Edible Wild Plants

There are nutritious, delicious and abundant edible plants growing wild all around us. Join us for a presentation and discussion with foraging expert and author, John Kallas, who will show you how to identify, harvest and prepare edible wild plants found within walking distance of your kitchen. Dr. Kallas will be on hand after the discussion for a signing of his recent book, Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt to Plate.

A trained botanist, nature photographer, writer, researcher, and teacher, Dr. Kallas, is one of the foremost authorities on North American edible wild plants and other foragables. He learned about wild foods through formal academic training and over 35 years of hands-on field research. Dr. Kallas has amassed one of the largest personal wild food libraries in the country, and started Wild Food Adventures in 1993 and the Wild Food Adventurer newsletter in 1996.

The program will take place on Thursday, May 5 at 7pm.  Space is limited, RSVP to rsvp@studioforurbanprojects.org.

How to Grow a School Garden: A Crash Course in Starting School Gardens and Cooking with Students

Join authors Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle of the new, exciting book — How to Grow a School Garden: a Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers
for an informative talk about conceiving and sustaining school gardens. Get detailed advice on how to secure support from administrators, raise money, build a kid-friendly garden, manage volunteers, and ensure a smooth transition at the beginning of each school year. Learn about the many benefits of weaving your school’s interdisciplinary curricula into the schoolyard landscape, as well as about cooking and eating garden produce with students! After the talk, join us for a reception around the corner at 18 Reasons where we will sample school garden recipes and have copies of the book for sale.

Sponsored by Garden for the Environment, 18 Reasons and the Studio for Urban Projects

6-7pm, Talk with local authors, Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle at the Studio for Urban Projects
7-8:30pm, Reception and recipe tasting at 18 Reasons (593 Guerrero St)

Cost is $8.00 to attend the lecture and $15.00 for the lecture and reception. Register.

Grow Your Own: Shiitake Mushroom Workshop with Maria Finn

Cities are once again being recognized as viable sites for food production and ever increasing numbers of people are cultivating their own backyards to grow food. Mushrooms are an ideal crop to maximize a small, urban space.  In this two hour workshop author and gardener, Maria Finn, teaches indoor and outdoor cultivation of shiitake logs, which will produce mushrooms for 4-5 years. This workshop will provide you with all the information and materials needed to inoculate and care for your own shiitake log.

Maria Finn is the author of A Little Piece of Earth, How To Grow Your Own Food in Small Spaces (Rizzoli, 2010) and the founder of City Dirt: The Bay Area Weekly Garden Newsletter for Foodies, Foragers, Tree-Huggers and Beauty Lovers: www.citydirt.net.

This workshop is co-sponsored by 18 Reasons.

Cost: $45.00 per student, includes all materials. To register click the register button below (link to PayPal). Space is limited. The workshop will take place a the Studio for Urban Projects, 3579 17th Street, San Francisco on Monday, November 1 from 7:00 – 9:00 PM.

Public Orchard: Canning & Preserving Workshop, 11:00am-2:00pm

The Public Orchard installation will be transformed into a workshop space for the course of the day. Here, participants will be introduced to one of the basic arts of self-sufficiency, canning and preserving. Stop by for all or part of the session as we can this summer’s bounty with chef Nicole LoBue. We will use water-bath canning methods to can seasonal orchard fruits from local farms. The workshop will demonstrate equipment, recipes and techniques to make preserves for the winter months ahead.

Nicole has been working in the food industry in New York and San Francisco since 1990. 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.

Please RSVP to info@studioforurbanprojects.org to reserve your spot. Event takes place Public Orchard 2010 01SJ Biennial installation at South Hall (North Parking Lot) 435 South Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113

Public Orchard: Biodiesel Bus Tour, 10:30am-3:30pm

On Saturday September 18 we will tour San Jose’s urban orchards and local farms. Stops will include Emma Prusch Farm Park, Guadalupe Gardens Historic Orchard and Full Circle Farm. The day’s speakers will include Darrin Nordahl, the author of Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture; Linda McCabe, the Educational Coordinator of Guadalupe Gardens; Sharon McCray, President of Emma Prusch Farm Park Foundation; Amie Frisch, Director and Co-founder of Veggielution Community Farm at Emma Prusch; and Rebecca Jepsen, the Executive Director of Full Circle Farm.

The tour departs from the Public Orchard 2010 01SJ Biennial installation at South Hall (North Parking Lot), 435 South Market Street, San Jose, CA. We are grateful for the generous support of ZERO1 and the James Irvine Foundation for making this bus tour free of charge and open to the public.

Please e-mail rsvp@studioforurbanprojects.org to reserve your place. The bus tour is free of charge.

Public Orchard: Darrin Nordahl Talk, 5:30pm

Join us for a talk with author and activist Darrin Nordahl who will discuss the problems of food safety and security, obesity and poor nutrition– and how some US cities are encouraging the creation of edible landscapes on public or unutilized land to address these pressing issues.

Nordahl is the author of Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture (Island Press, 2009) and My Kind of Transit: Rethinking Public Transportation in America (University of Chicago Press, 2009). He is the city designer at the Davenport Design Center, formed in 2003 as a division of the Community & Economic Development Department of the City of Davenport, Iowa.  He has taught planning at the University of California at Berkeley.

Please RSVP to info@studioforurbanprojects.org to reserve your spot. Event takes place Public Orchard 2010 01SJ Biennial installation at South Hall (North Parking Lot) 435 South Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113.

The Self-Sufficient Kitchen, Canning + Preserving Class

In this class we will harvest the height of the seasons fruits and vegetables and learn how to preserve them. Equipment, recipes and techniques will be demonstrated and will make preserves and can vegetables for the winter months ahead. Students will leave with several jars to add to their pantries.

The Self-Sufficient Kitchen, Bread 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.

This class will give students an introduction to bread from threshing the wheat to pulling a loaf out of the oven. We will discuss local sources of grain, how it is harvested and milled and we will grind our own flour. Techniques for storing grains will also be discussed. The class will make sourdough starters for participants to take home. Students will learn how to make naturally leavened bread from a variety of grains and explore different techniques for making delicious and healthful loaves.

Classes:

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

The Self-Sufficient Kitchen, Fermentation 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.

This class will cover the basics of fermentation. From sauerkraut to lacto-fermented sodas, the class will demonstrate techniques for making fermented foods a healthful part of your home pantry. Other foods the class will introduce include Kombutcha, Pickles, and Kimchee.

Classes:

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

The Self-Sufficient Kitchen, Cheese 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.

This class will introduce techniques of milk preservation. Using both raw goat and cow’s milks from local dairies, students will get hands-on experience making several basic fresh cheeses including ricotta, farmer’€™s cheese, fresh mozzarella, and feta cheese. The class will also demonstrate the basics of yogurt, kefir, buttermilk and creme fraiche.

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