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By Bryan Marshall
Register News Writer
BEREA July 24, 2008 09:53 pm
— Food lovers will have a chance to eat some truly local dishes at 5 p.m. Sunday during the second annual 100-mile Potluck at the Acton Folk Center.
The free event, organized by Sustainable Berea, will feature dishes prepared only from ingredients produced within 100 miles of Berea.
We want people young and old to come together around a community event centered around food that is grown and prepared by local hands, said Cheyenne Olson of Sustainable Berea. We want people to experience how delicious and nutritious this food can be.
In Berea, our only locally owned store for food is Happy Meadows Health Food Store, she said. Our only other options for food are Wal-Mart and Save-A-Lot where food travels an average of 1,500 miles to arrive on our dinner table.
The 77 Kentucky counties located within 100 miles of Berea have about 7.5 million acres in farms and more than $2 billion of agricultural sales annually.
Founded in October 2005, Sustainable Berea now has 294 members. The organization recently organized the Berea Rain Barrel Festival, which drew about 2,500 people to learn about water conservation and stewardship and view and purchase 63 painted rain barrels. About 60 rain barrels will be for sale from 2 to 5 p.m. during the potluck.
The mission of Sustainable Berea is to increase the ability of our households, neighborhoods and city to stand up to the stresses of increasing energy prices, climate change, rising national debt and environmental destruction, Olson said. We do this by focusing on supporting our local economy, developing a local/regional food supply, increasing our energy efficiency and our use of renewable energy and increasing the practical skills and knowledge of Bereas citizens.
The recipes of the food served at the potluck range from simple to amazing, Olson said. Many of the people who attend will bring a copy of their recipe, including the source of each ingredient, to be published as next years 100-mile recipe book. The first 60 people in the door at the event will receive a free book, Survival Gardening, by John Freeman. Local producers will have information about their farms and products on display from 4 to 7 p.m., and Robie and Robie Booksellers will have a selection of books for sale about gardening, home food preservation and storage and sustainability.
Musical entertainment will be provided by Bob and Shirley Balman of Berea. Ouita Michel, owner/chef of the Holly Hill Inn and the Wallace Tavern of Midway, will talk at 6 p.m. about working with local growers to secure food for her restaurants. A raffle will be conducted at 6:30 p.m. with 21 chances to win items that include a rain barrel painted by local artist Heather Richardson, a whiskey barrel planter, an Amish-made clothes dryer rack, low-flow shower heads and low-impact fluorescent light bulbs. Tickets will be $1 each.
The event also will serve as a way to announce the winners of the second annual Edible Yard Contest. Edible yards or gardens within Bereas city limits were eligible for the contest, which rewards the best in small, medium and large categories. The judges reserve the right to create new categories if they find other particularly inspiring efforts, Olson said. Any excuse to acknowledge and reward the skills, knowledge and hard work of Bereas many home food producers. It is more of a celebration than a contest. The greatest asset that Berea has as it moves toward sustainability is the knowledge and skills of its citizens, she said. Edible yards are a very visible manifestation of these skills as applied to an essential piece of sustainability food.
For details, call 985-1689 or e-mail info@sustainableberea.org.
Source: http://www.richmondregister.com