Underground Food Collective

MACSAC presents
3RDANNUAL BIKE THE BARNS
in partnership with Underground Food Collective
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Bike the Barns for fresh food for all!
Bike the Barns is a spectacular fundraising bicycle ride through the countryside southwest of Madison, Wisconsin. Online registration opens on July 7, 2009 at 10am, and closes on Tuesday, September 8 or when the ride is full. We are not able to offer ride-day registrations. This year's 52-mile ride highlights three local CSA and direct market farms and, once again, features gourmet local food presented by Underground Food Collective. This ride is a bit hilly, but all levels of cyclists are welcome and encouraged to be part of a wonderful day that benefits an important and meaningful cause.

This ride is our major fundraising event, and each year more participants help raise money for families and individuals improve nutrition by having access to fresh, organic vegetables from local farms. All proceeds, including pledges collected by bike riders, will support Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition's Partner Shares Program. Since Partner Shares’ inception in 1997, over 2,300 underserved and low-income households have received fresh local food.

Fabulous prizes will be announced and given to the top fundraisers at the Finale Celebration at Elver Park. We hope that you'll join us for a closing celebration with Bike the Barns volunteers, MACSAC farmers and staff at Elver Park from 4-7:30pm. Tickets to the Finale Celebration only are $20, and include a beverage and grilled pizza.

If you get a chance, check out the film FRESH. The film was recently screened in Washington, D.C., New York, and other locations. It does a great job at showing the true faces and possibilities of sustainable agriculture, and also displays, without the usual vilification, a glimpse of the families caught in the gears of the industrial agriculture machine. With appearances by Will Allen, Joel Salatin, Michael Pollan, and others.

We had a really great time in New York. Made so many really wonderful friends. I will post a more about the trip in a few days but I wanted to say thanks to a few folks who really helped us out. I want to thank all the people who helped make this dinner happen.

Again, big big thanks to the crew from Added Value for hosting us and providing such a beautiful venue for the Red Hook dinner. Also many thanks to Ommegang for the beer, both delicious and plentiful. Thank you to Les Hook and Nova Kim, our wild-crafting foragers (www.wildorganicfoods.com). A huge thank you too Kelly from Sweet Deliverance who let us use her kitchen all week and hosted the final dinner. And finally a great big thanks to Lee Davenport from Pamplemousse who did desserts for us all week and took dozens of photos.

Check out the write up from Serious Eats

Photos from lee http://www.flickr.com/photos/leedav/sets/72157612767974760/

Underground Food Collective is proud to announce another pig-inspired dinner scheduled for Saturday, April 25th @ 7:00pm (65 usd) in Chicago, IL. Exact location will be announced closer to the date (near Western and Division). The dinner will feature pork from four Red Waddles that were raised last season on pasture, and finished under sumac and apple trees, at Henry Morren's Farm in Orfordville, WI. Tickets are on sale at Brown Paper Tickets.

Check out reviews of pig dinners served earlier this winter in Madison, WI and New York, NY.

The NY Times Bittman Blog, Slow Food USA, and Gourmet Magazine covered the delicious -- and sold-out -- UFC dinners served last month in New York. For links to articles and photos, see: CLICK HERE

The Onion covered the Nov. 14 dinner in Madison, WI: CLICK HERE

Last weekend we held another Pre-Industrial Pig Dinner in Madison. We hosted it at the Goodman Community Center and around 90 people attended. Tim Vollmer, a founding member of the collective, was back in town for a visit and helped out in the kitchen. We were excited to do another dinner here in Madison -- it is our home and our community, and the number of friendly faces there was something that made us all really happy.
Even though it is only March, everyone here in Madison is ready for spring. We are too -- and wanted to put together a spring-like menu that was light and fresh. That's a bit tricky, however, since we're still working with last fall's hearty root vegetables. We were lucky, however, to obtain some hoop house greens from local farmers. We also took advantage of some of the southeast's citrus fruits that are available this time of the year. One other source of crispy vegetables -- we pulled out the last jars of last year's pickles for some color and crunch. The full menu is posted below.

Last week, Henry, Cecily and I drove to Rockford, IL to pick up some more pigs. We decided to do ten Red Wattles this year. Last year we only did four and we are starting to regret that we don't have more meat, both for our own homes and for more experimentation -- especially after our two-year aged hams turned out so well.

The pigs are really big already. That is one nice thing about Red Wattles -- they grow fast and develop a nice flavor in relatively short period of time. Red Wattle hogs are also known for their hardiness and active foraging. I imagine that we will start processing the pigs this summer, perhaps in time to do a few dinners by late summer or early fall. We plan to leave some pigs in the field for longer, and, if everything goes right, we hope to try some breeding.

Underground Food Collective is proud to announce another pig-inspired dinner scheduled for Saturday, March 7th @ 7:00pm (60 usd) in Madison, WI. Exact location will be announced closer to the date. The dinner will feature pork from four Red Waddles that were raised last season on pasture, and finished under sumac and apple trees, at Henry Morren's Farm in Orfordville, WI.

We are selling tickets online through Brown Paper Tickets.

Check out reviews of pig dinners served earlier this winter in Madison, WI and New York, NY.

The NY Times Bittman Blog, Slow Food USA, and Gourmet Magazine covered the delicious -- and sold-out -- UFC dinners served last month in New York. For links to articles and photos, see: CLICK HERE

The Onion covered the Nov. 14 dinner in Madison, WI: CLICK HERE

Underground Food Collective (UFC) will be cooking breakfast at the Dane County Farmers Market (DCFM) this Saturday, February 7th. We are looking forward to our fifth winter working with the DCFM. It is exciting to work with farmers to showcase the huge variety of local products that are available at the market even in the depths of the Wisconsin winter. This breakfast will be prepared in partnership with the Goodman Community Center's newly-opened, teen-run Ironworks Cafe.
Saturday's Market Breakfast Menu:
Toasted Ham and Cheese Sandwich on Brioche with a Fried Egg and & Mornay Sauce, Pork Terrine and Sprouted Salad with Sweet Potatoes and Lardons.
Location and Hours:
Madison Senior Center