In the thread about possible millets observances after 2023, Dipak and Maria each mentioned food-related events that seem to me to be relevant to the current International Year of Millets. I wanted to highlight these, along with some other related items:

This is important as millets in North America are not widely used as (human) food. Or more to the point, many people would ask how you prepare them, what do you eat them with, and how do they taste?

The items are as follows:

1. First is the Millets Webinar for June (the one in 6 weeks or so), on millets as "tasty grains." We're still lining up presenters for that webinar, and will have more info on that (and of course on the May edition on processing).

2. Maria mentioned "a week of millet recipes." Could this be virtual, or conducted as a kind of culinary festival? Is there time to organize (and fund!) something by later this year?

3. Dipak mentioned millets cook-offs. Could such an approach work in some format to familiarize an audience with millet-based dishes? (Perhaps as part of any event along the lines of #2, above?)

4. For the International Millets Conference in August, are there any plans for common meals? If so, can we include dishes with millets? Would a cooking demo fit in the program at some point?

There could be much more, but will leave it there for now.

DO, EL, MI, US

NAMA

On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 2:12 PM Dipak Santra <dsantra2@unl.edu> wrote:

Thank you, Don, for this great idea. I agree 100% that we must continue the millets promotional activities beyond 2023. The concept of ‘millets week’ is great. I do think that any of us can devote one week to millets activity. Therefore, we must pick up a day at our own workplace within the week and celebrate it through various actions e.g. millets-food competition (“millets cook-off”) and presentations, etc.

Thanks

Dipak

Dipak Santra, Ph.D.

Associate Professor (Alternative Crops Breeding Specialist)

President, International Broomcorn Millet Association

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture

University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Panhandle Research & Extension Center

4502 Ave I, Scottsbluff, NE 69361

(308) 632-1244 (work) / (308) 765-2324 (cell)

From: Collab <collab-bounces@lists.millets2023.space> on behalf of Maria E Giovanni via Collab <collab@lists.millets2023.space>
Reply-To: Maria E Giovanni <mgiovanni@csuchico.edu>
Date: Sunday, May 7, 2023 at 10:07 AM
To: Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org>, "collab@lists.millets2023.space" <collab@lists.millets2023.space>
Subject: Re: [Collab] Thinking ahead: World Millets Week?

Non-NU Email

Thank you for all of the information! I agree with the idea of a week of millet recipes – each day could be a different variety with a recipe. My graduate student, Sruthi Vobbillisetti, is familiar with several varieties and has a collection of recipes. I’m suer many of you also have this information. I have enjoyed trying them!

Maria Giovanni

CSU Chico

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