My Favorite Recipes: Meet Amy Snively-Martinez

Amy Snively-Martinez in 2015 on Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala. She is standing in front a recent lava flow that was still steaming. She roasted marshmallows at the site.

Amy Snively-Martinez is the Outreach and Partnership Coordinator for Backyard Harvest, an organization that started in 2006 when a local woman accidentally grew 200 extra heads of lettuce in her first ever garden. The organization is based in Moscow but serves all of the Palouse. Its work involves gleaning from gardens and orchards to fill the shelves at local food pantries. They also help supply fresh produce to senior meals and summer lunch programs. Amy came to her position after a long interest in sustainable agriculture.

Amy has lived in a number of communities both east and west of the mountains in Washington state. She earned an undergraduate degree in biology in 2001 from Central Washington University and a master’s degree in horticulture from WSU in 2009. Her research for that degree took her to Mexico where she lived for two years.

In 2010 she began studies for a degree in anthropology at WSU where she has studied the livelihoods and health of smallholder farmers in Guatemala. In the years between her undergraduate and graduate studies, Amy worked as a biologist for the U.S. Forest Service in California and Wenatchee.

At Backyard Harvest, Amy works with local businesses and organizations that are interested in furthering the goals of making healthy food accessible and helping people achieve food security. She has found that people on the Palouse appreciate the efforts of Backyard Harvest which gleaned, gathered or grew more than 34,000 pounds of food for area food pantries in 2016.

Gardeners with extra produce can drop their surplus off at the Pullman and Moscow Farmer’s Markets and the Café Arista in Moscow. For larger quantities of produce they will arrange for volunteers to come for pick-up.

Residents who keep fruit trees with more fruit than they can use can register trees with Backyard Harvest, and volunteers will come and glean excess fruit. They also register berry patches and grape arbors.

Most recently Amy has been working with the YMCA of the Palouse and its after-school programs to promote nutrition and garden education.

“When you give kids a good, healthy, mostly fruit or vegetable snack and teach them about how good it is for them, they really devour the food,” she noted.

When not working, Amy likes to do her own gardening, running, biking and hiking with her sons.

“I really love to be outside, preferably in the mountains camping somewhere!” The picture was taken in 2015 on Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala. Amy is standing in front a recent lava flow that was still steaming. She roasted marshmallows at the site.

Recipes

Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe is from my great-grandmother Myrtle Prather, she was born and raised in southern Kentucky, so I don't know if this is a southern recipe, but it's yummy.

2 cups sugar

6 TBSP cocoa powder

1 stick margarine

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups oats

Bring the first four ingredients to a low boil for three minutes. Stir in the peanut butter and oatmeal. Spread into a buttered dish and let cool. Voila, you have a yummy quick dessert!

Grandma Geneva Burton's famous Angel Food Cake

2 cups egg whites

1 1/2 cups of Swans Down Flour, sifted (I have never heard of this one, but perhaps equal to cake flour?)

1 1/2 tsp tartar

1/3 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond flavoring

Beat eggs until frothy. Add cream of tartar and salt. Beat until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and beat on low while adding it. Add the flavoring, then fold in the flour. Pour into an ungreased bundt pan. Bake at 375 for 30 to 40 minutes. When done, remove from the oven, invert onto a bottle neck to let cool. That way it falls out easier.