reasons to consider cooking under pressure: speed, nutrition, flavour, and economy.
Pressure cooked meals take about one third as long as the same meal cooked conventionally. In other words, you can produce a delicious pot roast that has all the attributes of a long-simmered, carefully tended meal in less than an hour. And it will have retained more of the nutrients, taste better, and cost less to make than the stove-top or oven version.
Because the meal is cooked in a sealed environment, nothing is boiled off or allowed to escape. Vegetables retain virtually all of their nutrients (and their vivid colour) in contrast with boiling or even steaming which leach the nutrients out of the food. Furthermore, pressure cooking requires no fat or oil. And the taste of the original food is retained the same way that nutrients are. The only way to get food that tastes better or has more nutritional value is to eat it raw.
As for economy, pressure cooking uses less energy because it takes less time and is cooked at lower heat than any other method. It also allows the use of cheaper, tougher cuts of meat, since the pressure process tenderizes as it cooks. A demonstration of the first pressure cooker in the 17th century for King Charles II of England and The Royal Society reduced “ the bones of beef, the best for clearness and good relish, and the most delicious that I had ever seen, or tasted” according to one of the guests.
So what’s the down side? Darned if I know. I’ve used a pressure cooker for about 40 years, moving from one of the old “rocker top” models to a high-tech, double-valved, gleaming, Italian job that is as functional as it is impressive-looking. Here’s one of my favorite recipes, adapted from The New Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Pat Dailey.
Capitol Bean Soup
(reputed to be the soup served in the Senate dining room on Capitol Hill in Washington)
½ lb Great Northern beans, soaked overnight and drained
4 Cups water
1 large smoked ham hock or smoked turkey thigh
1 small onion minced
1 stalk of celery minced
2 Bay leaves
Combine all the ingredients in the pressure cooker and bring up to full pressure. Reduce heat to maintain 15 lb. pressure and cook for 25 minutes. Release the pressure and remove the Bay leaves and hock. With the back of a spoon, mash some of the beans to thicken the soup and add the shredded meat from the hock along with salt and pepper to taste.
However, it is often the case that “slow food” is, indeed, the product of cooking techniques that take time. I think of slow-cooked stews and pot roasts, pasta sauces and soups, chili, pulled pork, and tagine. The slow cooker is an ideal technique for these dishes and provides an excellent method for busy cooks to produce slow-simmered meals easily and conveniently. Another, and in many ways superior, method of cooking these hearty “winter” meals is the pressure cooker.
Apparently, interest in the pressure cooker is reviving in Canada. Very popular in the post-war years, the device suffered from poor manufacturing standards and difficult to use technology and fell into disfavour in the 1960’s after widely publicized kitchen disasters involving exploding pot roasts and kitchens redecorated with pressure-applied soup. In Europe and Asia, pressure cookers never disappeared, and it is manufacturers from those parts of the world that are now supplying the high-tech, safe, foolproof pressure cookers now on the market here.
Why use a pressure cooker? There are four reasons to consider cooking under pressure: speed, nutrition, flavour, and economy.
Pressure cooked meals take about one third as long as the same meal cooked conventionally. In other words, you can produce a delicious pot roast that has all the attributes of a long-simmered, carefully tended meal in less than an hour. And it will have retained more of the nutrients, taste better, and cost less to make than the stove-top or oven version.
Because the meal is cooked in a sealed environment, nothing is boiled off or allowed to escape. Vegetables retain virtually all of their nutrients (and their vivid colour) in contrast with boiling or even steaming which leach the nutrients out of the food. Furthermore, pressure cooking requires no fat or oil. And the taste of the original food is retained the same way that nutrients are. The only way to get food that tastes better or has more nutritional value is to eat it raw.
As for economy, pressure cooking uses less energy because it takes less time and is cooked at lower heat than any other method. It also allows the use of cheaper, tougher cuts of meat, since the pressure process tenderizes as it cooks. A demonstration of the first pressure cooker in the 17th century for King Charles II of England and The Royal Society reduced “ the bones of beef, the best for clearness and good relish, and the most delicious that I had ever seen, or tasted” according to one of the guests.
So what’s the down side? Darned if I know. I’ve used a pressure cooker for about 40 years, moving from one of the old “rocker top” models to a high-tech, double-valved, gleaming, Italian job that is as functional as it is impressive-looking. Here’s one of my favorite recipes, adapted from The New Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Pat Dailey.
Capitol Bean Soup
(reputed to be the soup served in the Senate dining room on Capitol Hill in Washington)
½ lb Great Northern beans, soaked overnight and drained
4 Cups water
1 large smoked ham hock or smoked turkey thigh
1 small onion minced
1 stalk of celery minced
2 Bay leaves
Combine all the ingredients in the pressure cooker and bring up to full pressure. Reduce heat to maintain 15 lb. pressure and cook for 25 minutes. Release the pressure and remove the Bay leaves and hock. With the back of a spoon, mash some of the beans to thicken the soup and add the shredded meat from the hock along with salt and pepper to taste.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Pelham Slow Food Celebrates Terre Madre Day
Terra Madre Day, December 10, was observed in the most convivial and delicious style by the membership of Pelham Slow Food at Pan Cafe in St. Catharines. Proprietor (and Slow Food member) Alex presented a menu of locally sourced foods (menu below) and credited the producers in her introduction to each course. Guests were encouraged to bring their own wine, and a nice variety of local Niagara wines appeared, including Inniskillin, 13th Street, Organized Crime, Creekside, and Vineland Estates.Alex also offered a toast to Mother Earth that eloquently summarized the need for consciousness-raising organizations such as Slow Food, and events such as Terra Madre Day. Twenty-seven glasses were raised to those sentiments.
The Pelham Convivium joined 108 other convivia around the globe in honouring Mother Earth on this designated day, and a picture of the group will join pictures from all the other convivia on the Slow Food Website to mark this first Terra Madre Day.
The Menu for Pelham Slow Food's Terra Madre Dinner at Pan Cafe
Appetizer: local goat’s cheese, bread (de la Terre bakery), figs (St. Lawrence Market)
Soup: butternut squash (St. Catharines market) with roasted garlic (Vivek)
Main Course: roasted duck legs (Lakeland Farms) with red cabbage and mashed potatoes with celeriac (Vivek)
Salad: Vivek’s Greens with a maple vinaigrette (White Meadows Farms)
Dessert: Cheesecake with apple compote (Beamer's Orchards)
espresso/cappucino
Monday, December 7, 2009
December 2009: A Tradition of Christmas Feasting
With Christmas just around the corner, many of us are already preparing for the feast which inevitably accompanies the celebration. Like Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner is an ideal Slow Food meal (not that we’d want to feast like that every day!) It is traditionally cooked at home, usually made up of ingredients that are mostly local, and consumed in a convivial atmosphere with family and friends.
Although our North American Christmas traditions are well established, they aren’t really that old…nor are they shared by much of the rest of the world. In fact, even in the Christian tradition, feasting at Christmas was not part of the celebration of Christ’s birth until about 800 years after the Nativity. Even the date of the Nativity was not set in the Christian calendar until more than 350 years after it happened, with January, March, April, and May at different times being recognized as the month of Jesus’ birth. It seems certain that the December 25th date was settled on for its association with the rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice. The date had been in use by many religions previously to recognize the sun’s victory over winter darkness.
However, once Christians settled on a date and decided it should be marked by feasting, they got to work with enthusiasm. Kings Charlemagne, Edmund, and William the Conqueror were crowned on Christmas amid huge celebrations and lavish meals, and Richard II marked Christmas in 1377 with a feast that featured 28 roast oxen and 300 sheep! In reaction to the excesses of Christmas feasting, the Puritans banned Christmas during their tenure in power in 17th Century England, and the Puritans who arrived on the Mayflower continued to outlaw the celebration of Christmas in the Boston area between 1659 and 1681. In fact, the United States has frequently been ambivalent about Christmas, and stopped celebrating it for years after the Revolutionary War, depicting it as an “English” celebration!
It really wasn’t until the 19th century that Christmas as we know it began to take shape in North America. And, largely through the influence of television, the North American Christmas has become the pervasive style in much of the world. I was startled to see Christmas displays in Athens shop windows that featured mounds of cotton-batten snow and icicle-dripping pine trees. Pictures from tropical Brazil show the same geographically impossible conformity to the North American ideal.
However, many nations have feasting celebrations that have very little in common with ours, except that Christmas is an opportunity for friends and family to sit down together, enjoy each other’s company, and take part in the tradition of the Christmas feast. In Australia, Christmas is right at mid summer, so the feast might be shrimp, steak, and chicken cooked on the barbecue at the beach. In Norway, as in many other countries, the feast is held on Christmas Eve, and Norwegians might enjoy cod, haddock, and lutefisk for their family meal. Similarly, the Portuguese traditional Christmas feast is salted dry codfish with boiled potatoes, eaten at midnight on Christmas Eve. In Jamaica, it’s rice, peas, chicken, ox tail and curried goat, while Czechs enjoy fish soup, eggs, and carp.
Whatever the tradition, whatever the ingredients, whenever it’s served, the Christmas meal is another opportunity to see the ideals of the Slow Food Movement in action. Enjoy yours at home with family and friends!
Although our North American Christmas traditions are well established, they aren’t really that old…nor are they shared by much of the rest of the world. In fact, even in the Christian tradition, feasting at Christmas was not part of the celebration of Christ’s birth until about 800 years after the Nativity. Even the date of the Nativity was not set in the Christian calendar until more than 350 years after it happened, with January, March, April, and May at different times being recognized as the month of Jesus’ birth. It seems certain that the December 25th date was settled on for its association with the rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice. The date had been in use by many religions previously to recognize the sun’s victory over winter darkness.
However, once Christians settled on a date and decided it should be marked by feasting, they got to work with enthusiasm. Kings Charlemagne, Edmund, and William the Conqueror were crowned on Christmas amid huge celebrations and lavish meals, and Richard II marked Christmas in 1377 with a feast that featured 28 roast oxen and 300 sheep! In reaction to the excesses of Christmas feasting, the Puritans banned Christmas during their tenure in power in 17th Century England, and the Puritans who arrived on the Mayflower continued to outlaw the celebration of Christmas in the Boston area between 1659 and 1681. In fact, the United States has frequently been ambivalent about Christmas, and stopped celebrating it for years after the Revolutionary War, depicting it as an “English” celebration!
It really wasn’t until the 19th century that Christmas as we know it began to take shape in North America. And, largely through the influence of television, the North American Christmas has become the pervasive style in much of the world. I was startled to see Christmas displays in Athens shop windows that featured mounds of cotton-batten snow and icicle-dripping pine trees. Pictures from tropical Brazil show the same geographically impossible conformity to the North American ideal.
However, many nations have feasting celebrations that have very little in common with ours, except that Christmas is an opportunity for friends and family to sit down together, enjoy each other’s company, and take part in the tradition of the Christmas feast. In Australia, Christmas is right at mid summer, so the feast might be shrimp, steak, and chicken cooked on the barbecue at the beach. In Norway, as in many other countries, the feast is held on Christmas Eve, and Norwegians might enjoy cod, haddock, and lutefisk for their family meal. Similarly, the Portuguese traditional Christmas feast is salted dry codfish with boiled potatoes, eaten at midnight on Christmas Eve. In Jamaica, it’s rice, peas, chicken, ox tail and curried goat, while Czechs enjoy fish soup, eggs, and carp.
Whatever the tradition, whatever the ingredients, whenever it’s served, the Christmas meal is another opportunity to see the ideals of the Slow Food Movement in action. Enjoy yours at home with family and friends!
Monday, November 30, 2009
November 2009: “Terra Madre” (Mother Earth) Day
The Slow Food organization is dedicated to principles that include choosing locally grown food and honouring the producers of that food. It also embraces the idea of food consumption as an important part of life, not just a means of fueling up. To these ends, Slow Food has declared December 10th “Terra Madre” Day, a day to put those principles into action.
Across the world, the members of Slow Food, organized into local “convivia” will be marking the day, each in its own way. That means that some 100,000 members and their friends, in 132 countries will be finding ways to pay homage to the farmers and cheese makers, butchers and winemakers, canners and herders who often are taken for granted as we sit down to our meals. And while honouring the producers of their food, they will be preparing and eating it in the company of friends and family and treating their meal as the social, “convivial” event it should be.
Here’s a chance for all of us to pay particular attention to what and how we eat, by marking this one day down for a celebratory, home-cooked meal featuring local food. Here’s a menu suggestion for December 10th.
Start with garlic soup (recipe below), an astonishingly good soup that tastes not at all of garlic, but packs all its healthy cold-fighting benefits. This is a staple in our house all winter long. We stock up on Ontario garlic when it’s available and keep the bulbs in a cool, dark, dry place that will ensure that it lasts through until spring. With luck, we’ll be able to avoid having to buy that Chinese or South American supermarket garlic that is a pale imitation of the real stuff.
For a main course, choose an Ontario produced meat such as beef, pork, or lamb, roasted in the oven surrounded by unpeeled potatoes and local sweet potatoes that will cook in the juices of the meat. Alongside, serve Brussels sprouts (Ontario grown ones should still be available) sautéed after steaming in a little orange juice and sprinkled with orange zest. A cheese course of one of Upper Canada Cheese Company’s delicious cheeses (“Upper Canada Gold” or “Comfort Cream,” produced in Jordan) served with thin slices of baguette from one of our fine local bakeries makes a great transition to dessert. And dessert should be pie made from Ontario apples or those Niagara cherries you put in the freezer last July. If pastry-baking isn’t your thing, delicious pies made from local produce are available at Pelham’s bakeries.
Wine for this feast might include an oaked chardonnay with the soup, a hearty “Bordeaux” blend of merlot, cabernet franc, and cabernet sauvignon with the main course and the cheese, and an ice wine or late harvest with dessert… all, it goes without saying, from one of Niagara’s world-class wineries. Featherstone’s Canadian Oak Chardonnay (aged in barrels made of Canadian oak) would add a local touch, and nearby Henry of Pelham makes red wines that are consistently among the best in Niagara.
Whatever you decide for a meal on December 10th, raise a glass to our farmers and food producers, and spare a thought for our Terra Madre.
Winter Garlic Soup
1 litre chicken stock
1 head of Ontario garlic, cloves separated and peeled
3 slices of stale (2 or 3 day-old) country bread
½ tsp chili seeds (or to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut the garlic cloves in half and boil them gently along with the chili seeds in half the chicken stock. While they are boiling (about 20 minutes until soft) cut the crusts from the bread, tear it into small pieces, and soak it in a bowl of water. When the garlic is soft, pour it along with the hot chicken stock into a food processor or blender and process until the garlic is integrated into the stock. Squeeze the water out of the bread (it will be quite mushy, almost like a paste) and, with the processor running, add the bread to the soup. When the soup is thick and smooth, put it in a saucepan with the reserved chicken stock and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adjusting the seasoning.
Across the world, the members of Slow Food, organized into local “convivia” will be marking the day, each in its own way. That means that some 100,000 members and their friends, in 132 countries will be finding ways to pay homage to the farmers and cheese makers, butchers and winemakers, canners and herders who often are taken for granted as we sit down to our meals. And while honouring the producers of their food, they will be preparing and eating it in the company of friends and family and treating their meal as the social, “convivial” event it should be.
Here’s a chance for all of us to pay particular attention to what and how we eat, by marking this one day down for a celebratory, home-cooked meal featuring local food. Here’s a menu suggestion for December 10th.
Start with garlic soup (recipe below), an astonishingly good soup that tastes not at all of garlic, but packs all its healthy cold-fighting benefits. This is a staple in our house all winter long. We stock up on Ontario garlic when it’s available and keep the bulbs in a cool, dark, dry place that will ensure that it lasts through until spring. With luck, we’ll be able to avoid having to buy that Chinese or South American supermarket garlic that is a pale imitation of the real stuff.
For a main course, choose an Ontario produced meat such as beef, pork, or lamb, roasted in the oven surrounded by unpeeled potatoes and local sweet potatoes that will cook in the juices of the meat. Alongside, serve Brussels sprouts (Ontario grown ones should still be available) sautéed after steaming in a little orange juice and sprinkled with orange zest. A cheese course of one of Upper Canada Cheese Company’s delicious cheeses (“Upper Canada Gold” or “Comfort Cream,” produced in Jordan) served with thin slices of baguette from one of our fine local bakeries makes a great transition to dessert. And dessert should be pie made from Ontario apples or those Niagara cherries you put in the freezer last July. If pastry-baking isn’t your thing, delicious pies made from local produce are available at Pelham’s bakeries.
Wine for this feast might include an oaked chardonnay with the soup, a hearty “Bordeaux” blend of merlot, cabernet franc, and cabernet sauvignon with the main course and the cheese, and an ice wine or late harvest with dessert… all, it goes without saying, from one of Niagara’s world-class wineries. Featherstone’s Canadian Oak Chardonnay (aged in barrels made of Canadian oak) would add a local touch, and nearby Henry of Pelham makes red wines that are consistently among the best in Niagara.
Whatever you decide for a meal on December 10th, raise a glass to our farmers and food producers, and spare a thought for our Terra Madre.
Winter Garlic Soup
1 litre chicken stock
1 head of Ontario garlic, cloves separated and peeled
3 slices of stale (2 or 3 day-old) country bread
½ tsp chili seeds (or to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut the garlic cloves in half and boil them gently along with the chili seeds in half the chicken stock. While they are boiling (about 20 minutes until soft) cut the crusts from the bread, tear it into small pieces, and soak it in a bowl of water. When the garlic is soft, pour it along with the hot chicken stock into a food processor or blender and process until the garlic is integrated into the stock. Squeeze the water out of the bread (it will be quite mushy, almost like a paste) and, with the processor running, add the bread to the soup. When the soup is thick and smooth, put it in a saucepan with the reserved chicken stock and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adjusting the seasoning.
October 2009: Family Meal Time
A recent conversation with a friend who is a teacher emphasized something that has been a recurring theme over the past year. In an attempt to get to know his students as they enter class in the new school year, he asks them to write the answers to a few questions about themselves. One of the questions is “How many times a week do you sit down with your family for a meal?” This teacher is fully aware of the research that clearly links family meals with student performance in the classroom, and even wellbeing outside of school.
This conversation prompted me to reprint a column from last year that several people have commented on. With the kids starting a new year at school, now is the ideal time to think about a new start around the dinner table at home.
What simple activity can increase a child’s grades, reduce the likelihood of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, and decrease the incidence of teen obesity and depression? Eating together as a family.
Several studies have clearly shown these results; one from the University of Minnesota even statistically eliminated all possible variables like income, and even how cohesive the family was, and concluded that it’s actually sitting down as a family at mealtimes that was the primary cause of significant improvements in children’s health and wellbeing… especially among girls.
Not surprisingly, the studies found that adolescents eating regular family meals ate more fruit and vegetables, got more calcium, and drank significantly fewer soft drinks. However, the benefits of sitting down to a family meal extend far beyond these, and include reduction in substance, tobacco, and alcohol use and significantly better academic performance and mental health when compared to those eating fewer family meals. And the benefits increased with each additional family meal per week!
Television is the biggest challenge for family meal time. According to the Canadian Pediatric Association, children at age 15 have spent more time in front of a television than in classrooms. And kids aren’t the only offenders. Meals in front of the TV tend to be reheated frozen snacks that are, simply put, health hazards. Television programming is a very poor substitute for the kind of family communication and bonding that takes place around the dinner table.
Accepting the benefits of family mealtime is one thing, doing something about it is quite another. Adolescents have always been difficult to convince that doing things as a family are “cool” and even beneficial. Add the overwhelming distractions available, from part time jobs to sports to video games to computers to cell phones to television and it’s a really hard sell to convince kids that sitting down to a family meal is a useful or enjoyable activity.
Experts in child and adolescent psychology offer some guidelines, but each family will have to formulate its own set of principles (preferably in conference with the kids) that will guide family mealtimes.
o Turn off the television. Agree also to turn off cell phones and let the household phone pick up and take messages. Importantly, the parents have to take the lead here and set an example.
o This is not a time for discussing serious, controversial, or delicate subjects. The meal conversation should be light, fun, and upbeat and the mood supportive and comfortable.
o Get everyone involved in the meal. Where there’s the interest, involve the family in planning the week’s menus, helping with the shopping, and joining in the food preparation. Clean up should also be shared fairly. Eventually, maybe older kids can take a lead role in preparing dinner (and the parents get clean-up duty).
o To begin with, the family meal does not have to be complicated. Even sitting down together for a take-out pizza or (better) a take out meal from one of Pelham’s excellent caterers like Lorenzo’s Fine Foods, Wild Flower, or Whisk and Ladle, constitutes a family meal so long as everyone sits down and eats together.
o Set a goal. Maybe begin with the commitment to sit down together as a family twice a week and discuss increasing the frequency as you all get used to the idea.
o Use the crock pot or slow cooker. Coming home to the smell of a home-cooked meal is a pretty good way to build enthusiasm for a family dinner.
On a related note, Slow Food Pelham’s annual “family dinner” at Featherstone Winery was a huge success. Forty guests, seated on the winery’s wrap-around verandah, enjoyed slow-roasted Featherstone Vineyard lamb with Featherstone Cabernet Franc, roasted vegetables by Pan Restaurant, delicious salads by Victory Herbs and Farms, and finished off the meal with home-cooked Niagara Peach Delight. It was a gorgeous September evening, shared among friends both new and old.
This conversation prompted me to reprint a column from last year that several people have commented on. With the kids starting a new year at school, now is the ideal time to think about a new start around the dinner table at home.
What simple activity can increase a child’s grades, reduce the likelihood of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, and decrease the incidence of teen obesity and depression? Eating together as a family.
Several studies have clearly shown these results; one from the University of Minnesota even statistically eliminated all possible variables like income, and even how cohesive the family was, and concluded that it’s actually sitting down as a family at mealtimes that was the primary cause of significant improvements in children’s health and wellbeing… especially among girls.
Not surprisingly, the studies found that adolescents eating regular family meals ate more fruit and vegetables, got more calcium, and drank significantly fewer soft drinks. However, the benefits of sitting down to a family meal extend far beyond these, and include reduction in substance, tobacco, and alcohol use and significantly better academic performance and mental health when compared to those eating fewer family meals. And the benefits increased with each additional family meal per week!
Television is the biggest challenge for family meal time. According to the Canadian Pediatric Association, children at age 15 have spent more time in front of a television than in classrooms. And kids aren’t the only offenders. Meals in front of the TV tend to be reheated frozen snacks that are, simply put, health hazards. Television programming is a very poor substitute for the kind of family communication and bonding that takes place around the dinner table.
Accepting the benefits of family mealtime is one thing, doing something about it is quite another. Adolescents have always been difficult to convince that doing things as a family are “cool” and even beneficial. Add the overwhelming distractions available, from part time jobs to sports to video games to computers to cell phones to television and it’s a really hard sell to convince kids that sitting down to a family meal is a useful or enjoyable activity.
Experts in child and adolescent psychology offer some guidelines, but each family will have to formulate its own set of principles (preferably in conference with the kids) that will guide family mealtimes.
o Turn off the television. Agree also to turn off cell phones and let the household phone pick up and take messages. Importantly, the parents have to take the lead here and set an example.
o This is not a time for discussing serious, controversial, or delicate subjects. The meal conversation should be light, fun, and upbeat and the mood supportive and comfortable.
o Get everyone involved in the meal. Where there’s the interest, involve the family in planning the week’s menus, helping with the shopping, and joining in the food preparation. Clean up should also be shared fairly. Eventually, maybe older kids can take a lead role in preparing dinner (and the parents get clean-up duty).
o To begin with, the family meal does not have to be complicated. Even sitting down together for a take-out pizza or (better) a take out meal from one of Pelham’s excellent caterers like Lorenzo’s Fine Foods, Wild Flower, or Whisk and Ladle, constitutes a family meal so long as everyone sits down and eats together.
o Set a goal. Maybe begin with the commitment to sit down together as a family twice a week and discuss increasing the frequency as you all get used to the idea.
o Use the crock pot or slow cooker. Coming home to the smell of a home-cooked meal is a pretty good way to build enthusiasm for a family dinner.
On a related note, Slow Food Pelham’s annual “family dinner” at Featherstone Winery was a huge success. Forty guests, seated on the winery’s wrap-around verandah, enjoyed slow-roasted Featherstone Vineyard lamb with Featherstone Cabernet Franc, roasted vegetables by Pan Restaurant, delicious salads by Victory Herbs and Farms, and finished off the meal with home-cooked Niagara Peach Delight. It was a gorgeous September evening, shared among friends both new and old.
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