Potlucks

About Our Monthly Potlucks:

When: (Sign up for our Newsletter to receive emailed notice)

Where: Natural Grocers, Eugene or in local homes.

The Eugene Chapter has been holding monthly potlucks for over 17 years. Frequently the potluck includes a meeting, a food demo, or a speaker or a farmer comes to introduce us to his or her farm.  And there is always interesting conversation!

Our format is to go around and have each person introduce their food, this allows anyone with allergies or food restrictions to ask questions about ingredients.  We then serve ourselves and enjoy great conversation.  Afterwards we might listen to a speaker or watch a demo.

View Upcoming & Previous Potlucks:

Newsletter posts category “Potlucks”


Wise Traditions foods are based on traditional, whole foods, that would be recognizable by our ancestors from around the world. A simple homemade meal made from scratch using natural fats is always a great contribution.  We appreciate foods from a variety of categories, including: meats, vegetables, bone broth, fermented foods, fruit, natural sweeteners, properly prepared grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, sourdough bread, salt, herbs, spices and lots of butter!

New to all of this?

For those of you who are new to The Weston A. Price Foundation principles please see the 11 Dietary Principles Overview.

For more info, you can read Dietary Guidelines and Characteristics of Traditional Diets.  We also recommend the Healthy 4 Life booklet and Nourishing Traditions Cookbook.  You may also read What is a “Weston Price” diet  Or find recipe ideas at Recipe of the Week.

The Wise Traditions Diet includes whole, unrefined foods such as:

Also: Salt * Natural Sweeteners * Carbohydrates * Starchy Vegetables * Fats & Oils


Eugene Chapter potlucks are a great place to sample good old-fashioned foods, meet new friends and ask questions. People who are new to this way of eating are encouraged to attend.

What to bring?

See the above links for general guidelines about what is recommended by WAPF. Anything from Nourishing Traditions is wonderful, but don’t feel it has to be extensive or elaborate.  Any recipe in the Healthy 4 Life booklet would also be a welcome addition.  A simple homemade meal made from scratch using natural fats would be a great contribution.

Some examples include: organic salad with homemade dressing, a roasted chicken or other meat, a dish made with soaked grains, soup using homemade bone broth, and steamed or roasted vegetables with butter or cream sauce.  (Don’t know how to make these things?  Come to our classes or attend a food demo!)

Items that you can easily pick up from a natural food store include raw cheeses, naturally cured cold cut meats, sourdough bread, organic salad greens, avocado, olive oil and vinegar, fresh or frozen fruit with cream, or many other options.

Please don’t worry about being perfect.  None of us are perfect.  And it doesn’t even matter if you don’t yet eat this way at home!

For more detailed information read the Principles of Healthy Diets, and then get a copy of the book Nourishing Traditions for in-depth information and recipes (the Eugene Chapter has a few copies for sale). We also recommend you take the Guided Tour of the Weston A. Price Foundation website or explore on your own.  The website has a wealth of information including many articles and beginner videos available free online.  Check out our Recommended Reading section for more great books.

Sources for Recipe Ideas:

Nourishing Traditions

Download or purchase the Healthy 4 Life booklet

Recipe of the Week

Concerned about cost?

The idea is to bring enough food to feed yourself and whoever else you bring. You do not need to bring enough food to feed a full meal to 6-12 people unless you are bringing 6-12 people! The idea is for everyone to taste each dish and have enough food to feel satisfied. Yes, real food costs more than boxed/processed/artificial food. The savings are in your health, energy and the benefit to the ecosystem.

And you will not find food this good anywhere else outside of a Wise Traditions Conference!

Concerned about dietary restrictions or food allergies?

We frequently have people at our potlucks who are healing from food allergies and need to avoid a specific food (or many!).   Gluten sensitivity is common.  And while it is not required, we frequently have several gluten-free dishes.  It is also common to find people who cannot tolerate other specific foods (including a wide variety such as nightshade, dairy, whey, blueberries, rice, fish, oats, and many others).  Instead of asking everyone not bring these specific foods, at the beginning of each meeting everyone is asked to tell the group about the dish he or she brought.  At this time you can ask the maker if the dish has any of the specific food you wish to avoid in it.  This has always worked well for us, although we have not had anyone with a severe or life-threatening allergy attend our potlucks, and recommend exercising caution if you do have such a condition.

It is worth the effort!

Hopefully meeting new people who share a passion for good food, asking questions and learning from each other, will make it worth all the time and effort it takes to get to the event.

Suggestions?

Let us know if you have suggestions to make these events more enjoyable.



History:

Lisa (Chapter Leader) began organizing meetings in the fall of 2004 using the service Meetup.com. At that time we met in restaurants. As the group grew we transformed these meetings into lunchtime potlucks (and stopped using Meetup.com when they started charging for the service).  The potlucks have moved around to different participants’ homes, and for a while they took place at co-chapter leader Victoria’s covered porch.  In 2007 we added a dinner potluck which turned out to be more popular than the lunch ones.  For a while we did both lunch and dinner potlucks, but for the sake of Lisa’s sanity in 2008 we dropped the lunch potlucks.  In 2013, Lisa started adding Food Demos at the beginning of each potluck.  These demos have been very popular.

We were offered the use of the meeting room at Natural Grocers, so in late 2017 we started holding our potlucks there.  We continue to have a topic each time, which will include a demo, discussion or guest speaker.  Natural Grocers does not include a listing for our potlucks in their printed schedule (since we bring outside food) so sign up to receive our newsletter if you would like to be notified about upcoming events.

In 2020, Natural Grocers closed their community room. We had our last potluck there March 9th of 2020, just before everything shut down.  After over 2 and a half years, we are back up and running.

Natural Grocers welcomed us back in 2022, and we are currently holding potlucks there and in local homes.