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Kathy Duprez is the Director of the Back2Basics Culinary Program and in charge of resident menu planning. Find out more about Kathy here. Read on to find out about the exciting culinary adventures that Back2Basics incorporates into the daily routine – from volunteering in a soup kitchen, to fire safety, to growing our own produce!
This is an exciting week for the Culinary program here at Back2Basics. We have a video on YouTube showing a class demo of how to make Chicken en Papilote, and it is the beginning of spring here in Flagstaff, AZ – the gardens are being prepared for spring flowers and summer vegetables.
One of the residents and I worked this weekend in preparing our garden space in the back yard at Hunter. We cleared rocks, dug up weeds and marked the area to be planted. We spread out one of our compost barrels filled with scraps and saw dust. We will be enclosing the area with railroad ties in order to have a more organized area and healthier soil. The soil in Flagstaff has a lot of clay and rock, and the pine needles dropping do not help with their acid content.We have a couple of wooden decks that have more sun exposure so we will be gardening in oak barrels in those areas. During this project, the residents will have support from the community to learn about composting and the further preparation and planting of our gardening. I am excited to include this in their culinary program of cooking and now to being able to pick from the garden our own fresh vegetables. (We will keep you posted on this!)
The residents have also volunteered at a local soup kitchen, serving meals for the homeless. This will be a regular part of our schedule on the Sunday’s that we do not go out to sweat.
Safety is also a big concern in the kitchen so we have had the fire department come and give us a demo on the proper use of fire extinguishers and the 3 different types of fires.
A local bakery, Sugar Mama’s, will be joining us soon to doing a baking demo. My goal for the spring and summer is to connect with local restaurants and people in the food industry to learn about our program and work with us for possible internships. Flagstaff is about community and being of service to each other.
– Kathy, Back2Basics Director of Culinary Program and Menu Planning