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Welcome to Pepper Paradise!
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Dear Abundant People,
This is the most fun part of event planning...the work is done, and now we just have to put on the festival. We are so excited to see everyone after months of preparation and ticket sales are double what they were last year! So, get ready for an amazing pepper festival as promised! Prepare to EAT a lot!
We also want to thank all of our brilliant workshop instructors for such a successful fall series. Again, we are so very lucky to be able to work with the people and organizations that we do.
Thank you, Thank you!
**You can help us by sending this email to ONE of your friends who loves local food and fun! Pepper Festival tickets will sell in a heartbeat and we can focus on the logistics....a really easy way to help!!
For some great wisdom, check out the press we received on Treehugger! Want to save the world? Throw a really great party! |
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Pepper Royalty! Only 10 more days until Festival!
 | | Joe Kenlan and Janice Rieves busily creating Pepper Crowns! |
The Pepper Festival Crowns have just been completed by artists, Joe and Janice. Their inspiration came from the traditional headgear worn by monarchs. The crown represents "power, legitimacy, immortality, righteousness, victory, triumph, resurrection, honour and glory of life after death" according to
wikipedia
, so it must represent PEPPER POWER for the Pepper Festival! Their creativity shows through in the perfect bell pepper shape. We can't wait to see who the King and Queen will be!!
 | | Ilana Dubester models the Queen's Crown! |
4th Annual Pepper Festival Oct. 2, 4-7pm
Who: Local Foodies and Beer & Wine Lovers, Family Friendly...lots of kids!
Who else: 25 Local Chefs serving pepper dishes, 5 Local Breweries Triangle, Carolina, Fullsteam, Green Man, Top of the Hill, including habanero pepper pale ale!, Benjamin Winery, Starrlight Meadery and Stevie's Booch, a King and a Queen, local organizations working on hunger prevention, sustainable agriculture, local economy, etc.
What: Lots of Pepper Dishes, Pepper tasting, fantastic music; Justin Robinson and the Mary Annettes + Lonnie Walker!
Kids of all ages activities including face painting, scavenger hunt, jugglers, hoopers, big bubbles + more!
Where: Chatham County, Briar Chapel community park
When: Sunday, October 2nd 4-7pm
Why: To celebrate local food and drink, educate the public on the importance of local agriculture and to have a good time! Benefit for The Abundance Foundation and Piedmont Biofarm
Tickets $25 til Oct. 1 and $30/door: www.theabundancefoundation.org
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Pepper Festival Sustainability Spotlight:
Why on earth do we do this? We spend a lot of time and effort putting on a Pepper Festival. North Carolina is a premium place to grow one of the most nutritious vegetables in existence. We want to promote local food, healthy living, healthy farmers, healthy soils and we want to have a really good time doing this.
Farmer Doug Jones grows around 100 varieties of peppers and says,
"Ripe Peppers are an underutilized and under appreciated super food. They grow exceptionally well in the piedmont of NC, our climate. We want to develop the consumer demand and increase the growers in our region. Peppers are exceptionally high in Vitamin A and Vitamin C as well as flavor and phytonutrients."
We also put special emphasis on the way we do this and the products we purchase. Our favorite Tshirt makers is TS Designs (we could go on forever about their dedication to sustainability) and we'll have a few Tshirts for sale at the event. (Volunteers, Sponsors and Chefs have first dibs!) We also want to thank ECO Products for supplying the compostable plates and utensils.
We also want to thank Briar Chapel, our host and mention that they are having a day of events leading up to the Pepper Festival...check out Octoberbest!
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"Like" us on Facebook and win a chance at a pair of tickets to our 4th Annual Pittsboro Pepper Festival! Once we get to 700 fans, we'll choose a winner at random. Spread the word!
**The reason is we'll be updating facebook a lot more often than sending out the newsletter....so "like" us!!
We just gave away two free tickets at 600 to: Whitney Beers Schmidt! We did a random integer drawing on random.org and our 208th fan is our winner.....Congrats Whitney!
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350.org's Moving Planet
 Saturday, September 24th is the date of 350.org's Moving Planet, a worldwide day to move beyond fossil fuels, with actions taking place in thousands of locations across the world. The Triangle location will be The Pavilion at Durham Central Park, 501 Foster Street in Durham, from 2-5 pm. People will come from all directions on bikes, carpool in hybrids and biodiesel cars, walk, use public transportation (and yes, cars, too), converging together for the special event! We're building a people-powered movement for climate action in the Triangle and NC!!! For more information, please check out their site, click here!! |
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Chatham County Agricultural and Industrial Fair
 We have a very special fair here in Chatham County and the 61st fair is happening September 28-October 1st. Come down to Martin Luther King Drive in Pittsboro and join in the fun. For a complete list of activities and information, click here! |
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Farmer Foodshare Challenge-Sep. 24th
 Shoppers!! Come out your favorite Triangle farmers' market between September 20 - 24th to help the farmers' markets raise over a ton of fresh local food or funds to feed the hungry in our area. The Grammy-award winning band Wilco is also helping Farmer Foodshare raise funds by hosting their own Donation Station at their show at the Raleigh on September 27th! You can also donate funds to the Farmer Foodshare Fund and we will buy food with the donations. Also, to help promote the Farmer Foodshare Challenge, Wilco and local businesses have a "Farmer Foodshare Challenge and Wilco" tote bag available for free at Locopops, Empire Eats restaurants or the N&O! People can pick up a tote bag, bring it to market, fill it with food and donate the food at the Donation Station (and keep the tote bag of course!) The Produce Box are helping provide boxes for the event, too, which is incredibly kind. The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle will be helping to do the delivery and distribution and the Society of St. Andrew has offered to help farmers do extra gleaning if they want to get some extra help bringing food to market for their challenge day! Thank you for everyone's support!! |
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Our goal is to bring sustainability to central North Carolina quickly, innovatively and while enjoying the journey.
for the PEPPER,
Tamela Schwerin
The Abundance Foundation |
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Camille is going gangbusters with DIY Workshops!! Check it out! September 25 - Do-it-yourself Cheese Making with Laurel Shulman (below).
Join local cheesemaker Laurel to demystify your favorite item in the fridge: cheese! CHEESE WORKSHOP IS SOLD OUT. October 1: Compassionate Listening for Sustainable Community (healing our world from the inside out) with Jan Hutton (below) How do we look at those who differ from us and see our shared humanity? Explore the Heart-based Core practices of The Compassionate Listening Project with facilitator Jan in this experiential introductory workshop.
· Suspend judgment
· Maintain balance in the heat of conflict
· Shift from reactivity to compassion
· Speak from the heart with language that reflects a healing intent
· Nurture compassion for oneself and others 
October 1: Canning 101 . Join multi-talented Rachel Hoff and learn how to can seasonal abundance to enjoy year round and take home a pint of something wonderful!
October 16: Growing and Making your own medicine with Kim Calhoun. Just before the cold season! You'll use this knowledge forever to stay healthy!
October 29: Intro to Aquaponics with Mike Yablonski. More info coming. Think tilapia and duckweed!
November 5: Oh BABY! Learn how to make babyfood with Andrea Williams! (I wish I had this class when my babies were little!!) |
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We seriously could not put on this Pepper Festival if it were not for the Pepper Sponsors. For more information on these community minded folks, click on their name.
Special Thanks to:
        Piedmont Biofuels Larry's Beans Chatham County Economic Development Bradshaw & Robinson, LLP JY Visuals Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance The Sustainable Agriculture Program, Central Carolina Community College Krombach Dunn & Co, PLLC Garlick and Murray Family Medicine Weaver Street Realty Country Farm & Home Supply Chatham Mills Farmers' Market NC Agritourism Networking Association |
 | | Chef Sam Allen of Bean and Barrel with King's Crown |
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Sneak Preview of Dishes @
Pepper Festival:
18 Seaboard/Cantina 18-Sweet pepper & heirloom tomato gazpacho Andrea Williams-surprize!
Angelina's Kitchen-Chile Shack John's Famous Poblano Frito Pie, Spicy Macarons
Carolina Crossroads-Spicy pepper gazpacho with cucumber yogurt
Chatham Marketplace Co-op-Mini Habanero Cannolis
Crook's Corner-Tobago pepper jelly and crackers
General Store Café-Pepper and okra étouffée
Lucky 32-Butterbean pate with pickled peppers & local lengua with Pittsboro pepper chow chow
Market Restaurant-Creme Fraiche Cheese Cake with Chocolate Mole' Graham Cracker Crust and Tobago Infused Honey Caramel (V)
Mez-Chile verde
The Natural Chef Program @ CCCC-surprize!
Zely & Ritz-Sweet lamuyo pepper strudel
The Granary at Fearrington-Pork brisket with assorted pepper condiments
Saxapahaw General Store-Gumbo + Short Ribs and Pepper Tart
Vimala's Curryblossom Café-Roasted pepper hot sauce made with Cane Creek Farm hot cayenne peppers to be served with Hope Gardens' and Ever Laughter Farm Sweet Potatoes roasted in wedges
On the Square-Pepper dinner roll, sushi
Dos Perros-surprize!
Bobby's Water Ice-Jalapeno-mango water ice
Chicken Bridge Bakery-Yeasted Corn Bread with Roasted Peppers
Hillsborough BBQ-Triangle Habanero Pale Ale Brined, Pit-smoked and Chopped BBQ Sliders with NC Eastern Tobago Sauce and Sweet Pickled Lemuyo Slaw
Bean and Barrel-Stuffed Tobago Peppers & Roasted Anaheim Ice Cream
Glasshalfull-Smoked pepper soup, with N.C. shrimp, cilantro, lime creme fraiche and fried tortilla
Top of the Hill-carved roast beef with homemade beer grain bread assorted pepper condiments
 | | Jenny making a gazillion chalkboards for the Chefs! |
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And of course for a list of the peppery and amazing beverages, click here!
Benjamin Winery 2 dry reds, 2 dry whites, 2 sweet Muscadine wines Starrlight Mead Kickin' Cranberry Orange Mead - an off-dry Cranberry Orange Mead with Chipotle Pepper! Plus a couple other flavors too Stevie's 'Booch Kung Pow Hot Pepper kombucha on tap Carolina Brewery Sky Blue Golden Ale, Copperline Amber Ale, Flagship IPA and maybe even Oatmeal Porter Fullsteam Brewery Pepper cask ale and the regular favorites too. Triangle Brewery Tobago-Habanero Pale Ale (don't be afraid- it's still refreshing!) Green Man Brewery IPA and ESB plus Ancho Chili ESB Top of the Hill Brewery Blueberry wheat beer and a surprise beer  | | Sean Wilson of Fullsteam |
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