Wild violet syrup. Squash blossoms. Tomatoes in colors from garnet to gold. You can’t buy them here, not at any price.
But you can swap for them at this month’s Plaza-Midwood Food Swap on Saturday, August 30.
Here’s how it works: Everyone brings homemade, homegrown, or foraged foods to swap. Think herbs, eggs, honey, pickles, a loaf of bread; you get the idea.
You set your items out on a table, and the organizers give you a sheet of paper. Then everyone walks around and checks out the gazpacho and pesto, seeds and salsa. When you see something you like, you write down your name. Then the swapping begins.
Kristina Hicks Carlet is one of the organizers. She attended a food swap in Wilmington a couple of years ago, but couldn’t find anything like it in Charlotte. So she talked to the owners at Snug Harbor, a local music club. They agreed to host a monthly swap on their patio on the last Saturday of each month from April through October. This is the second season. (One of the owners, Kelly Call, gave us a lesson on chestnut butter the day WFAEats visited.)
What’s remarkable, aside from the cash-free aspect of the swap, is the sheer variety of goods people bring: seeds for growing European mâche greens, hand-blended pain d’épices bread mix, six kinds of mushrooms, and more.
The rules are simple, and can be found on the group’s Facebook page. No registration is required for the event that takes place on August 30 from 2 – 4 pm at 1228 Gordon St. The July swap drew several dozen participants but there’s still room for the event to grow – as abundantly as a bountiful garden.
