Blog du Wren

Local Food Party 2009

This year's Local Foods Party* was again a great success. Like in years past, there was homemade salt, garden grown veggies, and oodles of fresh berries. Like in years past, there were new and creative additions to the menu (some of which worked and some of which did not.) And like in years past, we had a great group of people gathered together to celebrate the bounty and abundance of northwest Washington's local foodscape.

Some highlights for me (besides being with good people): smoked bison, pizza*, a gorgeous , crab(!), and peaches and cream. As with the first year, there was also a little (esp. by the )

A couple of the foodie experiments that I was hoping to contribute didn't turn out as well as I hoped (but were still lots of fun to do). An attempt to make sugar from beets ended up as taffy so instead went to sweeten blackberry popsicles. The critics commented "I like the first taste, but not the last one that it leaves in your mouth". Also, I made another attempt at tortillas, which I was sure I had pegged. After rendering some fat into lard, finding a local flour source, and drying, storing, and grinding corn into cornmeal, I thought I had all the ingredients, but something just wasn't right. They turned out more like tostadas rather than tortillas. Alas.

Thinking, planning, and talking about the challenges* and rewards of local foods is always a great way to remind me of what we as a culture so often take for granted. Having a meal dedicated to not taking that stuff for granted makes me very . Having good friends around to share it with makes it that much better.

Sunday August 23 2009

File under: food, events

Toggle Comments (8)

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on Sun 23rd Aug, 2009 01:00 pm PDT Andrew said:
My god man! It looks like a good time! Sorry we were unable to attend. Next year! And we'll bring local strippers from Portland!
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on Sun 23rd Aug, 2009 02:31 pm PDT Sean said:
Goodness gracious, that's a sweet shirt!
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on Sun 23rd Aug, 2009 03:31 pm PDT Jule said:
Ditto what andrew said. Minus the stripper part.
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on Tue 25th Aug, 2009 07:08 am PDT Deneva said:
Looks soooo good! I completely agree with Sean about your shirt
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on Tue 25th Aug, 2009 08:07 am PDT Horge said:
That's what I wondered about one time when you mentioned your corn tortillas once. As far as I know it's a specially lime-processed corn flour, masa de harina... Yep. Wikipedia agrees, and says it's also a different kind of corn... In any case, your food party always looks fun. That smoked bison sounds pretty tasty, especially since I'm fasting and still have a few hours to go today :(
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on Tue 25th Aug, 2009 12:30 pm PDT maggie said:
yay! what a great turnout! what became of the oats? the nicoise salad is gorgeous! what all is in it? participating vicariously ~m
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on Tue 25th Aug, 2009 04:32 pm PDT Sean said:
I thought Jule was the stripper?
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on Wed 26th Aug, 2009 06:11 am PDT Dave said:
i'll come next year if Jule is the stripper. (cool party, Wren, thanks for the writeup!)
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