From the SF Green Festival: Local Sustainable Catering

Sustainable and Green... FOOD

I think I mentioned that the SF Green Festival, was sort of like a County Fair.  Well, it definitely was in the sense that it had a wide selection of yummy foods to try and buy.  Most of the food was sustainably sourced and organic and I believe all of it was vegetarian. I found some yummy stuff like corn cakes filled with cheese, fruit smoothies, and vegetarian corn dogs!  Now that was like going to the fair. Most importantly though, I bumped into some great local restaurants, caterers and chefs who prepare food using organic and local foods:

Cafe Gratitude was there, and their fair was wonderful and raw as usual.  Thankfully there's one close by so I can get my fix of their raw mint/chip shake.

Lydia's used to have a full service restaurant in Fairfax, when I lived there.  Their pesto pizza was amazing.  I miss it.  Luckly, they are selling their yummy crackers and items in local grocery stores.  Tey also cater, so there is a chance you can enjoy their pesto in person.

 

Here are some plates Lydia's was offering to the attendees.  I have had their wraps and they are pretty tasty, as is the green soup. Apparently the owner, Lydia, won the Woman Owned Business of the Year Award from The Woman's Initiative.  Very cool

Table Nectar is a local catering company that had some delightful foods available to festival goers.  A pic of their menu items it below:

 

That Coconut Polenta is calling my name, as is the Chai Mousse.  Yum.  I definitely  have a sweet tooth.

I didn't get to try all of the food there, but I have had prior experience with Lydia's and Cafe Gratitude, and can say that I really enjoy their food.  From the looks of Table Nectar's menu, I can imagine their food is pretty delightful as well.  All three are definite possibilities if you are looking for some sustainable raw foods for your wedding or event.  It might be suggested to mix the raw foods with some cooked foods however, as not all guests are familiar with raw edibles.

And this brings me to the last mention of the day: Leif Hedendal

Leif was at the Festival as well.  He was giving a short talk while stirring some leak soup, and chatting about his secret eating society dinners.  The Festival had a "Soul Kitchen" where local sustainable chefs prepared food and shared stories with folks in the audience.  Leif was cooking while I was taking a break, and happened to catch the tail end of his talk.  His food is awesome, and for the most part cooked, although incredibly sustainable and locally grown.  He puts on small dinner parties at secret locations around the Bay, and I bet if asked he might be willing to do a bigger event too.  Anyway, I thought I would tease you with a visual something he posted recently on his blog: http://cookinglessons.wordpress.com/

Now, doesn't that look delightful.

In Green and Healthy Food,

G&G

Floral Display Donation for the UC Botanical Gardens Gala

A Festive and Fruitful Event

I don't want to spoil it by posting some not-so-great photos of the event, so I'll stick to some of the floral displays I created in this post.  But, I promise to follow up with some of the photographer's great photos of the event in the coming weeks, if I can sneak away with some. The Green Gala at the UC Botanical Gardens took place June 28th.  The day was magical and not only were the people fun and the fashion show spectacular, it was also a great fundraiser for the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens!  I donated my time and materials, as did many other vendors and artists: organic and sustainable catering from Amiee Alan Catering, Cara Mia Photography, organic wine from Quivira Vineyards and Winery, some great live musicians and the many local fashion designers who showed their creations. I was in charge of decorating the fashion show and auction area, in the Redwood Grove Amphitheater.  So I decided to include elements from the gardens themselves as well as the fashion presented in the  show.  For some beautiful shots of the clothes and models in the show, do check out Cara Gardner's blog (the photographer). I asked designers to send me scraps if they could manage, and ended up with one large piece of handmade felted wool.  Considering that it was summer, I was a little stunned at first.  But, then the idea came to me.  Why not run with the natural flavor of the material and the forest feel from the Redwood Grove, and make small nymph or hobbit satchels, just big enough to hold a few flowers?  So I hand stitched the satchels together using multi-colored yarn and some of my own recycled material scraps from SCRAP (a wonderful place for the recycled and sustainable artist, or anyone with a creative streak).  I must have made 15 different small wool bags, all in various shapes.  I tied them around posts, stairways and redwood trees and filled them to the brim with locally grown, home-grown and organic garden roses, hydgrangea, fern, dahlias and irises.  Here are some of them: gg hydrange satchel gg redwood satchel gg dahlia satchel gg stiches satchel

Here you can see the thick texture and natural feel of the fabric as well as the hand stitches I made on the ties.  Those are actually scraps of material from some curtains I used to have.

ggferndahlia

Here is one of a couple larger bouquets I made for the sides of the space.  I used some gorgeous fern that actually came from the gardens themselves.  And tied some recycled cloths around the vases to add some bright color to the scene.

bamboo ties

Here is another arrangement I made adding some bamboo, living and dried, to emphasize some structural art that a local artist created for the garden space.  Her art was amazing, and I wish I had a good photo.  Maybe next post.  This photo isn't great either, but I hope to show you more pics when I get them.

The food was great, the wine was so yummy, the fashion was really creative and at times so beautiful and nymph-like.  The location was absolutely stunning.  Next year you'll have to check it out!  Green Gala

In Green, and Raising Green for worthy causes,

G&G

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