Author: Leslie Cook

The first time I tried to make vegan cheese, I made a dip with potato (for consistency), carrot (for color) and hefty doses of nutritional yeast and salt as well as other seasonings. The first time I had it and enjoyed it with nachos and veggies, I was pretty impressed.

I made the same thing a few short weeks later and . . . well, I was not so impressed. The novelty had worn off. It was the nutritional yeast and salt that got me. The smell of the nutritional yeast just doesn’t work with me, and it depresses my appetite. I theorized that it doesn’t work well for others either since all the recipes of that type I found used a lot of salt. Covering up taste possibly?

Next I tried the down and dirty approach to making vegan cheese. No curing, no long processes, few unfamiliar ingredients. Just a blend of cashews (for consistency), carrot (for color) and seasonings. I used the cheese for a broccoli cheddar soup I was craving.  It was pretty good and also looked good, although I might make it a little less day-glo next time by reducing the carrot a bit. I took care when I made the soup to cut way down on both the nutritional yeast and the salt the recipe called for. Like I said, I just don’t like that smell, and it turns me off the resulting food.

Next I tried a Mac ‘n’ Cheese dish. I just decided to “wing it” on this occasion. I made a sauce with cashews (consistency) and carrots (color), onions, seasonings and a very little bit of nutritional yeast. I guess that yeast gives a kind of moldy flavor — to my tastebuds good in real cheese but not so much in nutritional yeast.

Anyway, when the vegan cheese sauce tasted reasonable to me, I added some of my own Matboukha (Moroccan Salsa) and a bit of hot paprika to zip it up. This dish came out pretty well. My family wouldn’t have seconds, but they did eat one serving of it, which was an achievement.

Next time I’ll adjust some things to make the sauce a little “saucier”. It was thick for my taste. Not sure that it really tastes like my old Mac’n’Cheese, but it wasn’t bad. I would do it again, and when I perfect the recipe and it’s scrumptious, I’ll post it.

Most recently I tried a type of vegan cheese-making that is getting a lot of raves. It’s not hard to make, but you do have to be a little patient. I can handle that, so I ordered in what I needed to proceed with my experiments, made a 24-hour vegan soy yogurt, mixed some with the required ingredients, cured it for another couple of days, added more ingredients, cooked it, then chilled it. Of course there was nutritional yeast in it, but there were also other ingredients that I thought might mask the aroma and flavor. Most of all, I thought the curing process would work its magic and transform the whole thing into something amazing. It didn’t.

I have also tried a vegan mozzarella that involved a similar process. It was kind of like the first experiment with the potatoes and carrots. I was surprised and excited, probably the novelty. Once I got over that, my feelings about it were a little more reserved. It was ok if I melted it onto something (you can see it below on the cracker I used to test it), but I’m not planning to make it again in the immediate future. In other words, it didn’t blow me away. And it was impossible to convince my family to go much further with it.

I’m going to keep experimenting. I have one good book to work from, and I know of one other that I’d like to try.

I’m not convinced yet, though, that it is possible to make really delicious vegan cheeses that will pass inspection with my family and friends.  Even though my sandwich was on my favorite homemade spelt challah and I usually have a really great appetite, I wasn’t able to finish it.

Which brings me back to the caveat I always used for vegetarian cooking: no substitutions! I figured if someone was looking for a meat substitute, they weren’t going to like anything other than the real thing – and their mind just wasn’t in the right place yet for vegetarian food. I focused on making really good food and didn’t worry about it tasting like something else.

I used red bell pepper (for color) in one of my early attempts at vegan cheese that I wanted to use in a casserole. In the end I wished I had just stuck with the red bell pepper and created a mind-blowing sauce with that.

Today I read an article about lab-created milk. Where lab-created meat has no appeal whatsoever for me, I’m going to withhold judgment for awhile on that milk. It has possibilities. Vegan cheese possibilities.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Published 4/5/2015 in 3duniverse.org.

From human to animal prosthetics

If you keep up with the news as I do, you’re likely to have moments when you feel discouraged about the human enterprise on this earth. More and more often I find myself turning off the news and looking for stories about the activities of organizations like e-NABLE.

This great volunteer organization, focused on creating 3D printed prosthetic hands for those who would otherwise not be able to afford them, is transformative in so many ways and at so many levels. It transforms the lives of recipients . . . but it also transforms the lives of makers, offering a way for them to participate directly in improving the lives of others.

Another kind of story that inspires me is about 3D printed prosthetic limbs for animals. Whether making devices for humans or animals, caring people have devoted countless hours to making the lives of our fellow creatures better.

20 stories of animals’ lives transformed through 3D printed prosthetics

There is a growing movement of innovators designing 3D prosthetics for injured animals around the world. Good people who want to “pay it forward” are everywhere, in these cases from a number of locations in the U.S. to Taiwan to Costa Rica to British Columbia.

Here are links to inspiring stories of animals whose lives changed dramatically through 3D printed prosthetics — and of the people who made those changes happen.

Any time I get discouraged, I like to read one of these stories.

• Augie from North Carolina: a splint for a sea turtle.
• Bubbles from the U.S.: a wheelchair for a dog.
• Beauty from Alaska: a beak for a bald eagle.
• Branco from South Brazil: back wheels for a dog.
• Buttercup from Tennessee: a leg for a duck.
• Cleopatra from Colorado: shell for a turtle.
• Cyrano from North Carolina: a knee joint for a cat.
• Derby from Rock Hill, South Carolina: legs for a dog.
• Dudley from Sicamous, British Columbia: a leg for a duck.
• Felix from Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, New York: a leg up for a sheep.
• Freddy from Manhattan: a wheelchair for a dog.
• Grecia from Costa Rica: a beak for a toucan.
• Holly from Melbourne, Australia: horseshoes for Holly.
• Jack from Tucson, Arizona: paws for a dog.
• Oreo from Winnipeg, Canada: a knee cap for a dog.
• Quack Quack from Taiwan: a leg for a duck.
• Rylee the Rescue Dog from St. Louis, Missouri: a paw.
• Stumpy from Savannah, Georgia: a leg for a box turtle.
• Suzy from Animal Orthocare (the folks who helped Derby), Chantilly, Virginia: new wheels for a dog – custom canine cart.
• TurboRoo from Indianapolis, Indiana: a chariot for a chihuahua.

And lots more! – https://instagram.com/animalorthocare/

Good news about the impact of 3D printing on animals’ lives

Animal lovers and animal rights activists will be happy to know that 3D printing technology may replace drug testing on animals within five years by printing human stem cells.

Vet Consultants in Telemedicine suggest several applications for 3D printing in veterinary medicine including in the areas of orthopedics, vascular surgery and and radiology, oncology and implants and surgical instruments.

So the next time you want to remember that people are capable of great love and caring acts, turn off the news and revisit some of these stories about 3D printed prosthetics for animals, the people who do it and how it helps our animal friends.

Follow us on Twitter (@3dprintingisfun) and like us on Facebook. Subscribe to this blog, or visit us at shop3duniverse.com.

Do you love the earthy, spicy texture and flavor of Indian food as I do? I used to run down to my corner on Devon Ave. in Chicago for delicious Indian food any day of the week I wanted some. These days the only way I can enjoy those dishes is when they come out of my own kitchen.

Enter: The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla. I hope to provide a full review of the book in my blog at some time in the near future, but here’s a little preview: if you love Indian food, aren’t near restaurants that serve authentic dishes and are busy – get the book! It’s one of the best cookbooks I have ever owned, and I own a lot of cookbooks.  It’s not a big book, but so far everything I have made has been delicious.

Pictured above is the Black Chickpea Curry I just made for dinner last evening. I wanted more for lunch today and ran into the store for a little broccoli. They wanted a lot of money for flowerets – usually the case if they lop off more of the plant. Right next to the flowerets they had full stalks for half the price.

I got the longer stalks and cut them into smaller pieces (about the size you’d see in cooked carrot rounds). I put the cut up pieces into the microwave with the flowerets, then arranged them under the flowerets on the plate.

And rice – you know you need to cook that nowadays with a 1:6 ratio of rice to water, right? Because of the arsenic? Someday I’ll write a post about that.

The other dish I made this week that just blew me away — also from The Indian Slow Cooker – was Palak Paneer (Spinach and “Cheese”). The book has a recipe for palak, Indian cheese, a very simple cheese. For my vegan dish, I used tofu after letting it sit in a brine solution for a couple of hours.

The other change I made was to slightly reduce the peppers. I love spicy food, but others around me are spice sensitive. By reducing the more fiery seasonings by half, everyone else was able to enjoy the dishes, and I just pumped it up a little on my plate.

Here are two pictures of the Palak Paneer, one with everything thrown into the pot (there’s a pound of spinach under that blanket of veggies and seasonings), the other the finished product:

omg. It was so delicious! These dishes are examples of what I love most about the book – the recipes are so easy! You would never be tempted to open a package instead of making your own food. Everything goes into the crockpot early in the day and voila! A delicious dinner pops out several hours later.

And now I’m off to experiment more with vegan cheeses from Artisan Vegan Cheese by Myoko Schinner.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

It’s amazing how much people like this salad! I used to have people tell me they had been up all night obsessing about it and drove a long way to get some.

Ingredients

• Eggplant, 3 large
• Salt, 1 TB
• Garlic, 3-4 cloves, minced
• Mediterranean pickles, 1-2, rough chopped
• Red onion, 1/4 sliced
• Cilantro, 1/2 bunch, chopped
• Moroccan Eggplant Sauce, 1 cup (see recipe below)

SAUCE

• Tomato paste, 6 oz. can
• Lemon, juice of 1 lemon
• Water, to 1-1/2 cups
• Sea salt, 1/2 tsp.
• Cumin,1 tsp.
• Szeged hot paprika, 1 tsp.

Directions

1. Slice and salt eggplant and refrigerate in a covered bowl overnight (quarter the eggplant lengthwise, then cut in 1/8″ slices).
2. Thoroughly drain eggplant (you may need to repeat draining before you complete frying process) and squeeze.
3. Deep fry until evenly brown (3 min. with eggplant no more than ½ – 1 in. deep in basket).
4. Drain in a paper towel-lined bowl, and cool.
5. Add fried, cooled eggplant into a bowl alternately with layers of sauce and prepared vegetables, 3-4 layers.
6. Fold together lightly. Check seasoning, and re-season if necessary.

Post published 4/13/2015 in 3duniverse.

How 3D printing freed the slave in my kitchen

I’m a foodie, and I love to cook. Naturally all the buzz about 3D printed food stimulated my curiosity. I have discovered very interesting possibilities and wonderfully useful applications . . . but probably not yet for my kitchen. Does that mean there’s no place for 3D printing in my kitchen today? Not at all!

I use a lot of lemons in my cooking. Awhile back I was chatting with a next door neighbor, complaining about the shape, cumbersomeness and relative ineffectiveness of lemon juicers currently on the market. Short of getting a professional juicer like I used to have in my cafe, there isn’t much I like.

Did I mention that my next door neighbor owns a 3D printer? The next morning I received a beautiful 3D printed lemon juicer. It was love at first sight. I knew immediately it would be the  BEST lemon juicer I have ever had. One minute later, my neighbor had fresh lemonade!

Having a 3D printed lemon juicer in my kitchen may seem like a small thing, but like I said, I squeeze a lot of lemons when I cook. And now I’m free from a little bit of kitchen drudgery! Not only that – I can make lemonade in a heartbeat.

The Real Lemonade Revolution: brought to you by 3D printing

A few years ago I offered a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade to a 20+ employee. She took a sip and had a stunned look on her face. “Amazing,” she said. Noting her ecstasy over the drink, I wondered if it was possible she had never had real lemonade before? Sure enough, prior to this moment lemonade for her was something made with water and canned powder. She had no idea you could just make lemonade from . . . well, real lemons.

Have you ever compared the ingredient list on a lemon with the ingredient list on one of those cans of lemonade mix? Here is a typical powdered lemonade mix ingredient list: Sugar, Fructose, Citric Acid, Less Than 2% Of Natural Flavor, Ascorbic Acid, Maltodextrin, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Citrate, Magnesium Oxide, Calcium Fumarate, Artificial Color, Yellow 5 Lake, Tocopherol.

Compare that list to: Lemon. No wonder my employee was so amazed with that glass of fresh lemonade I handed her.

Now you, too, can make fresh lemonade faster than you can open that can of powdered mix, just in time for summer – with a 3D printed juicer. I’m going to have one made for everyone I know this year.

Three more MUST-HAVE 3D Printed Kitchen Tools & lots more

I love my 3D printed juicer so much. It started me wondering, what other ways could 3D printing transform my life in the kitchen? Here are a few things I found that I want to try.

• 3D Printed Cheese Press: This one is a MUST HAVE for me. I just started making my own vegan cheese. This will be the perfect aid! On Thingiverse.
• Kitchen Compost Shredder. Another MUST HAVE. On 3dsoup.com.
• 3D Printed Finger Guard (for chopping). OK, sadly this is another MUST HAVE for me. As much as I cook, you’d think I’d learn to avoid my fingers. On Thingiverse.
• Micro Block All-in-One. I had no idea I needed this until I saw it. From 3D Printed Kitchen.
• A Ravioli Maker. You guessed it. Available on Thingiverse.
• Cookie Cutters. Available on Thingiverse in a customizable format as well for creative people and kids.
• Mortar & Pestle. From My Mini Factory.
• Taco Holder. Listed on Etsy.
• A Bunch of Useful Tools. You’ll find these all on Thingiverse: 
  • customizable measuring cups and spoons
  • garlic press
  • fruit and vegetable cutter
  • orange peeler
  • banana slicer
  • kitchen utensils
  • kitchen tool holders
  • spice rack

For now, I’m going to go enjoy a tall glass of fresh, 3D printed juicer lemonade and figure out how I’m going to hit up my favorite 3D printer owning neighbor for a Cheese Press.

The “Juicy Juicer” featured in this article can be found on Thingiverse, here. Model credit: Procrastinator.

Follow us on Twitter (@3dprintingisfun) and like us on Facebook. Subscribe to this blog, or visit us at shop3duniverse.com.

Fermented foods: enjoy some every day

Many of you are probably getting underway with your summer gardening plans. Be sure your plan includes things you can pickle!

Fermented foods are great for you. And there’s one quick and easy way to make certain you have some delicious fermented products with every meal: pickles. (Note: these are not fully fermented — they get a boost with vinegar and refrigeration).

Pickles and olives are part of every meal in the Middle East. When they’re this easy to make, why would you ever get canned? Better yet, when you make your own, you can season them exactly as you’d like.

For the batch of pickles you see pictured here, I used Persian cucumbers, the small, thin, denser variety I can often find in my neighborhood. Regular pickles will work just as well. In fact, you can pickle almost any firm veggies in this way.

A couple of my favorites are cauliflower with red cabbage – or turnips with a beet. Sometimes I throw carrots in with my regular pickles for the color, and the carrots pickle nicely as well. Pieces of red bell pepper or colorful whole mini-peppers work the same way.

One more word about the pickles you see in the picture: I love spicy things. Not everyone does in my world. That’s why I made two jars of pickles to have in the ‘fridge: one has hot peppers in it and the other doesn’t.

For the hot peppers, habanero work perfectly to spice up the whole batch. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any so am trying red “finger hot” peppers. They weren’t hot enough for me last time, but I thought I might give them another chance.

PICKLES

Ingredients

• Pickles, 8-10 large, green & firm Persian pickles (or any other firm veggie in about the same amount)
• Garlic, lots – about 8-10 large cloves
• Dill, lots – a good-sized bunch
• Hot pepper/s – to taste (I prefer habanero and would use 2 or 3 for this size batch)

BRINE

• Water, 4 cups
• Vinegar, 1 cup
• Kosher salt, 3 TB

Directions

1. Use clear, clean glass containers for your pickles. I prefer a glass lid as well so I can re-use it. The metals lids require too much care. Be sure your containers have a wide mouth.
2. The glass container I used for these pickles was a 2 quart container. That means you might need a recipe and a half of the brine per two quart container.
3. Clean all veggies — those you are pickling as well as the dill and peppers.
4. Put plenty of fresh dill in the bottom of the container along with garlic slices. Add veggies, layering if appropriate, fitting in more dill and garlic slices wherever you can.
5. Top off with more dill and garlic.
6. Pour brine over the contents in the jar until it reaches the top of the jar. Be certain everything is completely submerged.
7. Close the lid and place in the refrigerator for at least two weeks.
8. These pickles will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 months. I have had them as long as six months. They still seemed fine, but I thought it best to make a new batch. Usually they don’t last more than a couple of weeks in my house.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Two of my favorite articles on this topic:

From Mother Earth News

From Michael Pollan

Published 4/10/2015 in 3duniverse.org.

No soil, no sun, no water, no problem with 3D printing

I keep telling myself that spring is on the way. Some days it even feels like it’s here. That must mean it’s time to get underway with a garden.

I used to have a 120′ x 60′ garden. Great drainage, plenty of sun. All the manure I wanted. Now I have a 10′ x 10′ deck. Too much sun. No soil on the deck. A virtually sunless area under the deck where the dirt is. I can glean a few more inches here and there around the base of trees and along the back of my townhome. If I’m lucky, I can get a five month growing season.

I will guess that most of us in the United States don’t live in situations that allow us to grow our own food. Even if we do have space, we probably don’t have ideal weather 12 months of the year. Enter 3D printing and micro farming.

How 3D printing can help you grow your garden

I wondered if 3D printing could help me grow food on my deck and in my house. A quick check on the internet provided me with these great possibilities.

Mike Adams, the “Health Ranger,” offers a Food Rising Mini-Farm Grow Box system based on 3D printing and hydroponics. As a lab science director and inventor, Mike was able to work with taulman3D to create the strong, water-tight material he needed for his project. The 3D printed components are made with taulman3D t-glase Polar White Filament. FoodRising provides instructions to build your own Grow Box, complete with 3D print specs.

3Dponics specializes in matching 3D technology to hydroponics. It is “an open-source initiative for the development of 3D models that are used to build efficient and affordable gardens.”

According to 3Dponics, their “MakerBot app makes creating unique gardens with 3D printing quick and easy. 3Dponics Inc., creator of the first 3D-printable hydroponics system, is releasing its first MakerBot-Ready App to enable anyone to 3D print their own 3Dponics parts: the 3Dponics Customiser.”

Computer scientist Yuichiro Takeuchi of Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. has developed a 3D printer that will print a garden in any shape you design! His invention is also built on hydroponics, a growing system that replaces soil with mineral nutrients. Takeuchi’s vision is for barren city rooftops to be covered with growth. Maybe my deck can be a small practice project?

Here are all kinds of handy gardening tools to 3D print:

• http://www.yeggi.com/q/indoor+garden/?s=tt
• http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/garden-3d-10-things-you-can-3d-print-your-garden.html

And well, sometimes girls (and guys) just wanna have fun – build a chess set garden with 3D printing technology:
http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/3d-printed-chess-micro-planters-xyz-workshop.html

When you’re ready to go big time, here’s a project I love. FarmBot “hopes to create an open source hardware, software and data solution that allows anyone, anywhere to build and operate their 3D farming printer, the FarmBot.” 3D printing food is exciting, but it probably won’t work on the mass scale needed to feed the hungry. This system has the potential to do just that.

FrogDesign marks “4 Tech Trends That Will Define 2015.” Two of the four are 3D printing and … micro gardening! These enterprises we’ve shared just match them up.

Here’s one more idea, designers: what about creating a hand along the lines of a prosthetic device? With gardening attachments?

If the garden isn’t happening, 3D print your own food!

But that’s another post.

In the meantime, follow us on Twitter (@3dprintingisfun) and like us on Facebook. Subscribe to this blog, or visit us at shop3duniverse.com.

Last week I got into a FaceBook discussion with someone who posted a picture that was disturbing to me, a pregnant cow whose throat was being cut.

I never, ever look at these pictures and have several times unfriended and unfollowed those who post them. That’s too bad because PETA and others have good and important information to share.

Because I want to follow certain people and organizations for the good information they share, I usually friend or follow them again at some point in the vain hope they have amended their ways. Inevitably I end up unfriending and unfollowing again, and the cycle repeats itself. Unfortunately it’s usually after yet another disturbing image has forced itself into my line of vision.

Surely someone somewhere thinks these photos are effective? A particular action-response is expected when they post? Kind of like attack political ads which I also won’t listen to or watch? I have to question that possibility, though.

Here are five reasons I think these disturbing images should not be posted:

• Who is supposed to be influenced with these images? Non-vegans?  “I think I’m going to find those who put out pictures of animal suffering that will make me weep and gnash my teeth and friend them or follow them.” Said no non-vegan. Ever.
• Is it vegans we hope to influence? What would be the point of that? Anyway, vegans mostly friend and follow other vegans and vegetarians, people who share their philosophy and have ideas to share with them. Vegans want those ideas. What will disturbing images accomplish with them?
• Anger and violence generate anger and violence. If you’re not completely desensitized to animal suffering, seeing the violence and insensitivity projected in many of these pictures will generate more of the same. And if you are completely desensitized…as I said, what’s the point?
• Images out of context may say something different than intended. That video of the pregnant cow being slaughtered? Turns out it was a “mercy killing” performed to save the calves and spare the mother needless suffering. It was done in the kosher manner, an ethical system based on minimizing animal suffering. Aversion to blood doesn’t equate to ethical consciousness — and being willing to kill an animal in certain circumstances and in certain ways doesn’t equate to lack of it. If the whole world isn’t going to become vegan today, would we not rather regulate meat production in a framework of ethical considerations? Temple Grandin thought so.
• Responsible news agencies decline to post videos of human hostages being beheaded. Maybe there’s a reason? Maybe there are many reasons?

In recent months, I have experimented with vegan cooking and am on the path toward vegan living. To the extent that the reality of factory farming moved me in this direction, facts communicated with words and references were sufficient.

I believe that what moves people to improve the world is not generally horrifying images thrown in their faces but rather the possibility of experiencing and sharing joy and fulfillment.

I look for people and organizations to follow and friend who inspire me. I look for those who can provide me with good information on which to base my decisions about how I want to live. Finally, I look for those who are willing to share with me what they know about the practicalities of living in the way I choose.

It amazes me how many good and inspiring people there are in the world to friend and follow! How many people are working to alleviate suffering and improve lives — all lives — in practical ways. Someday those people will be the world’s biggest and most effective army.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Published 4/23/2015 in The FOODshed Coop blog.

When I first started in the food business with the intention of making all my food “from scratch,” from whole produce (which I was told couldn’t be done), someone told me about the Slow Food movement. The phrase sounded about right, and I wanted to learn more. In reading about the movement, which has a Chicago chapter, I read the subtitle, “Food with Meaning.” Yes, that’s what I wanted to do, offer food with meaning.

We search for and talk endlessly about the obesity epidemic and its causes in this country. I’ve contributed to that discussion. At its roots, though, I believe this epidemic is a function of the fact that our food is without meaning.

In an article about alcoholism I once read, the writer suggested that drinking too much alcohol, or any addictive consumption for that matter, is a (futile) effort to fill an empty space. That comment resonated with me. I wondered, if those empty spaces were filled with meaning what effect might it have on addictive consumption? I know these issues are complex, and there is never just one simple solution to addictive behaviors. Certainly there are biological components to the issue, as we have discovered. Still, I wonder.

So I started out to make and serve to people “food with meaning.” As well-wishers had suggested to me, I found it to be a challenging enterprise. It was not, though, impossible. And now I’m at a place in my life where I have an opportunity to think about my experience in the restaurant industry and consider how a restaurant might be structured differently to be even more an expression of the idea of “food with meaning.”

Let’s think about this for a minute — how alienated we are from the most fundamental part of our existence on this earth, our own process of survival. Most of us have no direct link to hunting for or producing our food, whatever it is. We don’t live on farms. We have no involvement in processing the raw ingredients that come from the farm, whether that is picking or husking or churning or fermenting or slaughtering. We shop in supermarkets and know little about our food sources or the processes involved in getting it to us in packages. Many of us aren’t comfortable in the kitchen or don’t have time to cook for ourselves. We have abandoned the moments before or after a meal when we might pause for thoughtful prayers or meditations of acknowledgment and gratitude. Most often we are not even eating a meal in community but are rather grabbing something on the run.

This alienation suggests something to me when I think about a new kind of restaurant. What an amazing contribution it would be to the process of reinstating meaning to food consumption if not only the food available in it spoke to that issue but the very structure of the enterprise itself. It seems to me that’s very much what the Food Shed Co-op is about — taking a place in the project of bringing meaning back to our food supply.

Eating is probably the most meaning-filled activity in which we engage. It is an act at the intersection of life and death. It brings to our attention the fundamental paradox of our existence, that sustaining life requires taking life in some way, even if it is just pulling a carrot out of the ground thereby ending the existence of that particular plant. For this reason, food rituals, practices and taboos are significant in virtually all the world’s religions.

What if we could model values through our own set of modern day rituals in a modified restaurant setting: connecting to the sources of our food, involvement in the process of taking food from its source to our table, avoiding abuse, avoiding waste … delighting in the abundance and creativity of life and sharing with others that most meaningful enterprise, a meal?

I’m not sure about this happening in a typical commercial restaurant environment. Not only have I watched those shows on the Food Network – which may be entertaining but make me nervous – I have worked in a commercial restaurant environment and know how a variety of factors can compete vehemently with a desire for focused thoughtfulness. Cooking is a meditative enterprise for me. Cooking in a commercial environment in my experience isn’t.

But what if we could create an environment where thoughtful, meaningful meal creation and sharing is possible? Where the important values of a community are expressed and shared through the meal preparation and enjoyment? How would that look?

I don’t have a plan for such a project yet, but I am reading about intriguing possibilities. I would love to hear from others about ideas you have. Eventually I would like to take these ideas and see if they can’t be woven together into some kind of workable plan.

Here are miscellaneous ideas people have shared with me or that I have found and like:

• Pop-Up Restaurant. These are springing up in a number of places, and one of them is in New York where chefs are taking turns creating wonderful meals out of food waste. Did you know that 40% of food never gets eaten but ends up in the garbage? It’s great to think about ways to stop waste by repurposing it. These chefs will inspire each other and their clientele.
• Zero Waste Restaurant: A pickup on the Pop-Up theme above but more permanent.
• Pay-It-Forward Plan. One person can come in and purchase a meal for someone who needs it. A ticket is created and put out in a known spot for another person who is in need to come and pick it up. A pizza restaurant in Philadelphia has gained national attention for such a program. Their board is constantly filled with tickets, and there is always one there for someone who comes in to pick up one of them.
• Innovative Restaurant Designs: Model DIY aeroponics, vertical gardening and other “urban gardening” techniques as part of the design – and part of the food supply – for a restaurant.
• Pick Your Own Meal: A table picks some food for their meal and turns it over to chefs/cooks to use. Chefs/cooks can share what they end up doing with the “pickings.” An eatery in the Food Shed Co-op might include products purchased from the coop and diners could take home the remainder of any products not used in full (in repurposed delivery boxes).
• Self-cleanup: A restaurant I used to go to reduced the cost of a meal some if you ordered it, picked it up and returned the dishes and remains to the counter instead of having table service. I wonder if a restaurant could expand on this idea, teaching conservation and saving money in the process?
• Community Kitchen with Food Rules & Waste Rules: The best way to learn is by doing. An approved Community Kitchen with carefully structured rules would allow others to learn about preparing healthy food from local, sustainable ingredients at the same time they are learning about conservation in a setting that typically produces a lot of waste.
• The Pause that Refreshes: A pause before each meal and after each meal eaten in the Cafe to think about, talk about or express gratitude for food sources at that meal. There could be a lot of creative ways to assist in making this a happening.

These are just a few preliminary thoughts and ideas I have been turning over. Please share in this blog your thoughts and ideas or programs you have heard about in other locations.

 For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.