Rootdown Community Supper, the first in a series of quarterly community dinners that celebrate connection, community and local seasonal foods will be held Saturday, November 5 at Primal Cuts Meat Market on Bend’s westside.
This kick-off event, a collaboration of several Bend businesses; Central Oregon Locavore, Baked, SPORK and Primal Cuts Meat Market will celebrate the end-of-harvest season with a menu prepared from the bountiful resources in our region.
“These suppers will be family-style informal events featuring seasonal ingredients. The point is to celebrate local, have as low-cost as possible dinners and create a community interested in local food. It’s sort of bringing the choir together for a really great song,” says Nicolle Timm founder of Central Oregon Locavore, an online marketplace that sells locally grown food and products of all kinds.
The evening will begin with charcuterie appetizers followed by side dishes created from local produce provided by SPORK, a popular food cart in Bend converted from an Airstream Trailer. A pig roast provided by Twisted Juniper Catering will be the main entree. Beer and wine will be available for purchase although diners can bring their own.
Erica Reilly, chef and part owner at SPORK says they have always looked at food and the service of it through the lens of building community and local culture. “Sharing meals is an age-old practice, and one that has been somewhat lost in our culture,” She adds, “It has been so satisfying to see a return to slow food and the practice of putting more intention into food and meals. Being able to team up with other organizations we admire in a collaboration of providing this to our community is that much more fulfilling!”
The Fall season is traditionally a time for harvest, storing and gathering. A time when communities rally together to help each other. These dinners are considered a community offering that is volunteer-supported & locally-sourced.
“The $25 ticket price was higher than we were aiming for, but it was necessary in order to pay our farmers a fair price for their products and ensure we’d have plates to eat off of and chairs to sit in,” says Aliza Rosenstein of Baked, westside Bend’s evening bakery. “This is an at-cost event– we all want to see this kind of thing happening more, so we are all donating time and resources to put it on. If there are any funds left over after covering our food costs, we will put that money towards making the next community supper more accessible.”
Rosenstein added that the idea for the suppers crystalized when the group, all like-minded local foodies, were brainstorming about ways to bring people together around food. “We want to provide a space that promotes collaboration, understanding and cameraderie between the growers, the foodservice workers, and those who support both by making conscious decisions about what they eat,” she said.
Primal Cuts became the perfect venue for the first supper since the newly opened meat market supports the local food movement by buying most of their meat from local farms. Owner Bryan Tremayne said, “ I have been thinking of ideas of how to get local food promoted in the community and at the shop so this was a perfect collaboration. I patronize local shops and try to spend my dollar with folks that also support the movement in their business.” He joked, “Root Down will be a local hog heaven!”
Root Down Community Supper will be held on Saturday November 5 at Primal Cuts Meat Market, 1244 NW Galveston Ave., Bend.
Doors open at 6:30, dinner at 7.
Meal Price $25
Tickets are available at SPORK, Primal Cuts, Baked and online at Central Oregon Locavore
http://centraloregonlocavore.com/Content.aspx?content=content0
Seats are limited
Contact Info: Nicolle Timm
