NEWS/FOOD FOOD/YEAR OF IDAHO FOOD ALI WAR D
Jamie Oliver demonstrates the revolutionary art of cooking with fresh ingredients.
THE FOOD REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED Following in the footsteps of Manhattan Grill, Texas Boogie and Boogie Woogies, The BrickYard will soon become Boise’s newest dueling piano bar/restaurant. “It is a steakhouse … We’ll be more casual by lunch, no tablecloths, no linens,” said owner Chad Johnson. “By evening, we’ll be tablecloths and candlelight ... All of our entrees come with a salad service that’s prepared table-side.” Johnson, who also owns Reef, The Front Door and Legends Pub and Grill, will open The BrickYard in the old Idaho Statesman Building on Sixth and Main streets, former home to Red Room. The kitchen, run by Chef Jeremy Haskell, will focus on USDA prime and USDA choice beef cuts sourced from Midwest corn-fed cattle. Menu prices run from $18 to $40. “Whatever a guest is willing to pay, that’s the guest that we target … It caters to a clientele that doesn’t think about menu prices or doesn’t think about wine bottle prices,” said Johnson. In an interesting twist, The BrickYard will also aim for the late-night crowd, with dueling pianos from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Johnson hopes to be open by late June. For the full story, visit Cobweb at boiseweekly.com. If you cringe every time Rachael Ray says, “E-V-O-O” or Gordon Ramsay throws a kitchen tantrum, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution is a show for you. Oliver strives to raise awareness about the foods we put in our bodies, where they come from and why they’re making us sick. Angela Levesque recently started a Boise chapter of the Food Revolution on Facebook, which aims to “get people back into their kitchens, cooking whole, nutritious food with their families.” For more info, visit facebook.com/boiseidfoodrevolution. In brews news, Saturday, June 18, is gearing up to be a badass beer day. Highlands Hollow Brewhouse, Sockeye Grill and Brewery, The Ram and TableRock Brewpub are all teaming up for the Highlands Hollow Deck Party and Brewer’s Bash from 4-9 p.m. The event will feature samples of microbrews and half of the proceeds will go to the Land Trust of the Treasure Valley to help purchase and protect the 58-acre Harrison Hollow property. Also on Saturday is the Fourth Annual All Idaho Hausbrau Battle and Organic Homebrew Challenge. The $5 public judging portion will go down from 4-6 p.m. at Fatty’s, with an awards ceremony at 7 p.m. during Boise Community Radio’s Solstice Block Party. For more info, email matt@ idahobeerunited.org. —Tara Morgan
30 | JUNE 15–21, 2011 | BOISEweekly
Getting back to the root of where our food comes from is both beneficial and educational.
OLD MCDOWNTOWN HAD A FARM Boise High Teaching Farm is all about science and community AMY ATKINS in science: soil, water, horticulture. And the Near the oldest high school and one of the budget for field trips had been eliminated. most majestic churches in Boise sat a half“We have a number of kids at different block parcel of fallow, weedy land. Situated academic levels,” Quissell said. “And kids at the corner of 12th and Fort streets, the coming from out of the country. All of the space could easily have lived out the rest of students at high-school level will continue to its life as a parking lot. Fortunately, for a couple of years, it found a rebirth as a com- need more science and math credits to graduate. On my mind was that some of those kids munity garden. ... might not want to take AP classes. I got But while a backyard garden takes a great deal of work to maintain, imagine the to thinking, ‘What if we could get a garden space and teach kids at Boise High gardenwork involved in the upkeep of a commuing, planting, real-life skills? [We could] use nity garden that takes up one-fourth of a the garden to talk about botany, genetics, a city block. The space had again begun to whole variety of science concepts.” resemble a weed farm—until Boise High Quissell put his head together with fellow School science teachers Erik Quissell and Boise High science teacher Ali Ward, and Ali Ward decided to get a little dirty. In January, the Treasure Valley Food Co- the two began to imagine what an incredible teaching tool a garden alition hosted a luncheon for so close to the school could a number of people involved be. Not only would it benefit in food production to kick off For more information and students, but Ward said she the Year of Idaho Food after contacts, visit downtownteachingfarm.blogspot.com. saw it as a way to benefit the a resolution to support Idaho community as a whole. food growers was passed by “We can use this as a the Idaho Legislature. From model of how to rehabilitate that luncheon, the seeds of the a space,” Ward said. Downtown Teaching Farm were sown. As an added benefit, they realized they Quissell was at the “education” table, could blend science and community-buildand the stories and ideas flew like casserole ing lessons with the school’s family and dishes being passed around a Thanksgivconsumer science classes (what we used to ing meal. Diana Ellis, who used to teach at North Junior High School, talked about her call home economics). But before they could school’s garden-to-plate program, and Quis- start digging up dirt and planting potatoes, they had to receive permission to use the sell began to formulate an idea that Boise property, which belongs to the First United High School could turn the community Methodist Church Cathedral of the Rockies garden into a learning experience. across the street. Boise High science students needed Quissell, who happens to be a member practical application lessons (and credits)
of the church’s congregation, said it was simple: He just asked the church if they could lease the space. The church said “yes,” and now Boise High currently has a one-year lease for the property. What grows on the farm will be used to supplement local food banks like the Idaho Foodbank and the church’s pantry and will help with the church’s weekly “friendship feast,” which feeds the poor and underserved. At the Downtown Teaching Farm, lime, kelly and olive green colors are sprouting from raised beds and mostly even rows of produce that run the length of the farm, which Ward affectionately but tiredly calls “humongous.” Quissell guessed that there are at least a dozen different types of vegetables growing—pumpkins, potatoes, corn, chard, peppers and more—and there’s even a “pizza garden” (a suggestion that came from Ward’s daughter) that includes basil, wheat and tomatoes. That humongousness coupled with a late start and an extra crop that is Ward and Quissell’s bane—goatheads—means that the farm needs more than two science teachers and a few volunteer students to keep it alive and well this season. Ward said they got a generous water donation from United Water, but they are also going to need a few thousand gallons of elbow grease to make this season’s farm a success, and volunteers are very welcome. They also need to get rid of the goatheads. “If anyone out there has an organic way to remove weeds, we’d love to hear from them,” Quissell said. WWW. B O I S E WE E KLY. C O M