Living Wild and Local - An Evening of Native Food and Art

[edit] Press Release

November 2, 2009

Chefs and Artisans Demonstrate Uses of Native Plants in a Benefit for the Yuba Watershed Institute and the Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe

On October 24, 2009, five top Nevada County restaurants and chefs demonstrated how eating local food could mean eating what is already growing in your own backyard.

“Eating wild plants provides a delicious, often energizing, way to connect with the natural world around us. Food that grows natively is designed for the people living in that place. It is truly local,” according to event organizer, Alicia Funk.

Funk founded livingwild.org, an interactive community website on how to use native plants, to help shift the way we eat, garden and heal to a more sustainable model with no carbon footprint.

Caterer Margo Meredith won the “2009 Wild Chef Award” for her Venison encrusted with Oak Nuts in a Wild Berry Sauce.

The sixty attendees enjoyed wild beer made from yarrow, wines made from elderberry and blackberry and a gourmet experience with —

• Seasonal Green Salad w/pine nuts topped with a Manzanita Berry Vinaigrette by Ike’s
• Oak nut Gingerbread Bites with Locally Made Goat Cheese and Manzanita-Caramelized Apples made by In the Kitchen
• Zucchini, Pecan, Oak Nut Cake drizzled with a Lemon Glaze
• made by Citronee Bistro and
• Chocolate Brittle Torte with hazelnuts and oak nuts, by Flour Garden.

The evening featured the work of ten local artists exclusively working with native materials, including Bob Erickson, who has work in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian.

All proceeds benefited Yuba Watershed Institute and the Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe, organizations that provide essential education on our community’s natural environment and heritage.

“This event combined scientific understanding of our environment with native ancient wisdom and practices to foster a true understanding of The Nature of This Place,” says Tania Carlone, Executive Director of the Yuba Watershed Institute.