Mariah was never formally introduced on the blog, except to announce her arrival in May. Mariah is the culinary intern, and this week's blog is all about her experience here at MSU.
Mariah's Summer Summary
One of my first days Chef Martin
and I tested some salsa recipes using some local tomatoes. Many were either
green or reject tomatoes, but they worked well for our purposes. On the left is
a cool tomato slicer that some of the salad dept. ladies and I got to learn to
use. We made Pico de Gallo first then Martin made a Roasted Tomatillo Salsa,
while I tested a Spicy Avocado Salsa.
Kyle and I loved the view we got at the top of the Sypes
Canyon hike. So many beautiful wildflowers! I am so excited to explore more
trails in the area.
Rebecca and I also took a wonderful hike on an early
Saturday morning at Kirk Hill. The temperature was perfect and the views well
worth it. After the hike we went to breakfast at Nova café, where I was able to
try my first acai bowl. This made me really excited to start researching and
testing smoothie recipes for the new flex station in Harrison and the new
dining hall.
Kyle and I got to test our rock
climbing skills in the Spire Climbing gym. We both loved learning how to belay
and climbing/bouldering the many walls.
Here’s a picture of Rebecca and I with Sydney and Dana, who
also work for Paul in the office. This was when we drove up to Hyalite to have
a potluck ft. Paul’s wife Erica’s impressive Dutch oven cooking. Hyalite is
easily one of the prettiest places I have been during this internship. It is
about 10 miles up a long, scenic road. At the place where we had our potluck
there is an awesome pavilion that was built by MSU architecture students and a
vast, beautiful reservoir.
This is a picture of one of our
first experiences bonding with our fellow employees on the Gear Belly, which is a 14-person bicycle that a
group can rent to ride between various bars. One of the bars featured a
kombucha bar, which was perfect for me J
This is a beautiful view that I got to experience when we
had a “Ranch Day” at Sitz Ranch in Harrison, MT. While Kyle, Rebecca, and Paul
helped tagging cattle and testing their tractor driving skills, I got to hike
the water/ditch line, which goes along the peak on the left in the picture.
This is a routine task at the ranch because the ditch is so old (built by early
settlers on the ranch) that its necessary to make sure there are no leaks or
areas that have the potential to become leaks.
This is a picture of Jeri and I rocking our VIP parkas at
the Food Services of America (FSA) warehouse freezer in Billings, MT. I was a
little disappointed in myself for wearing a dress this day, but the tour was
quick and interesting. It was amazing to see just how much product they have to
store and the quick speed that the workers have to employ in order to get all
of their work done for a day.
Above is another picture of the beautiful Hyalite reservoir.
It is a great place to take visitors that are just in Bozeman for a short time.
Rebecca, Kyle, and I were lucky to
be asked to work concessions at a few of the summer’s big concert in the MSU
Fieldhouse. Concerts that we worked included KISS and James Taylor. These were
long hours and sitting was not an option, so although we were sufficiently
tired after each one, it was interesting for us all to see how the concessions
business operates ‘backstage.’
I was fortunate to attend the MSU farm’s Town Harvest
luncheon, which was right on the farm a couple miles from campus. The lunch
featured plant-based dishes created by students. I thought all of the dishes
were very delicious and impressive. After lunch, we got to go on a tour of the
farm, which was also very impressive. The tour guides were explaining how
trail-and-error and research play a huge roll in agriculture and described how
sometimes techniques that were unintentionally put into place by one volunteer/student
or another have become standard practice because they worked so well.
