From the kitchen to the world

The DIY food movement gets radical

By Culinate staff

August 9, 2010

Sure, the craft-your-own-food movement has been steaming up canning baths for a few years now, but 2010 is really looking like the Year of the DIY Homesteader. And we’re not talking the cute ‘n’ fuzzy traditional version, either; we’re talking the in-your-face activism of such websites as Punk Domestics, Farm Aid’s Homegrown, and the upcoming Eat Real Festival, slated for the end of August in Oakland, California.

Now in its second year, the Eat Real fest recently published a Food Craft Manifesto from festival founder Anya Fernald, calling for real food for all. Guess what? Learning to cook — and maybe canning those berries, too — is part of that revolution. As Fernald writes, “We believe that to make real food America’s everyday food, we need to build the skills that will be necessary to feed the demand for better food.”

Meanwhile — inspired by another ongoing Fernald project, Yes We Can — Culinate’s own Kim O'Donnel is also in her second year of encouraging home cooks to start a "canvolution" by getting into the kitchen and putting up that summer produce.

So. Brush up your canning planning with Deena Prichep’s recent how-to on Culinate, then tie everything off with downloadable tags from such websites as A Sonoma Garden, Eat Drink Chic, and Domestifluff. Then put your feet up with a copy of Culinate contributor Harriet Fasenfest’s new book, A Householder’s Guide to the Universe.