Fall Internship | Sept. 1 - October 13
Local food networks and
the 100 mile diet
Have you ever wondered how far the food on your plate traveled in order to provide you nourishment? Would you like to learn more about how to eat locally? Join us at Aprovecho as we discover the joys and challenges of creating a local food system.
During the internship, we will be learning about the importance of a foodshed—from your homegarden, to local farms and ranches, fisheries, and wild edibles and food foraging. The seminars offered will combine hands-on skills in gardening, technology, and forestry, as well as theoretical investigations into the nature of the mainstream and more localized food systems.
Four of the six weeks will be spent eating only from within 100 miles of Aprovecho, so we can learn more about the true sustainability of the endeavor. One day a week will be spent on field trips to local purveyors of various foods, and areas where we can harvest or glean from natural systems.
We encourage participants to undertake research projects during the program, which will be presented at our Local Harvest Celebration in October to local policymakers and NGOs involved in food issues in the area. We are very excited about undertaking this timely research, and look forward to sharing the experience with you.
Cost: $2,250 - $3,250 (sliding scale). Includes instruction, housing, food, and class materials. 
Click here to enroll online or by post.
Suggested Readings
Living the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing
Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon
Coming Home to Eat: the pleasures and politics of local food by Gary Paul Nabhan
Animal Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Class Descriptions
Nutrition and Whole Foods Cooking – In this seminar we will learn how to create a nutritionally sound diet using only foods from our local food shed. The seminar will focus on learning to structure meals out of seasonally available produce while covering basic cooking techniques. Handouts will be provided to act as guide for constructing meals throughout the internship. The seminar will be divided between lecture/discussion and hands on work.
Local Starches –Transcending our dependence on distant supplies of carbohydrates is without question one of the great challenges in the development of a local food economy. Be it amaranth, quinoa, tritikale, wapato, or oca we will explore possibilities for a local and sane supply of starch.
Bread Baking – Learn the basics of bread. Learn about bread nutrition and explore the various limitations and possibilities of baking with local grains. Even the yeast will come from within 100 miles!
Agricultural Series I, II, III, IV -- This four part seminar will cover the basics of organic food production on a home scale, including bed preparation, soil fertility management, composting, irrigation, propagation, crop planning, and general principles of and organic vegetable and fruit production. These seminars will feature plenty of hands-on experience in our 1.5 acre garden, where we will be sourcing most of our produce for the duration of the internship.
Political Economy of Food I, II --
I : Outline the structure of the international food industry. Where does people’s food come from? What distribution mechanisms are used? What regulatory institutions mediate these markets? How does these markets function?
II: What is the nature of agricultural research and development? Who and how it is controlled? What are some examples of research of, by, and for the people? Political resistance to the economics of food.
Fermentation 101 - Learn the science and joy of making your own fermented foods. We will cover the techniques and chemistry behind fermented vegetables, dairy, bread, alcohol and a variety of other tasty home made ferments. The class will include some samples, hands on demonstrations and recipes to inspire you on the road to fermentation.
The Spice Racket – Take a historical, ecological, and socio-political look into what it takes to have spicy foods. We will compare our spice rack before and after our 100-mile diet commitment. All the while seeking to expand out local spice repertoire.
Seaweed / Salt – Explore the Oregon coast and find edibles to supplement our diet. Learn about edible seaweed, salt processing, and nutrient cycles. Use a rocket stove to boil down salt from the sea.
Fisheries - For those of us who live near the coast, the addition of fresh seafood can be a valuable addition to our diets. However, many fisheries in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere have experienced serious declines in productivity. We will learn firsthand about the ecological and ethical challenges of incorporating sea foods into our diets. This seminar will be taught in conjunction with the salt and seaweed harvesting class, and will feature interviews with local fisherpeople, and maybe the opportunity to ply the open waters of the Oregon coast!
Firewood / Forestry Management - Aprovecho has been supplying its own cooking, heating, and building material from its forest for over twenty years. This seminar will cover the basics of eco-forestry from tree falling to finished product. Particular emphasis will be placed on firewood preparation as it relates to cooking.
Fuel For Cooking - An important aspect of eating is the cooking process. If the 100 mile diet is to be taken to its fullest extent, then the fuel used in cooking was also be considered. In this class we will evaluate the various fuels we have at our disposal and discuss their place in the diet.
Food Preservation - Learn different food preservation techniques such as drying, canning and fermenting. We will explore the pros and cons of each technique as well as doing some hands on work to familiarize ourselves with the methods and tools used to preserve the harvest.
Native Plant Ecology / Ethnobotany - Before European colonization, the people of the Northwest met their food needs locally for at least ten thousand years. This will be a discussion on the crops and methods of cultivation that existed within the Willamette valley during this time period as well as a field based experiment in gathering, cultivating, and processing these native foods.
Medicinal Herbs - In this seminar we will learn to identify and use a variety of medicinal herbs in the garden and forest while discovering why using plants as medicine is both safe and effective. The seminar will cover basic terms and preparations to lay some foundation principals of herbalism. We will also be making some plant medicines to take home.
Wild Edibles and Food Foraging - Learn to identify, harvest, prepare and locate an abundance of wild foods in both urban and woodland settings. We will explore the woods and gardens of Aprovecho searching out edible leaves, roots and berries learning some simple botany terms and plant identification skills. We will also focus on seasonality and how to incorporate wild foods in our diet throughout the year as well as the indigenous use of some of our native edibles.
Mushrooms - Join our resident fungophyles in an exploration of the mushroom kingdom. After an introduction to mushroom lifecycles and culture, we will gather mushrooms in our surrounding forest. In order to ensure an enhanced cuisine, we will also propagate some well-known edible mushrooms using oak and alder logs.
Honey our local sugar – Learn the basics of beekeeping, its historical import, its contemporary industry, and the bee’s impact of the human imagination. Our research will conjecture the changes in apiculture necessary for a local sugar source.
Perennial Crops -- Perennial crops are great season extenders, soil conservers, energy savers, and all around ecosystem enhancers. From ramps to rhubarb, from sea kale to sunchoke learn about, taste, and cultivate the many perennial crops offered up by our temperate climate.
Seed Saving - Local food security begins with local seed production. Varieties that are time-tested and adapted to your watershed provide a wide array of benefits, both as a gardener and consumer. In this seminar, you will learn about some of the issues facing seed production in modern agriculture, simple techniques for beginning your own seed collections from your garden, and some ideas about organizing around this issue in your area.
Edible Landscaping – Yards of any size can help to fill the belly and nurture the soul while wooing neighbors with their scents, colors, and flavors. Learn how to turn your yard into an incredible edible oasis, tour local edible landscapes, and help to plant an urban jungle in Cottage Grove. Hardhats required on garden field trips given the grave danger of falling food.
Edible Insects – Briefly review the anthropological phenomenon of insect eating, then learn some local edible bugs and perhaps even fry some up.
Hunting – Learn how hunting can supplement a local diet. Hear about hunting’s regulatory restrictions, understand the basic techniques, question whether it is sustainable, and those interested may get a chance to hunting with a mentor in the woods.
Acorn Bread – Become acquainted with the harvesting, processing, and baking of acorns into bread. Compare modern techniques with indigenous ways of cultivating and processing.
Animal Husbandry - This extensive subject will focus on poultry, goats, and cows. In addition to the care of these creatures, their use in agricultural systems will be explained in order to place them in a wider ecological context.
Solidarity Dinner – Before we take the vow to only eat local foods, we will have a communal dinner that will feature food from far away and is fair trade. Coffee, tea, and chocolates are sure to be some of the superstars of this tropical evening…
Field Trips
Every Friday we will go out on a field trip. They will include: a grain producer, the Pacific Coast, fruit orchard, a hike around our watershed, urban areas, a biodynamic farm.
Bread Labor
On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, we will allocate three hours to physical effort towards our sustenance. Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, and Satish Kumar popularized the phrase “Bread Labor.” Bread Labor means physical work with the aim of meeting your basic human needs: food, shelter, tools, etc… These hours of bread labor will be directed work in the garden, harvesting, and otherwise tending our food system.
Potlucks
On Wednesday nights, we will invite our urban companions who—in solidarity with us—are also living the 100-mile diet to share a meal with us. We’ll hear about their experiences from an urban perspective.
Movies
On Wednesday night, after the potluck, we will project a relevant film.
Intern-led Seminars
There will be time on four Monday afternoons for Intern-led seminars. During this time, interns are expected to lead a seminar on a topic that is not otherwise covered. During the first week, staff members will help guide interns into potential areas of interest. Interns are encouraged to prepare a seminar on a relevant topic before arrival.
Publication
We will be compiling a publication for distribution. It will encapsulate-- both qualitatively and quantitatively— the internship experience and the search for local food. Wednesday mornings will be devoted towards researching and contributing to this publication.
The last weekend of the program, we will host a regional celebration. We will invite the public, policy makers, farmers, and food people. We will present our experience and publication, host guest speakers, appreciate local food producers, and feast. We hope interns will be interested in taking part in organizing and celebrating with the greater community.
Cost: $2,250 - $3,250 (sliding scale). Includes instruction, housing, food, and class materials. Click here to enroll online or by post.
