Photo Courtesy of MA Food Trader

Food Swapping has arrived in Boston, in case you haven’t heard.

If you have, perhaps you read the Boston Globe’s report on the swaps happening around the city, or visited one of the small markets at the Somerville Trading Post and the Boston Food Swap where bartering actually takes place.

Or, maybe you’ve spent time on the MA Food Trader website, an online food swapping website for the greater Boston area that’s been called something of a “Craigslist for food.” The movement is new to the city, in any event; the MA Food Trader site was launched just last month and the Boston Food Swap began only this summer.

PRK was curious to learn more about this rising trend, so we spoke to Jake Benner, co-founder of the MA Food Trader website, and Lyn Huckabee, who organizes the Boston Food Swap. They gave us the low-down about the trading they have been seeing online and in the market, and the trend.

PRK: What prompted you to launch your respective food swapping organizations?
JB: Honestly, it was a friend who mentioned that there ought to be a way to give away or trade produce we received from our CSA that we couldn’t use up. I began looking around the Internet for something that approached this food trading idea and couldn’t find much at the time. As I thought about it, the idea expanded a little to include extra food people grew in their gardens, and just creat[e] a community around food trading.

LH: There were a few events that yielded converging inspiration. The first was being single and having a farm share last summer. It was easy to tire of a large volume of vegetables at once, and when I talked to other CSA members, they also spoke of the difficulty of using their shares effectively. Then I saw a friend’s photos on FB of his very Italian family’s tomato sauce-making day. There seemed to be such a great community vibe around a shared food event that I envied.  One of my swap partners (there are two, Susan Johnston and Tara Bellucci) sent me the New York Times article about the Brooklyn Swap , and it seemed like it would easily meet both the practical and social needs I had previously identified.

PRK: What are the mains goals of food swapping and trading?
JB: At MA Food Trader, we hope to work toward two goals: to help people have an intentional interaction with food and to make fresh local food accessible to everyone in our community.

LH: To build community while helping people diversify their pantries. The goal is for people to do the work to home cook, grow or forage a few things and leave with the fruit of many people’s labors.  We want to be sure that people have fun, meet other great people in the area and feel a closer connection to both the source and the destination of their food.

PRK: How has the trading been received?
JB: From those who have participated I have heard great feedback. Since we began on July 4th (Food Independence Day) we have 35 registered users. This does not include folks who respond to trade offers since you do not need to be registered to do so. There’s a lot of room for growth in this circle of traders, but we’re perfectly happy with this slow, steady pace as it gives us a chance to work out bugs.

LH: Conceptually, people have been thrilled about swapping.  In reality, I think people can be intimidated by it, particularly those who don’t consider themselves serious cooks. I have spent a lot of my energy convincing people that making their own food is fun and easy.  I showed a friend a recipe for barbeque sauce that I thought he should make, and he actually said to me, “I thought Heinz made barbeque sauce! It would never occur to me to make this.”  So there has been elation from the food community and a bit of fear from outside of that community, but I try to remind people that the point is to have fun. So, even if you aren’t a pro, there is no reason to be scared!

PRK: What are some of the more interesting or innovative products you have seen traded?
JB: I am surprised how many people are interested in brewing kombucha at home. More than I ever imagined. We also have some folks who are offering non-food items for trade on our site that are a little unusual: worms for vermicomposting or bike-powered trade delivery!

LH: At the first swap, the most interesting items were smoked mozzarella, the best pesto I have ever tasted, chocolate chili cupcakes, kombucha and beer. At the second swap, we had homemade tortillas and salsa, marinated goat cheese from home-raised goats, blueberry caramel sauce, a great stout beer and fresh bread. We have commitment from someone who plans to swap fresh jam in September and demo the jam by frying fresh donuts and filling them with his swap item!! There is some awesome food swap creativity going on out there.

PRK: What are the rules regarding food safety? Is it just a matter of trust that traded food has been prepared in a safe, sanitary way?

JB: Safety of any food product must be evaluated by the person receiving it. There are no “rules” per se, but the liability lies between the two parties involved in the trade. If anyone receives food that has been prepared by someone else, they need to know exactly how to evaluate its safety. Preserved foods, for example, should be checked for contamination and spoilage.

LH: Yes, people need to use their own judgment about safety. We are facilitating a private, non-financial transaction, so people need to be able to make their own decisions about safety. The beauty of the swapping event is that people get to meet in person and ask questions of the swapper [to inform their decisions].

PRK: Is there a larger trend about food trading beyond Boston?
JB: We have found that there are a few modes of food trading out there. There are food swap events going on in many cities across the US which mostly involve prepared foods. There are also “crop swap” events geared toward locally-grown vegetables swapped among neighbors. Then there are food trading websites, like ours, that allow trades of either prepared or fresh foods via the Internet at any time. Some examples of these are Maine Food Trader and Portland (Oregon) Food Exchange. These are all just little pieces of the larger local food movement, but I hope that they catch on and stick around. It’s fun to meet new people and share food that you’ve either grown or made with them.

LH: Yes, there is a huge food swapping movement beyond Boston. The blogroll on our website has links to the other swaps around the country and in the UK and Canada. There is a strong online community of swap organizers through Facebook where we discuss issues surrounding running the events. People can get a great deal of inspiration from these various sites. Actually, we posted in June about a food swap in Montana that is apparently popular with hunters. We also posted about the Minneapolis swap that shows other really creative swap items.

Note: The next Boston Food Swap event is being held this Sunday, August 14th! Details and registration available through the BFS website.