Molly Dektar, ’12, lived at the organic farm Casa Lanzarotti in Emilia-Romagna, Italy for a month and a half, exploring Italian history after WWII for an artist development project. One of her jobs was to take care of the chickens. Photographs by Molly Dektar.
See more of Molly’s photos at http://malborkmalbork.blogspot.no/.
At Wilson Farm, thousands of poinsettias are already growing in preparation for the holiday season. Their harvests are staggered. If the poinsettia redden too quickly, the farm lowers the shades on the greenhouse to keep the plants in total darkness.
Read more about the Food Literacy Project’s trip to Wilson Farm.
Teagan Lehrmann ’13, reflects on making an academic path around food. Her senior thesis, “Sweet as Honey:The Beekeeper’s Fight against Corn Sugar and Objectivity,” examined the controversy around corn sugar adulteration in honey.
FLP: What did you study? How did you fit food into your courseload?
TL: My concentration was in the History of Science. This by far is the best concentration at Harvard… not that I’m biased or anything. Its so small, flexible, and individually driven- you can literally mold this concentration to fit any interest., especially if you decide to write a senior thesis. Finding a way to incorporate food into this concentration was surprisingly natural: I’ve taken classes that examine the production technologies of food, the issue with genetic modification in societies, and the development of no difficult task. I took a seminar on the history of food production technologies, have studied cookbooks as a historical document, and wrote my thesis on the history of food labeling laws as portrayed by a legislative fight between the United States honey and corn sugar industries.
FLP: When did you know that you wanted to study food?
TL: I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but my freshman seminar “Catching Fire” with Richard Wrangham opened my eyes to food as an academic: biological, sociological, historical, and anthropological world of study. Ever since that first bite I wanted more.
FLP: Were there any particular resources (academic, extracurricular) that helped support your interest?
TL: I studied abroad in Italy my Junior Fall, and enrolled in a semester long “Food Studies” program at the Umbra Institute in Perugia. (See more about this program: www.umbra.org/academics/food-studies/) If being involved in food is something that you are truly passionate about, it’s actually really beneficial to step outside the academic bubble of Harvard to be able to understand this field in its holistic context. Taking time off or abroad is something that scares a lot of Harvard students, but in my experience only enriched it ten times over.
FLP: Anything you think everyone (food scholar and non food scholar) should know about food?
TL: Food is complicated. And Exciting. And delicious. As a whole, our society should take more time to taste it, think about it, and act more responsibly concerning it.
FLP: What are you going to do now that you’re graduated?
TL: Working for a food truck! As far as long-time goals I’m not actually certain, but for the time being I’ll be working for the “bold fresh and fun” Bon Me food truck, helping them develop their catering business and opening up new brick and mortar establishments.
We’ve updated the food class list for the new school year. Find the new class list on our menu bar under “Food Classes” or find the class list here.
This semester, Harvard renews its acclaimed Science & Cooking class, offered for its third year by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. New this year, EdX (Harvard and MIT’s online course initiative) offers Science & Cooking for free, online. Registration deadline for the online course is Oct 8.
Other highlights?
A spring freshmen seminar on corn, “Corn” – yes, just corn, taught by Professor Noreen Tuross, that will test the theory (made famous by Michael Pollan) that Americans are pretty much made of corn.
Two design courses from the Graduate School of Design, one on alimentary design and the second on redesigning the supermarket shelf.
A new course from the French department, “Talking About Food,” that analyzes food from the perspective of 19th century French aesthetic discourse.
The Cambridge Public Library’s Julie Roach reads aloud at the farmers’ market for our weekly collaboration.
It is a goal of the Food Literacy Project to reach more kids in the community. This was the first year of a collaboration between the Farmers’ Market at Harvard and the Cambridge Public Library Main Branch. The Market hosted the CPL for a weekly read-aloud and the CPL hosted the Food Literacy Project/Farmers’ Market for two educational demonstrations around healthy eating. The children’s librarians brought along some great books about food, including my favorite: To Market, To Market, by Nikki McClure.
The collaboration was a good first step in attracting more parents and kids to our market, which often seems pretty grown-up.
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