PDX harvest fest/potluck

posted April 10, 2012 4:08 PM

I know several of us grow vegetable gardens. Is there any interest in an autumnal harvest-themed food meetup? Not sure what the best month would be; wouldn't necessarily have to be at the very end of autumn. Take some foodstuffs you've grown and either bring it raw or as (part of) a dish of some kind.
posted by curious nu to Proposed (15 comments total)

I think a vegetable swap would be fun. I haven't really gotten started planting this year yet, but I'm sure I'll have too much of something. Maybe August or later?

If anyone homebrews, or has eggs, or smokes delicious bacons, maybe we could include something like that too? I don't know what will eventually come of it, but my house has smelled like dandelion wine all day today.

Are we dirty hippies, or just Portlanders?
posted by Secretariat at 10:36 PM on April 10, 2012

Ooh! Homebrew! I can do that!! (even if I do buy my ingredients at a store)

And I'll cop to being both, Secretariat.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:56 PM on April 10, 2012

We might have to do this a few times a year since not everything comes into season at the same time. For example, we get a ton of blueberries around mid-July and usually end up leaving 1/2 for the birds because two people can only pick so many blueberries. You think initially "Hey, berries!" and then when you go out every morning and pick blueberries for an hour or two you think "I will never eat all these. This is dumb."
posted by fiercekitten at 7:31 AM on April 11, 2012

I have previously baked a blueberry pie.
posted by mimo at 8:36 AM on April 11, 2012

I love this idea!

We don't have a garden (*sniff*) but we can pick blueberries and make jam like there's no tomorrow! We've also cured meats, preserved and pickled lotsa stuff, made ketchup, cordials, etc. etc. so if anyone has a glut of something that needs preserving or whatnot we could do it and share.
posted by Specklet at 9:53 AM on April 11, 2012

It is a notion!
posted by cortex at 5:41 PM on April 11, 2012

Once the new ladies start a-layin' I'll have more eggs than at which a stick could reasonably be shaken, but realistically that's not 'til mid-to-late summer.

We have a shitload of garlic that needs harvesting right soon, though. Gotta make room for the spring planting...
posted by dersins at 11:02 PM on April 11, 2012

Just noticed the ignoresupermarkets tag.
posted by Specklet at 5:10 PM on April 13, 2012

Well that's more jokey than anything.
posted by curious nu at 5:14 PM on April 13, 2012

For some reason I had forgotten until now that my little apple tree in the back yard will end up giving me more apples than dersins will have eggs, at around the same time (August-September). The only pie recipes I've managed to master are pecan and pumpkin - and even then I have to use store-bought crusts. So maybe, I dunno, applesauce or apple butter?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:22 PM on April 13, 2012

(i removed the ignoresupermarkets tag because what's a harvest-y fest without some baked goods? and it's unlikely any of us are growing grains for flours)
posted by curious nu at 12:22 PM on April 15, 2012

Pie crust isn't so hard to make. Or maybe I'm just not too picky. A great pie crust is nice, but a so-so pie crust is also ok. It's really just something to hold the pie together.

Pie crust also got a lot easier when I bought a food processor.
posted by Secretariat at 5:32 PM on April 15, 2012

Oh I knew the tag was jokey; I thought it was funny.

TheDonF makes killer pie crust and puff pastry. Butterlicious.
posted by Specklet at 10:19 AM on April 17, 2012

Total lack of commitment. We should all be churning our own butter. Supermarkets are for the weak and unresourceful.
posted by mimo at 10:28 AM on April 17, 2012

You first, mimo...show us the Way! :-)

Me, I'm quite resourceful and skilled - just in ways that don't include living in the Little House on the Prairie. You'll have to pry my store-bought coffee from my cold dead enervated hands.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:43 AM on April 17, 2012