Collegiate Times

A plate from Farms & Fields.

Since January 2009, the Farms and Fields Project has been serving Virginia Tech’s hungriest and healthiest foodies with local, organic and sustainable meals.

I took on the ultimate healthy eating challenge: eating Farms and Fields meals for four days straight. I wanted to know if its dishes truly met its criteria and had flavors that tickled the tongue and provided a broad variety.

MONDAY

To start off the week, I sunk my teeth into a chicken Brie panini topped with red pepper jelly, organic basil and Brie cheese on locally made, organic seed bread. The combination of the warm, creamy cheese with the tender, juicy chicken simply melted in my mouth in perfect harmony. Without the chicken, the Brie would’ve been too rich to stand-alone. And, without the cheese, the chicken would have been too dry for the mouth to handle.

Watching the friendly worker spread a red mixture on one piece of bread and a green mixture on the other, I wondered what these creations were. Biting into the panini, my palette was met with a burst of sweetness, which I soon realized was the red pepper jelly. However, the flavor was not too sweet to overwhelm the rest of the ingredients. It provided a pop to a somewhat basic panini.

On the other hand, the basil spread was more understated, which my taste buds appreciated considering the many flavors swirling around my mouth. The herb simply added a touch of freshness, complimenting the other ingredients.

In my opinion, the bread is one of the most important parts of a panini. If it is too dry or unflavored, then the panini is ruined. After all, it is the first ingredient the tongue touches, creating a backdrop and core for the meal. Luckily, this bread was to die for. It was toasted and heated to perfection — not too soft, but not too crunchy. And, the overall whole-wheat taste didn’t overpower the rest of the panini. 

To compliment the panini, I chose garlicky spinach and a bowtie pesto pasta salad — I was more hungry than usual. Now, let me make it clear, I am not a fan of spinach. But, I thought I might as well try to miserably suck down the dripping greens to make myself feel healthy for the day.

To my surprise, as I prepared myself for the grotesque spinach taste with squinting eyes and a curled-up nose, my palette went wild for the vegetable. Who knew spinach could taste so savory and creamy? During my meal, I found myself scarfing down bites of spinach instead of the sandwich itself. Shocking.

Topping off my lunch was the bowtie pesto pasta salad. Although it was not as flavorful as the panini and spinach, it was still delicious and didn’t overpower the other meal parts. The pasta itself was cooked to perfection, and the pesto sauce was light, giving the pasta just enough texture and flavor.

TUESDAY

By Tuesday I was already having a difficult week, so I went a little overboard on my carbohydrates. At first, I ordered a grilled cheese. But as I waited for this to be freshly made, I found my eyes creepily staring at the butternut squash lasagna under the heater. Once my sandwich was finished, I could not hold myself back from ordering the lasagna, so I went for it. Word of advice: Too much cheese is exhausting but extremely savory.

The grilled cheese was classic. The rocky knob bread was again cooked to perfection, adding a warm and toasty backdrop for the melted organic mozzarella and havarti cheeses. The soft raisins scattered throughout what seemed to be whole-wheat bread provided a pleasant flavor pop.

However, the real flavor came from the cheese blend. The havarti’s creamy flavor mixed especially well with the more pungent mozzarella taste.

To top off my already carbohydrate-laden lunch, I took my first bite of the butternut squash lasagna. The first few bites were delicious. The whole-wheat pasta was layered with melted mozzarella, parmesan cheese, butternut squash, basil and nutmeg. However, the lasagna suddenly became too heavy to handle. The creaminess felt like it was sitting in the pit of my stomach.

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A version of this article appeared in the Nov 17 issue of the Collegiate Times.