VSC at the Colorado Wildfire Academy

It's not often that the VSC gets invited to give a presentation to firefighters. But this is just what happened recently at the Colorado Wildfire Academy in Alamosa, Colorado.

The task was basically to explain vegetarian food to the "Food Unit Leader" class. They wanted alternatives to the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the cans of beans, which the vegetarians among the firefighters were getting thus far. They were also concerned about protein. Yes, they explained, there were vegetarians among the people who fought forest fires every year.

My presentation took place on Thursday afternoon, June 5. This was a professional academy where people learned about all aspects of fighting forest fires. There were ten people in the "Food Unit Leader" class, but the two instructors I talked to (Cindi Myers and Mary Fields) were just as interested and learned as much from my presentation as the students. I was greatly aided by the fact that Justina Walls (who writes the VSC recipe column for us) has already done a very similar class on "Transitioning to Vegetarianism." She had empty packages of tofu, tempeh, seitan, veggie Asausage,@ etc., which were great as demonstration tools, and which she loaned to me to take down there. I told the class about the different kinds of tofu, about protein requirements, how to make seitan, handed out some sample recipes, and even did a short food demo on "barbecued tofu." I also took the full array of VSC pamphlets and plenty of my favorite cookbooks. I also took information given to me by the Vegetarian Resource Group -- the book "Vegan in Volume," which gives quantity vegan recipes, was most helpful.

I was surprised that the Colorado Wildfire Academy would invite me to give such a presentation. Firefighters struck me as a rather "Atraditional" or even "macho" group, and Alamosa, let me tell you, is not a hotbed of alternative medicine. The Academy invited me out to dinner, but it was a locally catered barbecue, and the only vegetarian item offered would have been the coleslaw, so I declined -- deciding instead to feast on some of the food samples I had brought.

But the next morning, I talked with Mary Fields at breakfast, and found out more about how the firefighters work. Fighting forest fires uses two kinds of workers, type 1 fighters and type 2 fighters. "Type 1" fighters are on the front lines and probably see the most actual fire. They are the first on the scene and try to get the fire under control. "Type 2" fighters come in later and clean up remaining spot fires, make sure that the fire is completely out, and so forth. Type 2 fighters are more numerous, but Type 1 fighters require more skills.

It is generally the type 1 fighters that have the most vegetarians. While not very many type 2 fighters are vegetarian from 20% to 30% of all type 1 fighters request vegetarian meals! They tend to be young people and often college students -- "fighting fires is a great summer job," according to Mary. Thus the need for a vegetarian presentation to someone in charge of the food for these people.

The firefighters do not have their own kitchens which go where the fire is. Rather, they rely on local sources of food, such as restaurants and caterers. Thus, they must coordinate the food with people who themselves may not be very experienced with vegetarian requirements. Typically, the lunches they get are sack lunches. While the contract they have specifies a certain amount of protein, the main nutritional requirements for firefighters are calories. They may need up to 5000 calories per day in fighting fires. So nutritionally, firefighters' nutritional needs resemble most closely those of athletes.

After the presentation I was pleased to get a number of favorable responses to my presentation. It wasn't just the instructors who thanked me, but several of the students went out of their way to thank me for the presentation. While to me what I presented was pretty basic -- "here are some good recipes for tempeh and tofu," etc. -- a lot of information which I presented was completely new.

As I left the class, I had just pulled out onto Highway 160 to go back to my hotel when traffic came to a halt. Then, police cars appeared, and it became evident that I wasn't going to go anywhere on the highway for a while. I pulled off to a side street to explore how to get around the problem, but then I heard additional sirens and it was clear to me that there was something major going on. I parked my car, out of curiosity, and walked up to see what the incident was all about.

What I found was the firefighters' parade. The main highway had been blocked off for the occasion. What seemed like every fire-fighting vehicle in the county, and perhaps the surrounding counties as well, had put in an appearance. The fire engines had all of their sirens going full blast, creating a gigantic swell of noise, and they proceeded to use their fire hoses to water down the surrounding buildings and even playfully watered down some of the onlookers, as well! Smokey the Bear also put in an appearance, waving to onlookers from the top of a fire vehicle. It was a fitting conclusion to an enjoyable trip to Alamosa to spread information about vegetarianism.

Here is the recipe I used at the class:

From: Tofu Quick and Easy, by Louise Hagler

Yield: 12 ribs or 8 slices

These ribs can be served as a main dish or cut smaller for an appetizer.

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees F.

Have ready:

1 lb. frozen tofu, thawed, squeezed dry and cut into rib-like strips

3/4 cup your favorite barbecue sauce

Oil a 9" by 13" pan (smaller for a toaster oven) with:

2 Tbsp. oil

Lay the pieces of tofu in the pan, leaving space between each one. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until browned on one side, then turn over and bake about 5-10 minutes to brown the other side. Pour and spread the barbecue sauce over all the pieces and bake 5-10 more minutes. Cooking can also be done on an outdoor grill. Serve on Kaiser rolls or with rice or potatoes. Barbecue Tofu can be frozen and reheated later.

Per Rib: Calories: 65, Protein: 3 gm., Fat: 2 gm., Carbohydrates: 5 gm.

Note on freezing tofu: I use water-packed tofu ("Chinese" style), open the package, and drain off all the water and squeeze the tofu gently to get excess water out. Then wrap in a couple of plastic bags and put it in the freezer.

 Keith Akers