Our group of Happy Hempsters gathered at Deanna and David Turner’s home for an evening of culinary exploration. The evening was broken into two parts: a live baking session during which we experimented with hemp-enhanced dough and a Zoom session where we did a recap and connected with the University of the Sciences students who are working with the Transition Town Media (TTM) Hemp group.
David kicked us off with a brief description of hemp’s cultural history and the group’s mission to learn more and remove the stigma built up around hemp for generations. David and Deanna led nine of us in the live baking session. They had pre-measured out the ingredients which included a hemp protein substituted in for some of the self-rising flour. They also assembled a collection of delicious add-ons like sliced mozzarella, garlic, broccoli, vegetables and chicken.
Everyone was given a colorful apron and was encouraged to brainstorm a slogan that will be emblazoned on their aprons. Some of the slogans included:
Hemp du Jour —*— Hemp Hemp Hooray! —*— Happy Hempster —*— Got Hemp? —*— Just Add Hemp! —*— For Hemp’s sake. As you can imagine, this led to a lot of chuckles and silly fun.
As group leader, one of David’s goals was to have participants really interact with the food. And interact we did! We saw many creative expressions taking place on the palette of the hemp dough. We learned that the oven temperature needs to be 400 degrees or higher—but we found that we could compensate by baking a little longer if the temperature is lower. The good news is that all of this crucial baking knowledge that follows from such experimentation is being captured in a Hemp Cook Book (or set of recipe cards) that the students are working on.
How was the pizza? The hemp protein provided an earthy and substantial base. Personally, I found that four slices of hemp pizza (yes! half a pizza!) are much more filling then a traditional pizza dough pizza pie. I thought it was hempalicious! In any case, I didn’t see much pizza being left over.
We wrapped up the evening chatting with the students and other members who Zoomed in, sharing our experience from the live portion and talking about future activities. The students provided their first cut at an outline for the recipe book and we brainstormed more about how our recipes could be printed and used at future TTM events.
We wrapped up the evening chatting with the students and other members who Zoomed in, sharing our experience from the live portion and talking about future activities. The students provided their first cut at an outline for the recipe book and we brainstormed more about how our recipes could be printed and used at future TTM events.
A very happy, hempy time was had by all!
Author: Skip Shuda
Reviewer: Pat Osimo
Acknowledgement: Many thanks to Emma Medina-Castrejon for documenting the evening’s creative process through photos and video!
If you’d like to join the Hemp group mailing list, please email David Turner at [email protected]
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