dsmWeekly: September 13, 2023

Volunteers from Polk County Conservation and Django kitchen staff have been combing through the forests of Jester Park for ingredients to serve in the upcoming "Foraged Feast." Photo: Polk County Conservation

FOOD AND DINING

For a foraged feast, go where the wild things are

Writer: Hailey Allen

Remember when you were little and you collected twigs, leaves and maybe a crab apple or two for a make-believe banquet in your backyard? That was all pretend, but local chef and Django partner Derek Eidson is serving up the real deal.

The Foraged Feast is a collaboration between Django and Polk County Conservation to celebrate Iowa’s natural bounty. The alfresco dinner is set for Sept. 23 at Jester Park Nature Center, where the wild ingredients in each dish will be foraged directly from the woodsy park. Diners can enjoy an Iowa sunset while their meal is prepared over an open fire.

“We’re proud to showcase Iowa’s deliciously wild flavors just steps from their source,” Eidson told us in an email.

The Django team and Polk County Conservation have been gathering ingredients since March, curating the best combination of unique and natural ingredients. They’ve preserved wild grapes and mulberries, marinated oyster mushrooms and winter squash, bundled purslane and wild sumac and harvested other forest goodies to create the seven-course menu. Plus, just for the event, Barn Town Brewing brewed a special fruited sour with Jester Park’s wild blackcap raspberries.

“It was an exciting challenge to create these dishes based on what became available,” Eidson said. “I think it's important for people to see just how much nature can offer us if we just get a little creative and reconnect with the land.” The dinner costs $150 per person, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Polk County Conservation’s raptor education program.

Beaverdale marked its centennial in 2017 and still has plenty to celebrate. Photo: Beaverdale Fall Festival

BEST BET

Celebrate at the Beaverdale Fall Festival

The parade at 10 a.m. Saturday on Beaver Avenue is just one highlight of this weekend’s Beaverdale Fall Festival, one of the city’s oldest and largest neighborhood events. The annual autumnal tradition started more than 40 years ago and now includes enough activities to occupy even the busiest of beavers, including live music, food vendors, a carnival, an exhibit from the Des Moines Children’s Museum, an “electrifying” demonstration from the Science Center of Iowa, yoga and dance classes, axe throwing, the 17th annual literary trivia tournament hosted by Beaverdale Books, an animal blessing organized by Westminster Presbyterian Church — and so much more. Admission is free.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Jordan Davis (6 p.m. Friday): Soak up one of summer’s last shindigs during a ticketed concert with the country singer-songwriter and a few special guests at Water Works Park’s Lauridsen Amphitheater. Both Billboard and Rolling Stone have named the Louisiana native an “artist to watch.”

Dinner on the Bridge (6 p.m. Friday): Celebrate 125 years of the Fifth Street Bridge and Des Moines’ Little Italy neighborhood with a multi-course dinner right on the familiar green bridge itself. The menu will feature contributions from some of the city’s most beloved Italian-American establishments including Aposto, Baratta’s, Funaro’s Italian Bakery and Graziano Brothers. Tickets are $200, and proceeds benefit the Friends of Des Moines Parks.

“Athena” (7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday): Iowa Stage Theatre Company opens its production of “Athena” this weekend at the Des Moines Civic Center’s Stoner Theater. The play by Gracie Gardner tells a tale of two Junior Olympics fencers as they navigate their relationship with (and against) each other. The show runs through Sept. 24.

Applefest (9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday): Celebrate fall with a trip back in time to Living History Farms. Learn a few old recipes — for apple cake, apple pie, apple butter — and print them on a hand-cranked press at the local print shop. Stock up on apple treats for home or, better yet, nibble on them while you watch an old-fashioned medicine show or a genteel, Victorian baseball game. (Please, no spitting.)

Meet the Mission, "Meat" the Need (10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday): Get acquainted with the programs and services offered by Hope Ministries during this free event. Visitors are encouraged to bring some meat for donation and help assemble a hygiene kit, tour the men's shelter and enjoy a free lunch at the Hope Cafe.

Woodland Cemetery's 175th (10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday): During the public anniversary celebration, learn about Woodland’s origins in the nationwide garden cemetery movement of the early 1800s, when city folks who wanted fresh air headed to park-like cemeteries for walks, for meetings with friends and even picnics. On Saturday, pick up a map at the main entrance and then explore the site’s nearly 70 acres, where you’ll find food trucks, live music, reenactors and, of course, the final resting place of some of the city’s earliest leaders and most colorful characters.

ARTS AND CULTURE

New public art director: The Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation announced on Monday that Alexa McCarthy signed on as its new executive director. She started Sept. 1, after a stint teaching art history at the University of Southern Maine and conducting postgraduate studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she earned a doctorate in 2022. Before that, she held positions at the Leiden Collection in the Netherlands, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Christie’s in New York.

Make yourself at home at the new "Drop In" station on a trail in Ankeny. Photo: City of Ankeny

ARTS AND CULTURE

Home, sweet home on the High Trestle Trail

The next time you’re biking along the High Trestle Trail in Ankeny, by all means, take a break and make yourself at home at the bright yellow house at 2055 N.W. Irvinedale Drive.

The bright yellow “house” is actually a “Drop In” rest stop with front porch swings, public restrooms, water fountains and a bike repair station. There’s also an interactive artwork by the prominent artist Matthew Mazzotta, whose resume includes degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MIT, fellowships from Harvard and the Guggenheim Foundation, and grants from the Fulbright Program and the Smithsonian.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for the project along the former Chicago Northwestern Railroad is set for 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18.