Nosh Pit

Chicken Coop Potluck on Capitol Hill

Learn the ins and outs of raising your own chickens at The Cherry Hill Urban Farm on Saturday, March 6.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 05, 2010 at 09:35AM 2 Comments

We are watching.

I saw this on the CHS blog yesterday, thought it was pretty neat. The Cherry Hill Urban Farm (1127 15th Ave) on Capitol Hill is having a potluck slash BBQ slash chicken coop-building party on Saturday, March 6 from 9am to 9pm, with live music to boot.

But there will also be live chickens poking about, so maybe this isn’t the potluck for showing off your famous CHICKEN WINGS recipe. Or maybe it is, what do I know? I’ve never attended a potluck slash BBQ slash chicken coop-building party. I don’t really know the etiquette. But this sounds fun, and if you’ve ever considered raising your own chickens, here is your golden opportunity to pick the brains of the egg-eating, coop-building elite. Just know that if you bring DEVILED EGGS, the chickens will watch you with their beady little chicken eyes as you offer around your delicious snacks made from their unborn young. Or maybe they won’t. I don’t know!

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Locavore News, Party, Sustainable Such and Such

Saveur Recognizes Three Local Food Blogs

Vote for them in the magazine’s Best Food Blog Awards.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Mar 02, 2010 at 07:00AM 2 Comments

On Monday Saveur.com unveiled the nominees for its first annual Best Food Blog Awards. Among them are two Seattleites, Jessie Oleson (aka CakeSpy), and Michael Natkin, who runs Herbivoracious.

Oleson is nominated in two categories: Best Baking and Desserts Blog and Best Individual Post—about her love for salted peanut crisps. Natkin is up for Best Special Interest Blog, in which the software-engineer-by-day relays tips for vegetarian cooking. The locally based Small Potatoes: Adventures in Eating Close to Home is vying for the title Best Regional Cuisine Blog.

You can see the full list of nominees here. Help the local foodies win by voting for them.

Props to Seattle Food Geek for the tip.

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Tags: Locavore News, Bloggers, Contests

Locavore’s Delight: Sustainable Dinners at Ray’s Boathouse

Monthly multi-course meals show off the tasty wares of nearby food purveyors.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 26, 2010 at 02:42PM 0 Comments

They eat grass, you eat good beef.
Photo: skagitriverranch.com

It’s hard to argue with sustainably raised shellfish and grassfed local beef. And so we are liking the 2010 series from Ray’s Boathouse. Each month the restaurant hosts a dinner featuring food grown and raised sustainably in the Northwest. On March 4 from 6-8pm, it’s a five-course meal that includes oysters, scallops, mussels, and clams from Taylor Shellfish, Little Skookum, and Penn Cove.

Cost is $65—drinks, tax, and tip not included. Reservations at 206-789-3770, ext 3.

Meat more your bag? Sign up for a pig and beef extravaganza with humanely raised beasts from Skagit River Ranch in the Skagit Valley. It’s on April 3 and costs $60 sans beverage, but there is a pairing option with wines from Woodinville’s DiStefano Winery: a flight of three wines is $20. Call Ray’s for details.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Restaurants, Locavore News, Special Dinners, Oysters

Leadership Changes at Pike Place Market

Executive director of the Preservation Development Authority plans to step down.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Feb 24, 2010 at 08:40AM 0 Comments

If this was the view from my office I’d never retire.

Speaking of Pike Place Market, just got word the market’s Preservation Development Authority is seeking a new leader. The current executive director, Carol Binder, announced late Tuesday she will be stepping down from the position June 30, 2010.

“The time has come for me to change my role at the Market from Executive Director to shopper and supporter,” Binder said in a press release. "I have a grandchild I’d like to spend more time with and also plan to focus on a couple of real estate development projects with my family.”

Once organized, a search committee will immediately start vetting possible replacements.

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Tags: Locavore News, Pike Place Market

The Herbfarm’s 100-Mile Dinner

They’re even making the salt!

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Aug 24, 2009 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

You know how The Herbfarm does its dinners in 10-day or two week theme chunks?

The theme that started last Friday was particularly compelling: The 100-Mile Dinner.

It arose from a little in-house challenge: Could they lay out a feast where every ingredient—plant, animal, mineral, and liquid—hailed from no more than 100 miles from the table?

Of course, they thought a year ago when dreaming up the thing. We have our own farm! And we always use local or regional foods. No problem!

“Then we realized,” wrote Herbfarm owner Ron Zimmerman, “If we really weren’t going to serve anything from outside of our 100 mile range, the task might become much more, let us say, profound. Like—where was the salt going to come from? Uh, pepper?”

Not to mention considerations like what vineyards were within range…could they find flour from wheat grown nearby…and what about cooking oils? Coffee and tea?

Come taste the fruits of their labor and imagination for the next few Thursdays through Sundays, til August 30. Cost is $189-$195 per diner, for nine scrupulously local courses.

And taste the salt they made from north Puget Sound waters, where they learned that different regions yield different flavors—and that it takes 26 gallons of sea water to yield a measly 16 ounces.

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Tags: Locavore News, The Herbfarm