About
GATHERING FOOD AND FRIENDS TOGETHER
Piedmont Picnic Project uses food history to build awareness and skills around traditional food practices (foraging, gardening, mixology, preserving, fermenting, and creative reuse). We host highly-interactive classes, walking tours, and picnics in the area to show how food history can be a lot of fun and teach us practical ways to eat and live more locally, sustainably, and simply.
Follow us on our blog, on facebook, and on twitter to see recipes, foraging tips, and growing how-to’s all rooted in traditional southern food practices. Stay up to date on our future events and classes.
What can you expect from our approach?
It’s participatory – We don’t play bartender. Folks are involved in creating their own unique dishes and drinks at our picnics, and they get their hands dirty at our classes. This empowers people to do the same thing at home and gets them interacting with each other.
It’s historical – We think history can be fun and give us practical insights for how we live today. Using history to inspire food and drink practices is one way we are going to try to prove this.
It’s local – We keep ingredients as local as possible and use local history and flora to inspire our menu and activities.
It’s sustainable – We keep things local and use traditional recipes that did the same so we can be more sustainable. We try to close the loop as much as possible, reusing when possible and composting when not.
It’s simple – Picnics are meant to be casual! We try to focus on the experience, not the appearance, and build an atmosphere that feels welcoming to all – not stuffy or exclusive. Our drinks, dishes, and activities are meant to be something someone could easily recreate at home.
August 8, 2014 at 3:24 am
I’m a fan already! Can’t wait to try some of the recipes and learn how to make/create some others too! What a great idea and fun project. Best of luck and I look forward to more. Cindy Rubel
August 8, 2014 at 11:25 pm
Thanks, Cindy! We hope you are able to get a lot of good *and fun* information out of the site! Hopefully you can come to an event soon!
January 27, 2015 at 7:06 pm
I’m doing it! I’m doing it! I’m commenting! Way to go PPP! I can’t wait to comment excessively.
January 27, 2015 at 7:28 pm
Thanks for the enthusiasm, Taryn! 🙂
August 23, 2015 at 12:54 am
Hello!
I am a cook and food historian from way back. I love teaching old time cooking over an open fire. I use reproduction untesils, authentic and local recipes. Everything is made from scratch.
I have appeared in Yankee Magazine, and have done cooking demonstrations at Duke Homestead, Wilkesboro Heritage Museum, and Mordecai City Park, to name a few. I would love to share my expertise in this manner. Interested?
August 24, 2015 at 6:37 pm
Hi Becky, Sounds like we are kindred spirits! We would love to talk more. Please email us at piedmont.picnic@gmail.com, and we can set up a time to meet up and discuss!