by
Soma Mei-Sheng Frazier
What do you get when you cross seven young, urban writers with five goats, ten chickens, a simmering pot of goat's milk and artisan chocolates?
Answer: the first ever digital food-writing internship program.
I met TuttiFoodie founder Lisa Schiffman in my role as Literary Arts Chair at Oakland School for the Arts. I wanted my students to get out into the field of contemporary freelance writing. Lisa wanted them to get out into an actual field, on an urban farmstead. That was the deal: first they would experience. Then they could write.
First, walk the goats. Then, stir goat’s milk in a stock pot and drain it through a dripping cheesecloth as it becomes ricotta. Later, grimace at the bitterness of raw cacao beans. Discuss the sensation of rolling bee pollen under their tongues. Then, and only then, Lisa would take them on as freelance food-writer interns.
And this is how—on a day that my students and I might normally have spent hunched over our respective keyboards, poetizing—we found ourselves hustling uphill through a light drizzle to keep up with Lisa and five sprinting goats. Food writers do these things, it turns out, so that you don't need to! You can simply click away to learn which punk band is comparable to gourmet chutney, read a playful interview with Farm City phenom’ Novella Carpenter, imagine the taste of a scorpion, pickle fresh ginger and make arroz con leche.
Interview with Punk Domestics by Chloe Ashley
A Talk with Novella Carpenter by Kerby Lynch
Scorpions, Grasshoppers, Mealworms and Grubs by Patrick Faircloth
Thank You Gari Much by Rosalie Bidar
Arroz Con Leche by Joseph De La Cruz
The program is supported by grants from Scharffen Berger and Whole Foods. We thank you, for making it happen.