Tag Archives: Prairie

The Feast

Eight guests were invited to dinner at Rachelle’s apartment in the Bartleman Apartment Building.  With their invitations each guest was given a small task/item to bring with them (edible cubes of approximately 1 cm square, nori cut into thin strips, something green and chopped etc…) No information as to the evenings events was divulged to guests prior to their arrival, except for their task and to dress “to impress while making a mess.”

Upon arrival at unit 21 of the Bartleman, each guest was given a role and a Badge to wear, indicating this role.  These roles outlined the responsibilities and tasks to be enacted by each guest. Roles included: Roads and Transportation, Urban Structures , Rural Structures, Dwellings, Waterways, Topography, Tree and Bush,  Agriculture, Tunnels and Bridges,  Systems of Communication…

Ten trays of pre-prepared corn bread, in various hues, were arranged on the dining room table, mimicking a prairie landscape, as seen from above.  After some time with wine and conversation, the remainder of the food was brought out, and guests went to work, constructing their versions of the Saskatchewan landscape, made from edible materials.  Guests worked on their own deemed “areas of expertise” while also co-operating with others, to make a cohesive and unified whole.  What emerged in discussion, over edible lanscape construction, tended towards the desire for accurate geographical representation of prairie surroundings.  Although not necessarily to scale, the final product  contained edible landmarks representing  Regina, Saskatoon, the Qu’apelle Valley, Moose Jaw and the Trans Canada Highway (to name but a few.)

I took notes on the typewriter while construction was happening, and must admit to augmented knowledge of Saskatchewan geography as  a result.

Once building was complete, we piled our plates high with the collaboratively crafted masterpiece, and chowed down the land, well slathered in mushroom gravy.

For desert, a vanilla and saskatoon berry  grain elevator, with chocolate cream cheese butter cream icing…