Wild Food Fandango
The Wild Food Fandango features nine Minneapolis chefs competing to create a winning wild food dish. Contestants will select from a list of wild products such as mushrooms, wild greens, nuts, fiddleheads, berries, wild rice, etc., supplied by Gentleman Forager, along with a protein. Then the crowd tastes and votes. The event, which includes live music, is from 1-6 p.m. June 4 at the Nicollet Island Pavilion, 40 Power St., Mpls. A silent auction and raffle benefits the Huntington's Disease Society of America. General admission is $45 with VIP tickets at $95. For details and tickets, visit wildfoodfandango.com.
Wild rice contest
The annual Get Wild With Wild Rice recipe contest again is seeking your creativity using North America's only native cereal grain. Sixteen finalists will have their recipes published (and win prizes), with one $500 grand prize winner. Online voting in September, National Rice Month, will choose a people's choice winner, who will receive $250. Entry deadline is June 5. Visit mnwildrice.org for full contest details. Last year's winner was Italian Wild Rice Quesadillas.
Minnesota co-ops take honors
Of the 14 co-ops in the U.S. earning Sustainability Star Awards from the National Co+op Grocers (NCG), four are in Minnesota. The Wedge Community Co-op, Minneapolis, achieved 36 months of declining year-over-year energy and water use. Valley Natural Foods, Burnsville, achieved three years of declining greenhouse gas emissions and 80 percent landfill diversion. Seward Community Co-op, Minneapolis, achieved 90 percent landfill diversion through daily waste checks in its store, and Cook County Whole Foods Co-op in Grand Marais achieved the lowest energy use per square foot among co-ops in the central corridor of the country.
Woodbury Whole Foods open
A Whole Foods Market is open in Woodbury at 305 Radio Dr. Among its touted features are the City Place Taproom, with a rotating tap of 15 local or hard-to-find beers, along with all-day meal options from bacon breakfast bowls to brisket poutine; cold brew on tap from Allegro Coffee Co., and a mochi ice cream bar with nine flavors. This is Whole Foods' seventh store in the metro area.
Firefighters, start your chili
Local firehouses have the chance to win $10,000 in Hormel Chili's America's Best Firehouse Chili Contest, co-sponsored by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Entries must be submitted by midnight June 16, then 10 finalists' recipes will face online voting to determine three finalists. That trio will compete in a live chili cook-off in New York City for a chance to win $10,000 for their station. For contest details, visit firehero.org/event/firehouse-chili.
KIM ODE
