Save the date and stay tuned for more details about our second annual Fall Food Festival!

Join our free community festival celebrating the fall harvest! Learn to cook Indian and Ethiopian dishes with fresh garden produce, discover the wild foods growing all around us, and tour the food forest. Press fresh apple cider, grind cornmeal from scratch, and learn to make hickory milk and hazelnut oil from neighborhood nuts. Pick up seeds, honey, and plants to take home. Maryland State Delegate Lorig Charkoudian will also present a special dedication.

Kids are welcome to join in the activities, so bring the whole family!

The event is free, and donations are gratefully accepted. Silver Spring & Takoma Park Mutual Aid will also be collecting diapers for the community, so please bring any size to drop off if you can.

When
October 24th, 2pm to 5pm

Where
Montgomery College Food Forest
Corner of Philadelphia Ave & Chicago Ave
(7719 Chicago Avenue, Silver Spring, MD, 20910 map here)

Please register to help us plan :)

Schedule

2:15-3pm: Ethiopian Veggie Cooking
Learn to cook tasty spiced Ethiopian cabbage and carrots. Hosted by Chef Mimi, owner of Wellness Ethiopian Catering and a regular vendor at Koiner Farm’s Thursday markets, who serves up some of our favorite, healthiest Ethiopian cuisine. 

3:15-4pm: Foraging for Wild Foods
Discover the wild food growing all around us. Matt Cohen of Matt's Habitats will teach you how to identify edible plants in the wild, their benefits, and how to prepare them. Matt is a Silver Spring-based foraging teacher who is known to cook up everything from delicious acorn-flour pancakes to wild mushrooms to the occasional cicada! 

4-4:15pm: Dedication and Sign Unveiling
Maryland State Delegate Lorig Charkoudian will present a special dedication and we’ll unveil Oluwatoyin Tella’s beautiful new sign for the food forest.

4:15-5pm: Indian Garden Cooking and Ayurvedic Practices
Learn to cook vegetarian Indian dishes with fresh garden produce and discover how Ayurveda, India's traditional wisdom for holistic health, guides everyday cooking. Led by Chef Ramah, a gardener, talented home cook, and teacher who loves sharing this rich heritage with the community.

4:15-5pm: Tour the Food Forest
Come walk through the Montgomery College Food Forest to learn about the edible plants we grow and the sustainable ecosystem that supports them. Hosted by Tierney Acosta, student at Montgomery College and leader of the student Permaculture Club.

Booths

Cornmeal Making
Make the freshest cornmeal you'll ever taste, from cob to cornmeal! Shell the dent corn, winnow away the chaff, and grind the kernels. Sample some fresh-baked cornbread, then take your cornmeal home to bake a batch of your own.

Cider Press
Take a turn pressing crisp apples into fresh cider, and then enjoy your homemade drink!

Hickory Milk and Hazelnut Oil
Learn how to transform nuts growing in your neighborhood into delicious hickory milk and hazelnut oil. Hosted by Neil Gormley and Ben Friton. Neil is a former environmental lawyer who founded Wild Potomac to inspire people to save our environment by (lovingly!) eating it. Ben is a regional permaculture leader who runs a beautiful 150+ acre demonstration food forest and educational hub at the REED Center.

Seed Giveaway, Plants, and Restaurant Raffle
Stop by Suzy’s booth to pick up free seeds for your gardens, purchase plants, and enter a raffle to win gift certificates to several local restaurants.

Local Honey
Visit Danila’s booth to purchase honey from some of the best-fed bees around. The happy bees live at the Sanctuary in Kensington, MD, Danila’s urban farm planted entirely with local ecotype native species to restore Montgomery County’s precolonial landscape. Danila has a wealth of stories about the region’s precolonial ecosystem and how it has changed over the centuries.

SSTP Mutual Aid
Come learn about opportunities to participate in Silver Spring & Takoma Park Mutual Aid, a volunteer group that keeps our community connected, supported, and sustainable through projects like clothing swaps, native plant swaps, and household & clothing repair advice. They are collecting diapers for the community, so please bring any size diapers to drop off here if you can!