It's coming in on the end of our trip...we leave Oaxaca three weeks from today. I've lately been going mad trying to find a job or two for the summer, picking classes for next semester, etc. But I'm also trying to squeeze in so many more things here before I leave. This month our tracks started so the 22 students in our program (we lost one..) are either taking 1. art/music and botany classes 2. advanced Spanish or 3. food systems which is what I'm doing for my minor. I'm doing about half of it here which has been great to be doing all hands on work.
My class schedule has been a little confusing with 4 professors for only 2 different classes but it just means we've been getting a lot of knowledge thrown at us. The first couple weeks we learned some french method cooking with the basics of how to properly cut an onion. Then we practiced out some cooking of traditional Oaxacan dishes. Next we did recipe recording with the women we did our village stays with in Teotitlan. And we spent a day learning from a famous chef, Pilar, of a restaurant called La Olla (she teaches in the USA sometimes) who modernizes Oaxacan cuisine. We visited markets to learn about the many types of chiles, etc. and later again to ask about where all the vegetables were coming from. The answer was primarily the states north of Oaxaca, Puebla and Mexico, or pueblos outside of Oaxaca. This past week, in addition to loads of reading and writing, we visited a coffee farm. Pictures of that to come. We also heard from a development organization called COVORPA that works with local communities and the government to create the infrastructure that they need, cultural programs, market buildings, etc. I also visited the textile museum and attended the TEDx talk component of a social change conference called Catapulta. It's been a busy last month :)
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| Hanging out on the roof of my house |
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| A drink called tejate, a pre-hispanic gruel drink that we studied (farmers used to drink this for breakfast and lunch instead of eating food while working in the fields until they returned home.) The ingredients are a flower called rosita de cacao, corn meal, cinnamon, the pit of a fruit called mamey, and now sugarcane. If you want to learn how the ladies skillfully make it: http://www.tomzap.com/tejate.html |
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| Etla market |
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| tomatillos |
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| some street art |
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| A meal we made using the kitchen of an organization that helps immigrants as a pit-stop from South/Central America coming up through or to Mexico. We made enfrijoladas, rice de chepil (an herb), a few types of salsa, hibiscus juice, roasted peanuts, hot chocolate, and a salad. |
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| dry-roasting the tomatillos for salsa |
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| making tortillas! |
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| More street art |
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| Making balls of masa for tortillas |
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| I fed some goats in between us making about 100 tamales and mole |
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| Our neatly tied tamales |
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| Squash juice for Good Samaritan's day |
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| Gretchen (my roommate in the city), me, and Jess (my roommate in the village) in our aprons making tortillas with Nasaria. |
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| Making special Oaxacan mole sauce with Patrona |
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| Basket of our tamales ready to bring to comida at Pastora's house |
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| Walking to Pastora's house |
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| Our assembled feast and some ladies from the village (left to right: Sophia, Patrona, Isabel, Reina) |
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| The food systems crew |
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| Strange art outside Benito Juarez Market |
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| "care of the environment is part of your life, get rid of plastic bags" (bring your own container!) |
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| chicken toes, considered a nice little snack in Oaxaca |
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| Sugarcane (a.k.a. the same as our sugar but before it's been refined, so still with the molasses) |
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| Scorpion mezcal/tequila. For some before comida shots. |
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| Cooking with Pilar, dry roasting chiles for red mole sauce |
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| the ingredients for the soup she directed me in making (squash, butter, sweet corn, squash flowers, onion) |
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| finished soup, they made it super fancy with foam on top |
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| best chocolate ice cream I've ever had. With amaranth on top. |
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| Chicken enmoladas |
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| Some art from the textile musuem (exhibit on stilts) |
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| Making a statement for Occupy Wall Street |
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| Exhibit on sex slaves |
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| TED talks in Oaxaca! |
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| Sandra, me, and Gabby. |
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| Me and my roomies right outside our door on our way to class..pretty typical Corey and Gretchen. |
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| Organic farm |
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| Blackberries in March |
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| Cherry blossoms |
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| pomegranates |
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| Corey and some tomatoes in their greenhouse |
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| talking about beans |
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| growing lettuce seeds |
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| comida at COVORPA, a local community development organization |
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| cactus graveyard |
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| Sandra in the outhouse with a door made of tetrapack juice boxes |
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| COVORPA |
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| the restaurant walls were covered in this four-year-old girl's artwork as a way of supporting her, very sweet |
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| wall art in COVORPA, they also hold art workshops |
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| the market (each family that wants one gets a stall, they are organized by what they sell) |
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| raised beds! COVORPA's community educational garden |
