As a refresher, here’s the workshop description, straight from the website:

How to use the whole animal to promote sustainability, avoid waste, and dazzle your tastebuds.

Again, I wanted and expected direct tips & tricks and ideas. A set of maps to various cuts, with suggestions on what to substitute for what. Ways to cook kidneys or tongue or tripe[1]. Someone else wanted to know how to get ALL the internal organs. I have no idea what she was planning for the lungs or bladder, but I’m kind of curious.

There was very little (though not none) of these kinds of tips. (Okay, the only one I remember was the suggestion that sirloin flap is a good substitute for skirt steak.) There were definitely some comments on how to use (and store) a whole animal.… Continue reading →

What a cute workshop name. Sometimes, puns are fun. This workshop was about a quarter useful and a half useless (to me) and a quarter, “Well, that would have been much more interesting had I signed up for THAT lecture, but now I’m just frustrated I didn’t get the lecture I signed up for.”

The day before, my twitter exchange with Gardner involved me asking how “hands-on” the class was going to be, and if I should bother bringing my computer. I figured that a specific kind of “how to” would not allow any time for good note-taking and/or tweeting. He responded that the main goal would be “laying concepts for year-round local eating[1].” So I figured going in that I could tweet to my heart’s content, but would still get some useful tips and tricks for preserving food.… Continue reading →

AKA Saturday Family Farmed Expo Recap

Saturday was the day that was most geared toward the general public (aka me, in theory), and the one I was most looking forward to. It was a combination of market, Chicago chef demos and workshops. You could get a ticket to just the market & the demos or to all three, or to those three plus a particular lecture (The Sally Fallon Morell lecture).

I chose to get a workshop ticket, but pass on the lecture. Since I wanted to do a workshop in every timeslot, this effectively meant I passed on the market & demos too. I could have attended a bit of the market, but decided sleeping in and breakfast with Bill was a better use of my limited weekend time.… Continue reading →

AKA Family Farmed Expo Friday Recap

Friday could reasonably have been termed the “everything insiders” day, because it still wasn’t geared toward the general public (aka: me), but there was a lot more going on. It wasn’t all about money, Friday had a “trade show track” for farmers and restaurateurs, a “school food track” with two sets of discussions going, and a “food policy track”. All of this was under the banner of “The 6 th Annual Chicago Food Policy Summit.”

So, what did the summit bring? For me, a lot of focus on food access, and the opportunity for a lot of help with my new volunteering gig, at the “Pilsen Community Market”. These things were exactly what I was looking for.

The day started, again, with coffee (but no tea!)… Continue reading →

AKA “A Partial Recap of Family Farmed Expo’s First Day”

The events opened with a morning keynote speech from Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farms. He talked about how he got his start in organic dairy farming, specifically in yogurt, and where the money came from and where he is today. It was certainly an amusing speech, and I think the dairy farmer behind me got a lot out of it.

Basically, the seed money for Stonyfield came from all sorts of people that Hirshberg repeatedly asked for money. He spoke of calling his mother-in-law fairly regularly to help him out with payroll. He spoke of begging from anyone he could think of and how “anyone in a tie” was fair game to ask for a loan.… Continue reading →