Monday, October 31, 2011

Special Fall Harvest Backyard Crop Swap Sat. Nov 5th


This Saturday we will be having a special "Fall Harvest" edition of our monthly Backyard Crop Swaps.

Bring all your excesses from your fall harvest and swap them with your neighbors. Fruits, vegetables, herbs, eggs, honey, etc. Anything you grow or raise yourself is fair game & totally swapable.

This time we will also be swapping "put up" items as well. Bring a few jars of that jam you just made. How about pickles or pasta sauce. Turn your mass amounts of one thing in to a bunch of different things.

I'll be bringing homemade garden huckleberry jam and some veggies from my garden.

Don't forget to tell your local friends, family, & neighbors.

Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=176418172445174

@ Phat Beets Sat. Farmers Market
5717 Market St.
Oakland, CA
(in the parking lot of the Arlington Medical Center)

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Fall Homemade Food Swap will be at the East Bay Mini Makers Faire

http://ebmakerfaire.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/put-up-now-for-the-urban-food-swap/

Thats right! We are going big this time around joining up with this amazing event dedicated to all things handmade.

Our next Seasonal Swap will be at the East Bay Mini Makers Faire

October 16th
12:30-1:30pm

Upon successful registration participants will receive a discount code for 20% off ticket admission to the entire faire. 

(buying a ticket is required to participate in this fall food swap. We have monthly food swaps that are always free at the N. Oakland Farmers Market the 1st Sat of every month)

Ticket prices (before discount):
$10 if you purchase before Sept. 30th
$15 after that
$20 the day of the event



To sign up for our Fall Homemade Food Swap go to the Join Our Next Swap page of this site.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

New Press Page

Check out our new Press page where you can find links to articles written about East Bay Homemade Food Swaps.

Currently we have 6 different articles for you to peruse.

If you know of any we missed please let me know so I can get them up to share with everyone.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Just a reminder

Just a quick reminder that the first of our monthly food swaps is going to be TOMORROW (Saturday Sept. 3rd)

These swaps will have room for more people, so if you are still interested in joining in, fill out this form so we know you will be coming.

See you tomorrow!

Homemade Food & Backyard Crop SWAP
5717 Market St. Oakland
11am-2pm




Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Monthly Food Swaps at the N. Oakland Farmers Market



The first Saturday of every month we will have a place to swap backyard produce at the Phat Beets N. Oakland Farmers Market at 5717 Market St. from 11am-2pm

Preregister HERE for the next swap. 

These monthly swaps go a bit more loosely than our regularly scheduled seasonal events and focus on back yard produce, eggs, & honey.
To swap, simply lay down what you brought and take what you want. It's that simple!

I can't wait to swap with you all on a more regular basis. 

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The Grey Areas Of Made At Home Food Laws.

A few weeks ago I attended a small meeting of local food activists put on by the Sustainable Economies Law Center. We discussed the state of food laws regarding the legality of sharing, trading, & selling homemade foods, as well as what laws we would like to see pass here in California. The SELC really has their stuff together. They have been doing research for months on laws that have passed in other states and have worked hard to come up with a plan of attack.


Legal Intern Kelly Densmore and Co-Director Janelle Orsi from the Sustainable Economies Law Center’s wrote this great article for Shareable.net that I wanted to share with you all. 


http://www.shareable.net/blog/the-shareable-food-movement-meets-the-law

"“The Underground Food Movement” has become a thing lately. It’s a foodie’s utopia in Oakland these days...But this movement goes deeper than its sheer yumminess. We thrive on food. When we share in efforts to grow, process, prepare, and serve food, we greatly enhance our abilities to eat well, provide for ourselves, and build livelihoods around food. Sharing food is particularly important during hard economic times and many small food projects develop out of unemployment.
The realm of shareable food is flourishing with community meal sharing, potlucks, gift-economy restaurants, community food growing projects, food swap eventspop-up storesstone soup gatherings, food-buying cooperatives, goat-sharingchicken cooperatives, events like The Big Lunch, and so on...
Now picture all of this food sharing activity on a spectrum. At the private and personal end, we eat a homemade meal with our family. At the public and commercial end, we get chicken nuggets from the drive-thru window at a chain restaurant. Somewhere in between is a point at which our society has decided to impose protections and regulations."

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Summer Food Swap Update

I've gotten 27 amazing submissions so far for the Summer Homemade Food Swap. There are only 30 spots available and I will put 5 of you on the waiting list. At the last swap quite a few people from the waiting list made it on so you still have a good chance if you end up on it.

If you  haven't gotten your "you've been accepted" email yet, don't worry! I haven't sent them. I am currently working on revising the swap sheets a little bit (if you already have the old ones printed out feel free to use them) and making sure I include as much necessary info in the acceptance emails as possible. If you have any suggestions feel free to shoot me an email: kendra.poma gmail

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Registration is OPEN for the Summer Food Swap

We are now taking applications for the Summer Homemade Food Swap!

Remember, what ever you make needs to be homemade or grown by you and edible to humans. Other than that, you are free to be as creative or traditional as possible.

Go to the "Join Our Next Swap" page to sign up.

You will receive the exact address & further instructions once approved.

I can't wait to see what you plan on bringing to the swap!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Food Swapping Etiquette Article

The SF Swappers just pointed me in the direction of this great article that talks about The Etiquette of Food Swapping.
Check it out for some great tips you can use at our Summer food swap coming up in July.

http://www.chow.com/food-news/81410/rules-for-effective-food-swapping/

Monday, April 18, 2011

Plant Swap in N. Oakland May 7th

This would be a great place to get some veggie starts which could turn in to ingredients for your items at the next food swap.

Bring some cuttings, starts, trimmings, seedlings, unwanted houseplants or gardening supplies to trade for things you do want and can actually use!




Spring Plant Swap in the North Oakland Golden Gate Community. 

Have plants you need to prune? Extras that don't seem to fit in with your home or garden? Started too many seeds this year? Why not bring them all down to the North Oakland Plant Swap and trade them with your neighbors for some new-to-you plants and gardening supplies.

At the plant swap you can bring plants, cuttings, seedlings, starts, foraged plants, and seeds of edible & non edible plants.
This is also a great place to bring any extra gardening supplies you have: pots, natural fertilizers, vermicompost/worms, garden tools, stepping stones, etc. 
Pass them all on to a new home and come pick up some new-to-you plants for your garden and home.

Need to donate your plants earlier than the swap date? No problem. We will be accepting donations at the swap location May 4th, 5th, & 6th. 

The only entrance fee is something brought to add to the swap.
*Please remember to label each of your plants with these Plant Information Sheets

*If anyone has any folding tables they are willing to loan or donate to the swap please contact me (kendra [dot] poma {at} gmail.com)


N. Oakland Spring Plant Swap:
Saturday May 7th
12-3pm

5927 San Pablo Ave.
Oakland, CA 94608

(on the Berkeley/Emeryville border)






Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Pictures from the Spring Swap

Becky Spencer from Urban Preserves was awesome enough to take pictures of the swap and share them with everyone. Thanks Becky, I was so busy I didn't even get a chance to pick up my camera.

Check out all the pictures here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/11975262@N06/sets/72157626464248076/




Monday, April 11, 2011

KQED Article On Our First Swap!



During our first swap, held this past weekend, we had the lovely Sarah Henry in attendance covering the swap for an article in KQED's Bay Area Bites.

It's a great article with some good pictures of the event. Check it out:
http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2011/04/11/food-swaps-sharing-goodies-stocking-pantries-one-trade-at-a-time/
Food swappers checking out the chow at the East Bay Homemade Food Swap in Oakland on Saturday.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

EBCA's First Swap A Huge Success!

We just finished the first Homemade Food Swap and it was a great success. The event was covered by a reporter for KQED's "Bay Area Bites" and the article should come out on Monday. The place was packed and I was pleasantly surprised by all the amazing things people brought to swap. By the end, pretty much everybody was completely out of everything they brought and were headed home with a huge stock of tasty new goods.

For the swap I made 10 bottles of Peach Ginger Kombucha, 3 Vegan Boysenberry swirl Chocolate Cakes, 3 Kiwi Apple Galettes, 2 bags of Borage Lemon Balm Mint Tea, and 2 bags of Yarrow Tea.

I walked away with ALL THIS:


2 logs of homemade goat cheese,
2 bottles home brew beer,
2 Jars of Apple Butter,
round of 8 cranberry scones,
13 different chocolate truffles,
seeded granola,
candied pecans,
5 spice nuts,
saffron pears,
homemade challah bread,
3 mini strawberry pies,
blueberry ginger water kefir,
pasta sauce,
radish onion relish,
spicy sweet pickled dates,
lemon curd,
cardamom butter cookies,
organic herbs (peppermint, holy basil, and a blend of calming herbs)

SCORE! I can't wait for the next swap, and from the sounds of it everyone who attended enjoyed themselves too. Keep your eyes peeled for our next swap in July! 


***If you took pictures of the event or of the items you took home with you from the event please share. I'd love to see them!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Time to Sign Up for the April Food Swap!

The time has arrived to sign up for our April 9th Homemade Food Swap. I can't wait to see what you plan on bringing.
Remember, there are only 30 spots available for this swap and swappers will be chosen on a first come first served basis

The swap will also be a potluck. You are encouraged to bring some of your swap items for the potluck portion but really you can bring anything you'd like. We just want to make sure everyone has a little something to munch on while drooling over (not literally I hope) all the amazing food surrounding us.

Go to the "Join Our Next Swap" page and fill out the form. You should receive an email from me within the next day or two with the exact location of the event and any further info you may need.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Flier for the Spring Homemade Food Swap

The lovely Jessica Ortiz of http://EnchantingStamps.etsy.com  has created this beautiful flier for our upcoming event. The images are taken from hand carved stamps she makes and sells in her etsy shop. Check it out!

Feel free to use this image when sharing the event with your friends but please be sure to credit Jessica with the flier design. 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Swapper Info

So you are thinking about swapping with us at our next event? Great!

Here is a little info to give you an idea of what to expect at one of our swaps.

What you can swap and how it should be packaged:
-All swap items have to be homemade or homegrown by you.
(think: jams, pickles, granola, bread, sweets, home canned soups, dips, cheeses, kombucha, beer/wine, eggs from your backyard chickens, produce from your garden/fruit trees)
-All items should be bunched and loosely packaged in to swappable size containers. 
Jams, pickled items, and canned goods are already in neat little packages but items like breads, sweets, kombucha, etc. should be packaged together at least loosely. You want your items to be distinguishable in the amounts you want to swap them in and protected from all the hands that will want to pick them up and examine them during the swap.

How many items you should bring:
-Each swapper will get a space at least 1 1/2 feet square (possibly more depending on how many swappers sign up) You can bring enough items to fill that space up if you would like.
-You can bring a bunch of one thing or multiples of a few different things
If there is one special thing you make a ton of, you can have that be the only item you bring and fill your space with a bunch of them. Or, if you make multiple items, you can bring a little of everything and increase your chances for swaps. Maybe 8 jars of jam, 4 loafs of bread, and 6 jars of pickles? The possibilities are endless!

How the swapping will happen:
We hold our swaps in a silent auction style. Each swapper will have a sheet filled out with a list of all the items they have to swap and a few lines under each item.
*The first hour of the swap everyone will walk around and examine each item from the other swappers.
*The second half hour to an hour will be the time for everyone to write down on the sheets of paper the items they would like to swap. If Jenny has some jam you really want, you will write on her sheet of paper under the jam you want what you are willing to swap her for it. Multiple people can put in swap offers for the same item.
*The final half hour-hour is when all the swapping actually happens. Everyone will go back to their original sheets of paper and look at their swap offers. They will then decide which swap they would like to accept for each item and find that person via their name tag and make the swap.


Sign Up!
-You must be pre-registered to participate in the swap
Pre-registration starts about 3 weeks before each event. Notification for pre-registration will be done through the email list, on the blog and on our facebook page.
-Participating in the swaps is FREE. Donations will be accepted to the group organizer for time, marketing, & supplies expenses but are in no way necessary to participate. 



If you haven't already watched this video, please do. It is a great example of how these swaps work:

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Spring 2011- East Bay Food Swap April 9th!


The date has been decided! 
Saturday April 9th will be our first ever East Bay Food Swap!

Mark your calendars & sign up for the email list for updates, because this will be an event you will need to pre register for.

The location will only have enough space for up to 40 swappers. Sign up's for spots will begin on March 19th, 3 weeks before the event.
On the day of the event, April 9th, the event will go from 2-5pm. 

Keep in mind:
*When signing up for the swap you will need to tell me what items you will be bringing to swap. This is important to make sure we have a good variety of things for people to trade.
*You may only attend the swap if you will be participating in the swapping.
*This event is FREE. Donations will be accepted to the group organizer for time, marketing, & supplies expenses but are in no way necessary to participate. 

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE any volunteers interested in creating a flier for this event. Please leave a note below if interested. Any links to previous work would be great!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

First East Bay Food Swap Will Happen In April

Our First East Bay Food Swap will happen in April in Oakland, CA. Exact date and location to be announced. 

Start honing your recipes ladies & gents, were about to get swapping!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Bringing Food Swaps to the Bay Area

After seeing this video I decided the East Bay needed this. Right now, a East Bay CA food Swap is in the planning stages. Join our facebook page (over there) --------> if you are interested in staying up to date, getting info, or joining in.

Check out this video to get an idea of what to expect at our EBCA Food Swap!