Northern Sustainability Symposium at North House May 5-8

What exactly are you putting in your body three times a day at each meal? North House Folk School’s second annual Northern Sustainability Symposium, May 5-8, will focus on just that: foods. The public is invited for hands-on coursework, presentations and seminars on producing, preparing and preserving foods.

The symposium’s featured speaker is author and Star Tribune reporter Kim Ode. Her presentation How Bread Changed My Life, or Everything I Know I Learned by Sticking My Head in an Oven, is scheduled for May 7 at 7:30 p.m. Ode took North House’s wood-fired brick oven-building class with world-renowned baker Alan Scott. After weeks in her back yard, mixing mortar and hauling bricks, she built her own oven. Since then she discovered a bread club in St. Paul, wrote a cookbook for the Minnesota Historical Society, and became an Emmy Award-winning baking expert in videos produced by the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. She bakes regularly in her brick oven and still marvels at what happens when you try something new.

David Abasz of Round River Farm will also give his presentation Supersize it? No, Localize it! Creating Local Food Systems, at 7 p.m. May 6. The presentation focuses on our region’s agricultural carrying capacity and a vision of what a local food system could look like.

Eight food-related courses are also scheduled during the symposium. Additional happenings include a film screening of Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us, lunchtime seminars, a tour of Lakeview Dairy and a family program. Lunchtime seminars are scheduled each day with presentations by Jodi Belluz of Ontario’s Belluz Farms, the Northwoods Food Project and family film screenings. For complete descriptions and lunch menus visit the North House website. Registration is required for some events.

Registration is required for coursework and openings are still available. Local residents with a Cook County permanent address are encouraged to take advantage of their 25 percent off tuition discount for coursework. A complete schedule of events is available at the school’s website www.northhhouse.org.