Paper short abstract:

People, plants and pots put together: Edible cities shall foster degrowth practices, but what potential lies in "climate cooking"? With a look into cooking and eating practices in a climate mitigation project, questions around potential sustainable transformations in cities will be discussed.

Paper long abstract:

Andreas and Jessica and the other members of Kassel’s Edible City initiative were very happy to be elected to receive funding by Germany's most important federal funding program for climate change mitigation. Every second Monday from 2019 to 2020 the project offered a cooking space for experimenting with known and unknown edible plants from the urban surroundings, from urban gardens and from a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The talk gives a glimpse into cooking and eating practices in this project's "climate kitchen" (Klimaküche) organised by Jessica & Andreas. How is eating perceived as a transformational practice? Does „climate cooking" potentially foster degrowth practices in a neighbourhood? What can be learned from the project for wider transformations of urban (political) ecologies? The above questions frame the collaborative, ethnographic encounter between me and an urban gardening initiative in Kassel, (Hesse, Germany) who combine solidary gardening logics with climate change mitigation policies aiming at (re)connecting people with their surroundings, with nature and with each other. Through vivid vignettes on preparing magenta spreen together and (not) finding herbs alone on the way I discuss potentials and hindrances for the spreading of sustainable practices.