What to know: Asheville Chefs host garden fresh dining event, a decades dance party
ASHEVILLE - Chefs showcase food diversity on plates in a seasonal tasting event; a dance party planned as a celebratory event for a regional food bank; and a garden and tasting tour garners sizeable donations to local partners.
Chefs’ garden dining
The Utopian Seed Project will host another installment of its Trial to Table series.
The nonprofit supports and celebrates diversity in food by trialing crops and varieties, and hosts tasting events that bring farmers, gardeners, chefs, cooks and the communitywide together over a plate of locally grown ingredients.
For its next foray to increase agrobiodiversity, Utopian Seed Project will host Trail to Table: Summer Celebration from 1:30-4 p.m. Aug. 19 at The Mule, 131 Sweeten Creek Road, a taproom by Devil’s Foot Beverage.
The chef-curated menu will feature ingredients such as okra, tomatoes, Southern peas and experimental summer greens.
The ticketing format is pay-what-you-can with a suggested cost of $50 and a minimum of $25 per person. Guests will receive two small plates from each of the eight participating chefs, plus a drink ticket.
Sam’s Pop Shop will offer a creative popsicle flight and Utopian Seed Project will manage a tomato tasting table from its tomato trial, too.
The guest chefs are Awo Amenumey, Camille Cogswell, Brittany Kroeyr and Terri Terrell.
One of Amenumey’s dishes will be a gari fortor croquettes made with gari (cassava granules), corned beef and egg tomato stew and mixed greens.
Kroeyr will prepare a Southern pea and sochan salad with fresh herbs and high-quality olive oil. Terrell will present a dish of fried okra and okra caviar aioli. And Cogswell is planning to bring a couple of sweet bites for dessert.
View the menu and purchase tickets at theutopianseedproject.org/trial-to-table/trial-to-table-summer-celebration-2023/.
Decades dance party
This year marks the 40th-year anniversary of MANNA FoodBank.
Since 1983, MANNA has distributed more than 300 million pounds of food ― or about 250 million meals ― to those in need across Western North Carolina.
The food bank works with more than 200 partner organizations to provide emergency food support to more than 150,000 people in a 16-county service area, including the Qualla Boundary.
Still, there is much to be done as food insecurity continues to impact individuals and families every day.
This summer, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort made a $40,000 investment to MANNA as a 20-plus-year Premier Platinum Partner for MANNA’s 2023 Signature Events.
“Year after year, Harrah’s demonstrates their shared commitment to ensuring that anyone in need of food across our region will have it. Through their generous sponsorship support alone, they have cumulatively helped to provide 1.2 million meals for our neighbors in need across WNC,” Chief Development Officer Mary Nesbitt said in a news release.
More: Answer Woman: What happens to expired food at supermarkets? How much goes to landfills?
One way the community can support MANNA is by purchasing a ticket to the anniversary and fundraiser events.
MANNA’s 40th Anniversary Celebration will be 5:30-9 p.m. Aug. 24 at The Orange Peel. The dance party, presented by Biltmore, will feature music by DJ Molly Parti, who will play music from the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s.
A snack bar will be loaded with regionally made treats from Poppy Popcorn, Asheville Pretzel Company and Hickory Nut Gap, plus handcrafted popsicles from Buggy Pops. Tickets are $40 per person.
Continuing the celebration, MANNA will host its 22nd annual Empty Bowls dinner Oct. 23.
Edible garden bounty
On July 9, Bountiful Cities hosted its annual Urban Garden Tour and Tasting, as a part of the nonprofit’s ongoing work to educate on sustainable agriculture and promote social justice, economic viability and community resilience.
The summertime time event invites residents and visitors to discover and explore the community gardens that support long-term food security, including 12 Baskets Café Garden, Elder and Sage Community Garden and Peace Gardens and Market, and Southside Community Garden.
The family friendly garden tour was free.
The sold-out, tasting tour portion of the ticketed event featured several of Asheville’s edible gardens with local chefs and restaurants offering samples of food and beverages at each destination.
This year, Bountiful Cities reported that more than $20,000 was raised through the one-day event with 25% of the proceeds donated to the participating gardens to support their efforts to grow food and feed communities.
Bountiful Cities attained the remaining sum, earmarked for programs including FEAST cooking and gardening education, the Community Garden Network, Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council, and the Collaborative Apprenticeship Program.
The next Bountiful Cities event will be the Fermentation Class with Fermenti on Sept. 14.
For more events and volunteer opportunities, visit bountifulcities.org.
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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Chefs host garden fresh dining event, decades dance party in Asheville
