Dining Out...

Looking for something to do on Friday night? Well, who doesn’t love a potluck? You choose one dish to bring and, in return, you get to eat a whole buffet and enjoy the company of friends.  

Four couples in Woodstock, OR, the self-proclaimed Green Team, are taking potlucks to a new level and celebrating the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) in the process. They hosted their first sustainable potluck in September—the peak of harvest. Everybody brought an all-local dish and came ready to explain and defend their green cooking, from how they chose the veggies to how they disposed of any waste created during cooking.

The menu: lamb casserole with eggplant and applesauce, tomato and cucumber salad, roasted carrots and potatoes, wheat berry salad, and peach cobbler.

The conversation: solar energy, recycling, how to store food without using plastics, and organ donation.

And that was only the first dinner. Since that first harvest, the Green Team has added couples, dishes, and changed it up at their monthly meetings, hosting a brunch in January, and a pizza party using canned tomatoes from their 2007 gardens in March.

So, as this year’s growing season gears up, how are you going to enjoy the bounty?

Photo from a vegetarian potluck of Southern Californian Vegetarians.