Learn As You Go

Makin’ Food & Friends

Carly Brand
Aug 27, 2017 · 6 min read

Listening: Death of a Bachelor by Panic! At the Disco. (Or Death of a Salesman, cover by Kevin Stehlin)

Reading: Waste — Uncovering The Global Food Scandal by Tristram Stuart

Thinking: “Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure.” — Baruch Spinoza

Dear You,

The best predictor of adulthood, I think, is whether you make 1 or 2 trips when managing a heavy load. A child — or an adult with the maturity level of a child — will sacrifice their own wellbeing, plus the safety of each and every item they are precariously carrying to their destination. A well-adjusted adult will accept that the wise decision is to make two trips and deliver everything unscathed. Dad, this one’s for you: The first time I moved, I was a child. Now, just 5 days later, I am an adult.

For my host family, I left behind a bouquet of flowers (in their own vase), 2 batches of chocolate chip cookies (1 atrocious failure and 1 which resembled muffins), plus 8 homemade ice cream sandwiches (2 for each family member, using said muffin-cookies). The atrocious failure happened because every ingredient was in Danish and I really had to go to the ladies room while I was shopping, so the hopping from foot to foot while trying to type words into Google Translate made things difficult.

Baking soda, brown sugar, white flour and whole wheat flour.

Didn’t you ask someone for help? My mom wanted to know. No I did not, because last time I asked for Baking Soda the man confidently handed me Baking Powder, which I subsequently used to shampoo my hair at least 4 times. The silver lining of this incident is that I’ve learned you’re not supposed to use baking soda or powder on your hair, so now I’m going to try rye flour shampoo.

My weird shampoo missions are a good fit for my Zero Waste ambitions. Yesterday, I became a member at Løs, a wasteless market in Vesterbro. This is the inevitable future, so we might as well get used to it now. You buy everything in bulk, which is a grand old time, because if you only want 1 mushroom and 5 cashews, say, it’s acceptable. Plus, it’s cheaper! I know that I am a strange sustainability nerd, but you won’t believe the exhilarating rush coming home from the grocery and having nothing at all to throw away or to guiltily stash in hopes of a single reuse. *John Travolta: IT’S ELECTRIFYING.*

Spices, oils & wines, and everything else you’d ever want at Løs Market!

My other favorite place in the city, which you have probably picked up on by now, is ØsterGRO. Calling Wednesday “hump day” or “Woman-Crush-Wednesday” (#wcw as it’s known on Instagram, for all my beloved non-Millennial readers) never really ignited a fire within me, but volunteering at the rooftop farm is a different story. I look forward to it all week starting on Thursdays at 00:01.

I park my bike next to Fitness World and Dead Cat Motorcycles, then follow the graffiti-like signs to climb the four-story spiral staircase to the farm. One more story up and you can get an aerial view.

On the back left lies the compost where we dump the weeds we pull, along with organic food waste, I think, which comes from the glass-walled restaurant in the middle. Bulb lights are strung overhead to illuminate the night for weekend dinners, and the picnic table you see is where volunteers eat the most local lunch we ever did eat on those Wednesday afternoons. It’s been beautiful weather in the two weeks since I’ve arrived, after what I’m told was a horrendously grey summer, so I’ve had the luxury of shooting the sweet breeze with new friends while we harvest arugula and clean tomato beds.

I’ve especially taken to Kristian and Livia, the founders, and Livia’s dad, whose name you might spell “Tarjei.” Livia is just 26-years-old and one of the warmest people I’ve met. She’s bubbly and genuine and I can tell that everyone who comes for the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) comes partially to talk to her. I’m inspired by her self-awareness — that she left her studies to pursue what’s become such an integral example of sustainability, community and beauty in Copenhagen. I love that her parents volunteer full days on the farm, too, and always find myself talking to Tarjei; He makes me feel like a part of the ØsterGRO family and even suggested I could work in the restaurant (a dream).

Setting the table for lunch. We take our time to talk and eat family style. The flowers are edible and spicy as the radishes!

If I’m not able to work at ØsterGRO Spiseri (Eatery) My landlord offered to find me another restaurant job. On top of that and Danish lessons, I know I’ll be busy when my University Intro Days start tomorrow. We have to be there at 9:00 and there’s no telling what time we’ll go home: At Line’s birthday party Friday night, she and her friends told me that university begins with 3/4/5 day trips to locations unknown with your classmates for some school-sponsored-grogging. You get no information except for a packing list which could range from “tennis gear” to “ballroom gown” to “Game of Thrones” attire. One way to bond with new acquaintances…!

It’s been so nice to spend time with Line and her friends, especially Valdís; they both know my dearest best friend Meredith from gap years in Vietnam, so I already knew we’d get along. When our bikes converge, we go grocery shopping, throw the cheapest bottle of wine in there, then make dinner to take outside and talk in the gardens for hours.

The gals on Line’s birthday and new students playing weird drinking games.

Right now, I’m heading on a foraging trip organized by the Noma team with Mathias, a new connection from my Change Food boss, Diane. When I first talked to Mathias, I thought he was hoping to have me on as a volunteer to help organize his upcoming Food Systems Summit at Techfestival, like I did for Change Food Fest 2016. But actually, he wants me to participate(?)!

On September 6th, then, I’ll get to partake in the “free, invite-only [event]… limited to 80 people, attending from all around the world.” It’s a secret of mine, but I’ve entertained a daydream or two about speaking at one of the events I work, and now I’ll have 10 whole minutes in a casual space to try it out… Who knows what I’ll do except learn as I go!

xo Carly

PS: Comment!! ❤

)
Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade