Food for Thought Festival in Madison

Food for Thought Festival

Fairs and Festivals
Annual Research, Education, Action & Policy on Food (REAP) event, 8:30 am-1:30 pm, 9/15, 100 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., with speakers, exhibitors, kids' activities, demos, chefs cooking competition. www.reapfoodgroup.org or 310-7836

When: 09/15/12 @ 8:30am
Call: 310-7836
Web: www.reapfoodgroup.org
Email: info@reapfoodgroup.org

More Information:
14th Annual Food for Thought Festival Featuring its First-Ever Food Camp!
September, 15th 2012 - 100 Block of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Come celebrate local food on September 15th at REAP Food Group's 14th Annual Food for Thought Festival! Taking place alongside the Dane County Farmers' Market from 8:30am - 1:30pm, this popular Madison tradition offers opportunities for the whole family to taste, learn and discover new ways to eat more pleasurably and sustainably. The festival will feature interactive booths from over 40 organizations, farms and restaurants, as well as delicious local foods, cooking and tasting demonstrations, and kids activities. New to the event this year, is Food Camp, a series of short educational opportunities for festival goers.

The Food For Thought Festival has become one of the area's most beloved events. "We have so much to be proud of in Southern Wisconsin" says festival director, Miriam Grunes. "The combination of our rich farming heritage combined with amazing culinary heroes makes this one of the very best food events in the state."

Be sure stop by the Local Food Tent to pick up delicious locally-sourced breakfast and lunch dishes from favorite Buy Fresh Buy Local partner restaurants. Breakfast will include fresh baked goods and quiche from Marigold Kitchen, Bloom Bake Shop, Beans 'n Cream Coffeehouse, Crema Cafe, and Water House. Incredible locally sourced lunch entrees will be prepared on-site by chefs from The Madison Club, Dayton Street Grill, Graze, Monty's Blue Plate, and, back by popular demand, La Fortuna will be baking pizza straight from their mobile brick oven. Wash it all down with fresh-brewed soda from Vintage Brewing Company and Wisco Pop or a cup of fair trade coffee from Kickapoo Coffee Roasters.

The Demo Tent will host an exciting schedule of events. Kicking it all off will be a Cheese Tasting presentation where attendees will have the opportunity to learn the basics of tasting and paring cheeses from the Willy Street Co-op's Cheese Coordinator, Stuart Mammel. To follow will be the popular "Chef Showdown," an exciting chef competition hosted by our friends from the Wisconsin Local Foods Journal, where chefs are provided with a collection of the freshest mystery ingredients from the adjacent Dane County Farmers' Market and will prepare a dish on the spot. Mike Beiser, of Fizzeology, will wrap up the demos with a fermentation workshop that promises to be effervescent.

This year's first ever Food Camp offers a fresh and unique approach for festival goers to learn about a range of food-related topics straight from fellow members of the community.


Topics range from beekeeping and raising chickens to composting and building mini-hoop houses. Presentations will begin at 9:30am and start every 30 minutes thereafter. A full schedule will be available online and in the printed event program which is available at the festival.

The always popular Kid's Tent will provide fun and engaging ways for kids to get hands-on experience with local food activities. Kids can expect to feed, pet, and meet chicken friends, make edible jewelry, decorate the kids tent with big stamps of their favorite veggies, participate in pickle-making and show their festival pride with face painting.

Organized by REAP Food Group, the festival receives generous support from Organic Valley, Williamson Street Grocery Co-op, Metcalfe's Market, UW Hospitals and Clinics, Johnson Block & Co., Whole Foods Market, Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association, Wisconsin Cheese Originals, Kings Hill Farm, St. Mary's Hospital, Group Health Cooperative, Isthmus Publishing, YELP, and the Dane County Farmers' Market.

For a festival schedule and more, go to www.reapfoodgroup.org, e-mail info@reapfoodgroup.org
or call (608) 310-7836.


About REAP Food Group
REAP is a non-profit organization based in Madison, Wisconsin, focused on building a regional food system that is healthful, just, and both environmentally and economically sustainable. REAP connects producers, consumers, policy makers, educators, businesses and organizations to nourish the links between land and table. REAP is committed to projects that shorten the distance from farm to table, support small family farmers, encourage sustainable agricultural practices, preserve the diversity and safety of our food supply and address the food security of everyone in our community.
For more information about REAP visit www.reapfoodgroup.org.

Categories: Festivals | Neighborhood