11.2.10 | Uncategorized | No Comments » |
By Laura O’Donohue
- The opening ceremony was a mark of the huge diversity represented at Terra Madre, and also a reminder that many cultures and their languages are in danger of disappearing and need a voice. The ceremony gave the over 6,000 participants a chance to hear from delegates whose languages are seldom heard and whose culture gives a unique outlook on the food issue. Delegates from the Australian Aborigines, the Kamchadal of Russia, the Sami of Sweden, the Guaranì of Brazil, and the Gamo of Ethiopia all spoke passionately about their community’s relationship with food and the hopes they have for the future. Pictured above is Malebo Mancho Maze from the Gamo of Ethiopia.
The Salone del Gusto was divided into four enormous rooms, and one outdoor area showcasing Italian street food. The first tasting room was dedicated to countries from around the world. Korean herbs, Mexican chocolate, Finish bread, and dates from Ethiopia were just a fraction of what was available to sample. Producers at every booth were ready to answer questions and explain the inspiration and process behind their product.
The other two tasting rooms, the outdoor street food pavilion, and the educational room were all dedicated to Italy. The educational room held a small bookstore, information about Presidio products, and some of the most famous Italian creations- coffee, Prosecco and Parmigiano Reggianno to name a few. These constructed rooms were tasting opportunities, and also gave a deeper look into history, production and quality of each product.
Terra Madre, held in a building adjacent to Salone del Gusto, was where workshops and delegation meetings took place. Outside the meeting rooms, stations were set up to learn about apple varieties, bee keeping and honey, chestnuts, soil, and wheat.
The Youth Eat In was a chance for over 300 young delegates to gather over a delicious family style lunch, exchange stories, projects, thoughts on politics, travel, and of course food. Generous chefs from all over the city opened their kitchens to culinary students from Turin and those in Turin as Terra Madre delegates to cook the fabulous meal.
10.18.10 | Uncategorized | No Comments » |
Slow Food South Bay Vice Chair and delegate to Terra Madre, Peg Champion, is a communications pro. She’ll be blogging and tweeting from the conference, so read her posts at http://web.me.com/championorganic, or on the Slow Food San Francisco Blog. You can also follow her on at Twitter.com/ChampionOrganic.
05.25.10 | Cindy Chen SF Events | No Comments » |
On May 12, in honor of SF Bike Week, forageSF teamed up with the Disposable Film Festival to bring San Franciscans an underground farmers’ market plus a bike-in movie night. I was there for a taste of the festivities.
The Underground Farmers’ Market conceived by Iso Rabins of forageSF is a gathering place for cooks, foodies, and those who want to share their wares with the public but don’t have the means to participate at a regular farmers’ market.
Attendants were encouraged to bike to the event, sample and buy some homemade goodies before settling down to watch selected short films made on non-professional devices ranging from cellphones to web cams.
Some highlights of the market included Raw Daddy’s, selling raw, vegan cone-filled treats. With one bite of the lemon macaroon cheesecake cone, my preconceptions of raw food were completely changed. Who’d ever think raw could be so sinfully good?
Flaxseed Cones
James Hall aka Raw Daddy serving up some of his raw, vegan concoctions
Then there was mmm, butter! serving delicious batches of flavored butter made from small batches of organic cream. The maple and bacon butter was especially good.
mmm, butter! offerings
forageSF had its own offering of pork belly from Marin Sun Farms sandwiched in fluffy buns with pickled veggies and wild onions. The pork belly bun was excellent: the meat was tender and flavorful and went very well with the acidic crunch of the pickled veggies.
a close-up of the pork belly bun, yum!
There were many great vendors, all with interesting stories to tell about how they got to the Underground Farmers’ Market. For many, it’s about a passion for food, especially food prepared with interesting and quality ingredients—from local farms, home grown, or freshly foraged. Here are some pictures of other vendors and the event:
Goat Cheese from Flosa Creamery
Sandwiches and bread from Challahback
Kraken Candy
Making fresh dosas
Ladies of Luscious Liquids
a crowd around Maggie May's Bacon Sweets
bacon IPA caramels
attendees noshing on platter of food including bahn mi burgers from KitchenSidecar
Crowd at the market
Talking with the vendors at the Underground Farmers’ Market really made me think about my own passion for food. It was refreshing that many of the vendors were in there 20’s and 30’s and already engaged in socially responsible ways of preparing food. They prove that cooking the slow way can be delicious, inventive, hearty, and intensely satisfying, not only for the body, but to the taste buds.
The challenge we face in our daily lives is to allot time out of our busy schedules to cook and experiment with food. This an especially important challenge when there are children in our lives. CNN recently reported nearly 1 in 5 four-year-olds are now obese. While the problem is multi-fold, the family environment remains an important piece to the puzzle. If we instill our passion for food in our children, chances are down the line, they will be make better choices.
Cooking should be playful, inventive, and worth the additional time and effort it takes. So next time you are in the prepared food aisle at the grocery store, take a minute and consider your alternatives. Cook with the children in your lives, take them to farmers’ markets, teach them to be inquisitve and curious about food. As the Underground Farmers’ Market shows us, there are many ways to get involved. So get out there and whet your appetite for slow food!
03.31.10 | Leah Binkovitz Uncategorized | 1 Comment » |
One of my favorite things about Passover is the wonderfully strange tradition of chocolate covered matzah. How long can someone be expected to endure the bread of affliction without a little chocolate to make the process more bearable? I may be a little liberal on my thinking about Passover dietary restrictions, but I think the purpose of matzah is not to endure matzah but to think about the plight of the refugee, to consider the continuing struggle against oppression throughout the world. Food has the power to transform how we think about the world. It has the power to join families across the globe and across history.
So where a typical seder would end with a round of “next year in Jerusalem,” I prefer instead to toast to a better here, to next year in peace. And there is so much work to do before we get there. I don’t want to take this opportunity to write about a particular case of injustice, there are many. I want instead to urge you to take the time to recommit yourself to work for justice. Whether you are celebrating Passover, Easter, or the weekend take this time to remember your responsibility to heal the world. As our country deals with the aftershocks of a health care debate that was at times successful and at other moments shamefully ignorant and hurtful, we all must look around at our community and toast to a better year next year and to our fight to get there. So whether you want to lead a campaign to reduce reliance on bottled water in your neighborhood, or read an article detailing the neocolonial impulses behind the biotech push in Africa, or maybe even enter the world of the televised Food Revolution led by media darling Jamie Oliver to see how the mainstream is defining real, good, fair food and what you may have to add, or stage a bake-in to protest the strange New York-based trend against home baked goods in schools, it is all worthy work. What we eat, how we eat, where we eat, and with whom we eat can and should bring us into a conversation about advocacy, access, justice, and community. But I know that sometimes it is hard to do, it is sometimes overwhelming. Sometimes people spit on and insult those who are working for a better quality of life for our citizens. Sometimes people would rather rally against than rally for. But you will have allies. Those people who sit down to eat with you, those are your allies. Begin the conversation here. And do not get too overwhelmed. It is sometimes okay to have your matzah with chocolate.
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