Dear Friends of Slow Food,

I had been thinking for some time about visiting a new area of Sicily which is of great agricultural importance. I had heard many comments from journalists regarding Pachino, the land where the best tomatoesin the world are grown according to great Italian chefs.

When I arrived in Catania, Isabella, a friend of an old friend from my cruise ship days who is a stem cell researcher as well as an enologist, greeted me. She took me to Marzamemi near Noto where I had lunch with an old winemaker, Angelo Paterno, at a new winery. We dined on local fish and drank the estate’s truly excellent wines among which was a dry Moscatodi Noto as well as others. Marzamemi, a small town only ninety miles north of Africa and a place where fishermen still catch tuna with lines is also the town where Malena with Monica Bellucci was filmed. This is truly a beautiful place to visit-”a must see.”

For the last twenty years, Piero Selvaggio of Valentino Restaurant in Santa Monica has encouraged me to visit Modica. After spending my first night there, I woke up the next morning to a view of the Baroque city that seemed to be handmade of ceramic, making it one of the most beautiful Italian provincial towns. I would certainly go back. If you want to fall in love with Sicily, go to this unknown area with its taste of old Sicily.

Isabella organized tastings of local products from small, high quality companies and introduced me to many authentic farmers and people form the land. I want to share you with some of these products, many of which are exquisite and impressive.

*Al-Cantára*, Catania, in the foothills of Etna: wines including pinot nero, nero d’avola, cabernet sauvignon, gewurtztraminer, and moscato. Also olive oil.

*Lagouveri*, Gela: Nero d’avola.

*Casa Don Puglisi*, Modica: A non-profit chocolate maker established by the priest Don Puglise for women who are victims of domestic abuse. It is a refuge for these women where they can earn a fair wage for their work. All proceeds from the sale of the chocolate are invested in helping these women. The cold production process they use maintains the full flavor of each ingredient. Instead of melting the cocoa, it is *cold-pressed with sugar granules,* maintaining the purity of its flavor and giving it its unqiue, brittle texture.

*Genesis*, Avola: limoncello and other liquerus, prepared pasta sauces, pesto, olives, marmalades, condiments such as peppers, garlic, olives, tomatoes, and onions preserved in jars under olive oil.

*Ragusano*, Ragusa: Ragusano cheese, a soft, smooth cheese, one of the oldest cheeses produced in the province of Ragusa, is smooth and compact with a rind of  a golden yellow, straw color which becomes darker with age. Ragusano is produced exclusively from uncooked whole cow’s milk and goat or lamb rennet, and the cows are fed predominantly fresh forage grown on the Iblean Highlands. It is aged and hung by a rope.

If you have a chance to travel to Sicily, I would highly recommend visiting Pacchino to explore the wonderful flavors of Sicily.

Slowly,

Your Friend,

Lorenzo Scarpone

Slow Food San Francisco members are likely familiar with the story of Soul Food Farms in Vacaville, but it was new to today’s readers of The New York Times Magazine. Writer Christine Muhlke focused on the incredible community support shown in the face of a devastating fire in September. People raised money and volunteers even came out one weekend to help rebuild chicken houses. Muhlke is right to highlight this aspect of the farm because, in the Slow Food movement, it isn’t just about getting healthier, tastier food, it’s about getting to know your community.

Alexis Koefoed’s Soul Food Farms has started a CSA, moving beyond the initial service she provided to local restaurants. Koefoed has exciting future plans including a potential cooking school. Muhlke and Koefoed get into a conversation about the true cost of food with Koefoed noting, “those dollars go back into the community.” And within this community “ultimately aren’t farmers the most important resource we have in this country?” As Muhlke notes, certainly the idea is taking root and the Bay Area is a large part of this movement. And perhaps we could extend Koefoed’s question to include community as our most important resource. Can our time, money, and thought be better invested than in our own community? We are grateful for the reminder that The New York Times Magazine provides and, I hope, encouraged to continue this work for each other.

A weekend in the Bay Area could lead you to some incredible places and Napa Valley falls high on that list. Slow Food San Francisco has even toured an ecological sustainable vineyard in the area. But Napa has more to offer than just grapes. An engaged Laure Latham wrote to Slow Food San Francisco to be sure our members knew about a wonderful farm owned by John and Margaret Hoffman. She writes of her visit on her own blog (http://www.frog-mom.com/2009/10/hoffman-farm-last-walnut-orchard-in.html) and includes information about the history of the site and her own experiences there hunting for walnuts with her children. On these beautiful November weekends, visiting Mr. Hoffman to admire his amazing orchards (including plums, apricots, apples, walnuts, peaches, figs, etc) seems like the perfect use of time.

But Laure knows that there is more to the story than a good anecdote. Mr. Hoffman is not what you might expect. He is a 93 year old farmer who will graciously offer to help you pick apples by shaking his cane through the branches. In the land of wine (where a truly sustainable vineyard can be hard to find), his farm filled with biodiversity is under constant threat of conversion. Not only would this mean losing dozens of species of plants, it would also mean losing the history of the site-something not so easily converted, something that has to be shared with a family wandering through the walnuts.

Laure described her experience thus, “it’s not everyday that you see a 93-year-old tree-lover go out to plant young trees in his 23-acre orchard surrounded by vineyards. In hindsight, it was fantastic to see something else than grape grow in Napa but the sad thing is, his farm will probably not survive after his death…What a sad thing for our children, to see farms disappear.”

But this farm does not have to be a thing of the past and it seems Mr. Hoffman feels similarly. In planting those young trees, Mr. Hoffman made plans for the future. Perhaps you should pay him a visit and ask what those plans are. You can find him at:

Hoffman Farm,
2125 Silverado Trail,
Napa CA 94558
(707) 226-8938.

When thinking about an industry dominated by large corporations without true competition that relies on the myth of a self regulating market to dismiss inequity consumers face when trying to access that industry’s goods, you probably think of health care. But our food system fits the bill as well. That’s why groups like ActionAid and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy have been meeting to talk about the food reserve. A former CEO of the Corn Growers Association was a part of the discussion saying, “Our current reserve is in the hands of multinational corporations. We are one short crop away from being at the mercy of their benevolence. We need a public food option.” (To read more from this meeting head to: http://www.tradeobservatory.org/issue_foodSecurity.cfm)

Food security is a central part of food sovereignty, something Slow Food recognizes as crucial for the survival of small farmers in developing nations who are continually crushed by our surpluses (perhaps this is where our reserve could come from?). But it turns out we are also in need of food security and sovereignty. And it is likely that we need government intervention. Of course, how much of an intervention would it be when we think about the history of subsidies that led to the death of the small farm and rise of the dominant agribusiness? But there are other ways, ways that predate the newest form of Monsanto seeds.

And this is where canning comes into play. Growing up, we pickled and froze but never canned. It seems daunting. But here’s the word on the street: it’s not. That word comes from a one Diane Sigman working at UC Berkeley. She reports that you can even buy all the necessary equipment at an Ace Hardware store for a minimal price. She recommends Eugenia Bone’s simple guide, Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods. So while the issues extend beyond our kitchen, they certainly start there. As Diane describes it, the possibilities seem nearly endless and would probably make a thoughtful holiday gift.