Seacoast Eat Local Open Meeting!

Seacoast Eat Local is holding an open meeting for all those interesting in supporting local foods and agriculture at 7pm on Tuesday, April 10th, at the Portsmouth Public Library. Seacoast Eat Local will be hosting the Eat Local Challenge in September and is looking for individuals who would like to help make this year's challenge an overwhelming success. For more information, visit www.seacoasteatlocal.org or email seacoasteatlocal@gmail.com.

NH Farm Viability Report

The most recent newsletter of the NH Center for a Food Secure Future linked to The NH Farm Viability Task Force Report: Cultivating Success on NH Farms [Large PDF file].An executive summary is on pages 2-3; each of the recommendations is further developed in the report. I particularly appreciated the recommendations for keeping land in agricultural use through a "Farm Viability Program, investment of $3 million annually to buy permanent conservation rights, a Lease of Development Rights program, authorization of Agricultural Commissions that would identify barriers to the viability of farming in each municipality, and removal of rules and regulations burdensome to agriculture and identify ways the State of NH can assist (eg. new rules for homestead food license to simplify food licensing for residential, non-commercial kitchens.) This report will be of particular interest to those interested in seeing more vitality in NH agriculture!

Lecture & Signing by Food Author

Alison sends notice of this visit to Durham by Michael Ruhlman, a nonfiction writer and journalist who has done some excellent work on the world of professional cooking. His books "The Making of a Chef" and "The Soul of a Chef" are among my favorite books on food.

The UNH Department of Education invites You to A Public Lecture by author Michael Ruhlman

The Pursuit of Excellence in a Throwaway Culture: Lessons From Learning to Cook

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
MUB Theatre II
12:30-2:00pm

Michael Ruhlman is author of six non-fiction books and co-author of three cookbooks. In his non-fiction works, he has written about the preparation and practice of a wide range of professionals, including the education of chefs at the Culinary Institute of America (The Making of A Chef, 1997), life at a plank-on-frame boatyard in Martha’s Vinyard (Wooden Boats, 2001), a year in the life of a private boys’ school outside Cleveland (The Boys Themselves, 1996), and the education and work of pediatric heart surgeons (Walk on Water, 2003). Described in one review as a “food poet,” Ruhlman’s style has been variously characterized as “engaging,” “free flowing,” and “light and unobtrusive.” Mr. Ruhlman is currently working on a number of new projects, most chef-related. He is also a contributor to the New York Times and has written a food column for the Los Angeles Times. Michael Ruhlman’s books will be made available after his talk by the Durham Book Exchange

Rhubarb!

It's one of the first signs that spring will soon be bringing fresh produce. Since it'll soon be abundant, now's the time to learn about this traditional and versatile veggie. The Rhubarb Compendium contains everything a layperson would ever, ever want to know about this classic New England spring food.

The Other March Madness

Maple syrup, that is. New Hampshire Maple Weekend is the annual open house celebration of New Hampshire's maple syrup producers. The state's dozens of maple producers -- some large, some small -- will pause to welcome guests as they complete the production of more than 90,000 gallons of syrup, all in six short weeks or so of round-the-clock labor. Visit the website to view event locations by county or learn how maple sugaring is done. Maine is also in the game with Maine Maple Sunday on March 25th. In Massachusettes, one weekend isn't enough, so March is Maple Month as far as the Bay State is concerned. You've got plenty of opportunities to be part of this year's sugaring-off!

No matter where you go, taking part in the sugaring season is a fantastic goodbye-to-winter, early-spring experience across the Northeast. Sparkling bright days are great ones to get out into the last snows and traipse around a sugarbush, inhaling vast clouds of maple-scented steam rolling from the evaporator, mixed sometimes with the scent of woodsmoke from the firebox.

Even if you grew up pouring maple syrup on your pancakes, you may not be aware that the more concentrated, solid form of maple sugar has played an important role in New England's history.

White European settlers in the 1600s learned from Natives that maple sap, already discernibly sweet to the taste, would grow sweeter and eventually crystallize when most of its liquid was boiled off. According to the Mass. Maple Producers, early diaries recorded instances of Native Americans making three different types of maple sugar: grain sugar, cake sugar, and what we know today as 'sugar-on-snow.'

Colonial Americans found that this skill came in handy during the American Revolution, when they increasingly boycotted products associated with England (like cane sugar from its West Indian colonies) and strove for self-sufficiency as an independent nation. Americans who favored the abolition of slavery turned to maple again in the years before the Civil War; cane sugar was a product of slave labor, and anti-slavery activities promoted the idea of using maple syrup and maple sugar as an alternative sweetener. Abolitionists like Levi Coffin even sold maple syrup in "Free Labor" stores, which dealt only in spices, foods, textiles, and goods produced by free people - cause marketing well before pink ribbons and Bono's GAP campaign. The picture above is one of a series by painter John Eastman, an abolitionist who saw maple sugaring as an expression of free and independent work.

Maple sugar remained the more important maple product until an import tariff on cane sugar was dropped in 1890, making cane sugar a cheaper grain and cake sugar than maple. At that point, most producers switched over to making and selling maple syrup, which is far more flavorful than cane-sugar syrup. Today, it's syrup that's the main event.

Biojustice 2007

Alison sends word of an upcoming event related to sustainable foods and bioengineering:

Come to Boston for Biojustice 2007! BioJustice 2007 is a weeklong celebration of sustainable food and alternatives to corporate healthcare. It is being developed by a wide coalition of public interest groups, activists, farmers, scientists, and concerned citizens, working together in responseto the biotechnology industry's international convention scheduled for the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center during May 6-9, 2007.

The biotech industry is bringing thousands of executives, lawyers, public relations people and corporate scientists to Boston to promote genetically engineered food, unaffordable high-tech medicines and dangerous 'biodefense' research that increases the threat of new biological weapons. Through parades, rallies, educational events and publications, music, a free health care clinic and free daily non-GMO
meals, Biojustice 2007 will dramatize popular resistance to this agendaand highlight a wealth of community-based alternatives.

BioJustice 2007 supports a decentralized local food economy that is free of genetically modified organisms, and is committed to working towards an accessible health care system not dominated by pharmaceutical companies and their costly and unreliable synthetic drugs. We oppose the commodification of life and support community resistance to the plans for a biological weapons lab in the heart of the Roxbury neighborhood. Join us!

Bike Tour for Biojustice: Saddle up and join us for the Seed Sow Road Show! This 4 day, 100 mile bike tour will start in Providence, RI on May 1st, ride 50 miles to Worcester, MA, then 50 miles to Boston for BioJustice, 2007, stopping at gardens, farms and schools along the way! We will be volunteering to help folks in their gardens and farms, playing music and performing puppet shows for kiddies and farmers. Bring performances and presentations, come with your material rehearsed and ready to go. Or come along for the ride and the farming! Be prepared with a working bicycle, tour equipment, a helmet, camping gear, and expect to pitch in! Info. and RSVP via spokes(at)riseup.net.

Slow Food Moments

It seems as though, the more you become aware of the food around you and where it comes from, the more potential there is for an interesting, reflective moment to come your way.

Preparing for a quick weeknight meal the other day, I found myself in the grocery store looking for some bottled barbecue sauce - I hadn't eaten anything in a long time with that sweet-spicy-tangy flavor to it. There must have been twenty different varieties of mesquite-smoked, mango, hickory, tangy, honey, teriyaki, and a bunch of other sauces. My mouth watered as I remembered my grandmother making her barbecue sauce (for homemade barbecue...!), stirring a pot containing pureed tomatoes, brown sugar, molasses, mustard, vinegar, garlic, and cayenne pepper. I knew what a good sauce should have in it! But I wasn't able to choose anything like that - I picked up one bottle after another, and could not find a single one that did not list, as the first or second ingredient, "high fructose corn syrup." In some sauces, "tomatoes" were actually rather far down the list! All in all, in that store on that night, I couldn't choose a single sauce that was made from recognizable ingredients and not corn-syrup sweetened. Time for change, indeed.

Another moment came to a friend by association of Slow Food Seacoast. He related a tale of running into Hannaford for a quick restocking of food for the house. On the way out, he realized that without planning it this way, his grocery bag contained six or seven items, all of which were produced within a couple of hours' drive! A six-pack of Smuttynose, some Ben & Jerry's, some sandwich wraps made in Haverhill, MA, Oakhurst dairy milk, and some Stonyfield yogurt. When it comes to bakeries, dairies, and breweries, we're pretty blessed. Who says it's hard to eat locally?

Have you had any Slow Food moments lately? Please share.

Pig Out in Boston

Many of us are looking for ways to find and enjoy more responsibly produced meats in more responsible ways. Our friends down at Slow Food Boston are hosting an event "All About The Pig" to introduce folks to a variety of dishes from two heritage breeds. The event includes wine and cheese, as well. Details:

When we say it's "all about the pig," we mean it. Slow Food Wednesday this month will feature two notable pigs in a taste test that will put you one step closer to adding Porcine Expert on your resume.

Chef Robert and our stellar staff from Garden of Eden will prepare a Yorkshire Reed from Clark Farm in Ferrisburg, VT, and a Gloucestershire Spotted Pig from Stillman Farm in New Braintree, Mass. Throughout the evening you'll be able to eat a bunch of appetizers featuring these pigs, like:

* Deep-fried Lardo
* Lionette's Head Cheese
* Lionette's Artisanal Sausages

Lourdes Fiore Smith will be also be on hand preparing and serving her fabulous Fiore di Nonno mozzarella.

The appetizers will be tasty but the main event is where it's at as our chefs prepare several of the same dishes using the two pigs so you can taste the difference for yourselves. Think Ham vs. Ham, Sausage vs. Sausage...

We'll be refreshing ourselves with some biodynamic, organic wines that will perfectly complement the foods, including homey pies (made with lard crusts, of course!) for dessert.

Aidan from Stillman Farm will be here to teach everything you ever wanted to know about pig rearing, in the event that you want to go home and do it yourself. (Hey -- stranger things have happened.)

Please: We beg you to RSVP, and to do so early as these pig nights sell out mighty fast. And if you RSVP but realize you can't come, give us a holler so someone on the waitlist will get a chance to attend.

We'll be at the Garden of Eden in the South End beginning at 7PM on Wednesday March 21st. Tickets are $25. To book your spot please call James at Lionette's Market at 617-778-0360. The good folks at Garden of Eden will happily take your money at the door.

Wine Me, Dine Me

Did you know the Seacoast has its own weekly radio show, all about food? From shopping to cooking to eating to drinking, "Wine Me, Dine Me" covers food-related topics from a local angle. Co-hosts Susan Tuveson (owner of Cacao Chocolates in Kittery) and Rachel Forrest (food columnist and restaurant reviewer for the Portsmouth Herald) invite guests from all sectors of the Seacoast food community -- chefs, growers, food producers, activists, store owners, home cooks, travellers, historians, and teachers -- to come and chat informally about topics ranging from the sophisticated to the humble, including what to make for dinner. The talk is always lively and fun, and you would be hard pressed to find two more passionate and engaging foodies on the radio in any part of the country. We're lucky to have them on our own local station. The show broadcasts Friday evenings from six to seven at 106.1 FM, Portsmouth Community Radio . Tune in and listen!

Report from the Field: NOFA

At least two (and maybe more) of our members went to the NOFA conference on March 3. Peter B. sends this report:

"One session I went to was led by George Schenk of American Flatbread, and a restaurant in Waitsfield, VT. Last year, he wanted to stage an event to highlight chicken from a local producer, but was prevented from serving the chicken because of various state, local, and federal regulations. The session yesterday got into a lot of the issues and philosophies behind local meat production, supporting small farms, and the fate of small farms in an industrial economy. Schenk is an engaging and insightful speaker, and we might consider inviting him to speak at one of our events.

Another session I went to was led by the founding coordinator of Plymouth Local Foods, which uses the Web as a way to connect individual buyers to local farmers who have produce. On monday, the farmers list what they expect to have on thursday, the unit size, and price. Customers can order from Monday night through early Wednesday morning, at which point the purchasing program is closed, the orders compiled and sent to farmers, and collated into a pick list. Food is dropped off at the Plymouth Farmers market, and customers pick it up there during market hours. The program was very successful in its first year last year. It not only connected buyers to farmers via the web, but also boosted business at a formerly slow farmers market.
They have turned the software into a transferable package (fee of 1,000 dollars, including support). This is something we might consider doing around here."

Tufts FOOD Symposium

Interested in the politics of food? The students in a food awareness group of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science at Tufts are offering a symposium April 5 on global food issues. Details in the release below.

Power in the Global Food System: Mapping Food Production and Food Sovereignty in the 21st Century

The second annual FOOD symposium will focus on changing power dynamics in the global food system. The dominance of an ever smaller number of agribusiness companies in the production, distribution, and marketing of food has implications that touch many disciplines: public policy, economics, law, environmental science, sociology, and health and nutrition, among others. Changes in the structure of the food system affect everyone who produces, markets, and consumes food.

Two panels will address the changing nature of the food system and outline community and public policy responses to these emerging trends. The panels, Concentration and Industrialization and International Food Sovereignty, will feature a broad range of perspectives. A keynote speaker will suggest ways for attendees to engage in action, research, and debate to shape the future of the global food system, with particular focus on the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill.A reception with food and drink will follow the symposium; afterward, participants are invited to stay for a screening of the new independent film King Corn and to talk with the filmmakers.

Speakers include:

Peter Carstensen, George Young-Bascom Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin

Law School

Guadalupe Gamboa, Program Officer for Workers' Rights, Oxfam America

Mary Hendrickson, Director, Food Circles Networking Project, University of Missouri

Ken Meter, President of Crossroads Resource Center and author of the groundbreaking "Finding Food in Farm Country" studies

Steve Suppan, Director of Research, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

For more information, please contact allison.quady@tufts.edu or elanor.starmer@tufts.edu. A $5 donation is requested.

Organic vs. Local

Food issues are increasingly showing up on bestseller lists and magazine covers and in op-eds and headlines. This week, Sara Zoe sends word of Time Magazine's latest cover story "Eating Better than Organic," a look at how people might weight the criteria for their food buying. From a personal perspective, reporter John Cloud undertakes a journey of investigation into what his food choices are and how they might affect his health and the planet. Coming from a very mainstream point of view, Cloud interviews Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, chefs who cook daily from all or mostly local sources, a fishmongers, and CSA farmers. Cloud says eating locally is "a radically new way of thinking about cooking because it's so very old."

Meeting Reminder!

Our monthly potluck and meeting is this coming Sunday at 5:30, at Stoodley's Tavern, Strawbery Banke Museum.

Please bring something to share inspired by Irish cuisine and culture (see post below). Also bring: YOB and a place setting.

For fun, let's honor the golden tongues of Irish writers and speakers by bringing a short poem or toast to share.

And don't forget -- you can comment in this thread to tell us what you're bringing, if you like! Just click on the word "Comments" below.

CSA Fair

Interested in learning more about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the Southern Maine region? On Sunday, March 11, there will be a CSA Fair from 1-4 PM in Portland, ME, at the First Parish Church (Temple and Congress Streets.The event is co-sponsored by MOFGA ( www.mofga.org ), Maine Council of Churches Eat Local Foods Project (http://www.mainecouncilofchurches.org), First Parish Church of Portland and Slow Food Portland ( http://www.slowfoodportland.org ).

The CSA fair will be a chance for families of southern and southwestern Maine learn about CSAs, become acquainted with local seasonal foods, buy a share in a farm's weekly harvest, and discover how they can grow a relationship with a Maine farm.

A farmer-to-farmer peer learning session from 4-6pm will be moderated by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, and will feature a forum discussion between CSA farms to share ideas and develop a network of support. This will be an opportunity to work with neighboring farms on transportation plans to take advantage of the highly populated and CSA-knowledgeable Portland area. Admission to this event is free for farms and the public. Light refreshments will be provided by Slow Foods Portland.

Thanks to Andy for pointing out this great event. Perhaps we could replicate this on the Seacoast next year with CSA growers in our own region?

Beer and Cheese Social

Member Rob from the Portsmouth Brewery writes, "If any one is interested, we are having a Beer and Cheese Social on March 5 from 6:30- 8:30. We are teamed up with Formaggio Kitchen (Cambridge). It will be an extraordinary event and great learning experience." The cost of the event is $65; the tasting includes seven cheeses (French, English, Swiss, Spanish, and even a Heart Song Farm chevre from Gilmanton, New Hampshire) paired with seven different beers. Looks pretty darn good - an awesome range of flavors.