Life has been more stressful than ever since we last gathered under the festival foodways tent: a worldwide pandemic, lockdowns, war in Eastern Europe, social and economic unrest, and more. When life gets difficult, we turn to food. Comfort food. Whether it’s generic American mac ‘n’ cheese or the tastes and smells of the old country, comfort food embodies nostalgia and a whiff of childhood security, positive emotions, and social relationships. Remember: stressed spelled backwards is desserts!

This year we feature home cooks showing comfort foods from their culture. We’ll have Polish pierogi, Greek potato fries, Lithuanian veggie/chicken stew, and Vietnamese spring rolls and sticky rice. While we cannot offer samples because of COVID protocols, we can offer recipes, preparation tips, and the stories that bring us comfort and reinforce our identity and community. We’ll also have a knife sharpening demo by a fiddle maker artisan highlighting the union of music and food that comfort us all.