Food Justice

Earlier this year I read a book called "Everyday Justice." Each chapter discussed a different justice issue linked to common items in a Westerner's life: chocolate, clothing, gas, and food, to name a few. Since reading this book, I have felt a great desire to live my life with more awareness as to how my use of these everyday objects might be contributing to slavery, injustice, and other problems in our world.

Since moving to Tucson, I have been focusing on the area of food. This is especially easy for me because Iskashitaa is food-justice minded (our programs are food-based!) and the lady I am living with is also conscious about her food choices.

Thanks to Iskashitaa and donors to Iskashitaa, I am often able to take bread and fresh produce home with me. I have been trying to buy organic (which I know is not perfect, but better than non-organic): Organic milk, eggs, sugar, flour, honey, and carrots have been some of my main purchases. I was a little nervous about the taste of the organic milk, but it is pretty good. It is also nice to know that the eggs I am eating do not come from chickens that are fed unnatural food and allowed no space to move.

I am actually hoping to be able to buy some of these things (like honey and eggs) at a farmer's market. Unfortunately on Farmer's Market days I am often busy and unable to go.

I am also trying to eat foods while they are in season! It's interesting how I never thought about the seasons for fruits that don't grow in Michigan; they are always available year round in the store! Since I want to eat more local foods, it makes sense to eat what is in season. I have been eating a lot of apples lately! (aka daily) I'm looking forward to citrus season (winter) which is our busiest harvesting season. I've never seen lemons, grapefruit, or oranges growing on actual trees and I'm hoping to take part in these harvests.

I wanted to finish my post with some pictures of the different foods I have been working with and learning about with Iskashitaa. My hope is that as time goes on I will eat more and more natural foods and less processed foods, and get acquainted with more local foods! All photos are taken from the Iskashitaa facebook page.

This is the pitaya fruit I posted about several weeks ago. We have branded it "cactus kiwi" since the inside looks so similar to kiwi!

These are calamondins or calamansi. We call them limes and they are in the kumquat family. The orange ones are ripe! They are abundant in the Philippines and also very tart! We use them to make a tart marmalade. 

These are carob pods. They grow on trees. We grind them, sift them, and then sell the powder. Today Barbara sent me home with some carob powder so I could try it out with my baking. I am currently trying to bake brownies with it. Carob powder can be used as a partial substitute for flour. When put in for some of the flour in a recipe, you can add less sugar because it is naturally sweet! I am told that the powder is also great to add to smoothies because it thickens it and adds sweetness and protein. 

We have had lots of pomegranate harvests lately, which is great because most of our refugee friends love pomegranates! 

This picture is from our last food workshop. We are cutting open the pomegranates to take out the 'seeds' to juice! 

Pomegranate has a beautiful color. It also stains clothes, whereas prickly pear (below) does not. 

Prickly pear! I had never heard of this cactus fruit before coming here. It is beautiful in color but the spines are brutal. The cooler we used after the prickly pear harvest was getting people for days after we washed it out. 

Prickly pear on the cactus. We juice the prickly pear which is a difficult, tiring, and often painful process. We have to strain the juice many times so the tiny spindles don't get inside of our product. 

These are quince! I had never heard of them before coming here. I tasted some quince for the first time today; it reminded me of applesauce but with a different flavor. They are very hard until they are cooked. We are going to use the rest of our quince to make prickly-pear quince jam.