An Edible Bounty

Thank the gorgeous weather, credit the enthusiasm of this community, but the Second Annual Bowfeast Farmer’s Market was a smash success. Here are a few pics — click on any to go to the Flickr stream where you’ll find more. Side note: If you have some images of the event of your own, please tag them with “bowfeast08.”

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Bowfeast Your Heart Out

There’s a lot of culinary chatter around the house these days, most of it coming from the direction of my wife, Elle — a kind of Tasmanian-Devil whirlwind of organizational energy.

Here, a few choice updates from the land of the carbon-reduced diet:

• Elle is in the process of turning OneDayBowen –the grassroots green group that got its start on our couch, as documented in ALMOST GREEN –into a local non-profit organization. The new group will dedicate itself to on-the-ground solutions to global challenges in areas such as energy and food. Her first project out of the gate is Bowfeast, a single-day celebration of local eating . On Saturday August 16, you’ll find her at the Bowfeast Farmer’s Market in the cove, steps from the ferry dock here on the island. We’ve only got a dozen or so farmers here on this island; with thin soils and plenty of hungry deer, it’s a challenging place to grow food, for sure. But you can meet seven of those farmers in one place, plus microfarmers selling fruit and veg picked that morning from their own food gardens. A good time
• Bowfeast isn’t just the farmer’s market, though. It’s all about encouraging people to eat as locally as possible for the day, and to share the summer harvest with friends. We’ll be hosting a Bowfeast dinner for 17 in the garden at our place that night. Plus, if we host guests in the Eco-Shed that night, they’d be welcome to join us. A special deep-green Bowen evening, indeed
• Elle and I have joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture ) venture just getting started here on the island. This project is still very much early days, but has huge potential here.
• Finally, I got my hunting license yesterday. Some of you may have read some of my past work [note: link downloads a .pdf file] on this subject. Executive summary: I’d kill for some local venison. The season starts September 1; I’ve been practicing with my longbow and can still split an apple at 200 yards. Well, almost… Stay tuned.