This week we learned about some of California’s first farmworkers, Chinese immigrants, who helped build the state’s agricultural infrastructure in the mid-19th century. In the classroom, we watched a film teaser for a documentary called Invisible Assets: The Chinese Contribution to California Wines. The film explores the history of the many unnamed Chinese people who built the vineyards for which the town of Sonoma is now famous. We heard Sonoma’s mayor Jack Ding, a Chinese immigrant, talk about his dream of installing a Chinese ting honoring the labor of Chinese people in the middle of a public park in his city.
In the kitchen, we celebrated the Lunar New Year, an important culinary holiday for many Asian cultures, including the Chinese, by making dumplings. Our were filled with carrots, cabbage, garlic chives, shiitake mushrooms, tofu, ginger, shallots, and cilantro. We steamed the dumplings in bamboo steamers and one lucky chef at each table found the shiny coin hidden inside, which represents good fortune in the new year. Happy Year of the Rabbit to all!
