Austin Tea Festival November 24, 2009

We are excited to be hosting the Second Annual Edible Austin Tea Festival right here on the grounds of the Zhi Tea Gallery in East Austin SATURDAY 5th December from 10a-2p.

We will be joined by eight other local tea purveyors; Barefoot Botanicals, Jade Leaves, Sesa, Steeping Room, Sweet Leaf, Tea Embassy, Texas Medicinals, and Buddah’s Brew Kambucha. We will all be sampling our lovely varieties of fresh teas and herbal tisanes.

Also on hand will be Jesse Bloom, chef extraordinaire of Ecstatic Cuisine. Jesse will be serving an Indian themed hot lunch with help from the young folks at Urban Roots. It is sure to be amazing as all of his creations are; using local, fresh ingredients. All proceeds from the lunch will go to Urban Roots.

10% of all sales at the Zhi Tea Gallery will to to Urban Roots.

Last year the event was attended by over 400, including a substantial influx of cyclists who were en route in the Urban Farm Bicycle Tour. Both of the above mentioned events are part of a huge week-long series of events known as Eat Local Week.

The Third Annual Eat Local Week is an invitation to Central Texans to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food and to raise money for Urban Roots, a youth development program that uses sustainable agriculture as a means to transform the lives of young people and to increase the access of healthy food in Austin. 15 farm interns, ages 14-17, are hired to work from February to July, growing more than 22,000 lbs of produce every year—donating 40% of that to hunger relief and selling 60% at farmers’ markets and farm stands run by the farm interns.

Edible Austin Eat Local Week will kick off on December 5 at the Austin Farmers’ Market with the City of Austin’s proclamation and with support from GO TEXAN and other Central Texas communities.