Sprouts love ikebana
January 9, 2007
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My neighbours won the 2007 Sprouts Love Ikebana competition for the categories: 6 and under, 5 and under
From more than 300 images of the sprouts love ikebana competition this weekend at the Grow Yer Own Dang Food sprout restaurant, these are the first, last and middle ones. We had winners in more than 14 categories in the international adult competition. I’ll post the winning entries and some other gaieté tonight.
Today I’m off to London to help jury the Dott07 and Royal Society of the Arts Design Directions competition on Foodmiles. To offset the carbon emission that I will accrue during my taxi ride, I have decided to swim from Amsterdam to London and back.
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Sprouts cause ecstasy in infants
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One winner of the 2007 Sprouts love Ikebana competition for the category: Gaieté, gets his gaie on
debra at 1:55 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us
Bone up on ikebana
January 4, 2007
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The key to Ryusei-ha ikebana is the approach known as the ‘faces of plants.’ The arranger is not bound by set rules of composition but encounters the plant materials directly, approaching them with a new attitude. Image used entirely without permission.
To celebrate the natural beauty of sprouted seeds and micro greens, and to close the Mediamatic Night Garden exhibition, Grow yer own dang food sprout restaurant will hold a freestyle ikebana competition for absolute beginners this Saturday evening. Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging also known as kadÅ (è¯é“) the way of flowers. Saturday evening we will expand the way to include our own autodidactic way with sprouted herbs, leafy greens and cresses. There will be a photo studio at the restaurant where you can photograph your creation under suitable lighting conditions.
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Natascha Hagenbeek’s early entry photographed under unfortunate lighting conditions
In contrast to the decorative form of flower arranging in western countries, the Japanese flower arrangement creates a harmony of linear construction, rhythm, and color. While westerners tend to emphasize the quantity and colors of the flowers, devoting their attention mainly to the beauty of the blossoms, ikebana emphasizes the linear aspects of the arrangement. The Japanese have developed the art to include the vase, stems, leaves, and branches, as well as the flowers. And so with flowers, so also with sprouts, at least this Saturday evening.
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This Polar Circle sprout arrangement emphasizes heaping, a contemporary style formalised in the latter half of 2006 by Erga the Sprout Princess.
The jury for Saturday’s ikebana meets sprouts competition includes: moi, Aya van Caspel, Marlein Overakker, Erga the Sprout Princess, Rob van der Plas, Arne Hendrickxs and contemporary art-lover Paul Groot. The winners of the competition can expect to receive prizes that are both highly desirable and that have a metabolism.
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The Ichiyo School was founded in 1937 by a sister and brother. Image used entirely without permission
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Image of plating process by Willem Velthoven
Grow yer own dang food = micro-green cuisine
What’s on the menu?
potato mash
truffle potato mash
pumpkin mash
onion marmalade
ginger crackling
up to 31 sorts of sprout and cress composed into a beautiful tasting menu
Pork products available upon request.
Saturday is the last night that the Grow yer own dang food micro-green cuisine sprout restaurant will be open in Amsterdam, so be wise and please reserve by calling +31 (0)20 638 9901.
Mediamatic, Post CS Building, ground floor, Oosterdokskade 5, Amsterdam
- Ikebana hub on Wikipedia with links to all of the schools of ikebana
- Senkeiru basic technique in diagrams
- Gendai is ‘freestyle’ ikebana, and I like the sound of that!
- The Ryusei-ha school is culiblog’s favourite
- Examples of different flower treatments
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Dang Freegans, eatin’ our trash, stealin’ our women
January 1, 2007
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See what I mean? Used entirely with permission
Actually, Freegans don’t so much steal our women as eat our trash. And, not so much our trash, but perfectly edible food and produce that shops and restaurants end up throwing away because the products have passed their sell-by dates.
As of today, I’ve become a vegetarian again for a year, mostly for ecological reasons, but also to more thoroughly dive into local and seasonal cuisine vegetal. While rooting around online, researching potentially fashionable forms of food fetishism, I re-stumbled upon the Freegans.
In the end, lactoccasional-ovo vegetarianism emerged as an appropriate form for one who so smugly orders hindu vegetarian food on carbon-not-so-neutral airplanes. Please Gawd, don’t make me learn through my ass this time as much as I had to last time.
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A Freegan hits the freakin’ motherload: a vein of relatively fresh and normally expensive Odwalla juices found in a dumpster, image from the Freegan website used entirely with permission
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Oy vey is mir, the irony! Trashed canvas shopping bags emblazoned with interspecies French-kissing from the Freegan website used entirely with permission
And they’re no slouches when it comes to Freegan photography, either.
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Freegans tend to forage in groups and come prepared for food transport and sharing. This image illustrates the difference between a group of urban Freegans and the homeless and/or deprived. Freeganism is a lifestyle choice. Image used entirely with permission
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Image from Freegan.info used entirely with permission
Freegans, urban food waste experts
The term ‘freegan’ is a portmanteau combining the words ‘free’ and ‘vegan’, one who chooses not to eat or use animal products in any form. Freeganism is a lifestyle based upon the notion that although animals may not have been exploited in the production process of a product, human exploitation and destruction of the environment were most likely part and parcel of bringing that product into being.
In order to avoid contributing to the processes of exploitation, freegans choose not to participate in exchanges within capitalist economy. Freegans don’t buy things. But that doesn’t mean they are homeless, go hungry, go naked or stop using computers and bicycles. In fact, freegans are experts at ‘living off the fat of the land’, and in a typical North American or European city, there’s a lot of ‘fat’ to go around.
Go to any outdoor market at closing time. You will find crates of perfectly wholesome food that no one will let you buy. Each day enormous amounts of perfectly edible food is thrown away before it leaves the supermarket. Food that has passed its ‘sell by’ date, or it is deemed overripe, simply because too much of it was bought in the first place, is all thrown away. Remember, 40% of all food produced is wasted before it even has a chance to get to our lips.
Freegans are high quality urban food waste experts, and they use their knowledge to feed and clothe themselves. They are highly aware of trash pickup times, baking schedules, and they are quite often informed by shop workers happy to see that the unsold food does not go to waste. One can compare a freegan to a computer ‘hacker’, pointing out the weaknesses of the (food) system.
debra at 2:39 | Comments (4) | post to del.icio.us
