Canadian thanksgiving

In the October's eve, monday 11th, Archie hosted a Canadian thankgiving party. This time Archie was giving us so many different dishes that I don't think he's ever done that before: we had authentic canadian pumpkin pie (of course!), stuffing, german bread, indian naan-bread, apples in the oven, chickpea curry, egyptian cornbread, a truly finnish touch given by Carelian pies and what else..? A lot!
Winter's winds are starting to arrive and give their chill to the evenings, but if you'll dress up warm enough, Archie will do the rest and you'll survive (nearly) any blizzards! Hot drinks are highly recommended too and a guitar for music always adds to the atmosphere.

Public food/art event 1/5, this Sunday 3-6 pm!

The dodo harvest event will be followed by another happening during the same weekend. Here the description of the event (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113585698695682):

1/5: FERTILIZE// First happening of the food event series "5 - The dish"

“5″ is a series of food events and workshops taking place between June - November 2010 in Helsinki, each one symbolizing one step of the production process. Basic food is bread, the rest is a metaphore. The five steps consist of 1) fertilizing, 2) harvesting, 3) preparing, 4) consuming, and 5) salvaging. The basic idea is to inspire thought about culture, identity, and the objects we consume, with a shared experience of eating. Food as an ephemeral product, consumed by our very own bodies, represents an everyday experience that connects people and memories. We are what we eat – so, who are we?

If at hand, please bring a recipe for "Rieska" (Finnish flat bread) that you know from your family, friends, cookbook, or invented yourself. The first 25 recipe bringers will receive something in return. Welcome to an experimental autumnal afternoon outside!



Location: next to the cob oven at the container square, Kalasatama in Helsinki (follow the green "ranta-reitti"-markings on the floor/ check out the map here: http://www.uuttahelsinkia.fi/kalasatama/perustiedot/kalasatama-temporary the oven is situated close to #4)

Time: 5th of September, 3 pm- 6 pm (the evening may be continued @ Ptarmigan with a movie screening of the short film "Cities of Preferences", starting at 7 pm)

More information about the whole project can be found on its blog 1234viisi.wordpress.com. Welcome!

Archie spits fire and pizza

Tonight, we had our first private cob oven building team experimental pizza baking night and it was just incredible! It actually works perfectly and nicely!

The firing took around 3-4 hrs, with a first experiment at 175 degrees and a second firing after which the oven reached a temperature of about 250 degrees and just made one tasty crunchy but juicy pizza after the other! We had a wheat sourdough and topped it with ingredients everyone brought, with some veggies harvested from the dodo-garden which had really nice flavours. As tools we used a used oven peel that was donated to us by dear neighbours (big mama, thanks so much!), with the help of a saw (you shouldn't let the dough suck in the tomato sauce for too long, otherwise you have difficulties getting the pizza off the peel). The wood was found in the surroundings and brought from private homes equipped with fire wood. Even a beautiful oven door was built today, which makes Archie almost complete, since a bunch of people built an impressive roof for him on Saturday to protect him from the upcoming (winter?) season.

The pizza was enjoyed in a little pop-up park (grass mats left over from the Flow festival), under the shadow of a carrot tree (carrots grow on trees, right?). Everyone went home with a warm and full stomach, some sand between the teeth, and the aromatic smell of burnt wood in the clothes. What a night. More to come! :) Put down next weekend in your calendar! (dodo and 1/5 event coming up!)