On October 3rd, 2010, A HARVEST DINNER FOR 500 AT OMAHA GRAIN ELEVATOR…

  food, travel

Emerging Terrain: Stored Potential harvest dinner celebration above, and view from the freeway headed to Eppley Airfield

…was a stunning culinary, pastoral, heartland experience created by Anne Trumble of Emerging Terrain that featured beautiful 20’x80′ images by local artists covering the silos visible from the freeway, an endless gorgeously set table with hand made pottery and wood platters, some of the best squash of I have ever tasted, and perfect autumnal prairie weather – made this afternoon the highlight of my trip – and now I am at the airport about to leave town, sad to miss the rest of the gathering, not to mention desert. (more info from the Emerging Terrain website)

As Midwest metropolitan landscapes undergo change — from agrarian to suburban — the systems of earlier settlement become obsolete; farmsteads, rail, grain silos, etc. Many of these are demolished to make way for the new, with the exception of the mid-century concrete grain elevators and their assembled silos. Thick, heavily engineered construction renders them too expensive for demolition. These structures, with their economic condition and cultural narrative, are opportunity for compelling regional land use discourse. Emerging Terrain is spearheading a collaborative endeavor to re-purpose a derelict, yet iconic, historic landscape structure as contemporary cultural awareness. Designers, artists, etc. will submit ideas for 20’ x 80’ images to hang on the exterior of a vacant grain elevator near downtown Omaha. Concurrent with fall harvest, a dinner table at the base of the elevator will host an epic dinner to celebrate the exhibition.