Swap food, swap stories at events for food-makers, gardeners

If you've ever asked a neighbor for a cup of sugar or dropped off extra tomatoes from your garden, you know how nice it is to be able to share food with people around you.

My tight-knit circle of neighbors and I frequently drop off extra homegrown peppers, chicken and dumplings, herb-infused olive oil, enchiladas, cookies and even compost scraps at each other's houses.

Swapping food, either casually among neighbors or in an organized group, is reviving a barter-and-trade system for food that went away with the advent of the modern grocery store, when Americans got to stop worrying about growing, trading or stocking up on enough food to make it through the winter.

As we grew accustomed to shopping in anonymity and buying prepackaged foods made in factories, we lost the art of acquiring things to eat from people we know. But now that more people are growing, making and preserving foods (and drinks) they once bought from a store illuminated by fluorescent lights, they are rediscovering the benefits of trading goods.

When Kate Payne moved from Austin to Brooklyn, N.Y., two years ago, she met dozens of fellow food crafters and modern homesteaders who were brewing beer and kombucha, canning fruits and vegetables, raising backyard chickens for eggs, making their own granola, bread and liqueur and even keeping bees for honey.

"I wanted to have a place to celebrate the communal aspect of homemaking," says Payne, whose first book, "Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking," is coming out in April. "It's more fun to go shopping when you know the people who have made the goods."

Payne and an urban farmer friend decided to create a get-together where people could share their bounty with others in exchange for a variety of other hand-crafted food items.

About a year ago, she started hosting food swap events for her foodie friends, packing two dozen of them into her 600-square-foot apartment, and the BK Swappers bimonthly food swap was born.

When Payne moved back to Austin late last year, she brought the food swap with her.

In the quiet before the Christmas storm and with the help of Austin blogger Megan Myers, Payne hosted the first ATX Swappers event, bringing together about 15 home cooks, bloggers, farmers and other food folk whom she'd met online.

As the guests arrived, they filled up a large kitchen island with jars filled with berry jam and chutney, bags containing flaky baklava and others bursting with homegrown citrus fruits and pecans, homemade butterscotch caramels, chai granola, pickled okra, cowboy cookies, coconut macaroons and candied cardamom orange slices.

Once all the food items available for swapping were in place, people picked the items they wanted and traded them, item for item, with fellow swappers. "It's better than any Central Market gift basket I could buy," Kristina Nichols-Wolter says as she finishes packing up her bag filled with goodies.

(This month's swap has a waiting list, but find out about future meet-ups at www.facebook.com/ATX swappers. Want to begin your own food swap group? See the box of tips for getting started at right.)

In addition to Brooklyn and Austin, swap groups inspired by Payne's have formed in Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., and Houston, and there are hundreds of other informal groups for homebrewers, canners, salsa makers or even gardeners looking to trade both seeds and extra produce.

Austinite Sarah Binion, who is hosting this month's swap before she moves to London later this year, says she is already connecting with expatriates and foodies in her future home. It's not just lemon curd and scones she's after. "I wanted to do this in London as a way to meet people and to start forming relationships around food," Binion says.

Food is a natural ice breaker, so food swaps are as much about making new connections as they are about what food people are swapping that day. "Everybody knows somebody," Payne says. "You connect people and let food do the rest."

abroyles@statesman.com; 912-2504

Olive Oil Muffins with Lemon and Thyme

1 Tbsp. melted butter

Flour, for dusting

11/3 cup sugar

2 Tbsp. grated lemon zest

2 whole eggs

1/4 cups olive oil

2/3 cup whole milk

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. minced fresh thyme

For the glaze:

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp. melted butter

3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, or more as needed