Virtual Meeting
Social Activities
Wed, July 21, 17:15 hrs (UTC±00:00)
Cascoland LAB&KITCHEN: Preserving the Foods of the Food Forest
Facilitators
From our glass kitchen in Amsterdam, the Cascoland team organizes its first digital LAB&KITCHEN. During this session, you will learn about ancestral knowledge of food preservation techniques, get your hands dirty, cook and taste together. Around the (digital) kitchen table, we exchange information and stories about food, recipes, cooking, agriculture, the origin of edible products, the resources of natural ecosystems, and the culinary traditions of their inhabitants. All our ingredients come from food forests across the Netherlands.
Food forests are a way to enhance the symbiotic relationships between different organisms, as an antidote against monoculture. As a relatively unknown but increasingly widespread form of agroforestry, food forests are the living proof of how the cartesian juxtaposition of ‘nature versus agriculture’ can effectively be transcended. Techniques of food preservation symbolize intergenerational thinking and the importance of ancestral knowledge, as well as the urgent need for ‘long-termism’ in global biodiversity and food security challenges.
In preparation for this session, we went into the field and traveled across the country to collect ingredients from different food forests. Scattered as we are across the globe, we ask you to collect your own ingredients. However, to give you a glimpse of the food forests, we will take you on a digital journey to the food forest farmers in the Netherlands. Each producer brings their own specific expertise, product and story to the table. Together, creating a collective synchronicity in cooking movements across the world, we will preserve foods and eat together.
Active participation is highly recommended, so please read the instructions for this session carefully.
Note to participants: Photographs of plants can be uploaded to the designated group in Whova.
For a sneak preview of previous LAB&KITCHENS by Cascoland:
- Asperen, the Netherlands (2019)
- Antananarivo, Madagascar (2019)
Mara Lin Visser (1990) is a visual anthropologist, food activist and filmmaker based in Amsterdam. Film as a medium gives Mara Lin the freedom to explore and express their thoughts about various topics in a natural way. They are part of the collective ethnovision, which aims to bridge the knowledge-gap between academics and a bigger audience using the power of audiovisual research methods. Currently, Mara Lin works at Cascoland and is setting up The Waste To Success, a collective which generates awareness around food waste, local and sustainable food by giving creative cooking workshops.
Anna Kooi (1995) is an Amsterdam-based chef, philosopher and sociologist. By engaging with food both as a practitioner and as an academic, she continuously integrates theory with practice. Anna currently works as a chef for Cascoland and as a research assistant at the AMS Institute. Her research revolves around the role of artistic practices in food transitions, food preservation and the coloniality of food. She is an active member of the Slow Food Youth Network, was listed in the Food100 and is part of CoLaboratory Kitchen.
