It was a quick yes for Evan Dannells when Odessa Piper asked him to host a black currant tasting event at Cadre in 2021.
Piper, the pioneering force behind the farm-to-table movement in Madison and founder of Madison fine-dining restaurant L’Etoile, was at the University Avenue restaurant for an event hosted in part by Savanna Institute, a nonprofit that supports agroforestry in the Midwest.
“Currants used to be very prolific in the wooded areas in Wisconsin but are less so now,” Dannells says. The black currant, an edible berry, is a beloved ingredient both in French countryside cooking and more sophisticated city cooking. The tasting aimed to identify optimal varieties — some 100 years old — in an effort to grow more of the climate-resilient shrub in Wisconsin…