The Self-Sufficient Kitchen, Food as Medicine Class

All classes meet from 1:00-5:00 pm at the Studio for Urban Projects 3579 17th Street.

Classes are $75. Please use the Paypal link below to register.

This ongoing series of classes will introduce you to the basics of traditional food preparation. In a time when we can often mistake “food products” for real food, this series of classes will ground students in the processes, recipes and nutritional benefits of cooking from scratch. As Michael Pollan writes in his book In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto ”Don’€™t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’€™t recognize as food.”€ The self-sufficient kitchen will revisit traditional cooking techniques and reinterpret them in the context of the contemporary urban foodshed. We will examine the city as an agricultural site. The class will take short walking trips to local urban farms, backyard gardens, and foraging spots to visit local growers and harvest ingredients for the dishes we prepare.

Each class will be taught by Nicole LoBue. Nicole has been working in the food industry in New York and San Francisco since 1990. She studied the culinary arts and whole foods nutrition at the Anne Marie Colbins School of Food and Healing and the French Culinary Institute in NY. With a deep passion for food inspired by her Sicilian heritage and world travels, Chef Nicole Lobue spreads the love of everything delicious to others. A dedicated student of herbal medicine; Nicole firmly follows the political and aesthetic culinary principles regarding the faithful use of ingredients that are healthful both for consumers and the environment.

In this class we will explore foods that help us to regain our equilibrium after the winter months. Participants will be introduced to preparing own teas and decoctions for wellness, become familiar with health supportive herbs to have in their kitchens, and learn how to take immunity into their own hands to heal common ailments with food and herbs.

March 20, Food as Medicine April 10, Cheese June 5, Fermentation July 24, Bread Aug. 28, Canning + Preserving

Visions of the Urban Future, Matt Hern discussion & book signing

What will it take to make our cities truly sustainable? In his new book, Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future, urbanist Matt Hern gives us a refreshingly down-to-earth look at the importance of place in the urban future. Hern argues that if we want to preserve what’s still left of the natural world, we need use less of its resources. He sees cities as a our best option for a sustainable future if they remain vibrant, dynamic spaces that are unfolded by millions of people working together—and not by master plans and planners. The book focuses on his critique of his home city of Vancouver as a case study for examining how we should interrogate our urban places.

Please join us for a discussion and book signing with Matt Hern. Hern is the director of the Purple Thistle Center in East Vancouver. He holds a PhD in Urban Studies, lectures globally and teaches at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. This event is co-sponsored by Get Lost Travel Books.

Cultivating the Native Garden

Vestiges of San Francisco’s native ecology exist all around the city from the oak woodlands of Golden Gate Park to the coastal bluffs of Baker Beach. A great “gardening” effort is underway throughout the city to restore these native habitats in San Francisco’s urban environment. These projects that re-imagine San Francisco in geologic time are animated by the vision of cultivating the complex web of interactions that exist between plant and animal species within indigenous ecologies – humans included.

Peter Brastow, Director of Nature in the City and Lewis Stringer, Ecologist with the Presidio Trust join us to discuss the environmental philosophy behind their work as well as the ambitious projects underway throughout the city including the Tennessee Hollow Watershed Project in the Presidio and restoration efforts on Yerba Buena Island, Mt. Sutro and on San Francisco Park and Recreation lands. We will also be joined by filmmaker Andrea Dunlap who will screen excerpts from her work in progress, The Seedling Project.

Little City: An evening with farmers Caitlyn Galloway and Brooke Budner of Little City Gardens