A false, but frequent assumption is that Slow Food is an elitist club for foodies. This was Sarah, Anna and my first time to Terra Madre. We didn’t know what to fully expect, and we were slightly apprehensive that the meeting might be a glorified foodie bonanza. We were dead wrong. The meeting focused on cultural and linguistic diversity, and the opening ceremony addressed the need to defend ethnic minorities and long-standing traditions through sustainable food production.

But what is Terra Madre exactly? At first, on a surface-level, it might look like an Olympics without the cutthroat competition, or a UN meeting without political baggage. Delegates from the Guaraní in Brazil and Aborigines in Australia, in traditional native dress, were given a platform to speak about their food cultures during the opening ceremony and the main workshop site has an informal indoor market area where you could buy anything from Nepalese slippers to Senegalese churrai (incense). More simply put, it’s a five day meeting where people from over 150 countries share their experiences and knowledge around promoting sustainable food production. The meeting offered workshops and break-out sessions on taste education, greater food biodiversiy and markets for local sustainable food businesses.

Petrini encouraged delegates to honor women, elders, natives and farmers as crucial pillars in our efforts to promote local food production. He stressed the role of taste, pleasure and enjoyment. Sapore! Molto Sapore! Pleasure, Lots of Pleasure! To really savor and enjoy food, to respect the history of a dish or food process, we must take action. As Josh Viertel, Director of Slow Food USA put it, it’s like “pleasure without responsibility or love without power.” Our movement will not root and fruit if we don’t take action and push for stronger policies that protect small-scale farmers, producers, and fisherman.

The grassroots meeting was a catalyst. We left Italy with a many messages, contacts and rich food experiences. But most importantly we left with a newfound understanding that we have a responsibility as delegates to spread the catalytic effect of the good food movement.

As some of you know, a small group of us from the Triangle recently traveled to Turin, Italy for Terra Madre, the International Slow Food Conference. Many of us have returned home from our travels resonating with new ideas, people, foods, and experiences we shared while we were there. To the left is a rather blurry picture of Anna Child, Sabrina Lopez, and I with Carlo Petrini, founder of the International Slow Foods movement. We were all incredibly proud to be able to attend the conference and share the happenings about our Market, our farmers, programs, and community with food producers from Kenya, Estonia, Papa New Guinea, and so on. Food producers, educators, and activist from over 160 countries came together to celebrate local food while taking part in a larger conversation.

The larger conversation started with a very simple message introduced by Carlo Petrini. Petrini very clearly stated that we must find a way to wed traditional knowledge (e.g., respect for the earth, respect for nature, and century old practices), with the academic sciences necessary to transform our food system and environment in the future. In order to do that, we must all work to give voice to those key players in our community who are the custodians of this traditional knowledge. Petrini broke these players into 4 categories: indigenous people, farmers/fisherman, women, and the elderly. According to Petrini, these are the people who carry knowledge of place, environment, and culture in our many societies, but they are also frequently without a voice or under served in politics and media.

I found Petrini’s message very powerful and it set the tone for the remainder of the conference. Many food producers wore their traditional garb, spoke their native tongue, and discussed how food and knowledge is shared in their community, and more importantly, what challenges and opportunities they face. Youth delegates played a major role, explaining what innovative projects they are implementing in their home communities. One delegate, all of 17 years old, successfully created a community garden for under served populations at age 15 and has now expanded his acreage, irrigation, public support, and programming! Increased food access, greater support for farmers, establishing better farm-to-school programs, farmers markets in rural communities, sustainable local fisheries, etc. were just some of the many diverse conversations shared during the conference. My mind is still buzzing from the inspiring and numerous ideas and resources shared.

If you are interested in learning more about the Slow Foods Movement or playing a part in working with farmers and food access, contact our local Slow Food Triangle chapter and get involved! The more energy and support, the merrier.

See you tomorrow at Market,
Sarah Blacklin

Reposted from the Carrboro Farmers Market newsletter.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 heaping tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter
2 to 4 tablespoons milk (depending on the moisture of the potatoes

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate, large bowl, mix the sweet potatoes and butter. Add the flour mixture to the potato mixture and mix to make a soft dough. Then add milk a tablespoon at a time to mixture and continue to cut in. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and toss lightly until the outside of the dough looks smooth. Roll the dough out to 1/2-inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a greased pan and coat tops with melted butter. Bake for about 15 minutes. (Watch your oven: If the biscuits are browning too fast, lower the temperature.)

Jeremy Ryan
Student, International Culinary School at The Art Institute Durham

Based on the successful, and in the Triangle familiar, community-supported agriculture model, Walking Fish’s more than 400 members each purchase a share for the season, and every week roughly 1,000 pounds of fresh caught seafood is delivered from Carteret County to Durham. Walking Fish shares come in a variety of types and sizes; shares are available weekly or bi-weekly, headed and gutted or filleted, and in two different sizes, full (~4 lbs) and half (~2 lbs). Shares for the current 10 week season ranged from $60 to $360. Hopefully there is a share that suits everyone.

Walking Fish’s inaugural season was able to showcase the diversity and flavor of North Carolina’s fisheries by providing its members with 10 different species, already this spring three new species have been added to the mix, with more hopefully to come. Each week’s share is caught on Monday and Tuesday, processed on Wednesday and delivered to Durham on Thursday, providing one of the freshest seafood experiences possible, outside of catching your own of course.
The reception in the Triangle has been amazing. The excitement and support of Walking Fish members, local chefs, and the Triangle community generally has been both humbling and inspiring. The interest and demand have proven dramatic; with two sold out seasons, local, regional, and national media attention, a 2009 Sustainable North Carolina Award, and a great reception at the 2010 Farm to Fork Picnic.

On the coast Walking Fish has been able to work with a variety of different fishermen and to consistently provide them with a price above that of the market each week. Walking Fish is beginning to be able to provide a small amount of certainty in the uncertain world of fishing.

Walking Fish’s work is just beginning and hopefully will continue to build on the project’s early success and continue to demonstrate that fish and fishermen can be and are an important part of the local food system. Walking Fish hopes to show that locally relevant strategies to sustain healthy fisheries and the people that depend on them are possible, and that you can and should be able to feel good about the seafood you eat. For more information please visit www.walking-fish.org
or contact Henry Coppola at hcoppola@gmail.com 301.244.9066.

The Basic Certificate Cheesemaking Program consists of six fundamental courses on technical aspects of cheesemaking. The foundation courses are designed to provide beginning cheesemakers with basic scientific knowledge and skills. These include Essential Principles and Practices in Cheesemaking (3 days); Milk Chemistry (1 day); Hygiene and Food Safety in Cheesemaking (1 day); Starter Cultures (1 day); Cheese Chemistry (2 days) and Basic Sensory Evaluation of Cheeses (1 day).

We will offer the Basic Certificate Cheesemaking Program twice during the summer of 2010 so students have an opportunity to complete the entire certificate. The sequences run over two weeks: week one is 5 days and week two is 4 days. The first program runs the weeks of May 24 – 28 and June 7 – 10; the second sequence covers the weeks of June 21 – 25 and June 28 – July 1. Enrollment in these classes is limited to 20 participants.

The program costs $2190 and includes course fees, materials, American Farmstead Cheese by Paul Kindstedt; parking pass; snacks and lunch each day, and cheese tastings. Upon completion, students receive a certificate for the basic program. Information about lodging is available on the Website. Students are responsible for: transportation to and from Burlington and from housing to campus; and evening meals. For questions or to enroll contact Jody Farnham at: jfarnham@uvm.edu or call 802-656-8300. For information about course content and lodging go to www.uvm.edu/viac

A 1st grade class helps get a bed ready for planting clover as a winter cover-crop

A student helps to cut up swiss chard for our garden stir fry

Donated Anolon pan that we used to saute up garden eggplant

Children try the veggies they helped prepare

Students write about how they thought the vegetable tasted

One girl shows us her descriptive writing and recipe

One second-grader’s description of the garden veggies she tried and creative recipe

“It’s sweet!”

“Tastes like pumpkin pie!”

“It’s goooood!”

“Can I have more?”

Those were but a few of the responses I heard shouted amongst the cheers of Lakewood Elementary third graders when asked about the sweet potato soup they had just tasted during the Durham public school’s annual Harvest Festival, held last Friday, November 20, on one of the most beautiful late autumn days in memory.  With activities centered around the school’s garden, local and seasonal ingredients, and traditional foodways, the event brought together students, teachers, school officials, local chefs, and community volunteers to celebrate the autumn harvest of Lakewood’s schoolyard garden and the almost one-year anniversary of the planting of heirloom apple trees on school grounds.  I’m happy to report that the apple trees, which were purchased with funds raised by the 2007 Farm to Fork Picnic and SEEDS, look quite healthy!

These students hadn’t just tasted the soup, however; they had also assisted in its preparation under the tutelage of ACME chef-owner Kevin Callaghan and local food activist Anna Child, who helped organize the event and currently works with UNC’s Gillings Sustainable Agriculture Project.  Before tasting the warm samples of soup, each student had been assigned a spoon and a prep bowl, into which Callaghan and Child ladled dollops of roasted, bright orange sweet potato flesh and a ration of fresh cream.  Under Callaghan’s bi-lingual direction in English and Spanish, while learning fun facts about sweet potatoes – Did you know that sweet potatoes are native to the Americas or that North Carolina grows more sweet potatoes than any other state? – the students folded the softened tuber flesh into the cream, creating a thick base for a hearty autumnal soup Callaghan completed with honey, salt, and nutmeg.  The sweet potatoes used in the soup, the children learned, had recently been harvested from the nearby school garden.  A few of the students, visibly pleased with their handiwork, had even helped with the harvest.

Across the way, April McGregor - who many readers might know from her virtuosic Farmer’s Daughter brand handcrafted food products, column for Grist.org by the same name, or friendly presence around her Carrboro stomping grounds – is guiding another group of youngsters through a hands-on primer on applesauce making from scratch.  Standing in front of the school’s row of aforementioned apple trees, McGregor calls for volunteers to take turns at peeling and ricing a crate of colorful, juicy apples into a stainless steel bowl and then into a larger pot, to which other young volunteers added sugar and spices before stirring into a smooth amber sauce.  The sugary aroma in the air was almost overwhelming.  The resulting applesauce was simply amazing: sweet, complex, and singing with bright flavors of fresh apple above notes of spice and citrus.  The completely clean sample cups in the nearby compost bucket were evidence of how much the children liked it.

A few steps away, with the help of Duke University Retiree Outreach (DURO) volunteers, SEEDS co-founder Brenda Brodie had set up her beautiful, hand-cranked, wood-and-steel cider press, into which passing groups of students were invited to toss apples before taking a turn at spinning the device’s wooden handle and lowering the large flat press.  The syrupy juice, chunky with apple pulp, steadily flowed down a smooth chute and into heavy, food-grade pales before being ladled into sample cups for the children to taste.

Judging by most of the responses, any witness would have thought these children had never tasted apple juice before.  Or at least it seemed that most of them had never had apple juice quite this good before.  Few of us had, really.  Now, even the most romantically inclined among us have to acknowledge that, for most families, gathering apples and physically pressing them into juice is not a realistic way to obtain a daily glass of sweet refreshment.  Thinking of the exercise in these terms, however, misses the point, which is that the connections between land (tree), food (apples), people (selecting and pressing the fruit with human hands), and happiness (the joys of community and collaboration) are as easily experienced as an afternoon game of kickball.  These students were not only learning about how a favorite drink can be made by hand (although that was an important aspect of the experience), they are also discovering the instant feedback loop that is cooking and eating – discovering, in some cases likely for the first time, that they have the power to take active roles in choosing and even creating the foods they eat.

Back to the sweet potato soup table: “Remember the sweet potatoes we dug up in the garden,” Child asked the class, eliciting a gentle eruption of nods, quick smiles, and affirmative uh-huh’s as they drained their cups, licking the sides and using their tiny fingers to scoop out every last bit of soup.  Many of these students have spent time in the garden with Child, their teachers, and garden volunteers such as Elizabeth Newman and Dave Werlinger, who by all accounts have been instrumental in the garden’s vitality.  Thanks to these individuals and to the solid support of Lakewood administrators, the schools garden provides an opportunity to integrate food education into core curricula. The students’ hands-on experience in the garden, and in cooking and food preparation events like the Harvest Festival, help cultivate a real appreciation of the natural world, the true value of food, and the rhythms of the seasons.

Now in its twelfth year, the Lakewood School Garden was started by DURO in 1997, and this fall it produced in impressive bounty of sweet potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, Swiss chard, lettuce, and a number of herbs.  According to Newman, the students learned about the entire process of growing and enjoying these foods, from building healthy soil, to planting, and finally, to harvesting and cooking.

It wasn’t clear whether the hyper-localness of the sweet potatoes added to the students’ taste experience, but the gleeful expressions of wonder and amazement (not unlike light bulbs shining above the heads of comic book characters) told of very real, experiential connections forming between food, flavor, the land, and their own human hands.  Much has been written about how such connections have been pushed out of the modern consciousness by industrial food marketing, cultural homogenization, and the decades-long shift toward convenience and away from quality, sustainability, transparency, and perhaps most devastatingly, joy.  This day at Lakewood, however, illustrated that we have not passed the point of no return; and that building healthy local food systems centered on fundamental human collaboration, sustainable resources, and our oft-uttered measures of good, clean, and fair can be as close as a schoolyard away.

- Mark
More photos here by Chuck Samuels and Mark Overbay.

http://flickr.com/photos/slowfoodtriangle

Want to learn about the 306 other “Eat Ins” across the country today? Check this out:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=timeforlunch&m=tags

Our “Eat In” in Durham was quite spectacular yet chill. 40 people + on 2 days notice of the actual location and finally some cool weather with a light refreshing mist. Very welcoming. The conversation was lively and forward looking - the food beyond words. Folks were very participatory during the discussion and the children were able to enjoy the playground just feet away from the amphitheater, which was very convenient and provided an appropriate backdrop for the topic.

I enjoyed meeting folks that are already thinking and working on this initiative everyday as I’m trying to figure out where we can help out the most now. There are alot of bridges to cross. As it turns out there a plenty of people working for and within the current system that already want better, real food in our cafeterias - but their hands are tied because of funding, infrastructure and legislation etc. So, no wagging of the finger please - they are doing their job and making a living, they’re not setting the program themselves - just running it cause that’s their job .

So, how can we as a community help bring Real food into our schools?

I just heard about 1,000 strawberry plants going in on Eco Farm land in Orange County. If Slow food Triangle works something out with Eco can we bring some by this spring? Oh you don’t have a kitchen?  No worries! Let’s work on fixing that. I have a friend that builds out kitchens for restaurants. Maybe if Slow Food Triangle raises some funds we can bring those strawberries in after all and make some preserves to enjoy next winter….and you can have Eco keep it coming if you wish. Wouldn’t that be nice to look forward to? What’s that you say? - you’d rather just have some strawberry ice cream today? Hmmm, I better ask the principal about that..Have you ever had beef stroganoff that’s simmered overnight? Don’t put the noodles in just yet silly. The governor is arriving in a few minutes…

One attendee pointed out that we as a community need to treat our public schools as all-age community centers. If we do this and all pitch in as a restructuring effort - alot of the problems will solve themselves naturally and much delicious fun and learning would be had.

If you would like to host a potluck on your school’s grounds to help raise awareness of what’s possible - contact info@slowfoodtriangle.org and keep an eye out for more events like this at slowfoodtriangle.org.

Much thanks to the Slow Food USA , Durham Public School System (who were really helpful) as were the staff, administration and PTA at George Watts.
Bravo to Dr. Alice Ammerman of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention - as well as ALL of the attendees today in Durham and all across the USA!

Gordon Zacharias
Slow Food Triangle