Food, food culture, food as culture and the cultures that grow our food

Party heartily in the street. Got more street party typologies?

October 4, 2006

street party - culiblog
Image showing a 1977 street party commemorating Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee from the Westbank Heritage website and used entirely without permission.

Since May I have been working as part of the Dott 07 City Farming team, developing an urban agriculture project in the North East of England. We’ve been forming good working relationships with a large number of organisations already quite present in the region in order to see if we can help eachother by getting this project to fly; allotment organisations, primary schools, community farms, a catering college, local cafĂ©s, women’s groups, and local farmers. Our plan is to set up a goodly number of small, medium and large mobile gardening containers to create ‘grow zones’ in the city and through the course of spring and summer, grow enough food, and generate enough recipes to self-host a town meal, a harvest feast cum street party at the end of the summer.

street party - culiblog
Another silver jubilee street party Westbank Heritage website copyright Rex Features Limited 2005. Image used entirely without permission.

Urban greening projects may be a dime a dozen, but we want to experiment with connecting small community kitchens to the gardens, a holistic approach to food production. And by ‘holistic approach’ I mean an approach that includes some partying.

street party - culiblog
Yet another silver jubilee street party from the Totnes Image Bank and used entirely without permission.

These are some of the images that I found online of entire streets eating together, mostly on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee in 1977 and one of a VE party in 1945 in Devon. I am looking to increase the number of street party typologies in my archive of people eating together, entire neighbourhoods, eating at tables set out on the street. I especially would like images that are less homogenous and less Queen-related than the ones pictured here.

street party - culiblog
An image of a Devonshire VE street party in 1945 used entirely without permission.

Do you have any old pictures of street parties that give an indication of the variety of food served or that veer from the message that these images give? If so, please help me get in touch with you.

Dott 07 City Farming

debra at 10:53 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us

Got confusion about the nature of natural food?

October 1, 2006

fukuoka
This block print from Masanobu Fukuoka’s ‘One Straw Revolution’ is used entirely without permission.

This is what I’m re-reading right now and I’d like to share it. Here is a short quote from Masanobu Fukuoka’s One Straw Revolution. It should definitely be on the reading list for anyone interested in growing part or all of their own food, now or in the future:

“When you think about it, everybody is familiar with the words “natural food.” but it is not clearly understood what natural food actually is. There many who feel that eating food which contains no artificial chemicals or additives is a nautral diet, and there are others who think vaguely that a natural diet is eating foods just as they are found in nature.

If you ask whether use of fire and salt in cooking is natural or unnatural, one could answer either way. If the diet of the people of primitive times, eating only plants and animals living in their wild state, is “natural,” then a diet which uses salt and fire cannot be called natural. But if it is argued that the knowldege aquired in ancient times of using fire and salt was humanity’s natural destiny, then food prepared accordingly is perfectly natural.

Is food to which human techniques of preparation have been applied good, or should wild foods just as they are in nature be considered good? Can cultivated crops be said to be natural? Where do you draw the line between natural and unnatural?”

debra at 3:33 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us

Come to your senses, and fast

September 24, 2006

ramadan festival logo
The Ramadan Festival logo

Loving the lunar calendar convergence this year. Since Friday, I have celebrated the beginning of no less than 3 religious holidays, 2 of which are devoted to forms of fasting. It was a veritable autumnal fasting kickoff weekend as the new moon signaled the start of the Jewish New Year (one week to go until the Yom Kippur fast begins), the Hindu nine day fast of Navratri, and the first day of the Muslim month of Ramadan, an entire month of reflection through fasting.

I just got back from the opening of the Amsterdam’s Ramadan Festival, and if you’re in the Netherlands in the coming month and want to learn about and/or participate, go have a look-see at the festival website to sign up to host an Iftar (break the fast) meal, or sign up to be hosted by a Muslim family. During the entire month of Ramadan there will be a different site each evening where Iftar will be celebrated en group in the larger Dutch cities. Tonight I was plunked down at a table right next to the minister counsellor of the Malaysian embassy in the Hague and we had a great time talking about urban agriculture whilst nibbling on sweet things and drinking exceedingly sweet tea. Metuka! A sweet year awaits us!

The orthodox mishpocha from Amsterdam’s Portuguese Israelite Community (aka the P.I.G. - I kid you not) were present at the fĂŞte and couldn’t stop shooting off the shofar (a ram’s horn trumpet used to signal in the new year), which I hope was understood by all as a convivial gesture.

Even if you can’t read Dutch, go and check out the Ramadan Festival website. I cannot praise this initiative enough for it’s forward thinking and generously accessible approach, but I would like to add another hearty Chapeau! to the team that did the corporate identity and fab graphic design. Beautiful work! The programme booklet, aside from containing thoughtful programming, is absolutely smashing! Komen jullie weer bij ons eten? means, Fancy having dinner with us again? Yes please, if you’ll have me.

debra at 23:09 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us

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