Field Trip Fun

Hello everyone, it seems just as most of your internships are getting into the full swing, ours is winding down. We now only have three weeks left, and our big theme meal is this Wednesday.  It is definitely going to be a busy few days!

Pam, me, Emily and Carol taking a lunch break!

Last week we went on more excursions with Carol, our director, and an assistant manager, Pam.  We visited the Omar Coffee Roasters where we saw how green coffee beans become the morning beverage on which so many of us rely.

Coffee beans, before they are roasted.

Shannon and Greg were our guides to the facility, and Greg did a great job explaining everything from the various steps that go into making a great tasting bean, to what it means to be Organic Fair Trade, to how to keep your coffee fresher longer (in the freezer).  Omar Coffee provides all the coffee to this campus, as well as coffee for Trader Joe's and for all the troops in Afghanistan. They were also so kind to give each of us our own bag of coffee. Their facility is pretty high tech and amazing:

Omar Coffee

Our other field trip was to Bridge Tofu. At Bridge Tofu they specialize in making tofu and seitan, and very much excell at it.  Emily and I ordered salads at lunch from a nearby restaurant which had Bridge Tofu on it, and it was delicious and different-unlike any tofu either of us ever had. The owner of Bridge Tofu, Steve, gave us a tour of their facility and explained the tofu making process (very similar to making cheese), which actually requires very few ingredieants-basically just water, soybeans and magnesium chloride.  This compact facility turns out some great tofu and seitan. They also were so generous and gave us samples of their tasty products.

Bridge Tofu. This machine cooks the soybeans.

Unlike Omar coffee which is served everywhere on campus, Bridge Tofu can only be found in Whitney Dining Hall, but after our visit, there may be plans to expand to others. What I learned from these field trips is that the best products are often local. Though I am used to freshly roasted coffee from my hometown of Kent, I have never had fresh tofu before.  Emily and I are both passionate about buying local products and these tours just reiterated to us the importance of supporting local business, and also the difference in taste and quality is astounding.  We encourage all of you to go to your local farmers markets and stores and see what you can find.
The rest of our week was spent preparing for our meal on Wednesday. We finished up ordering with Manager Dave Barbera, who went over our order list item by item to make sure the FoodPro system ordered it all, and it's a good thing he did because many of our essential items were not going to be ordered! Crisis averted!
We also spent time working as assistant managers at South with manager Drew Gibson, who is an excellent fruit carver.  June is National Fruit and Vegetable Month, so Emily and I helped create this awesome fruit display. Drew made the great carvings with no stencils-he just freehanded it! The students really enjoyed all the fresh fruit, as did we.

Friday we moved on to working with Student Program Coordinator Chelsea Beaudry, who is essentially in charge of the student workers-over a thousand of them during the school year!
Overall, it was another great week here at the University of Connecticut, and time keeps flying by. Hope your experiences are all as great as ours!