The Big Neighborhood Supper

The first planning meeting for
The Big Neighborhood Supper

My friend Maggie is currently working on an exciting project this summer! It's called The Big Neighborhood Supper and fits right in with the philosophy we espouse here at sustomability. Tom and I will both be participating by donating produce from our garden, helping prepare the meal, and possibly coming up with some menu ideas. I volunteered us to help design some of the vegan items that will be served. We'll also be hosting one of the workshops out at our community garden plot at Meadowbrook. Here's an article Maggie wrote about the project:

The Big Neighborhood Supper is a public art performance in the form of a carefully orchestrated community meal. This meal will be unique in that all of the people (and animals) that consume the meal will have had a direct hand in its production. For example the supper table will be shared by chickens and humans alike (chickens may get to attend because they laid the eggs used in the meal, the people attending will have produced a range of ingredients and elements of the meal from homebrewed beer to garden harvests!) The contributors aren’t limited to agricultural folks alone; artists and musicians are playing an active role in creating the event’s environmental components by setting up an installation-like table setting with sculptures and sound pieces.

Not only is the Big Neighborhood Supper project a meal, it’s an opportunity for community members to share resources and local knowledge surrounding the topics of local and urban food production. Throughout the summer the Big Neighborhood Supper participants are hosting public workshops on a variety of topics all over town. June featured two workshops: the first on chicken husbandry and care, the second on home beer brewing and wine fermentation. July workshops include: home food preservation (canning, dehydration and freezing how to), organic gardening techniques and foraging for wild edibles (plant identification in Meadowbrook park)! August workshops will include fall planting preparation (composting, broad forking, suggestions for fall crops in this climate, etc.) For more information on upcoming workshops check out the project blog at http://thebigneighborhoodsupper.blogspot.com/

Maggie Taylor, the project coordinator, says that the intentions behind this project are to investigate art as a communication tool and to establish a forum (both live and online) for the community to exchange information relating to local food production. She has been working in the medium of performance art for the past seven years. This project relates to the process-oriented, new-genre, community-based food performances began in the 1970s and resurged in the 1990s. “Not only is the work time-based, live, and interactive, it can also be perceived as socio-political,” says Taylor.

We all have the basic need to feed ourselves. In this time of air shipment, limited fuels, rising costs, depleted resources, and desire for convenient food, it's important to investigate the impact we have politically and environmentally when we make decisions regarding where we obtain our food. Learning, producing and sharing our food within a community is an important step towards returning to sustainable food-sourcing methods.

book review: animal, vegetable, miracle by barbara kingsolver

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (AVM) is Barbara Kingsolver's non-fiction memoir which follows her family's decision to eat only locally produced food for an entire year. They commit to eating only the food they grow and raise themselves, or food produced from within the county they live. The novel is largely Kingsolver's story as she breaks the chapters into a month by month journey of food life. However, her husband and daughter supplement the book with recipes and essays which compliment Kingsolver's narrative. The novel is a comprehensive look at what goes into living a life of local food with in-depth observations on small-scale farming, cheese making, home gardens, raising animals for food, foraging, eating locally while traveling, and much much more.

I read AVM in February, the perfect time of the year to dive into this novel. As Kingsolver notes, February is "the hungry month" where there is little if any local food available. However, by the end of February and into March it's time to start planning for the next growing season by starting seedlings and ordering garden equipment. When I read AVM I knew I'd be gardening again, but it was the success and joys presented by Kingsolver which really inspired me to become better prepared for this year's growing season. She inspired me to consider the plants I chose for this year not just for their immediate rewards, but for those that will preserve well as a source of local food through the winter. The novel presents how it is possible to eat locally through the entire year, but makes it clear that it is important to prepare for the winter all through harvest-time. As a result, Tom and I will be investing in a food saver for freezing and canning equipment for preserving. Before reading this novel I did not feel fully committed to the local food diet, but Kingsolver has won me over. I highly recommend the novel for anyone interested in local eating, especially those trying to raise a family in this grossly industrial food society.

One of my favorite parts of the novel is when Kingsolver and her husband travel to Italy. Their travels across the Italian countryside were inspiring and show that eating responsibly and respectfully is absolutely possible when on vacation. I've never considered myself a huge fan of Italian food, but after reading this novel I feel inspired to travel there and learn what real Italian food culture is all about. Somehow I don't think we've quite got it down here in Illinois.

I was surprised to read Kingsolver's arguments against vegetarianism. Although I was not entirely convinced, I found her novel to include the most compelling argument against vegetarianism I have ever read. However, I must emphasize that her arguments against not eating meat do not translate to an argument for eating meat in the way the majority of meat eating happens in this country. Rather, it is an argument for respecting and understanding the process and animals which go into the production of meat for food. More importantly, she argues for bringing the production of meat into the hands of the people eating the food. Knowing where the animal was bred, raised, and how it was fed are just as important as respecting the life taken. The chapter provides a new perspective on meat eating and I would urge all vegetarians to read the book before passing judgment on my poor efforts at restating her beliefs. That being said, I could personally never pluck a chicken or slaughter a lamb and have no intention of changing my mind when it comes to the decision whether or not to eat a dead animal.

A,V,M is an inspiring story, beautifully written and wonderfully educational. Ideally, everyone would read this novel, but I recommend it most highly to all those interested in local eating, home gardening, and the slow food movement.

To learn more about the book and Kingsolver's family visit: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/