Mattole Potluck

2007 Mattole Potluck

This year's Mattole Potluck was held on Sunday, October 7th. Roughly 60 adults attended. There were 26 entries in the contest plus Ian Sigman who thought it started at 4 pm and so his French-fried potatoes with tomato sauce missed the judging. The best meat dish went to Jane Lapiner's "Venison Stew." The best veggie dish went to Jim Bowdoin & Roxy Kennedy's "Stuffed Tomatoes." Best condiment went to Carla Hart's "Pumpkin-Squash-Rosemary Soup." The best desert went to Sierra Simpson's "Apple Berry Cobbler." The best beverage went to Seth Zuckerman's "Apple-Pear Juice." Each category winner received a 10 petol (silver) coin. The Grand Overall Prize went to Jim Bowdoin & Roxy Kennedy's "Stuffed Tomatoes" and they won 50 petols (five coins).

Once again, there was more food than we could eat, even with more than half of the attendees not bringing anything (which is just fine). It is suggested that next year's event be called the "All Mattole Food Festival." Comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks to the judges, Boib Hoyle, Peter Nash, Charlie Solo, and Gail Franklin. Thanks also to Laura Cooskey who handled the contest entries and covered a lot of bases that I simply didn't have time for. Thanks also to Hope Rose Wright for contributing a stew and several contest entries, even tho she could not attend. Thanks also to Oma Chase for contributing a pot of Mattole stew.

Perhaps someone would like to contribute a longer and more personable story for this section.


2006 Mattole Potluck

On Sunday, September 24, the Mattole Self-Sufficiency Project and the Mattole Grange co-sponsored a Mattole Foods Potluck and contest. About 50 people attended this unique event. Everybody seemed to enjoy the food and the people immensely, and all are looking forward to next year's contest offering an even greater variety of delicious, locally-produced foods. As Reid Bryson commented after the feast, "I think it was great. I was really impressed by the diversity of dishes." And Libby added, "I was impressed with people's resourcefulness."

Ken Young was responsible for the idea, the publicity, the contest rules-in short, everything. Not to suggest that the help of others goes unappreciated! Thanks to all who helped (Hope Rose Wright in particular), to the judges, to the Grange for hosting, to all those who helped set up and clean up, and to the inspired chefs.

All ingredients for the competing dishes had to be grown or gathered in the Mattole Valley or from the nearby seashore. Ken did everyone a favor by evaporating six gallons of sea water, collected at the McNutt beach, to make one-and-a-half pounds of sea salt, an ingredient used in many recipes. Of course, at this time of year, garden vegetables and fruits could be well-represented; strangely, there were not many purely vegetable dishes. Local meats, however, made frequent appearances.

Some of the recipe titles, from twenty-two official entries and a few arriving too late to judge, were: Seaweed Pickles (with dillseed); Pumpkin Pudding (with filberts); Raw Blueberry Pie; Honey Applesauce; Dolmeh (grape leaves wrapped around a squash, buckwheat, and chicken stock filling); Half-Hard Cider; several other apple juice presentations; Concord Grape Juice; One-Beet Borscht; Mint Blueberries with Sunflower Seeds; Blackberry Jam and Blackberry Apple Butter; Rhubarb Preserves; Sweet and Sour Mussels; German Potato Salad; Mustard and Hot Mustard; and Bay Nut Nuggets.

These last, presented by Kirsten Free, were incredibly strong and compellingly bitter morsels of ground Pepperwood nuts, rolled with local honey and lightly roasted. They tasted very much like dark chocolate or espresso beans. (The honey, from bees at Mattole's blueberry farm, was produced by Jen Graeff, and was another ingredient widely used in these recipes.) There was also a seaweed dish from Susanna Grey, a roast duck from Reid and Libby, and an interesting casserole of grapes in pesto sauce from Carol Calhoun. Too bad that one arrived too late for judging.

There was plenty of Mattole Stew on hand: a vegetarian and a spicy vegetarian from Ken Young's kitchen; and two made with Frank Etter and Carla Warner's beef, from Hope Rose Wright and from Melissa Sigman. Because Mattole Stew was the official offering of the sponsoring MSSP, it was not judged; but next year, the stews will be regular contestants.

Members of the public, many of whom had contributed a dish themselves, judged the taste and general appeal of the dishes. This vote was balanced by the judges' decision, based upon number of ingredients and the difficulty of obtaining or preparing them. This year's panel of three judges consisted of Bob Hoyle, Peter Nash, and Paul Ehrlich.

The attending crowd included a dozen young students from the visiting Sierra Institute, led by Willow Abel and her assistant, Stewart Abel. It was great timing to have that group here for an experiment in self-sufficiency and living closer to the earth; they were all very enthusiastic. Locals in evidence included Susanna Grey; Linda Huddleston; Dan Huddleston; Laura and Meadow Cooskey; Kirsten, Indigo, Ysabel, and Cosmo Free; Ken Young; Roxy Kennedy and Jim Bowdoin; Gail Franklin; Kate Procter; David Simpson and Jane Lapiner; Hope Rose Wright; Michael from the mouth of the river; Rob Yosha; Reid Bryson and Libby Earthman; Donna Mayer; Peter and Judy Nash; Saige and Callista; Deanna Cooper; Bob Beatty; Ken Carpenter; Lisa from SoHum; Melissa and Ian Sigman, and Zoey and Salmon; Merlin Nelson; Paul Ehrlich; Jim Danisch and Oma Chase; Bob Hoyle; Dick Brown; Jen Graeff with Sequoia and Freya; John Giffin; Carol Calhoun; and probably several others.

The winners in the contest were:

Best Meat Dish: Jane Lapiner's Black Beans with Scheinman's beef.
Best Veggie Dish: Jim Bowdoin's Nightshade Medley.
Best Salad, Condiment, or Other: Hope Rose's Hot Mustard.
Best Dessert or Baked Good: John Giffin's Blueberry Sorbet.
Best Beverage: Deanna Cooper's Apple Juice, fresh-squeezed.

And the Best Overall prize (one hundred dollars!) went to Jim Bowdoin, for his Nightshade Medley. This was the dish that best represented the bounty of the Mattole garden and yard, comprised of tomatoes, three kinds of peppers, eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash, corn, string beans, beet greens, onion, garlic, dried and fresh basil and dried oregano, and fresh rosemary and bay leaf (plus the sea salt). Excellent!

The food was delicious, often surprisingly so. Bold new combinations can delight the taste buds. Judge Peter Nash said, "It was hard to make certain decisions because all the food tasted so good, and there was such a variety… how do you choose between mussels and beans, they're so different! It was very interesting, but difficult to judge."

Paul Ehrlich, another judge, shared the sentiment: "The dishes were a wonderful array of ingenious concoctions, considering that all the food was produced and gathered locally. It showed tremendous ingenuity and effort. Also-they all tasted very good!"

And we learned quite a bit. We were able to see where our strengths lie-- what is relatively easy to obtain or produce; and also, where we could use further development. It was widely agreed that we could use a dairy cow or two in the Valley, or some milking goats, even; we don't know of even one! So we had no butter, yogurt, cheese, or milk. Grains were also in short supply, although some wheat berries are available, and quinoa and buckwheat showed up in some of the recipes. As a vegetarian, I would like to see some kind of seed and nut press for producing oil; and to learn how to hull sunflower seeds! It's a very tedious task, shelling them one-by-one, by hand.

This was the first in what looks to be an annual event; it would be interesting to hold it at different times of year, also, to see how we might do in, say, January. The only suggestion for improvement I heard was that we might need more publicity. So get prepared, already: and we'll try to let you know well ahead of time about next year's uniquely satisfying event.

Laura Cooskey