The sustainable agriculture association operates a garden in west Ames for Food at First and organizes the dinner meal on the first Friday of each month. I suspect that the student-organized meals are among the best served at Food at First.

The students harvested rhubarb at my place and made a sauce with caramelized red onions, rhubarb, and balsamic vinegar to go with pork loin. They also made rhubarb crisp. They also got produce from Mustard Seed Farm and their own farm to make what I would call braised kale and a salad.

A friend of mine and I have been providing bread for the meals, using Iowa grains. This time, Jonah made sourdough bread with wheat flour and corn meal. I made dill bread with eggs from my chicken flock and dill weed that I harvested from my garden just minutes before preparing the bread. Here the link to the recipe.

http://gunderfriend.com/recipes/dill-bread.pdf

Jonah and I always stay and eat with the group and the guests. At the last minute, I invited the young man, who has been providing horticulture help at my place, and two of my neighbors to come to the meal.

It was a great time. Awesome menu and fine camaraderie. At least some members of the student group know their efforts are a compromise. They make the best of using surplus, conventional produce (such as I assume the pork was) donated by retail stores and probably not the first choice of food for many of us. But they also use as much as they can of produce that they grow or glean. And they know how to create great menus and cook wonderful food. It is fun to be a part of their effort and to get to know the many people at the meal.

If you are in Ames sometime on a Friday evening, come join us for dinner around 5:30 pm.

Helen Gunderson