What:
Win a signed copy of my book, DIY Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food from Scratch. All you have to do to qualify for a random drawing is to submit a story about your catalyst for canning, preserving, or creating your own food from scratch. Your story can inspire others!
Who:
This contest is in partnership with FarmCurious. FarmCurious is a new company created by Oakland resident Nicole Kramer to educate, inspire and equip the urban homesteader. FarmCurious is running the Urban Homesteading General Store at Oakland’s Eat Real Festival on August 27, 28, 29. Stop by to learn more about how to grow, preserve, culture, and ferment your own food, as well as purchase everything you need to get started. The winner of the contest will be able to claim his or her copy of DIYDelicious at the FarmCurious booth.
Why:
Many of us didn’t grow up canning or making our own artisan food from scratch or, if we did, we lost it somewhere along the way. If your story is like many people’s, you were too busy with college exams, demanding jobs, and busy social lives to worry about where your food came from. But perhaps one day, the stars aligned and you had your ‘spark’ – that aha! moment when you realized that putting food away wasn’t a waste of time, that making cheese is sexy and that curing meat will win you more dates than a bikini wax.
For me, it was visiting my aunt’s farmhouse (the house where my mother grew up). Seeing the pantry lined with homegrown and home-preserved fruits and vegetables was an unforgettable moment. It was like experiencing a part of my history that my mother had left behind. I set out to reclaim it, and after several years of dabbling, my “from scratch” book, DIY Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food From Scratch, is being published by Chronicle Books.
For Nicole Kramer, proprietor of Farm Curious, her spark was reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It changed the way she saw everything. Suddenly, dirt was soil and vegetables were miracles. Water became a resource to be conserved and appreciated and she started seeing time in seasons. Around the same time, she met an amazing friend with a similar interest in food who worked at an organic produce wholesaler. The stars had aligned and her cupboards were soon full of beautifully colored mason jars and her freezer packed with vacuum-sealed treats.
When:
What’s your spark story? Submit it today to either me or Nicole of FarmCurious for a chance to win a free, signed copy of DIY Delicious. The winner will be chosen through a random drawing from all story entries. Deadline to submit your story is August 24. Winners will be announced on our blogs and Facebook pages, as well as Twitter.
Contest Rules:
Submit the story of what inspired you to dabble in DIY artisan food through any of the following ways:
* On Facebook – “Like” the Facebook pages for DIY Delicious or FarmCurious and add your story as a wall post
* On FarmCurious.com – Add your story as a comment to the DIY Delicious Spark Contest Post here
* On VanessaBarrington.com – Add your story as a comment to this DIY Delicious Spark Contest Post
* Use hashtag #DIYspark on twitter to link to a post on your own site with your story
The winner will be announced the morning of August 27 and the winner can stop by the FarmCurious booth at any time throughout the festival to claim his or her prize.
3 Comments
This is only the beginning of my story, but it started like this… I grew up in a rural area. My parent filled our acreage with a large garden and chickens roaming everywhere. When I move off to the “big city,” I assumed I had lost those “home grown” elements for good. It was only when I started my own family that I realized I needed to take a closer look at what we put in our bodies. When my son Andrew was born over a year ago, I worked hard on breastfeeding, to provide him with “natures best” nutrients. When he started to eat solids, I wanted to take the same care with his foods as I did with my milk. I began making his baby food with fruits and vegetables I found at the farmers market. I was amazed at how easy it was and how much money I was saving in the process! Now, we have moved on to a small home garden and compost barrel. One of my biggest “ah-ha” moments was earlier this summer, when a plant started growing in our garden. It was NOT something we planted – it was a “volunteer”. As it grew, we realized it was an acron squash. The plant grew from the seeds I had cleaned out of a squash when making food for our baby. We threw the seeds in the compost, and later, threw the compost in the garden – the plant grew all on its own! What an amazing full circle.
Hi Alison,
I love this story! I was amazed the first time a “volunteer” sprouted in my yard too. Nature is resilient. There’s a section in the book about baby food. No recipes, just a sidebar encouraging people to do it and offering storage suggestions. Kudos to you for stepping away from those little jars of mush!
Alison! You are the lucky winner. You can pick up your book anytime this weekend at Farmcurious’s urban homestead booth at The Eat Real Festival! I don’t know if it is for you or someone else so email me through this site and tell me who you’d like me to sign it for.
Congrats!
Vanessa