Philly Food Swap

Earlier this month, Abi and I ventured into Philly to participate in the Philly Swappers October Food Swap.  Tickets sold out and it was only 2 days before that I was confirmed off the wait list.  I'm not sure exactly how many swappers were there, but I'm going to guess about 35? The venue was the incredible Greensgrow Farm - an urban farm in Kensington.  I recommend everyone check them out!

 

We were really excited as the Philly Swappers are very well represented and have a lot of unique people who wait patiently for their events.  Abi and I looked over the Eventbrite preview list of what everyone was making.  I asked her what she was going to bring and she replies, "Er, humble pie?"  The Philly Swappers are that good.  There were things there that I had never seen before, and I finally got to try Kombucha, a sweet yet tart fermented drink with tons of health benefits.

We ended up bringing canned tomatoes, fresh pizza dough, concentrated vegetable stock, produce spray, granola, and spice rubs.  The hosts, Marisa from Food in Jars and Amanda from @forkspoonknife, made a few announcements of how the night would go and reminded everyone to be nice.  And another important reminder, you can say no to a swap - something I need to get better at.

 

  

Sample time was insane.  There were so many great items.  Something to remember for next time...I need to write down who, what and where something is that I REALLY want.  Because come swap time, I didn't know anyone and it was kinda hard to navigate the masses in search of name tags.  Also, during the course of sampling I should have periodically looked back at my swap sheets just to get an idea of who I may be looking for come swap time.  I'm so used to only having 12 or so swappers, so coming to an event this big you definitely need a game plan.

Abi and I both did really well.  I went home with: Fig & Blackberry Jam, Caramel Apple Bread, Apple Cider Bread, Fall Sugar Cookies, Skeeter Pee (adult lemonade), Bacon Jam, Granola, Tomato Jam, Caramelized Spiced Pear Butter, Irish Soda Cake, Apple Jie Jam, Pumpkin Gnocchi, Caramel Spread, Cream of Zucchini Soup and more!  Abi went home with a ton of goodies too.

It was nice being a real swapper, as in not being a host and worrying about everyone else.  I learned so much, met some great people and look forward to future swaps with the Philly folks soon!