Read All About It!

In advance of the Down on the Farm Picnic on Sunday, there have been two wonderful stories about Slow Food, Eat Local, and related topics in the papers this week.

The Wire published a great notice about our upcoming farm picnic. You can read it online here, or better yet, pick up a copy when you're out and about at your favorite local businesses.

In the Portsmouth Herald, an article titled "Can You Become a Localvore?" by Rachel Forrest discusses the 'localvore' phenomenon with representatives from Slow Food, Seacoast Eat Local, and nearby farms and restaurants. The article does a terrific job of expressing all the basic ideas behind eating local and indicating that it's really a growing trend. It even includes a glossary explaining terms like "Carbon footprint" and "Sustainability." It really helps to put what we're doing into a broader context. Besides, there's a really nifty little radish graphic to illustrate the story!

With all this publicity, we're expecting a great turnout for Sunday's event. Hope you'll come! Please plan to bring a potluck dish, your dishware and napkins, and a pie if you're entering the pie contest. See you there!

The Old Fashioned Way

Making homemade, hand-cranked ice cream ought to be right up there with kindergarten graduation and first lost tooth as an American rite of passage. If you know a kid who's never hand-cranked -- or if you ARE a kid who's never hand-cranked -- then make sure you join us for Sunday's Farm picnic. There are still a few purveyors of the old-style, barrel-and-canister hand-crank ice cream mixer, such as White Mountain, and we'll have the use of one for the day as we make delicious ice cream from organic milk. When you do some cranking, you definitely earn a taste, and the anticipation and sweat equity make that treat all the sweeter. Of course, you can purchase ice cream makes with electric motors, and even fancy newfangled ones that can chill fresh ice cream in just an hour, but there's still something to be said for the ritual of rock salt, ice, and kid power.

The Original Ice Cream Maker

Googling around brought up a Flickr photoset from Brookford Farm, the organic dairy who will be supplying milk and cream for ice cream making for "Down on the Farm," on July 1. What a beautiful spot! To learn about Brookford Farm's milk and see other dairies in the area, check the Seacoast Eat Local Wiki page.

American Pie

If you're coming to Down on the Farm event on July 1st, why not try baking a pie for the pie contest? From strawberry rhubarb to lemon chess, anything goes -- but since we'll be on a pick-your-own berry farm, we're hoping for at least some summer fruit pies made with luscious local berries.

Few foods carry as much cultural heritage as pie does. Pie, at its simplest, is some sort of cooked filling contained in some sort of pastry. By this broad definition, it's easy to see that there's hardly a world cuisine that doesn't feature some kind of pie, whether in the form of samosas, empanadas, egg rolls, or the deep-fried fruit pies of the American south. The secret to the popularity of pies is that they help food stay preserved. By mixing foods with salts, sugars, or liqeurs to delay spoiling, and then enclosing the food in a pastry shell to prevent air reaching the inner parts, pie cooks through the ages have created meals that would last months in dry, cool storage, or be perfectly suited to cook the night before and then pack for an unrefrigerated lunch away from home the following day.

Pies in America have a history that reflects our own. In mainstream American cuisine, most of our pies are of the sweet variety - that's largely because sugar trade routes were opening up just as English settlers arrived here. In old England, pies were normally filled with savory meat-and-potato or fish fillings. Here in the New World, abundant available sugar from the Caribbean trade led cooks to preserve fruits in sweetened jams, jellies, and of course, pies. Cream and custard pies became more common and more popular as the availability of ice increased in the nineteenth century. An icebox in the home meant that dairy foods were less likely to spoil; the excess could be used for indulgent cream pies, whipped cream, and ice creams instead of made into cheese to be preserved. Twentieth-century innovations like Cool Whip, frozen pies, graham-cracker and Ritz-cracker crusts, and canned pie fillings made pies even easier to produce at home. But today, a homemade pie is truly a rare treat.

Food writer and folklorist John T. Edge has written an entire book singing the praises of pie - here is an excerpt to enjoy. You can also hear John interviewed on the public radio show "To The Best of Our Knowledge." More pie history courtesy of Antiques & Collectibles magazine, and also from the Food Timeline.

We hope to spearhead a Seacoast Pie Revival this summer at our pie table at Down on the Farm, so why not try a pie? Anything goes. Make some pastry. Make some filling. Put them together. Bake them. Mm-mm! Keep the American pie tradition alive!

Contest Categories:
Best Traditional Pie
Best Original Pie
People's Choice

Judging will take in both taste (75%) and appearance (25%)

To enter: Bring pie in a pie pan with a label on the bottom (not visible from above). Be prepared to fill out an entry form listing your pie's title and all ingredients (no secret ingredients due to allergy risks, please). Each pie will be issued a number and voting will be blind. Pie will be consumed in voting -- judges will share 1/3 of the pie, and the remaining 2/3 will be cut into small bites for People's Choice voting.

Slow Food Auction Open!

The Slow Food USA Online Auction is now open for bidding, with items from all over the country. The auction runs until June 26th. To view and bid on 70 different donated items like restaurant gift certificates, books and magazines, specialty food assortments (Wisconsin cheese, sea salts, , and more, visit the Slow Food Auction eBay page. Happy bidding!

'A Better World is Possible": The International Commission on the Future of Food

The International Commission on the Future of Food was created in 2003 out of a joint initiative...and is composed of a group of leading activists, academics, scientists, politicians and farmers from North and South working toward shaping new and alternative sustainable food systems, based on the protection of biological and cultural diversity, local food production and consumption, food security, food and agriculture sovereignty and the rights of small farmers. Out of a shared conviction that ‘a better world is possible’ the Commission seeks to shape a new future of food in which small farmers’ livelihoods are secure, rural areas are economically and culturally vibrant, ecologically resilient, and citizens have nutritional security through adequate food, culturally diverse food, healthy and safe food.The Commission seeks to help strengthen and make more visible these viable alternatives at local, regional and national levels. It seeks to strengthen forces for global democracy through helping construct a network of regional and local governments and movements working on sustainable food security systems.

Thanks to Jeff for sending the link to this organization. Please see the website for some interesting documents, especially the "Manifesto on the Future of Seeds," which you may find very inspiring if you are growing heirloom seeds or participating in the RAFT project. The manifesto is an excellent primer on why seeds matter, touching on issues of biodiversity, genetic modification, intellectual property and the corporate privatization of seeds. It asks for allegiance to "The Law of Seed," including Diversity, Freedom, and Preservation for the future. The introduction alone is beautifully stated: "Seeds are a gift of nature, of past generations and diverse cultures. As such it is our inherentduty and responsibility to protect them and to pass them on to future generations. Seeds are the firstlink in the food chain, and the embodiment of biological and cultural diversity, and the repository of life‘s future evolution."

Just another reminder of how huge a movement we at Slow Food Seacoast are part of. Happy reading!

Save the Date: Farm Picnic!

Slow Food Seacoast Presents "Down on the Farm,"
A Family Picnic and Celebration of Local Food


In honor of our first anniversary, we're inviting the public to a farm potluck, picnic, and celebration of local food. On July 1st, 2007, the Warren Farm in Barrington, NH, welcomes one and all to "Down on the Farm," a local-foods field day featuring a bounty of Seacoast summer flavors and traditions. From noon to three, enjoy tours of the historic family farm, kids' activities, ice cream making with organic raw milk from Brookford Farm, a pie contest, a summer greens tasting presented by Andy's Greens, and a community potluck picnic. A donation of $3 per person is asked, and all are invited to bring a simple potluck dish to share.

The Warren Farm is located at 30 Warren Road in Barrington, NH, 2 miles west of the Lee circle, off Route 4. Heading west on Route 4, watch for the sign for Warren Road on the right. Proceed on Warren Road 1/3 mile in to the farm. Be sure to dress for the weather, and bring picnic supplies such as an outdoor chair, blanket, plates, a potluck dish, and beverages. All are invited to enter a homemade pie in the pie contest!

For additional information, please e-mail SlowFoodSeacoast@GMail.com. See you there!

Portland Event: Beekeeping Tour

With all the recent interest in beekeeping, Slow Food Portland thought it would be fun to host a tour and tasting of Kim Wisneski's hives in Freeport. Kim is an experienced apiarist who keeps hives commercially--he's very knowledgeable, plus he's a dedicated Slow Food volunteer and member. For those who've never seen the inside of a working hive, as well as those who've taken recent beekeeping courses or attended workshops at Wolfe's Neck Farm, here's a chance to get up close and personal with some bees, and eat your fill of local honey.


Date: Saturday, June 16th (weather dependant, we'll send out a notice with a rain date if necessary)
Time: 1:00 - 4:00pm

Please RSVP to me, David Buchanan, if you're interested by calling 207-772-2710, or emailing me at david@stillmandesign.com. Space is limited and we want to guarantee hands-on participation to everyone. All ages are welcome but please remember this tour will bring you into close contact with bees, so if you're afraid/allergic, it's probably not the event for you!

Directions
Kim Wisneski and Andrea Jacobs
206 Flying Point Road
Freeport ME
Tel 207- 865-3356

Take the street across from LL Bean's main store (Bow Street) and travel 6 miles to our drive way. Bow Street becomes Flying Point Road at Mast's Landing. Don't take any of the forks along the way (Pleasant Hill Road, Wolf's Neck Road, Old Flying Point Road or Lower Flying Point Road). We are at the green mailbox (#206) on the right, approximately 6 miles from LL Bean. I would recommend checking Map Quest as the way here can be confusing.

What to wear:
Jeans are ideal.
Tighly woven (like canvas) light colored (not red or black) long sleeve shirt
No knitted garments
No open shoes (sandal etc) Boots are best.

We will have 9 sets of gloves & veils. If anyone can bring their own, great!

What you will see:
Some working hives (most will have been moved to the fields by then).
"Nucs" (starter hives) - I should be queening nucs if all goes well.
We'll take a look inside a hive and talk about beekeeping.

Boston Event: The Zen of Fish

Join us and author Trevor Corson for sushi at 9:00 at Fugakyu Japanese Restaurant in Brookline. Trevor's new book is "The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket". Trevor will be autographing his book earlier in the evening at The Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner and then joining us for dinner at 9PM. If you'd like a copy, you can pick it up yourself at the store and bring it to dinner for Trevor to sign. Fugakyu is just around the corner from the bookstore at 1280 Beacon Street. We have reserved a private tatami room that seats 20 so reserving a spot early will be important. Trevor will help you select fantastic sushi and each person will simply pay his or her own check. Please RSVP to Connie if you would like to join us for what promises to be a fascinating evening of history and fish. Email connie@slowfoodboston.com.

Wine and Dine Right Here in Portsmouth

The Dunaway Restaurant is offering a six-course wine dinner on Tuesday, June 5th. "Wines of the World" will feature Executive Chef Ben Hasty's Late Spring Menu, paired with Kevin Powell's worldwide selection of wines. Dinner is 6:30 PM, $85. Limited seating available - call for reservations at (603) 373-6112.

Wine and Dine with Slow Food Boston

On Thursday, June 14th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, join us for an evening of interesting wines in the bar area of Les Zygomates Wine Bar & Bistro, located at 129 South Street between Beach & East Streets. Sommelier Geoffrey Fallon will be choosing four wines to pair with four small courses from chef Connal McCullough, with a plan to surprise us with some unusual wine choices. You may be used to reaching for a crisp New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (or a fruity Pinor Noir if reds are your poison of choice) to pair with your summer seafood salad. But what about a Cannonau from Sardinia? Or a Carmenere from Chile? Come expand your definition of what a summer wine should be! Attendance will be limited to 35 people and the cost is $30. We will be requiring that payment be received prior to the event. Please email willow@slowfoodboston.com to reserve your spot and get more details today!

New England Fisheries, Past, Present, and Future

This June, the Gundalow Company presents a series of three talks on New England Fisheres, Past, Present, and Future. The talks will be on Thursdays, June 7. 14. and 21. Please join the group at 5:30 PM for tours and refreshments aboard the gundalow, moored at Prescott Park. Talks will follow, inside the Tyco Visitors' Center at Strawbery Banke.

Thursday, June 7: New England Fisheries and Marine Ecology in the Gulf of Maine
W. Jeffrey Bolster, Associate Professor of History, UNH
A historical snapshot of the Gulf of Maine more than a century ago: a story of increasing fishing pressure, fishermen's concerns about the future, valiant attempts at conservation, and the consequences of overfishing.

Thursday, June 14: New England Fisheries Since the Magnuson Act
Rollie Barnaby, Extension Educator, Sea Grant & Marine Resources
An account of the last 40 years of fisheries management: an insider's view on the changes in regulations since the Magnuson Act was passed in 1976, and how those changes have affected the fishing industry.

Thursday, June 21: Opportunities and Challenges for Farming the Deep Blue
Richard Langan, Director, Atlantic Marine Aquaculture Center
A look at the projected demand for seafood and the potential for ocean farming of fish and shellfish to meet future needs. The UNH Open Ocean Aquaculture Program will be featured as a case study for developing sustainable technologies.