One day after we bumped into Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle founding director Aviva Furman between a cornfield and a future orchard, we found her again tonight at Eat Local Now! where she was honored with the Jeff Fairhall Local Food Hero Award. Aviva’s in our photo above with Bill Reiswig from Sustainable West Seattle, one of the groups that presented tonight’s 7th annual edition of the gala dinner/auction:
Though this year’s Eat Local Now! was in SODO, it had lots of West Seattle presence, not just because of presenting organizations like SWS and CoolMom.org, but also the food and beverages:
West Seattle-area flavors included Raven’s Brew coffee from Bird on a Wire Espresso, beer from Elliott Bay Brewery and Big Al Brewing, wine selected by Bin 41 (WSB sponsor), sustainable sushi by Chef Hajime Sato from Mashiko, sweet potato crab cakes by Fresh Bistro‘s Chef Dalis Chea, Red Beet and Butternut Squash Salad by Blackboard Bistro‘s Chef Jacob Wiegner:
And we could go on … those are just a few items from the menu (which even included Apple Honey Tarts by On Safari Foods‘ Pastry Chef Traci Knight, described as “local apples cooked with honey from the West Seattle Meadery”). Eat Local Now! also featured a silent auction benefiting SWS, CoolMom, and BALLE Seattle, with a long list of donations from three dozen businesses, many from West Seattle (as previewed here):
(As a co-sponsor of Eat Local Now!, we donated an item for the silent-auction too – a social-media how-to consultation.) One more note – when we caught up with SWS members promoting Eat Local Now! at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market last Sunday, they mentioned “the famous Eat Local Now! underwear” would be on sale too. We thought they were joking. Nope:
The Eat Local Now! gala also featured live music and speakers, and was sold out again this year – all 300 tickets gone by late morning today. Want to learn more about sustainable locally grown food? Check out the videos on the Eat Local Now! YouTube channel, produced by sustainability advocate Wendy Hughes-Jelen of High Point.
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