In the Cultural Kitchen

Unfortunate circumstances have prevented me from updating in a while, but I am back now!

Today I attended my second Food Preservation Workshop. This is one of the main parts of my role here at Iskashitaa. Coordinating the volunteers can be tough, but I think the longer I am here and the more people I meet the easier it will get.

I have enjoyed these workshops greatly and I am so glad I will be able to continue to participate in them. It is a great way to get to know people and their stories, all while learning how to make delicious products! In addition, it is a wonderful feeling to be able to do this with foods that Iskashitaa has picked from local backyards, gardens, and farms. It is also wonderful to learn so many different recipes that are multicultural. Some of the foods that grow here are native to refugee countries, so they are able to teach us their recipes for some of the foods, such as figs or dates.

Today my efforts were put toward pomegranates: cutting them open and getting all the berries in a bowl, and then juicing them.We ended up with about a gallon of pomegranate juice, and we still have pomegranates to juice next time.

We also juiced prickly pear (a cactus fruit) and made Prickly Pear Syrup and we have prickly pear juice. This is a though and tiring job, plus the prickly pear has lots of little spines (hence the "prickly") that easily get into skin. I was lucky to be with the pomegranates!

We also made some dressings: orange grapefruit marmalade, grapefruit orange pecan, and grapefruit vinaigrette.

At the last workshop, we made lemon curd, Rwandan grapefruit marmalade, Cactus Kiwi Jam (made from the pitayas I talked about in another post), and we canned previously grinded carob powder.  Carob powder can be used as a sugar substitute and it is also high in protein. When I have access to a camera I will try to get some pictures!

Today I also tried a calamondin lime for the first time. Imagine my surprise to find that they are orange! They look like baby clementines but are not sweet at all! The peel can also be eaten and they are part of the kumquat family.

This weekend get to participate in a cooking retreat with Iskashitaa's new joint venture, "Dishes and Stories." This is a culinary enterprise for refugee and immigrant women. It will provide job experience and training, starting out as a catering business, but the eventual hope is that it will become a small café serving multi-ethnic food options, with the menu coming from recipes of the women's mothers. I look forward to sharing more after Saturday!