Are you looking for a unique food adventure? Do you want to expand your cooking skills? Do you want to impress friends and family?
Come join nationally recognized edible and medicinal plant expert, author, cook and Ph.D. chemist Mark “Merriwether” Vorderbruggen to learn how to make plant-infused pasta from scratch! A simple mixture of flour, eggs, salt and plants creates a delicious and beautiful noodle.
This class will be offered at 10 a.m. and at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 25, in the Gathering Hall at Herff Farm. You must register for one class only and registration is required.
Attendees will learn which wild and domestic plants can be infused into the pasta, and then mix, roll and cut pasta the way their grandparents did it. Students will leave the event with the noodles they made and will hopefully be inspired to host their own pasta-making events for their friends and family.
We are social creatures, especially around mealtimes. What better way to start hanging out with people again!
Traditionally, extended families would gather for a multi-day making of the year’s supply of pasta. But in less than two hours you can prepare fresh pasta for a meal.
Depending on what is available at the Cibolo Center for Conservation’s gardens at Herff Farm the day of the classes, the pasta students make will contain goldenrod, horseweed, lemon beebalm, waxleaf myrtle or any number of other possible wild plants.
Learning to forage the edible, wild plants our ancestors survived on has become very popular these last few years. Turning these wild plants into a delicious, social meal combines modern life with these ancient foods, and in doing so, awakens something wild in our souls.
For most time humans existed, we harvested all our foods from the wild. Vorderbruggen likes to twist the common saying “Let food be thy medicine” into the more accurate, “Let gathering food be thy medicine.”
Foraging is very different from picking cans and boxes off supermarket shelves. Foraging involves walking outside on uneven ground, bending, stretching, kneeling and standing again. Foraging is a good workout!
Merriwether is the creator of www.foragingtexas, author of the books “Idiots Guide Foraging” and the just released “Outdoor Adventures Guide Foraging.” He has written dozens of magazine articles on foraging, has 100s of hours of YouTube videos and appeared on countless podcast as a “Preacher of Cavemanosity,” which is the incorporation of caveman activities into one’s modern life, to give the body the physical and mental stimuli we evolved needing for proper health. Vorderbruggen is also the medicine man for the Texas herbal company Medicine Man Plant Co.
Registration is available on the Cibolo’s website at www. cibolo.org. This class is $65 for members and $75 for nonmembers and is not suitable for children. Registration is required and walk-ins will not be allowed on the day of the event.
Please come and enjoy the Farmers Market at Herff Farm before your class as many of the vendors will be selling herbs and vegetables that you can add to future pasta dishes. Hope to see you there.
Cibolo Happenings
June 15
• Drawing from Nature: Art in Conservation Series, 10 a.m.-noon, the art of drawing is simply a form of mark-making. With the practice of the basic skills of blind contour, proportion, value and detail, we learn to draw what we see through our interpretation. Join us every Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Herff House on 33 Herff Road. More information is available on www.cibolo.org.
June 18
• Farmers Market at Herff Farm, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Join us at the Farmers Market and enjoy locally produced products and goods from small businesses and farms in the Texas Hill Country. Herff Farm offers trails and programming for children and adults. More information is available on www.cibolo.org.
• Watercolor Class: Art in Conservation Series, 10 a.m.-noon. Students will begin with brush strokes, shapes, rendering variation of value and color-mixing, to create their paintings. Beginners welcome. Join us every Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Herff House on 33 Herff Road. More information is available on www.cibolo.org.
• Moondance Outdoor Concert Series: Lost Mule Band. Enjoy music at the nature center, 7-10 p.m. Join us for the opening night of the concert season. Attendees can bring their chairs, coolers and friends to enjoy dancing under the full moon. The season lineup will be announced later. Ticket pricing is available for members, nonmembers, students, and children. Learn more at www.cibolo.org.
June 24
• Family Night Hikes, Explore the Cibolo at night, 8-9:30 p.m. join the Cibolo staff as they walk the trails learning about all the nocturnal animals that call the Cibolo home. This is a hike suitable for children. Attendees should bring comfortable shoes, a flashlight, and a water bottle. Register on www.cibolo.org.
June 25
• Songs and Stories, Friends of the Cibolo Concert, 7:30-10 p.m. Jerry Knippa, Tom Frost, Meghan Solay, Mark and Jill Mason, Jonah, Ciel, Stella and Phoebe Evans, David Pipes and Brent Evans – inspiring cover songs and original pieces designed to remind us of our love for the land. Sponsored by the Cibolo Conservancy Land Trust, events will begin at sundown in the Herff Farm’s Will Smith Amphitheater and historic barn presenting local talent. Grab your lawn chairs, coolers, and picnic, and head on over to the Herff Farm for some music and fun at the community’s historic farm! Register on www.cibolo.org.
Comment
Comments