Seasonal Salon: Food and Exchange

Last night Davis and I attended the Seasonal Salon, a monthly presentation and discussion exploring a chosen topic. It was hosted and put on by Ryan Wilson, an involved and motivated member of the Palmer Square community.

The topic tonight was "Food and Exchange" and there were 3 exceptional speakers:
Stephen Vick of Intelligensia spoke about his experiences as a coffee buyer and how his relationships overseas with growers in Africa mean better coffee for us in the states and better prices paid to the producers.
Annie Lambla, the Yogurt Pedaler, shared her story of riding her bike across the midwest, visiting dairy farms, and sharing the magic of yogurt at farmer's markets along the way.
Catherine Muller told us about the Mobile Food Collective, a project that was started to re-emphasize the importance of sharing in food culture, whether it be through food stories, recipes, bites, or advice.
Each speaker brought a different aspect of "exchange" to the table; I felt the selection was perfect. We hadn't known what to expect exactly, but left feeling excited and satisfied with our experiences.
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Jana's experience notes:

We got there around 8 and were greeted by lots of friendly folk, beer, Intelligensia coffee and yogurt with pomegranate seeds. Friends Nick and Erin gave me a bottle of Flywheel from Metropolitan Brewing and I proceeded to talk to a slew of nice people. It was great. The salon hadn't even begun and yet I felt like this was what I wanted to be a part of more and more... More community events bringing together people who might be neighbors but are strangers. And for it to be focused around food made it all the more wonderful.

All of the presentations were done well. Every speaker was 100% behind their passion, and that alone was something to note. Catherine's was especially interesting because she asked everyone there to share one of their "food stories"... I shared one of my favorite food memories of eating unsalted butter on white bread at my Latvian neighbor's house as a kid. I thought it was some weird European kind of butter for a long time until years later I realized it was just unsalted. Even to this day when I eat unsalted butter I am reminded of her. Getting to hear all of the other stories shared was really something. Not a single one of them was uninteresting.

The speakers gave their presentations and a discussion/Q&A followed. We ate more of the yogurt that Annie brought and had a fun time talking to her about fermented dairy. We rode home around 10:30, full of knowledge, yogurt and happiness. Probably the best Valentine's day I've had in a while.

davis' notes:

we resisted the cupcakes and moist banana bread! these were also present, though they had nothing to do with the presentations... i ate a lot of the yogurt, which was a particularly good batch. annie said she had not had such a good one in a long time and was becoming discouraged. the yogurt was well paired with the pomegranate, which was sweet in comparison. i also tried just a little of the coffee. it was brewed very carefully in the appropriate way to bring out it's best qualities. also special about this particular coffee is that the roast, made from beans carefully selected through steven vick's work in, had that day been released in shops for the first time!

during the sharing of stories i spoke of my special food experiences in umbria and tuscany while touring there by bike in summer 2007. i got excited when someone before me mentioned figs! not everyone told a story, but it was a rich part of the evening, right at the end, when we all got a chance to connect more with everyone in the circle (we sat around the edge of a large, rectangular room).