Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
May 8, 2008 issue
Is Watauga County a Soup or a Salad?
Two Rivers Community School’s New Cookbook Turns Up Some Surprising Answers
Story by Sally Treadwell
Damper might be good for breakfast. Or how about chorreadas? Then again, with Stargazey Pie coming up for lunch, and Kheema Pulau for dinner, maybe you should go light…
Seventh and eighth graders at Two Rivers Community School have just produced a cookbook celebrating family recipes from Watauga County. That’s not unusual—we in the High Country love to eat!—but this cookbook is unusual in that it highlights the surprising diversity of our community. Families originating from Australia, Japan, India, Thailand, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Puerto Rico, England, Russia, France, Nigeria and the former Czechoslovakia, as well as North Carolina, have all contributed recipes.
“We were looking at whether our country is a soup, with everything all blended in, or a salad, where you get a whole different taste every time you take a bite. I think we’re more like a salad. Everyone keeps their individuality—but then they share it, too,” said Eli Sigmon, who developed a real taste for Swedish meatballs.
Two Rivers uses a project-based Expeditionary Learning/Outward Bound curriculum that is designed “to promote critical thinking, skills and habits, academic achievement, and personal development through the use of in-depth investigations that engage students in community, projects, and service,” according to ELOB literature. The cookbook is the culmination of one such “expedition.”
“Our eighth grade class is studying North Carolina, and seventh grade is studying Africa, Asia and Australia. So we combined the curriculums and took a look at the diversity of the region, focusing on food and what it can teach us about culture.
We sent out emails to our students’ families and asked them to hook us up with friends and family who grew up in different countries. It was really unexpected to find so many different cultures represented here!” said Rachel Pickering, the social studies teacher who designed the project. She pulled other cultural elements, including classic literature, into the expedition. “We read excerpts from books like My Antonia by Willa Cather—a Russian family is making sourdough bread, and an American family can’t understand the way they make it—it seems so different!”
Each of the 30 children took on the task of interviewing a different person, asking questions about his/her native country, why s/he came here, what s/he likes here and what s/he misses and so on. “We learned a lot about the way people live. Culture has a lot to do with what they eat and the way that they eat it, and people told us why they loved the recipes they gave us, like special desserts,” said Jenna Woods. She learned how to make Hemel en Aarde (Heaven on Earth) with mashed potatoes and apples.
The kids wrote and designed the entire cookbook, discovering that it takes a lot of work to create something high quality.
“They went through a lot of drafts!” laughed Pickering, “but they really enjoyed it and I think they learned a lot. It definitely focused their attention, knowing that the final product would be published. They have been talking about adding to the cookbook every year and improving it—they’re very proud of it.”
Business 101 kicked in, too. “We had a “taste test” dinner to raise the money to publish the book. Then when we had sold the first set, we ordered more with some of that money,” said Becky Bradshaw, now a connoisseur of Scottish treacle toffee.
Precision Printing helped the kids to stretch their budget, and the money they raise—at least $400—will go to the charity they chose together, Heifer International. “All of us like animals, and we wanted it to go to an organization that will help end hunger,” said Jonas Henson.
“Hopefully they have come away from this knowing that not every American has had the same experience, and that our country and community are stronger because of its diversity.” said Pickering.
Oh, and about Damper. It’s a bush bread from Australia, traditionally baked by drovers in an oven buried in the ashes of their campfire. How about trying some this summer?
Soup or Salad: A Taste of Our Community costs $10 and can be purchased from Two Rivers Community School. Call 828-262-5411 for information.