May 25, 2010

Maker Faire Food

Make Magazine's annual Bay Area extravaganza, the Maker Faire, just happens to be held in my backyard (well, at the Expo Center near it - my backyard won't hold 90,000 people in one weekend).

The fair draws the sorts of folks who read the magazine, visit the site for how-to tips, and/or watch Make TV - inventors, techies, gamers, crafters, eccentrics, eclectics and DIY'ers.

Makers are often resourceful, in the old-fashioned sense of the word: they use and re-use resources, taking items apart and repairing, enhancing, or creating something new from them.  In the dystopian world of speculative fiction writers, they will not only inherit the earth, but show us how to mine its waste piles for raw materials.  And they'll look funkily cool while having fun doing it.

Apparently, they will also eat well.  The Faire included many food related demos, workshops, and items for sale or barter, including:
  • Composting demonstrations by our local Master Gardener program volunteers
  • A vertical garden, constructed of pots planted with edibles and ornamental, hung on a wall
  • Books on nearly-forgotten home arts, from traditional canning to growing crops from kitchen scraps
  • A home cheese-making kit (with cheese queen Ricki Carroll's cow on it)
  • A seed swap from the fledgling SPROUT seed library
  • Some mighty fine henhouse models, complete with demo chickens

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