Thursday, January 28, 2010

twitter assignment

twitter assignment for digital media production, green media, and community garden outreach

1. if you have not yet joined twitter, join twitter.

2. create a profile. in either your user name or bio (or both), use your real name.

3. make your profile public. if you already have a twitter account that is private and wish to keep it that way, create a new account for this class.

4. find and follow all members (students and professor) of our class.

5. search for and follow all people whose work (writings, video, web) is assigned each week. if after a week you find their tweets less than amusing, by all means unfollow them.

6. please get into the habit of checking twitter at least once a day.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

green media (spring 10)

in spring, i'm teaching three classes - two of them new. one of the new ones is green media. classes begin friday, january 29th.


Green Media
Fridays 9:40 am-12:25 pm (and some lunches, too)
Education 104 (and sometimes in the Garden)

Professor: David Silver
Office: Kalmanovitz 141
Office Hours: Tues & Thurs 10:30-11:30 am & by appointment

Green Media is a special topics production class devoted to making media about making food. Throughout the semester, students will plan, plant, tend, and harvest a veggie plot in USF's organic garden; research, cook, and share a selection of seasonal, regional recipes; and eat, experience, and experiment with real food. Further, using social media like twitter, flickr, facebook, blogs, and video, students will make and share media about growing, cooking, and eating food. Finally, students will work collaboratively to design and build two food-related exhibits in Gleeson Library.

Learning Goals:
o to learn how to plan and plant a garden;
o to learn how to research and cook 3-4 seasonal, regional, and delicious meals;
o to learn how to use social media to document the planting and preparing of food;
o to learn how to work collaboratively; and
o to become more aware of and in tune with seasons.

Book:
Please purchase Novella Carpenter's Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer (Penguin Press, 2009).

* All other course readings are either free and online, available outside my office, or available at Gleeson Library.

Calendar:

Friday, January 29
Discuss the syllabus and course expectations. Visit our garden plot. Begin using twitter.

Friday, February 5
Read Patricia Harris, David Lyon, and Sue McLaughlin, “Food & Life,” from The Meaning of Food, pp. 1-59; Michael Pollan, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch, New York Times Magazine, July 29, 2009. Watch Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray, Window Farms (Video - 1:38), November 3, 2009. Library workshop with USF librarians Debbie Benrubi and Sherise Kimura.

Friday, February 12
Read Maggie Gosselin, Sarah Klein, and Jessica Prentice’s “San Francisco Bay Area Local Foods Wheel”; Localvore Network, California availability guide; selections from Pam Pierce’s Golden Gate Gardening: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area & Coastal California; Allison Arieff, “Hive Minds: As Honeybees around the world vanish, one Bay Area biologist is enlisting an army of backyard gardeners to help figure out why,” Sunset, August 2009, pp. 54-56; and Maira Kalman, Back to the Land ... And the Pursuit of Happiness, New York Times, November 26, 2009. Plan our garden plot. Begin using flickr. Due in class: Breakfast Project.

Friday, February 19
Read Novella Carpenter, “Turkey,” from Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, pp. 1-98; Field trip with Justin Valone to forage for wild greens and stinging nettles.

Friday, February 26
Read “Basic White Bread – Ten Steps to Fresh-baked Goodness,” from Sunset Cook Book of Breads, pp. 8-9; Mark Bittman, Making No-Knead Bread (Video – 4:58), New York Times, December 29, 2006; Brother Rick Curry, S.J., “Making Bread,” from The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking, pp. 11-21; Molly Katzen, "An Illustrated Guide to the Baking of Yeast Bread," from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, pp. 86-95; and Lulu McCllister, How to Make a Delicious Omelet Using Wild Foods. Watch Giselle Kennedy, Brew (Video - 13:50), How-to Homestead, 2009; and Sergey Yazvinsky, One Minute Apple Pie (Video - 1:29), Serious Eats, September 10, 2009. Bake a loaf of bread. Begin blogging.

Friday, March 5
Read Novella Carpenter, “Rabbit,” from Farm City, pp. 99-184; and John Emerson, Neo Gardenism, Social Design Notes blog, June 15, 2009. Library workshop with USF librarians Debbie Benrubi and Sherise Kimura. Join garden guest Novella Carpenter, author (Farm City) and urban homesteader (Ghost Town Farm), for lunch and discussion.

Friday, March 12
Read Patricia Harris, David Lyon, and Sue McLaughlin, “Food & Culture,” from The Meaning of Food, pp. 61-105; Keith McHenry, The Story of Food Not Bombs (Parts 1-4); and Sandra Cate, "'Breaking Bread with a Spread' in the San Francisco County Jail," Gastronomica, Summer 2008, pp. 17-24. Join garden guest Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs, for lunch and discussion.

Friday, March 19:
SPRING BREAK (No Class)

Friday, March 26
Read Novella Carpenter, “Pig,” from Farm City, pp. 185-269; and Ian Frazier, The Cursing Mommy Cooks Italian, The New Yorker, January 11, 2010, pp. 34-35. Due in class: Media-Food Person Research Project.

Friday, April 2:
GOOD FRIDAY
(No Class)
Read Tina Peterson, "Bringing Up Baby (Carrots), Gastronomica, Fall 2008, pp. 55-59. Watch Deborah Koons Garcia’s The Future of Food (Video - 1:28:51); and The Meatrix (I, II, and II 1/2).

Friday, April 9
Read Douglas Quenqua, To Harvest Squash, Click Here, New York Times, October 28, 2009. Watch expertvillage, How to Grow Squash in a Vegetable Garden (Video - 2:44), October 24, 2008; Melinda Stone, The Humanure Cycle (Video: 8:27), How-to Homestead, 2008; and a healthy dose of River Cottage. Visit, play, and be ready to discuss in class FarmVille. Due in class: Lunch Project.

Friday, April 16
Read Kim Severson, Neighbor, Can You Spare A Plum? New York Times, June 10, 2009; Emma Brown, Changing How We Live and Eat, One Fig at a Time, Common Dreams, February 2, 2009; Fallen Fruit, "Take Back the Fruit: Public Space and Community Activism," from Food, edited by John Knechtel, pp. 94-103; and Roxanne Webber, New iPhone App Finds You Free Fruit, Chow, January 12, 2010. Visit and be ready to discuss in class City Fruit Tree Mapper; Neighborhood Fruit; Fallen Fruit; and Urban Edibles.

Friday, April 23 (David out of town)
Read Elizabeth Kolbert, Green Like Me: Living without a fridge, and other experiments in environmentalism, The New Yorker, August 31, 2009, pp. 70-74; Ten websites that will help you eat with greater awareness, Culinate blog, August 10, 2009; and Megan Gordon, Eat, Read, Look: Food Websites Worth Your Time, Bay Area Bites blog, January 18, 2010.

Friday, April 30
Read Rachel Laudan, “A Plea for Culinary Modernism: Why We Should Love New, Fast, Processed Food,” Gastronomica, February 2001, pp 36-44; Caitlin Flanagan, Cultivating Failure: How school gardens are cheating our most vulnerable students, The Atlantic, January/February 2010; Angela McGregor, Cultivating Conversation: How Caitlin Flanagan has got us all thinking out loud, Cornell Garden-Based Learning blog, January 27, 2010; and at least two of the essays McGregor links to. Discuss semester’s successes and shortcomings. Brainstorm final party.

Friday, May 7
Read Mark Andrew Boyer, Is a Food Revolution Now in Season? Yes, It Is, OrganicNation.tv blog, September 4, 2009; Sarah van Gelder, 8 Ways to Join the Local Food Movement, Yes! Magazine, February 13, 2009; and Remi Bouvier, Vallicans Guerilla Gardening Skate (Video - 6:00), Eggheads blog, November 2, 2009. Due in class: Last Supper Project.

This class has no final exam.


Grading:
20% Class and Garden Participation
10% Breakfast Project
10% Lunch Project
10% Last Supper Project
20% Media-Food Person Research Project
20% Seasonal Foods Library Exhibit Group Project
20% Food & Culture Library Exhibit Group Project

* If you are curious or concerned about your grade, you can request a meeting with me anytime during the semester.

Rulez:
1. Read all assigned readings, watch all assigned videos, and visit all assigned web sites prior to class.
2. In class, in the garden, and in the kitchen, listen to and learn from everyone.
3. No late work accepted.
4. No drinking out of non-reusable containers in class.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

community garden outreach (spring 10)

i'm teaching three classes in spring - two of them new. one of the new ones is community garden outreach. classes begin friday, january 29th.


Community Garden Outreach
Fridays 1:30-5 pm
Hayes Healy Formal Lounge and in the Garden

Professor: David Silver
Office: Kalmanovitz 141
Office Hours: Tues & Thurs 10:30-11:30 am & by appointment

Community Garden Outreach is a 2-unit hands-on and seminar class held in conjunction with Justin Valone’s Urban Ag class. Through gardening, harvesting, foraging, cooking, eating, reading, reflecting, and discussing, we will explore social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental issues around food, food production, and food distribution. In addition to continuing our educations as gardeners, we will work online with social media to document our garden activities and offline in groups to organize and implement various food distribution projects. Further, through life competency sessions led by Golden Venters, students will reflect upon and discuss their processes of intentional change, contemplation of self, and inter- and intrapersonal abilities. Community Garden Outreach is part of the Garden Project Living Learning Community.

Learning Goals:
o To learn more about organic gardening, urban agriculture, and community food production;
o To learn how to use different kinds social media to document the planting, preparing, and sharing of food;
o To learn how to work collaboratively to design and organize community food distribution projects; and
o To learn how to bake bread.


Books:
o Novella Carpenter, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, 2009.
o Michael Pollan’s Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, 1992.

Calendar:
Friday, January 29
Last semester, through your work in Melinda Stone and Justin Valone’s fall 2009 courses, you’ve learned a lot about gardening, urban agriculture, and food production. The majority of today’s class will be spent bringing the professor up to speed with your individual and group projects and progress. We will also discuss the syllabus, course expectations, and your spring internships.

Friday, February 5
Read Barbara Kingsolver, “Called Home,” Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, pp. 1-22. Begin using twitter. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

Friday, February 12
Read Michael Pollan, “Made Wild by Pompous Catalogs,” Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, pp. 205-228, and Maggie Gosselin, Sarah Klein, and Jessica Prentice’s “San Francisco Bay Area Local Foods Wheel.” Brainstorm & discuss our three food distribution projects: Campus Farmstand, Food Not Bombs, and Dean’s Dinners. Begin using flickr.

Friday, February 19
Field trip with Justin Valone to forage for wild greens and stinging nettles.

Friday, February 26
Read Novella Carpenter, “Turkey,” Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, pp. 1-98. Begin blogging. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

Friday, March 5
Read Novella Carpenter, “Rabbit,” Farm City, pp. 99-184. Prepare garden tour and meal for class guest Novella Carpenter, author (Farm City) and urban homesteader (Ghost Town Farm).

Friday, March 12
ReadThe Story of Food Not Bombs (Parts 1-4).WatchFood for Bombs – Nigeria." Prepare garden tour and meal for class guest Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs.

Friday, March 19:
SPRING BREAK

Friday, March 26
Read Novella Carpenter, “Pig,” Farm City, pp. 185-269. Discuss internship progress. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

Friday, April 2:
GOOD FRIDAY

Friday, April 9
Read Michael Pollan, “Planting a Tree,” Second Nature, pp. 150-175. Brainstorm and discuss documenting the building of the garden kitchen.

Friday, April 16
Read Michael Pollan, “Green Thumb,” Second Nature, pp. 117-134. Cook with Chef Jean-Marc Fullsack to prepare Food Not Bombs meal.

Friday, April 23
Read Elizabeth Kolbert, “Green Like Me: Living without a fridge, and other experiments in environmentalism,The New Yorker, August 31, 2009. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

Friday, April 30
Read Michael Pollan, “The Garden Tour,” Second Nature, pp. 229-258, and Matt Hickman, “40 farmers under 40: Readers’ choice,” Mother Nature Network blog, September 24, 2009. Discuss semester’s successes and shortcomings. Brainstorm final party.

Friday, May 7
Prepare a delicious garden meal for the final party. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

This class has no final exam.


Grading:
o Class participation - 25%
o Social media participation - 25%
o Food distribution group projects - 25%
o Student Internships - 25%

If you are curious or concerned about your grade, you can request a meeting with me anytime during the semester.

Rulez:
1. Read all assigned readings prior to class.
2. In class and in the garden, listen to and learn from everyone.
3. No late work accepted.
4. No drinking out of non-reusable containers in class.

Monday, January 11, 2010

happy birthday siena, you're a half year young!

happy birthday siena, you're a half year young!

i remember six months ago, about an hour before you arrived, the midwife looked out the hospital window and exclaimed out loud, "look! a rainbow!" i peered out the window and saw a curving column of colors stretching from one side of san francisco to another. all of us, even your mommy, stopped our labors for a moment to see the rainbow. and then the midwife exclaimed again, "now let's have this baby!"


do you remember, siena, your first three months? do you remember all the sights and sounds of your new home? do you remember your colic? your inconsolable crying? your all-night bouts of fussiness? we do. what bravery you showed those first few months.


did you know, siena, that you weren't the only brave one? do you remember that while you were bravely fighting colic, your mommy was bravely fighting postpartum depression? we do. and do you remember, siena, how family and friends rallied around us like a village? we do.


do you remember, siena, about two months ago when auntie jewlee, mommy's sister, moved from colorado to california to be your nanny? we do.


do you know, siena, how often your mommy and daddy talked about you before you even arrived? do you know how much we talk about your future? but most of all, do you know, siena, how happy and proud we are of you in the present, this day and all days? we do.


happy birthday siena, you're a half year young!