We started class this week by reading the book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, which introduced the concept of a labor union and a labor strike. We then learned about a famous strike of sugar beet farmworkers in Oxnard, California in 1903. In opposition to their wages being cut and being paid in store credit among other issues, farmworkers across languages and cultures came together to form the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association, one of the first multi-racial labor unions in American history. The farmworkers ultimately won their fight against the sugar beet company and their contracting company. We looked at some photos from Oxnard from this time period and a poster from 2023 inviting locals in Oxnard to a public ceremony commemorating the events of 120 years ago.
In the kitchen, we made a salad of roasted beets with a dressing of garlic, ginger, orange, and miso. Students were able to customize their own rice bowls with toppings from Japanese and Mexican food cultures: nori, furikake, pepitas, salsa macha, avocado, green onion, cilantro, and lime. It was many chefs’ first exposure to beets and everyone had a lot of fun getting messy and dyed fuschia!
