A CHALLENGE TO ALL YE FOODIE FRIENDS: Want to get published and help preserve an endangered food at the same time? I'm doing it for a folklore project on food and as a way of increasing awareness of food diversity. Did you know that 93 percent of North American food product diversity has been lost since 1900?
Here's what you do:Check out this list of endangered foods on the Slow Food USA Webstite called the ARK of taste:
1) Find a food from this list of endangered foods that looks appealing to gather, harvest or cook (I know you're just dying to make Southern Louisianna Hog Head or a pesto with Shagbark Hickory Nut).
2)Send me an email with ideas of what foods you might choose and plan a dinner to be held before Sept 1st.
3) Document the journey (getting the food, preparing the food, eating the food with friends, etc.)4) Send me your story and I'll archive it in my folklore project and publish it (with your permission.) Video is also welcome!
5) If you want to go wild and invent a recipe that would be even better.If you're a teacher consider making it a class project. If you're a writer, write about your adventure and pitch it to a magazine.
EXTRA INCENTIVE!! For the top story with photos, I plan to offer a gift basket of tasty artisan foods donated by various food artisans.
Southern Utahns: Maybe you can find some of those Capital Reef Apples and make a pie or something?
Desert dwellers: How about picking some Tuscon-native desert Oregano and making something yummy with it
There's a cool Alaskan Birch Syrup... a sweet and creamy syrup that I guess you can find in your neck of the woods.
