Mudder’s Day 2008

The anecdote of a food lover at Mudder’s Day

As you may have witnessed, the grand festival which was Mudder’s Day was not only mud, but howling wind, cold rain and, thanks to you a delicious success! It was beautiful to witness all the different committees responsible for this event band together to make the show go on; when the food came, tarps tents and ropes all came swarming in with strong able hands to provide us with our bustling little kitchen tent nestled into the playground.
The food which you provided was not so gracefully (with the wind rattling and blowing things over), but beautifully combined and eagerly received by the brave souls who huddled around in anticipation of the days creations. All food was prepared in the kitchen of Sean Gallagher (Terroir, Fresh food kiosks) and the soon to be Local Source Market at Charles and Agricola.

- Fresh and vibrant greens from Hutten Family Farm and River View Herbs were tossed together with local dulse and served with a jumping living salad of sprouted kamut, buckwheat, fenugreek, and sunflower seeds provided by the Halifax Gastronomic Arts Collective (HGAC). Also featuring roots from Limpalong Farm and dressed by Jane’s delicious dressings from Jane’s next door.
- Steaming cauldrons of herbal teas were prepared by HGAC: a chai tea emitting aromas of anise and cinnamon creamed with soy milk from Acadiana Soy Products was followed by an herbal infusion of rose, lavender, red clover, dandelion and peppermint.
- Between two pieces of Red Fyfe bread from Boulangerie La Vendienne was laid a slice of Acadiana’s tofu marinated in Jane’s Thai dragon dressing and layered with Ted Hutten’s arugula, foxhill gouda, and caramelized onions courtesy of Home Grown Organic Foods (HGOF).

All the rest of the bounty was delivered as canapés mixed and matched with various concoctions provided by YOU:

Arugula pesto made from Hutten’s arugula and oyster mushrooms from HGOF
Garlic croustinis from baguettes by Boulangerie La Vendienne
Roasted sweet potato rounds from Ted Hutten
A steamed batch of greens from HGOF marinated in Jane’s dressings
An arugula pesto porridge bread roll made possible by Big Life Bakery
Grilled turnips, bok choi, and scallions from Ted; dressed by Jane
Caramelized onions with caraway from HGOFs onions
Assorted Havarti and smoked gouda from Foxhill
Acadiana tofu marinated in a Mexican achiote paste made from
annatto seeds and spices from Mexico provided by HGAC.

Dessert was served later on as the day moved to the music.  A summer pudding made of blueberries from C and L Farms soaked up in whole wheat bread from La Vendienne topped with a purée of Ted’s sweet potatoes sweetened with bananas and papaya from HGOF.

Your contributions made the difference and rewarded all our dedicated mother’s and planet lovers alike. Almost 100 dollars was generated by donation from the ~300 who turned out at the event which will be put towards Mudder’s Day and the Food Action Committee of the EAC.

All of us working on Mudder’s Day and the community who enjoyed it kindly send out a warm hug and a great, heart felt thank you.

Only a few things were found unclaimed at the end of the day.  Let me know (jayme at muddersday dot com) if they are yours.

• blue ‘Bios’ water bottle
• cute travel mug, coppery colored with curly handle
• thin, long-sleeved, blue shirt
• kids toy cell phone
• kids toque, grey.

Well, now that was an amazing day. Impressive.

First off, huge thanks to everyone who came out, swung by, sat in the shelters and sang or talked for hours. What a wonderful day! I would say that around 300 people came through, and the majority of them stayed for a while. There was probably another hundred or so at the Friendship Center in the evening. Amazing! And so fun! We will post up photos soon - I know hundreds (maybe thousands!) were taken

Second, apologies/condolences to those folks who planned to come out and couldn’t because of the challenging weather. I know there were a lot of folks who organized hard to bring elements to the celebration, only to get blown off course. Especially Oxfam - their involvement in organizing this event really helped spread the good word. Sorry they could not be there. Yup, many things did not happen as planned. But I would also like to thank all who did show up with something and were delightfully flexible in finding a cozy corner and making the best of it. The few shelters we had could not have held any more people!

Third, huge thanks. Thanks to those who helped (in the freezing rain with freezing hands) to help set up the structures, and prep the site. Thanks to Joannie, Tammie, George, Billy, Tony, S’bruce, Kim, etc. who opened the celebration with a ceremony of smudge and song, and filled the event with the heartbeat of drums all day. Thanks to Jeannie and Lindsay who did a 7am run to get haybales to sit on. Huge thanks to Tyler & Zenovia for working crazy hard to prepare a huge amount of local, organic, gourmet food that held people outside around the food table for hours. Thanks to the midwives and doulas for hosting the Red Tent, for the nettle tea and brownies; everytime I poked my head in the squirt (the little yurt), it was packed and in profound conversation. Thanks to the Ecology Action Centre crew, the Friends of the Halifax Common, the Grainery, the Musuem of Natural History, the Community Design students, the facepainters, and kids crafters for creating the buzz in the big yurt. And huge thanks to Joanna Brown of Spryfield Urban Farm Museum for hosting the garden workshops all day with cold hands, and thanks to all of you who brought plants to share. Thanks to Steve for maypole! To the Tai Chi Society for coming out.

So impressive!! It was amazing and wonderful to see so many people come out, warm up, and settle in, and contribute. What an amazing community to be part of.

The core intention of this event to was strengthen community, and to increase our capacity to organize. To that end, the event was a great success. From the conversations overheard of people packed together in soulful structures, relationships were formed, strengthened, deepen, begun. After learning more about the story of Africville, and in the light of climate chaos, hurricanes Juan and Katrina, and the impending global food instability, our autonomy depends on our capacity to organize - especially in a crisis situations. We still need some practice, for sure, but I think we did pretty great.  It sure is a strong community we have here. Diverse, persistent, flexible, talented, dedicated, motivated, and interconnected. I am in love with this place I live, the social web that holds me, and I am becoming a better person for it.  Great success folks!  Hugs all ’round.

Thanks to Jeff Torbert and all the musicians who relocated to the Mi’kmaq Friendship Center on the fly. With bellies full of more great food (thanks Billy, Dominique, Tyler, Lydia, Robbie, and Anka), that dancing was so fun!  It was amazing to see how many people made it there- how did everybody find out? The word-of-mouth communication web is immmmmpressive! So many people came; the room was perfectly full with folks from so many different communities, and the vibe so warm and lovely. HUGE thanks to the folks at the Friendship Center for allowing us to spontaneously invade and keep them up late.

Thanks to Mother Earth for bringing challenge, taking it to the next level, making her presence felt, and reminding us we are thin-skinned social creatures that need others to survive.

Finally, to the organizing committee, what a hilarious, fantastic crew of people you are! Throughout this whole process, we have been pretty free-flow, irritatingly long-winded,  off-topic, and strong-personalitied, and continually cracking jokes. Metaphors and medicine, pranks and frankness, from the name-storming, to the dreams of lassos, zip-lines, mid-night missions, and hiding in the trees - it’s a make-your-own festival!… I am pretty sure we all had a really great, growing, challenging, bonding experience. I got my laughter medicine doubled in this process, and my heart is bigger for it.

So, I think this is now an annual event.  After our post-partum and sweat with Billy, we will begin to frame out next year’s.  If you want to jump on board, please do.  Bring your wings, winds, and bandwagon.

In the meantime, see you at the World Naked Bike Ride, (June 29), at Harvest Fest, in the gardens and in the streets.  Resistance is fertile.  In solidirtity, your devoted queen bee!

Jees, now this is some bad weather.  When we were organizing this, we said there is only 10% of weather we can’t really deal with - sideways rain. Ha!

Well, the yurts and tipi are up!  Alex and Selene of Little Foot Yurts, and the rest of our well-humored crew, are amazing!  And it is a good lesson to see how much we need and appreciate shelter.  I think for those of us who do come out, it will be an wonderful, cozy time to chat, play twister, and make friends.  And there will be lots of food.  Yeah.

We are hoping to get into the Mi’kmaq Friendship Centre for the evening music.  We will confirm that as soon as we can.

Hope yer cozy and giggling.

Yup everyone, this event is rain or shine. [Pray] for gentle sun, nice warmth, and no wind. Ask the trees and everyone you know to ask the universe for grace this Sunday.

If it is precipitating, bring your umbrellas - bring extra! Maybe bring poles and duct tape to make an umbrella forest!  Bring your creativity and your sense of humor!

Holy hannah folks, it is gonna be a plump Sunday!

(7am to 11am: chaos of the event’s unfurling!)

11am to 5pm = Festival of community: food, games, craft, stories, workshops, speakers, surprises. (Check Schedule page for full details).

5pm - 6pm = dinnertime & switch-up.  booth/vendor take-down.

6pm - 10pm = Music and dancing!

6:00 Zac Crouse

6:20 The Strange Boys

6:50 Oh Dinah

7:20 Mary Grace Koile

7:50 Grand Sass Parilla

8:20 Zumbini Circus

8:55 Gypsophilia

9:30 The Orchid

bombdiggity!

Also, please consider bring some art, or quote, or paper mache goat to the event. Wouldn’t it be fun to have random beauty and hilarity all throughout the Common, spilling over down the side streets? Do it up! and take it down too.

Kay, can’t wait to see this unfold!
warmly, j.

Welcome to the Mudder’s Day website. As you can see, we are always working on it, so keep checking in!

Mudder’s Day: a celebration honoring local plants, earth, and mothers is a new make-yar-own-festival on Mother’s Day in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This year it be will on May 11th in the Halifax Central North Common, beside the playground, on top of (the culverted) Freshwater Brook.

The intention of the festival is to strengthen our social fabric, show everyone (including ourselves) that the paradigm shift is happening, support the rooted ones, honor Mother Earth, honor our cultural heritages and mothers, and have a good laugh.

The festival, so far, will consist of three yurts, live music & dancing, workshops, art, childcare, food and craft vendors, speakers, and a whole bunch of great people. We encourage you to participate in whatever way you fancy (as long as you are coming in the spirit of giving and goodness, with respect, and a sense of humor).

You can just come; you can set up a table (or blanket -either way, bring your own) with information; sell some handmade stuff; bring provocative, inspiring, educational art to decorate the Common; do a workshop; dance, theatre, juggle, spin fire; anything!

Of course, we -the ever-growing, ad hoc group of organizers- could totally use your help too. If you want to help pull off this community magic, just send us an email and we will weave you in (info at muddersday dot com).

More to come soon… Resistance is fertile