Thanksgiving on the Ark of Taste

by Cecilia Estreich

During the holidays, tradition tends to shine even in the most fast-food saturated kitchens. Despite Coca-Cola’s insistence that the stretch from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve is all about computer-animated polar bears and sugary, carbonated beverages, the real centerpiece of most holiday meals is a family recipe. Think about it. Whether it’s a cookie recipe brought over from Italy with your Sicilian grandma or the stuffing your mother learned to make in college, the holidays are a time when we celebrate our loved ones and our cultures through food.

This year, Slow Food would like you to add another element to your feasts: foods listed on the US Ark of Taste, an online catalog of more than 200 rare and regional foods in the U.S. If the holidays are a time when we celebrate and give thanks, it seems fitting to prepare foods that support people in our communities and reflect our local traditions.

Looking through the Ark list on the Slow Food website, there are so many endangered products that are perfect for a holiday table: heirloom apples for pies, Louisiana oysters for stuffing, heritage turkey breeds and regional cheeses from the American Raw Milk Cheese Presidium. There are also thirteen new products that were boarded on the list in August. 

More after the jump

Farming: Theory and Practice

Following 7 months of visiting farms, talking to farmers, reading about production, and staying chained to my desk in Brooklyn, I finally did some harvesting in the days following Terra Madre, Slow Food’s International biennial sustainable food producers’ conference in Torino.

I traveled with a group of delegates from the Hudson River Valley out to the region of Lazio, to the outskirts of a small old town called Tuscania.  There I stayed on the Caponetti farm, enjoying the Caponetti family’s hospitality, congeniality, and delicious regional cooking, in exchange for my help in hand-harvesting the ripe olives from their grove of over 500 trees.

I woke up at 6 am each day I was there, and although I was groggy, I was excited to work.  It turns out my body is desperate for hard labor—although to call olive harvesting hard labor may be a bit of an exaggeration. The work is so pleasant, it doesn’t feel like work until you wake up the next day and your shoulders are sore and your thighs are tight from gripping the ladder.  By the end of the first day, I was so exhilarated, I didn’t even notice the horseshit caked all over me.

Lay nylon nets, prop your ladder up in the cradle of the branches, tie on, ascend, grab a branch and your rake, and begin.  The pinging sound of olives hitting the aluminum ladder on the way down, and then hitting the ground sounds like a gentle glockenspiel, like rain.  Fold the nets in order to gather the bounty, remove the sticks, load the cassette, and on to the next tree.  When the sun goes down, load up, drive to Bagnoregio, the neighboring town that houses the mill.  Help load the cargo onto the pulley system that brings it to the second floor, take in the sounds (and smells, oh lord that cloud of verdant olive will knock you down) of local men shooting the shit while they wait their olives’ turn.  Watch them grind, then press the olives into a bright green waterfall of oil.  Bring it home and dream of eating it at lunch the next day, with fresh bread and sea salt and a midday glass of wine.

When visiting Greece last summer I was told the soft statistic that one olive tree produces enough olive oil for one person for one year.  But, see, what if that olive oil is ridiculously, off-the-charts delicious and fresh?  Mightn’t I up my yearly consumption?  Mightn’t I, in one short week on an olive farm in Lazio, completely throw a wrench in such statistical reckoning? 

Each time I look closely at the way artisanal food is produced, I am moved by the effort involved, moved by the choice of such producers not to follow the path of least resistance, but to forge the old path (often alone), the one grown over with brier and brush.  This experience is no exception.

I leave Tuscania loving the Caponettis, loving my new friends from the Hudson Valley (sometimes you have to travel very very far to meet your neighbors), and loving olive oil—in the way you love someone once you really know them, once you’ve met their family, seen their childhood home, seen them break down or show fear, or cry with joy. And I leave extremely grateful for the opportunity to have followed up our big city conference with a visit to the farm, joining food producers on their land, throwing my carpal-tunneled office hands behind a rake.

Young Farmers Conference at Stone Barns

by Cecily Upton

If we’re ever going to meet the rising demand for good, clean and fair food, we’re going to need new farmers. Lots of ‘em. And these new farmers are going to have to do things a little bit differently from the generation before them.

• Instead of gas or biodiesel powered tractors, they’ll need to employ draft animals.
• Instead of purchasing GMO seeds, they’ll need to save their own.
• Instead of selling to a large distributor, they’ll need to rely on local markets.

With a sea change happening in the agricultural sector, and with many young farmers making a commitment to the land with little or no farming experience, how will they learn the skills necessary to produce enough food for growing demand?

Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture has one answer. They’re organizing a Young Farmers Conference, where young and new farmers can learn the skills they need. From seed to market, workshops will cover the basics of getting started within the context of our global food system.

Young Farmers Conference, December 4 and 5, 2008
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

Check out the full list of conference workshops

Download a registration form.

Photo by Michael Moran

Project Sprout: from a Humble Idea, a Garden Grows

by Sam Levin

Sam Levin is one of three co-founders, along with Sarah Steadman and Natalie Akers, of Project Sprout, an organic, student-run garden on the grounds of Monument High School in Great Barrington, Mass. Now in its second year, Project Sprout supplies the school’s cafeteria with fresh fruits and vegetables, helps feed the hungry in the community and serves as a living laboratory for students of the Monument school system.

Sam, a Sophomore at Monument, gave a speech at the opening ceremony of Terra Madre ‘08 in Italy, and inspired thousands of delegates from around the world who traveled to Turin for the event. The Slow Food USA blog is thrilled to share his remarks with our readers.

Exactly one year ago Monday, I walked through the doors of my public high school in Massachusetts planning on presenting the idea of Project Sprout to my Guidance counselor. And that’s all it was, an idea. I had not one detail worked out, only that I wanted the students of my school and the people of my community to begin paying more attention to their food, and in turn the natural world around them. I was already an avid naturalist, and when I wasn’t in the woods or swamps, I was spending time on the farm down the road from my house, playing soccer with the pigs or riding the cows. So, after talking to my guidance counselor, Mr. Powell, I connected with two other students, Sarah a junior who loved gardening and children and Natalie a sophomore who was desperate for delicious vegetables in the cafeteria, and together we began refining the idea and figuring out the details of the project. Within weeks we had a plan.

The plan was simple. Create a student-run organic vegetable garden on school grounds, that would be used as an educational tool for students ages 2-18, provide delicious produce for the school lunches, and ultimately build connections with nature and food for the children of our district. And with that plan, along with some energy, excitement, and motivation, we began working towards our goal.

We met with local farmers and gardeners, landscapers and designers, teachers and groundskeepers. We worked with non-profit leaders and most importantly, we worked together. I couldn’t walk by Mr. Powell’s office without stopping in to talk to him. Sarah and Natalie and I met in between classes and during lunch, after school and before school. Although we hadn’t even known each other before October, as time went on, our relationship became unbreakable. As we know, food brings people together. But as I have learned, working to save food creates unbelievably powerful bonds between people.

More after the jump

Terra Madre: Coming Together and Standing Up

by Ariane Lotti

At the closing ceremony of Terra Madre, a spontaneous protest broke out. As a pre-recorded message by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, played on-screen, delegates in the audience stood and turned their backs on him.

For four days, thousands of producers, cooks, students, activists and academics from 153 countries shared stories, exchanged information and compared notes on topics ranging from starting a school garden and producing quality honey to using agro-ecological principles to address climate change and finding ways to make food more affordable while paying farmers a fair price.

During those four days, it was impossible to meet someone not doing something really cool and unique. In line for lunch, I met a Kenyan woman who started an organization that educates street girls about organic farming and environmental conservation and connecting them with farmers in need of these services. At lunch another day, I sat across from a man who works with indigenous communities in North America and uses permaculture techniques to establish food security in those communities. On the bus, I sat next to two young farmers from Oregon who have run a Community-Supported Agriculture farm for three years and are beginning to experiment with ways to be completely energy self sufficient.

Apart from the informal and spontaneous conversations with people, there were workshops and regional meetings where delegates spoke about how they had started an urban community garden, gotten sustainably-grown food in schools and cafeterias, and achieved a wage raise for farmworkers against political, economic, and cultural odds. All these stories shared a narrative: there were problems in my community; I believed things could be different and better; and I worked to translate that belief into a reality.

More after the jump

News from Terra Madre: Slow Food USA gets political

There’s still a buzz on the streets today—it’s the buzz of huge voter turnout, of citizen investment, of millions of Americans throwing their hats in the ring.

What better time for Slow Food USA to –in the words of our Executive Director Erika Lesser at the US Meeting at Terra Madre—get political?

There’s a lot to report from Slow Food’s most recent edition of “Terra Madre,” a gathering of food communities from around the world, but today I’ll start with a report back on the US meeting.  This gathering of over 800 food producers, cooks, students, and educators from around the country was the one opportunity at the conference for the US to discuss our agenda, our platform for moving forward into what is proving to be a new dawn.  The agenda was laid out by Erika Lesser and our new President, Josh Viertel, in his first public address in his new position. 

As discussed in yesterday’s post, our agenda: Building a future food system. 

How are we going to do this?

• Building bridges between the current aging farmer population, and the next generation of eaters, farmers, cooks.
• Connecting cooks and farmers.
• Assisting young farmers in getting the training and knowledge they need, and
• Advocating for Change

Viertel put forth an emphasis on fostering youth involvement and development, as well as a strong cry for promoting and supporting Food Justice (the vexing conundrum of paying farmers a fair wage while also making sure that food is affordable to all).

The next Food and Farm Bill needs us; urban farms need us.  And hey—it’s official now: Barack Obama needs us.  More specifically, he needs to hear from us, and part of our plan moving forward is to figure how to say what we need to say, and how to make sure it’s heard. As mentioned yesterday, you can add your voice to the Declaration for Health Food and Agriculture and the US Working Group on the Food Crisis’ Call to Action.

For a wide array of coverage, and an outside perspective—everything from the speakers, to the food, to the water—please check out:

• Tom Philpott’s comprehensive coverage on Grist.
• Sandor Katz, on the Huffington Post: we’re keen on this excellent post.

And over the next couple weeks, we’ll share the words of farmers, cooks and activists who shared their stories and visions for the future of our food system at Terra Madre. 

Yes We Can: Change Our Broken Food System

by Slow Food USA

On this day after the election, the staff of Slow Food USA took a moment to talk about how we can build on the momentum of Barack Obama’s historic Presidential win. While we’re hopeful that our new President and all the men and women elected in races across the nation yesterday will put the FOOD back into food policy, we understand that we can’t assume anything. We know that to help make change in our broken food system, much of the work must come from the ground up while we keep our leaders’ feet to the fire. 

Journalist Michael Pollan, a Slow Food Advisory Board member, recently wrote a great letter challenging the next President to improve our nation’s food policy. In an October 23 article in Time Magazine, President Elect Obama responded, saying that our current industrialized food system is “creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs.”

We need to work with the incoming administration to create new green collar jobs; to increase the availability of fresh food in underserved communities and urban food deserts; to fight for small farmers and food producers who supply the thousands of farmers’ markets and CSAs across the country; and to bring healthy food and educational gardens into the public school system so that our children can grow up healthy and understand their connection to the land and the food they eat.

Make a start by signing on and adding your comments to the Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture and the new Call to Action for food system reform organized by the US Working Group on the Food Crisis.

We have a long road ahead. Together, we must ensure that good, clean and fair food is accessible to all Americans. Through our collective voice and hard work around the country, a new food system is possible.

Kids Promote a Delicious Heritage (Turkey) with Slow Food Russian River

by Slow Food USA intern, Cecila Estriech

As Thanksgiving approaches, many of us are steeling ourselves for yet another holiday feast featuring a mealy industrially produced bird. Turkey, in most American households, is the white elephant on the buffet table—everyone knows that the nearly ubiquitous broad-breasted white is dry and flavorless, but most of us are too polite to say anything (it is a holiday after all). The members of Slow Food Russian River are trying to change our turkey experience one heritage breed at a time.

Situated in California’s Sonoma valley where the broad-breasted white was first bred in the 1950’s, Slow Food Russian River has established the Heritage Turkey Project to encourage the production of endangered breeds. The three-year old program partners with 4-H and Future Farmers of America to get kids in the region involved in raising the turkeys. Every year, six to ten young people raise two-hundred heritage breed turkeys provided by the Russian River chapter. Once they reach maturity, the birds are sold at market price—$7.50 per pound this year. For their labor, the kids receive all the revenue from sales.

In addition to providing kids with hands-on experience working with heritage breeds, it also encourages consumers in the community to expand their palates. Russian River committee leader Rick Theis remarks that “residents are learning about Heritage Turkeys and the Slow Food Movement, and tasting the results.” The turkeys have become so popular, in fact, that they consistently sell out with an ample waitlist. 

More after the jump

Toque Reform: Spawning Biodiversity

by Jennifer M. Hall

There was no shortage of story displayed around the room, but as you would hope, the best story was on the plate...plate after plate of Salmon Nation. Al Kowitz, who explained that he went to culinary school (at an age when most are looking to retire!) “to learn to cook with local foods,” without a doubt taught more than he took away. Yes, he has a better handle on the mechanics now. But what he shared with his peers and instructors about the names, the names behind the names and the flavors of local foods was unparalleled. 

Equipped with history as a farmer, Washington State University Extension specialist and doctorate in Communications, Al offered those he touched at Spokane Community College a new relationship with food – daily. Not only did he serve ozette potatoes in his graduation menu, he grew them. He was the first student to break stride with the “rules” and personally source most of his meal. Al made a place at the table for tradition, indigenous culture and creative spirit (see how he plated his courses to match pieces of art).

More after the jump

This Sunday: Enjoy an Amazing Brunch at NYC’s Back Forty for Uprising Seeds

This Sunday at Back Forty restaurant, Jeff Lydon, Chef Peter Hoffman (Savoy and Back Forty), Hilary Baum (founder, Baum Forum), Francine Stephens (owner, Franny’s Pizza) and Slow Food USA invite you to celebrate the third anniversary of the Betsy Lydon Ark Award and 2008 award recipients, Brian Campbell and Crystine Goldberg of Uprising Seeds/Uprising Organics.

While enjoying seasonal, locally sourced foods over brunch, Jeff will share the history and background of the award and introduce Brian and Crystine, who just got back from a fantastic week at Terra Madre ‘08.

Founded three years ago in Washington State, Uprising Seeds/Uprising Organics is a regional, organic seed company and fresh vegetable CSA farm that grows Ark of Taste produce and makes it available to all members of their community, regardless of income. To do this, they earmark roughly 75 percent of their CSA shares for families that receive food stamps. They also consult with farms nationwide to help them initiate Food Stamp CSA programs of their own.

Sunday’s brunch event will help to raise awareness and funds for the future of the Betsy Lydon Ark Award, and share the inspiring work of Uprising Seeds.

When: This Sunday, November 2nd

Time: 12:30-2:30pm

Where: Back Forty Restaurant 190 Avenue B at 12th Street, Manhattan

Price: $50/person for two course family style brunch, coffee and one drink (includes tax and tip)

RSVP: Space is limited to 35 people, so please RSVP by 5pm, Friday October 31st, to
. Remaining tickets will be available at the door.

If you cannot attend (or are too busy campaigning), but would like to contribute to the Award fund, please call Slow Food USA at 718-260-8000 or visit Slow Food USA.