September in Utah: What is Seasonal Food?
Fall is near, and the food is ... kind of changing. Plus, a food justice film festival and our call to preserve what's left of agricultural zoning in SLC.
While come September, we may instinctively feel that the summer heat must be ready to taper off, this summer has obviously been a strange one. We talked all about the wind and the heat in August’s newsletter, and its impacts on some crops coming in late in farms and gardens around the state. So what can we predict for September? Well, farmers will have been busy in July and August planning out and planting crops to harvest late—using space from already harvested spring-planted crops or rows that just didn’t turn out—so it will be a mix of late-planted summer veggies and hardier, cool-weather happy produce we will see as fall gets nearer.
What you can expect in September:
Apples!
While apples have been fruiting since July, your eye may be wandering to them more now that we’re closer to pie-making season. If you have more of a salt tooth than a sweet tooth, you can also try mixing the local fruit into a batch of kraut or kimchi for natural sweetness. Ditto Asian pears, which are also having their moment right now.
Brussels Sprouts
While these may have started popping up in August, this cruciferous delight is in its prime in September. If you’re not ready to start turning on your oven for a roast, shaved brussels are great in hearty salads.
Plums
Use them as you would any other stone fruit, in pies and cobblers, or try your hand at making condiments like sweet Asian plum sauce, a fruity BBQ sauce or a chutney.
Other than these, everything that’s been growing this summer or which has been planted again for fall harvest will likely continue to be available throughout the month. You don’t have to say goodbye to summer eating yet, but you may start looking at produce like cabbage, kale, chard, green beans, root veggies and squash a little differently.
Charred green beans harvested from Green Urban Lunch Box’s Back-Farms program.
Events coming up in September:
Sept. 4
Food Skills Workshop with Slam Ranch
Food preservation isn’t just for our grandmas anymore—it’s a handy tool for anyone to use, especially if you have an overflowing garden or a CSA you just can’t keep up with eating. Head to the Slam Ranch, an independent cooperative living and sustenance farming residence in Glendale to learn about water bath and pressure canning, dehydrating and drying veggies and even lacto-fermentation. Yum! The four-hour deep dive is $15 and you can sign up here.
Sept. 9 - 11
Fall Foray 2022 with Mushroom Society of Utah
Whether you already dabble in foraging for edible mushrooms or want to learn more about the practice, the annual end-of-season Fall Foray hosted by the MSU is an engaging and educational event for all. The weekend-long camping-optional event just south of Kamas includes a potluck, forays with some of Utah’s mushroom experts, workshops on mushroom cultivation, talks, lectures, panel discussions, activities, wild edible mushroom sampling, and cooking classes. You have to be a member to attend, but membership is only $20 for the year. Find more info on the Fall Foray here.
Sept. 11
2022 Annual Tomato Sandwich Party with Wasatch Community Gardens
Pop into Wasatch Community Gardens’ beautiful campus (629 E. 800 S.) on Saturday, Sept. 10 to get in on some free tomato and pesto sandwiches grown in the garden (or perhaps also sourced from one of their many other community gardens!) Plus, enjoy live music while you self-tour the sprawling green space. Find more info here.
Sept. 12
Second Chance Dance with Waste Less Solutions
Local food rescuers Waste Less Solutions do valuable work to keep food out of landfills , and to find it new kitchens and homes where it can still be used. You can support their work and sample some fine dishes made from rescued food at their upcoming Second Chance Dance. Wear your best (thrifted/vintage/well-worn) party clothes and enjoy the food, plus beer, wine, cider, and music. Find more info on the 21+ event and ticket prices here.
Sept. 15 - 18
Food Justice Film Festival 2022
Want to learn more about where our food comes from but don’t have time for all the books on your Goodreads list? Good thing film exists—this upcoming festival presented by the Center for Biological Diversity is spotlighting six of them, all free to view for anyone online. Kicking off on Thursday, Sept. 15, films cover the poisonous biotechnical research done unto the lands of Hawaii (Poisoning Paradise), efforts to restore ancestral ways of eating fresh, local food (RETURN), the issues of environmental racism and class oppression faced by farm workers of the past and present in the United States (Fruits of Labor, I’m Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice) and the challenges faced by those trying to preserve crop diversity with their seed saving efforts (From Gangs to Gardens, The Seed Saver). Films will be screening throughout the weekend until Sunday, Sept. 18. Find more information on each film and screening times here.
A few more things:
Eat (and Read) Marcellus!
Our friends at Marcellus Foods got a write-up in the Tribune about their efforts to streamline both the access working people have to fresh, local food and the act of cooking it by taking over the always-a-hassle ingredient prep part of cooking out of the home cook’s equation.
Help Advocate for the Protection of Agricultural Zones in SLC!
If you read our last newsletter, we talked a lot about how Utah’s precious farmland is slipping away to development—an unsustainable trend that bodes ill for Utah’s ability to self-sustain its communities as supply chains disrupt our network of imported food. Now, Salt Lake City has received some requests to rezone properties in the North West Quadrant in District 1 from their current Agricultural zoning to Light Manufacturing and High-Density Multi Family Residential zoning. While no one’s saying we don’t need more housing in SLC, building it on some of the little agriculturally zoned land we have left in the area isn’t the place to do it when land access is the top problem faced by urban farmers. And if the rezoning did allow for a new high-density residential build, those living there would need a car to travel to the nearest grocery store—they’d be living on top of agricultural land, ironically in a food desert. Let the planning committee know that prioritizing agricultural land is an important investment in the future of our communities and our ability to grow and eat food!