You Gotta Chai This
This was the weekend of Eat Real. Dipak and I had a great time visiting friends and fellow urban farmers and learning tips to improve our homesteading methods.
Fellow farmers had insight into my bunny problems so that was great too (the bottle fed kits are doing really well thus far).
Eat Real featured many homesteader/farmer folks and small to huge food vendors. The learning experience was nice, the cost of food was not. We saw a loaf of bread for $12. I have limited patience with preciousness of food. I am into accessibility and affordability. Practical food as rare art pieces…not so much. That said, there was plenty of free free free lessons at Eat Real and it is a super start to getting the word out there! One vendor that did not make it into the festival this year was wheeling his wares in San Francisco. Chiraag Bhakta, proprietor of the graphic design company Pardon My Hindi, has launched an authentic Chai Cart!! Hand constructed and insanely cool.
The chai was homemade with a fresh mint leaf. A cup of chai and spicy fried lentil snacks and Parle-G biscuits fended off the blustery wind at Dolores Park in SF. There were also yummy mint chutney tea sandwiches!
$12 bread! Goodness I hope it was either half cheese or 8 pounds. I am so with you on food preciousness, rock on.
My daughter has discovered chai and cannot.get.enough.of.it. Nice to think I can go to the herb garden and scare up some ingredients; hadn’t ever thought that (though duh you think I would if I grow chamomile and a few other tea stuff) so thanks for the tip! off to do some research to see if I can d.i.y.! Then I will sell it for $60/pound.
August 30th, 2010 at 8:40 pmEl: Very funny. You could probably make that much in the Bay Area. There is a real “precious food” leaning here. On making chai- check this out: http://pluckandfeather.com/no-artificial-flavor.html
August 30th, 2010 at 8:47 pmI couldn’t agree more with your stance on “precious food.” Eat Real had even put on their website that their goal was to make real food affordable to everyone. $12 loaves of bread do not fall in the “affordable” category if you ask me.
As a side note, I also find homesteading classes (outside of Eat Real) to be outrageous as well. I know there was one chicken processing class that Eat Real was hosting for $50/person! Seriously? The people that did the goat butchering offer a butchering class for $300/person for just one day of instruction. I don’t know about you, but I’m doing the homesteading thing to save money.
August 30th, 2010 at 8:57 pmDog Island Farm: I know!! At first I put down some cash on classes to support local farmers doing the hands-on lessons (not demos and a small reserve of $ went this way) but the cost of demonstrations is over board. I know its not for everyone, but I killed my first chicken on my own…for free. My thinking is to preserve the knowledge- maybe cover cost of materials but otherwise…no one owns agricultural practices they’ve been in circulation for a long time. You know?
August 30th, 2010 at 9:33 pmThe class as cash cow thing makes me crazy. I think that it’s great that people want to learn, although I don’t know why some need classes. I made jam by reading about it, but to be fair I took a three day spinning course before I could make yarn. . . anyhow, the instructor should be compensated for time and materials, but the food stuff makes me a little antsy. But I missed Eat Real; maybe I could have picked up on some ideas. I have too many open gaps in the garden right now, and no one needs more kale around here.
August 31st, 2010 at 1:36 amstefaneener, you are so right! I learned how to make jam from my Joy of Cooking cookbook and practice. I’m going to also try making mozzarella on my own. I think now people are so afraid at failing at anything even if it’s their first time trying it that they are willing to shell out any amount of money to learn how to do it the right way the first time.
August 31st, 2010 at 3:16 amOh you guys are so right. I have gotten comments from a few bloggers who are completely in the teach-others racket, offering options even to get the blogger on the phone for a fee to help you navigate the grocery store for “real food.” Their pitch? You are all SO BUSY there is no way you will be able to understand, on your own, the magic of kombucha! Take our class!
I feel it’s borderline insulting. Can’t people, you know, read?
That said, I just took a spinning class and I can completely see taking 3 classes just to “get it.” But that’s specialized knowledge. Understanding what “real food” is is not specialized knowledge.
This is all of a piece with the $12 bread, I think.
August 31st, 2010 at 1:03 pm