In Garfield Park, neighbors throw pitch-ins and vote on their favorite dish. The winner gets to brag. If you grab a beer at the Garfield Brewery, you might hear neighbor Rich Whitney talking about his winning “HungariGerman Stuffed Cabbage Rolls” from a pitch-in last March. The rolls wowed neighbors with their near perfect leaf texture and generously seasoned filling — truly tasty and a worthy champion.
As organizer of the “Garfield Park Community Cookbook (GPCC),” I throw pitch-in gatherings and collect recipes. The pitch-ins are for folks to eat and sing, and bring a dish if you have extra for sharing.
Putting together the Garfield Park Cookbook takes generations of many beautiful hands. Foodies with connections to Garfield Park share their recipes and tell familial food histories. We released a printed edition in 2021 and 2022, with the next volume slated for August 2024.
Artist Josh Haines creates illustrations from recipes we get, and graphic designer Andrea Haydon organizes the cookbook for printing. Finally, when all the recipes are gathered and organized, I make a soundtrack for each dish so when folks prepare the food, they’ll have music to underscore the narrative of their meal.
People find out about the GPCC project through conversations at the Garfield Park Farmers Market. It’s the best place in the neighborhood to gather and talk about food. At the last market of this season, Garfield Park neighbor Chizuki Lothamer suggested we do a pitch-in this December to fill the gap left in the market’s winter absence.
When Chizuki and I met about the Holiday Party at the new Yoke Pavilion, a hub for emerging small businesses in the Garfield Park neighborhood, we talked with owner Phil Kirk about an increased need for community gathering during the holiday season. We also talked about how not everyone has a family they feel safe sharing food with. Some people are their own last living relative.
The country feels so divided, and these divisions get more tense when it gets cold and dark, and we Hoosiers get sad and Grinchy. But there is no better catalyst for gathering than food. Food has been the art form that most of our working class ancestors used to share their love for one another — it is an art form that changes our chemistry.
Food does not have to be expensive or fancy or trendy or exclusive to be art. Food is art because it is abundant, inclusive, and magical. Food is art because we share it and hold it as vital. And in a time when our foodways are being consumed by convenience culture, a community pitch-in is resistance.
If you feel a connection to Garfield Park and you want to get involved in our Community Cookbook, come out to one of our pitch-ins. Meet with other lovely neighbors. Bring your favorite recipe to be shared in the next cookbook. Prepare it and share it at the pitch-in — that is, if you are feeling competitive and think you can beat Rich’s “HungariGerman Stuffed Cabbage Rolls.”
Clockwork Janz is a freelance reporter for Mirror Indy. They can be reached at clockworkmakesmusic@gmail.com. Follow them on Facebook, Clockwork Music, or on Instagram @clockworkmakesmusic.
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