100 Things to Do This Summer if You Love Food: Foodie Underground

For the last few years I have been doing a summer roundup of food-related activities. Things to challenge you in your food repertoire, as well as things to simply enjoy eating well. Ready? Print this list out, hang it up on your refrigerator and start checking things off.

This is your official Foodie Underground 100 Things to Do This Summer list. Let’s get started.

1. Make meringues with a different ingredient mixed in, like ginger or cocoa powder.
2. Build a picnic table. From a pallet perhaps?
3. Repurpose a wine bottle into something cool, like a citronella candle.
4. Use chalkboard paint to make coffee mugs you can write on.
5. Pickle kale stems.
6. Find a piece of wood destined for the rubbish bin and make a wooden cutting board.
7. Bake something with ground coffee.
8. Ferment herbs.
9. Master poached eggs.
10. Make labneh cheese and spread it on everything in sight.
11. Experiment with sorrel.
12. Make a recipe into a temporary tattoo.
13. Learn how to make shrubs.
14. Try to go for a week without creating any food waste.
15. Make your own vanilla extract.
16. Use fresh berries and ground flaxseeds to make a simple, and quick, jam.
17. Paint with coffee.
18. Try a wild plant that you have never eaten before.
19. Take part in the Three Loaves project; bake something and help someone in hunger.
20. Pick some herbs and make herb infused honey.
21. Plan a three-course meal to be eaten outside; on a farm, on a beach, in a field, in your backyard.
22. Make pesto with something other than basil, like mint, carrot tops or radish greens.
23. Use cauliflower to make hummus.
24. Start a supper club.
25. Make bread with kombucha.
26. Prepare a meal and give it away to someone who needs it.
27. Buy an old cookbook at a garage sale.
28. Do a brewery tour on bicycle.
29. Start your own sourdough starter.
30. Brew coffee outdoors (if you don’t have a camp stove, boil some water ahead of time, pop in a thermos, take it with you and then use to brew).
31. Write a cookbook proposal.
32. Visit a vineyard.
33. Visit a farm.
34. Visit a distillery.
35. Do a coffee cupping.
36. Listen to a food podcast.
37. Make a food podcast.
38. Develop your own cooking show.
39. Dry your own herbs.
40. Cook with lavender.
41. Revamp a vintage recipe.
42. Blend your own teas.
43. Start a food zine.
44. Get to know freekeh.
45. Whip up a batch of tabouleh with something other than bulgur.
46. Infuse vodka with blueberries.
47. Fika.
48. Make ice cubes with tea so you don’t water down your iced tea.
49. Make your own ginger ale.
50. Plan a meal themed around one ingredient, to be used in a starter, main dish and dessert.
51. Use kombucha in smoothies.
52. Make a blend of beet and carrot chips.
53. Read some M.F.K. Fisher.
54. Write a haiku about your favorite summer fruit.
55. Brew some dandelion wine.
56. Go a day with eating only foods that are local and in season.
57. Go a week with eating only foods that are local and in season.
58. Don’t buy a single piece of disposable cutlery.
59. Learn how to say “I love food” in 10 languages.
60. Make your own bitters.
61. Harvest your own sea salt.
62. Forage seaweed and cook with it.
63. Sew a bag that turns into a picnic blanket.
64. Make candles from old beer bottles.
65. String lights in your backyard to make it feel like a cozy outdoor cafe.
66. Give up on buying salad dressing and make your own.
67. Make your own ketchup too.
68. And mustard.
69. And why not mayonnaise?
70. Make limoncello.
71. Dye some fabric with dyes made from plants.
72. Concoct some seed bombs and throw them in every deserted lot that you see.
73. Take a coffee nap.
74. Ferment berries.
75. Go through your kitchen supplies and get rid of all of the non-essentials.
76. Build your own magnetic spice rack.
77. Marinate tofu.
78. Learn how to smoke vegetables.
79. Make a fabric bread basket.
80. Print with potatoes.
81. Make your own red wine vinegar.
82. Master campfire bread.
83. Host a garden pizza night, with toppings straight from the ground.
84. Design your own wine label.
85. Plan a garden tour.
86. Throw a croquet and cocktails party.
87. Make your own frozen yogurt.
88. Brew your own tonic water for the ultimate in G&T.
89. Bake your own hamburger and hot dog buns.
90. Buy a plastic swimming pool, fill it with ice cubes, then fill it with drinks and invite your friends over.
91. Make cucumber sorbet.
92. Forage elderflower and make elderflower cordial.
93. Go overboard at the U-pick and then make fruit leather.
94. Soak cherries in bourbon.
95. Use summer squash to make noodles.
96. Get friendly with purslane.
97. Have some mead on hand? Make popsicles with it.
98. Make your own vegan marshmallows for gourmet s’mores.
99. Plan a dinner party themed around a specific color.
100. Develop your custom hot sauce recipe, bottle it up, give away to friends.

Need more things to do this summer? Check out the archived lists:

Foodie Underground: 100 Fun Things to Do This Summer if You Love Food (2014)

Foodie Underground: 101 Summer Bucket List Items for Foodies (2013)

Foodie Underground: 100 Things to Do With Your Summer Vacation (2012)

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Anna Brones