In The News

Feast Seeks to Sustain the "Eat Local" Mission
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The future of food production is sustainable and local.

If you've missed that headline, the folks at the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale want to change that. The push behind this year's "Rachel's Sustainable Feast -- Sampling the Best of Western Pennsylvania" on May 24 is to expand the audience for the message.

"We want to continue not just having this as a celebration of all of the good food and good people in Pittsburgh; it's how to reach beyond preaching to the choir," said Fiona Fisher, the homestead's director of communications. "We want it to be an educational experience."

So organizers have tweaked events with this third feast to raise consciousness.

For example, there will be no plastic water bottles given out, due to controversy about bisphenol A, known as BPA. The chemical is used as a strengthening agent in plastic. Studies have linked it to producing estrogen-like effects, speeding puberty, higher risks of heart disease and diabetes in adults, and cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which last year in a draft assessment said the levels of exposure to BPAs does not appear to be a risk, is now reconsidering its position after being criticized by its advisory board.

But the people at the Carson Homestead think, in the spirit of Ms. Carson, caution is required. And so they are promoting a bill by U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., to ban the chemical from food and beverage containers.

And if you bring your own beverage container to the feast, you'll receive $2 off the $10 ticket price. Children under age 6 are free, as are service veterans, to mark the Memorial Day holiday. Preregister and prepay by going to rachelcarsonhomestead.org, clicking on events and looking for the registration link.

Participants will be asked to take any trash they generate with them. "It's another education piece, to look at how much we throw away," said Ms. Fisher.

All food containers at the feast will be recycled, with the homestead working with AgRecycle, based in Natrona Heights, to do so.

The feast runs from 12:30 to 4 p.m. at the homestead, 613 Marion Ave., Springdale (phone: 724-274-5459).

Its core remains a celebration of local food, prepared by some of the area's top chefs.

They include Bill Fuller, corporate chef for big Burrito Restaurant Group; Keith Fuller, executive chef, Six Penn Kitchen; Steve Salvi, Fede Pasta; Kevin Sousa, Salt of the Earth; Trevett Hooper, Legume Bistro; Michael Barnhouse, Brillobox; James Lynch, Phipps Cafe; Jordan Kay, Enrico Biscotti; Kevin Hunninen, Point Brugge Cafe; Paul Bates, Cura Hospitality; Terry Geracia and Rick Carrillo, Parkhurst Dining Services; and Kitty Leatham, the Green Chef. Whole Foods Market and the East End Food Co-op food will be served, too.

The menu will include vegetarian dishes, and local and sustainable pork, lamb and chicken, and desserts.

There will be a 24-foot-tall climbing wall set up by Climb Pittsburgh; Dr. Nancy Gift will sign her book, "A Weed by Any Other Name," about landscape naturalization; the Pennsylvania Resources Council will hold a composting class (preregistration and prepayment is a must at prc.org). There also are activities for children organized by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and an 8-mile hike through the homestead.

Vendors ranging from farms to watershed associations and environmental groups will be on hand to discuss their products and policies.

Rachel Carson, whose "Silent Spring," published 47 years ago, raised discussion of the impact of pesticides to a worldwide level, would most likely approve of the feast's message -- "Let's celebrate the sustainable things," said Ms. Fisher -- if not the hubbub.

"She did everything quietly."

Margi Shrum can be reached at mshrum@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3027.

Feast Seeks to Sustain the "Eat Local" Mission
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The future of food production is sustainable and local.

If you've missed that headline, the folks at the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale want to change that. The push behind this year's "Rachel's Sustainable Feast -- Sampling the Best of Western Pennsylvania" on May 24 is to expand the audience for the message.

"We want to continue not just having this as a celebration of all of the good food and good people in Pittsburgh; it's how to reach beyond preaching to the choir," said Fiona Fisher, the homestead's director of communications. "We want it to be an educational experience."

So organizers have tweaked events with this third feast to raise consciousness.

For example, there will be no plastic water bottles given out, due to controversy about bisphenol A, known as BPA. The chemical is used as a strengthening agent in plastic. Studies have linked it to producing estrogen-like effects, speeding puberty, higher risks of heart disease and diabetes in adults, and cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which last year in a draft assessment said the levels of exposure to BPAs does not appear to be a risk, is now reconsidering its position after being criticized by its advisory board.

But the people at the Carson Homestead think, in the spirit of Ms. Carson, caution is required. And so they are promoting a bill by U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., to ban the chemical from food and beverage containers.

And if you bring your own beverage container to the feast, you'll receive $2 off the $10 ticket price. Children under age 6 are free, as are service veterans, to mark the Memorial Day holiday. Preregister and prepay by going to rachelcarsonhomestead.org, clicking on events and looking for the registration link.

Participants will be asked to take any trash they generate with them. "It's another education piece, to look at how much we throw away," said Ms. Fisher.

All food containers at the feast will be recycled, with the homestead working with AgRecycle, based in Natrona Heights, to do so.

The feast runs from 12:30 to 4 p.m. at the homestead, 613 Marion Ave., Springdale (phone: 724-274-5459).

Its core remains a celebration of local food, prepared by some of the area's top chefs.

They include Bill Fuller, corporate chef for big Burrito Restaurant Group; Keith Fuller, executive chef, Six Penn Kitchen; Steve Salvi, Fede Pasta; Kevin Sousa, Salt of the Earth; Trevett Hooper, Legume Bistro; Michael Barnhouse, Brillobox; James Lynch, Phipps Cafe; Jordan Kay, Enrico Biscotti; Kevin Hunninen, Point Brugge Cafe; Paul Bates, Cura Hospitality; Terry Geracia and Rick Carrillo, Parkhurst Dining Services; and Kitty Leatham, the Green Chef. Whole Foods Market and the East End Food Co-op food will be served, too.

The menu will include vegetarian dishes, and local and sustainable pork, lamb and chicken, and desserts.

There will be a 24-foot-tall climbing wall set up by Climb Pittsburgh; Dr. Nancy Gift will sign her book, "A Weed by Any Other Name," about landscape naturalization; the Pennsylvania Resources Council will hold a composting class (preregistration and prepayment is a must at prc.org). There also are activities for children organized by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and an 8-mile hike through the homestead.

Vendors ranging from farms to watershed associations and environmental groups will be on hand to discuss their products and policies.

Rachel Carson, whose "Silent Spring," published 47 years ago, raised discussion of the impact of pesticides to a worldwide level, would most likely approve of the feast's message -- "Let's celebrate the sustainable things," said Ms. Fisher -- if not the hubbub.

"She did everything quietly."

Margi Shrum can be reached at mshrum@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3027.