For those of you in the Ann Arbor-ish area, I found this delightful bit of information on the People’s Food Co-op Facebook Feed: a great new program called the Local Table, brought to you by the Matthei Botanical Gardens
The Local Table, a program of classes, workshops, field trips, and events beginning in Fall 2009. The Local Table encourages us to take a new look at where our food comes from. If you’re wondering “Why local?”, there are lots of good reasons. When you buy local you know who grew or raised your food and what production methods they used. Plus, in an increasingly global economy, purchasing food from area producers and growers helps keep them in business-and your dollars stay in the local economy. It’s also a matter of environmental sustainability: buying food from local sources or growing it yourself decreases your energy use and carbon footprint. And thinking locally helps us to better understand our region’s rich food heritage and history.The Local Table has two components: The Local Table passport (your ticket to locavore certification) and the program of classes, workshops, and events. Examples of the program include a field trip to a local winery; a tour of Ann Arbor-area chicken coops, learning how to can and preserve food, stocking the Michigan pantry, the 100-Mile Holiday Dinner, and much more.
I personally am very excited, and already planning on taking the classes on canning, chicken coops, edible garden planning and the 100 mile holiday dinner. Check it out! Even if you aren’t in the area and can’t attend, it might give you some ideas.
If you are interested in learning how to can, we should do an MLFB get together to do it some time!
We should! That would be great.
*sigh* Is there anything you Ann Arbor people DON’T have?
I swear, sometimes it gets a little frustrating hearing about the dozen (hundreds?) of food-related events, classes, community kitchen, book clubs, etc. that you have there, and that there’s nothing comparable here in the Detroit area. (Would that I had the time, energy and money to start up some activities myself, but I don’t even know if the interest would be there. Just look at the proportion of A2 MLFB’ers vs. Detroit-area, for example…)
Maybe I’ll just have to make the trek out there for some classes. Definitely checking into it. Thanks for sharing the info!