By MAGGIE MCMURRAY
Moapa Valley Progress
A Farm Education Foundation food swap held on Saturday, August 19, proved that there are some great things in life that a person can get without money.
Although bartering was once the backbone of commerce, it has fallen out of favor as cash has become king. However, with the recent nationwide resurgence of cottage industries, a growing push towards self-sufficiency and a rebirth of home arts, events such as the Moapa Valley food swap, are also finding rebirth.
In a food swap, local producers get together to trade their wares with other producers. Everyone gets to take home something new.
This food swap was sponsored by the Farm Education Foundation, but hosted by Cooperative Extension (UNCE). UNCE representative Diana Walker explained what kinds of goods are involved. “It’s a great activity because it can involve everyone,” she said. “There are no hard and fast rules about what can be swapped. Anything someone has grown, harvested, foraged, made, baked, cooked, processed, milked, canned, or produced is welcome.”
Food swaps are often a treasure-trove of hard-to-find and rare items and this one was no different. Everything was being swapped from guinea fowl eggs and garden seeds to homemade first aid salve and cactus starts.
Logandale resident Sarah McAllister harvested plantain and made a first aid salve from it that she traded. She also took the opportunity to teach fellow swappers about the natural, healing qualities that plantain has.
“So many people see plantain as a weed and a nuisance plant,” she said. “It’s in our fields and in our yards, but we are overlooking a great first aid resource.”
McAllister’s table partner Nick Bartow agreed saying, “Most of these plants we refer to as weeds were brought by Europeans for their medicinal qualities. We have lost sight of that and try to eradicate them.”
Bartow had many other herbs and vegetables to swap including locally grown okra, oregano, thyme, and hot chilis.
Debbie Kratville, of Moapa, also had a fascinating display of goods for trade. She harvested starts of at least six different varieties of cacti at her home that were beautiful in their variety.
Cacti are one of the easiest plants to start and can often thrive by just being stuck in the ground. Kratville’s varieties included teddy bear, barrel, beavertail, pencil, and even the intimidating looking bleeding heart with its long spines. Her beavertail, she said, was particularly beautiful when it bloomed because its orange fruit varied in color from the deep red fruit that is most common in this area.
In addition to cacti, Kratville also brought aloe vera starts and fresh eggs.
Perhaps the most fascinating part of her display, however, was her mesquite flour pancakes made from curly screw mesquite seed pods that had been dried, ground into flour, sifted, and used for baking. The natural sweetness of mesquite makes it great for sweet items and her pancakes were quickly snapped up.
Another unique item was the guinea fowl display brought by Bob and Sue Dreyfus. Many attendees had never seen or contemplated using guinea fowl eggs before. So their booth was very popular. Sue said this was her first food swap.
“I saw the signs for the event and thought it sounded fun,” she said. “I came to promote guineas as an alternative to chickens. Their eggs are just slightly smaller than a large chicken egg, but the yolks in guinea eggs are proportionally a lot larger, making it a very rich egg. Guineas also make a great meat bird, with meat that tastes similar to pheasant or turkey.”
One of the most impressive booths in terms of sheer variety was by Overton resident Rebecca Muhlstein. Muhlstein has been gathering and preserving garden seeds for years and has many heirloom and hard-to-find seeds for tomatoes and other garden vegetables. She collects and stores the seeds from her plants every year and catalogs them in large notebooks with baseball card sleeves that organize hundreds of varieties of seeds. She offered bags of seeds for trade and many attendees snapped them up.
Everyone had a great time and many commented on the great opportunity to make new acquaintances and friendships. People who had just met lingered long after the official closing, getting to know each other better, learning, sharing, and building community.
“I moved here recently and came to meet people and to find out what’s grown and made in Moapa Valley,” said Kathy Geary of Moapa. “I didn’t know it would be so much fun. I had a great time and made some good connections.”
Food swaps such as this one have been happening in Moapa Valley for a couple years now and although they enjoyed great popularity at first, numbers of participants have been declining. But fans of the swaps are hoping they will make a resurgence. Currently swaps are held quarterly.
UNCE representative Diana Walker said that they would love feedback on frequency and dates and would be more than happy to host swaps more often if there is a demand. Ideas have even been to allow other home industry items such as scrapbook supplies, fabric, yarn, and so forth that people have been storing and collecting for years into the swaps.
