PORT ANGELES — The segment on the Baccus family of Port Angeles aired today on ABC’s “Good Morning America” instead of Sunday, as previously planned.
Even the Baccus family didn’t know until late Saturday that the segment, “Child Vegetarians,” had aired Saturday morning in a last-minute schedule switch.
“Luckily, for us, the neighbor taped it,” said Jessica Baccus on Saturday afternoon.
Wendy Brundige, “Good Morning America Weekend” associate producer, sent the Baccuses an e-mail from New York on Friday afternoon saying that the segment would air Saturday morning rather than the originally scheduled date of today.
But the Baccuses didn’t check their e-mail until late Saturday, Jessica said.
“I didn’t get it in time,” she said.
The schedule change was made after the Peninsula Daily News published a Friday story on Page A1 in the Clallam County edition and Page A4 in the Jefferson County edition about the show.
The Baccus family was featured in a segment about children who choose to be vegetarians, but whose parents eat meat — and what that means in terms of family adjustments and concerns about children’s nutrition.
Eleven-year-old Elijah Baccus is a vegetarian — while his parents, Bill and Jessica, and his sister, Alisandra, are omnivores.
For those who missed it, the segment can be seen online by clicking here: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/story?id=7365635&page=1
Earlier report:
PORT ANGELES — Elijah Baccus is a principled child who happens to relish pickles.
They’re his favorite food, much preferred over the pepperoni pizza and hamburgers popular with his peers.
Elijah’s pickle habit, or more precisely the 11-year-old’s decision to be a vegetarian, has grabbed the attention of “Good Morning America,” ABC-TV’s newsmagazine. The show will feature the Baccus family — with non-vegetarian parents Bill and Jessica — at 7 a.m. Sunday on KOMO-TV.
A production crew came out to Port Angeles last Monday to spend four hours taping and talking with the Baccuses about vegetables, meat and how to have a harmonious, omnivorous household.
Elijah is outnumbered, but his vegetarian choice of, say, cheese and bread over chicken doesn’t seem to be a problem. And Jessica, who used to be a vegetarian, often cooks vegetable-rich soups and stews the whole family can dig into. But she and Bill also like organic chicken and pork from Nash’s Organic Produce, while their 6-year-old daughter Alisandra doesn’t hesitate to say her favorite food is cube steak.
Local food
The couple joked that they turned their national television debut into a kind of infomercial for Port Angeles’ wealth of local markets and foods.
“I cooked a hormone-free chicken from Sunny Farms [in Carlsborg] with herbes de Provence from the [Sequim] Lavender Festival,” Bill said, smiling.
The Baccuses won’t be watching “Good Morning America” at home, however. They don’t have cable TV and use their set just to watch videos.
Elijah and Alisandra weren’t terribly impressed by the arrival of a camera crew, Bill added.
“For them, it was like the next thing to do: ‘I’ve got to go to piano lessons, and then I’m going to be interviewed for a TV program,'” he said. “Elijah would have been bummed if he had to miss soccer.”
Reflecting on the experience, however, Elijah said the coast-to-coast business bent his mind a bit.
“Knowing that people all over the United States will be watching — that’s kind of weird,” he said.
To Elijah, being a vegetarian isn’t a big deal. He made the choice back when he was a preschooler.
‘Eat one’s friends?’
“My parents told me that chickens and other animals are our friends,” he recalled. “I put two and two together,” and wondered why, then, would one eat one’s friends?
Jessica, for her part, said feeding her vegetarian, and somewhat finicky, son isn’t as inconvenient as it may sound. “I did lay down the law and say, ‘What’s your protein source?'” she said.
“I eat cheese and a lot of cashews,” Elijah told a reporter.
“The hardest part is not his vegetarianism, but cooking for a person who doesn’t like beans or most soy products or a lot of mixed foods,” Jessica added. But both Mom and son say he’s become adventurous at the dinner table.
“Over the last two years, I’ve eaten a lot of new foods,” such as quinoa and pad Thai noodles, Elijah said.
“And if I’m going to eat a special food, like a baked potato instead of chicken, I have to get it ready.”
Bill and Jessica instituted something called the “no, thank you” bite. Elijah and Alisandra have to try at least a morsel of a new food before they may politely decline more.
And when Elijah has gone out with friends for pizza or fast food, he’s been known to tuck a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into his backpack.
He also has no problem eating just french fries and salad or removing the pepperoni from the pie. At home he enjoys a “cheeseburger,” as in a bun with cheese and no patty.
TV crew in the kitchen
So while the Baccuses’ dinner-table diversity presents little hassle, having a TV crew in their kitchen was another story.
“They really settled in,” Bill said. “We’re trying to put dinner together . . . and keep [the kids] on good behavior.” Jessica added that their son and daughter did slip into performance mode but mostly frolicked around the house and yard.
Bill, for his part, was enthused about his chance to highlight the fact that he and Jessica are not just carnivores, but locavores — eaters of locally grown goods. They’re shareholders in Salt Creek Farm’s community-supported agriculture, or CSA, program, so starting next month they will enjoy weekly boxes of fresh produce from the Joyce farm.
And every Friday, dozens of other farmshare subscribers come to the Baccuses’ barn — a Salt Creek distribution site — to pick up their boxes.
“Friday is a festive day,” said Bill. It’s a social event and a nourishing alternative to cable TV.
The Baccuses weren’t certain whether they’ll go over to a neighbor’s house to watch “Good Morning America.”
Seven o’clock on Sunday morning is awfully early.
So, said Elijah, “we’re going to ask them to tape it for us.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
