Last Sunday was Cambridge's third Liberated Feast. [when I wrote that last sentence, it was indeed last Sunday. It is now three or so weeks ago...] If you haven't heard of Liberated Feasts yet, they are the brainchild of Jennie Debenham, and they are a celebration of food that supermarkets think we won't buy. This may be the banana that's not the same uniform size and shape of its brothers and sisters down the aisle, or else the rather over-enthusiastic thigh-width leek. At the Third Liberated Feast, the food that was served was a combination of food rejected by supermarkets and food donated by local farmers.
The Feast was held at St Paul's Centre on Hills Road, 7.30pm. We were all seated on long, Hogwarts-style tables, and serenaded by a variety of musicians. While food was somewhat long in arriving (with a handful of sweating volunteers ladling soup and hurrying in and out of the kitchen), getting to know my Feast-neighbours passed the time very nicely. I would estimate a hundred or so Feasters, most of whom were unknown to me. I was opposite Jessica, who works for the University press office, and Alistair, who works for the Red Cross.
The starter was a pale, parsnipy soup. Chatting to Liz Serocold and Bev Sedley, we couldn't quite work out what all the different flavours were - the combination was a treat. Following the soup, the main course was a fascinating mezze of sprouting broccoli, Baba Ghanouj, Unidentified-Greenish-Dip, kale crisps and other tasty tidbits. The desert was fruit crumble or chocolatey-biscuit thing. All courses were delicious and well worth the wait. The fact that this food would otherwise have been squashed beneath plastic in a hole in the ground somewhere as methane-oozing goo made one particularly appreciate it.
Many thanks to Jennie and all volunteers for liberating that feast for us!
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