Hi there, I am Matthew Harrington, and I am your host. Welcome to Cooking with Friends. Hiya. My, Oh, my, do we have something special in store for you. It Is my most humble honor to welcome the Mosley Family and Operation Unite. Come on, let's get cooking. Hi, my name is Elena Mosley, and I have the honor of being here with my son Tristin and my husband Greg Mosely. We're making a spread with some herbs and some goat cheese that's made here at the farm, as well as this wonderful bread from one of our neighbors. I'm not a real kitchen guy, but I'll do the best I can with the lemons and some herbs. We'll put them together. We're going to make a nice little meal. My son, Tristin. One thing Tristin has taught me is patience and understanding. So he's a bright young man, autistic, doesn't speak very much.
Tristin grew up in a music and dance family. He has great siblings who are very loving and caring and understood our family dynamics of the things that we needed to do to keep Tristin safe and to keep him integrated into everything that we do. I see him do things at Camphill that I would never think possible, never think possible. As a parent you're overly protective. And when he gets in the program, I'm like, oh no, Tristin can't do that. Oh, yes, he can. He does it every day. He uses a knife, he cuts things, cuts food, vegetables, so he does more than meets the eye.
Tristin loves to cook. He loves to chop and pick the leaves off the different herbs and things. He likes doing things. And if you take the time to show him how to do things, you know, he's willing to learn. Yeah, I'm chopping the garlic that we're going to be mixing with the herbs and it's going to go into our spread, We got all these beautiful things that are locally grown, locally grown. That's the way to go. You sure got that right, Greg. Eat local. Growing local, eat it local, live a good, nice, healthy life. This is the way to do it. Did you know that the number of farmers markets in the US has massively, awesomely increased in recent years. Woohoo to that!! A round of applause, please. I would say that the main health benefit to locally grown food is that it's fresher. Fruits and vegetables begin to lose their nutrients within twenty four hours of being picked. So fresher produce is more nutritious. Most produce in a grocery store is harvested before it's fully ripe, so it can make the trip to store shelves without rotting.
Mmm doesn't that sound appealing. Tristin, what are you doing buddy? I'm going to work on lemons. You work on that. Yeah, OK. Eating local also means you can meet the people who grow your food like farmer Pete. I love that guy. Operation Unite was founded by Greg and myself. Our main focus is arts and education. We wanted to produce a well-rounded young person that can go out into the world and get the education and come back and we reinvest themselves in our community. With that and then having our Kumba Dance and Drum Dance company in Hudson, it really was like a full circle of caring for people and sharing for people. Yes, he's almost done with that. Try this one. Yeah, break it up. Show Daddy how it's done.
There you go. There you go. Getting all the pieces off. Well, the bread comes from a neighbor named Tracy. And I just can't wait to put the goat cheese spread and all of the hard work that's going into making this spread into it and then putting a piece in my mouth. Oooh, look at this heavenly bread. This one is an organic superseed bread. It has organic cracked wheat, organic crushed rye, organic sunflower kernels, organic sesame seeds, and you guessed it… Organic brown flax seeds. One of the definitions of organic, if you need a little reminder, is food produced without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or other artificial agents.
Here Here to that! Tristin does not want me to touch his parsley. His parsley. That's his thing. That's right. That's his thing. That's your thing son? OK, Hey son we're going to put it all together. And strangely enough Dad's going to be the one to do it. Hopefully we get this right son, or mommy will be very disappointed in us. Miracles do happen, tell him Tris. Put that over there, put a little more because this goat cheese is so good. You're going to want your fill of it.
This delicious creamy goat cheese is also made at Ten Barn Farm And now we'll take a little bit of thyme. Sure and it'll all go on top We'll go all on top and you fold it in, it's going to be magnificent. It'll all go on top. Hmm. Could you please pass me the garlic? Absolutely. I'm going to bring you some right over. Sure. There you go. Tristin is watching to see what are you doing? There you go. Mm hmm. This is a great experience that we're doing something all together as a family and it doesn't necessarily have to be perfect.
It just has to be done together. Voila, it's done, Enjoy. Ha ha Mm hmm. What do you think Tris? I'm going to have a bite? Are you ready to have a bite too? And that's what you said, Voila! Wonderful son. This is a lot of fun. I'm telling you, I don't know what's going on out there in your life, but in our lives, this is a great day for us, a great day for Tristin, my wife.
So thank you for watching, being part of this with us, sharing as our family does something together. And we're so grateful to all of the staff that works with our son Tristin to make his life a better life. Thank you. Thank you so much The Mosley family and Operation Unite. Well, that's it from all of us. Remember, stay hungry for life. Dance to the beat of your own drum..