Writers' Night: A Brief Memoir

The First Annual Slow Food Seacoast Writers' Night was a resounding success and a magical spring event. The Pearl of Portsmouth was a gorgeous location. Tables decorated with just-bloomed lilacs provided a comfortable meeting and eating place for friends new and old, while four prominent food writers shared selected readings from their work, paired with delicious tastes of dishes from their books. The readings were as varied as the tastings, ranging from witty to touching - memories of tables laid by people now passed, vivid pictures of active restaurant kitchens, the insider stories of a recipe tester, and more. Rachel Forrest hosted, and miracles were performed in the small kitchen by Chefs Jodi Holihan of Atlantic Culinary Academy and Gary Caron of the Dolphin Striker, with assistance from Slow Food volunteer Erin J. More volunteers served the tastings and kept things running smoothly. Thanks to everyone: Rachel Forrest and Andy Gagnon for their able organization of a complicated event, Taste of the Seacoast and Seacoast Media Group for their sponsorship of the event, River Run Books for selling copies of the featured writers' books, the Portsmouth Pearl and the Sheraton Harborside, all the volunteers, and the local restauarants and purveyors that donated tastes and time (Enoteca Italiana, The Dolphin Striker, Atlantic Culinary Academy, The Dunaway). The event raised money which will return to the Seacoast in the form of public events, garden and school projects, and other Slow Food Seacoast activities. Thank you all for a lovely evening!

What's in the Bag, Dad?

The answer? 100% recycled fibers, New Hampshire labor, a great design, plenty of room for your shopping, and the positive mojo of four groups working hard to celebrate and promote our local and regional food systems. Yes, it's the first annual (we hope) market tote, brought to you by the coalition of Slow Food Seacoast, Seacoast Growers' Association, Seacoast Eat Local, and Seacoast Local.

Last week's "Question of the Week" survey at Portsmouth farmer's market asked whether responders would support a ban on plastic bags at retail locations in Portsmouth. Though there were a few dissenters, and not everyone wanted to see it as a law, there was overwhelming support for the idea of dramatically reducing the number of throwaway plastic bags we currently use. We're hoping this bag, with its bright simple design, will make it easier for you to choose another way.

The totes are being sold for just $6, meaning that we hope just about everyone will want to purchase one! Tote bags will be available every Saturday from the Portsmouth Farmer's Market, and also at all Slow Food Seacoast events as long as they last. It's a great way to promote our message, demonstrate your support, and keep a few more plastic bags out of the ecosystem.

Fiddlefest!

Slow Food Portland brings back its popular Fiddlefest on June 1. Billed as a "Celebration of Spring Food," the event is a great example of how Slow Food can revive regional, seasonal, and local food traditions - and throw a great party. For $20 ($15 for SF members) attendees sample dishes made by local chefs from fresh Maine spring foods like ramps, rhubarb, and of course, fiddleheads. Also, enjoy organic beers and ales, along with a mead tasting that will include Fiddler’s Reach Merrymeeting Mead and Shalom Orchard mead. Poor Valley Salvation Society will be performing LIVE from 5 - 7 for our entertainment. If you haven’t heard them yet, they are a fun rockabilly, gospel, old-timey ensemble. Kid’s activities will be held throughout the event. Peak Organic Ales is a sponsor of the event this year. There will be a cash bar with hand-chosen wines in addition to Peak Organic Ales.The event is being held at the Dining Hall at SMCC in South Portland, overlooking the ocean.

Tickets are available at the door or in advance at Rosemont Market, Standard Baking, Aurora Provisions or Rabelais Books. For more information, visit Slow Food Portland, ME!

News, Views, and Things to Do(s)

News: Yesterday on NHPR's "The Exchange," Jon Greenberg interviewed New Hampshire's recently appointed Agriculture Commissioner (and dairy farmer) Lorraine Stewart Merrill The Comissioner works for the Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food. On the show, she spent a lot of time discussing the local food movement, developing NH's pastureland, and public policy issues affecting farming and markets. It's a show you'll want to listen to if you're interested in the state of agriculture in New Hampshire.

Views: Amy W.'s second blog post on serving on the Dover Schools Dining Facilities Committee is up at Seacoast Eat Local. Titled "A bright idea - Go Old School," it chronicles the committee's tour of the kitchen facilities and meeting with the Food Service Director. Their look around the kitchen confirmed some fears (small budget, time constraints, lotsa processed food) but also highlights some hopeful areas (space, equipment, and a daily homemade soup). It's a very interesting first look into one local school kitchen, showing some of the challenges to providing fresh, local food to students. We're eager to keep learning from Dover's efforts to transform their system.

Things to Do: Willow Pond Community Farm will hold its Spring Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 24 at Pilgrim Church on Rtoute 111A in Brentwood. Many types of certified organic vegetable seedlings will be available, including tomatoes (20-plus varieties), peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, greens, herbs and more. To preorder your plants, e-mail willowpondfarmer@yahoo.com and request an order form, or download the order form from the farm website at www.willowpondfarm.org. 778-8881.

Erin J. writes in: "Just thought I'd pass on the word about a walking/educational event at Emery Farm (across from Wagon Hill in Durham): A Behind the Scenes at Emery Farm - On Sunday, June 1, 2008, 1:30 to 5:00 PM, Emery Farm invites families
to come and explore one of its newest conservation lands and learn
what it takes to make Emery Farm function. This walk will be on easy
trails and will take place rain or shine. Wear appropriate footgear,
and please leave pets at home. Call Cynthia Belowski at 868-5562 for
more information. Meet at the Emery Farm stand off of Route 4. This
walk is sponsored by the Durham Land Protection Working Group and the
Durham Conservation Commission.

And don't forget to visit Slow Food Seacoast at the SGA tent tomorrow morning if you're at the SGA Portsmouth Farmer's Market. We'll be there with the latest calendar of events, our beautiful new tote bag for sale, and plenty of information about local markets, local foods, and local businesses. Thanks!

In the News: Yellow House Farm

Today, the Seacoast Online Food section posted a great Slow entry, "Barrington Farm Aims to Save the Chickens." Friends of Slow Food Seacoast have been getting to know Yellow House Farm this year, through their participation at the Slow Food Seacoast CSA Fair, and a session on livestock (taught with Lasting Legacy Farm) at the Kittery Adult Education's SOLE Food Series.

At the Barrington farm, poultry farmers Joseph Marquette and Rob Gibson are working to preserve heritage breeds of chickens and turkeys, including many varieties (like the Narragansett Turkey) found on the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity's Ark of Taste.

Heritage breeds have been showing up in the national media, as well. Last week on NPR's All Things Considered, we heard about "Saving Endangered Species One Mouthful at a Time." The topic showed up once again on NHPR's "Word of Mouth" show on "Endangered Food."

Road Trip: Help Send New England Farmers to Terra Madre

Slow Food Boston writes:

Help send two local food producers to Slow Food's Terra Madre -- all while enjoying the best of what those farmers, breeders, fishermen, bakers and dairymen have to offer!

Together with Slow Food Rhode Island, we are planning a magical afternoon meal on Sunday, June 15th, made up of New England cheeses, meats, shellfish & produce - everything from striped bass to roasted pig to pesto made from herbs freshly picked the day before! Held at The Meeting House in Tiverton Four Corners, Rhode Island, the gathering kicks off at 3pm and will continue until the last bowl of strawberries and cream is licked clean!

We are raising money in order to send two local food producers to Slow Food's Terra Madre in Turin, Italy this fall. Terra Madre is an incredible gathering of food communities from the world over coming together to discuss the future of food - sharing their thoughts and ideas, teaching one another personal history, food culture and customs. The price is $45 all inclusive (we will even feature New England wines and beers!), payable via Paypal or check, and attendance will be limited to the first 100 people. Children 12 and under are free, and those between the ages of 12 and 18 are $25. Please see Slow Food Boston website for more details and to reserve your spots today!

Eat Pizza to Save Giant Ant! And Other News

Sounds like a headline from the Weekly World News, but in fact it's just news about an event tonight at Flatbread Company, 138 Congress Street in Portsmouth. The restaurant will donate a portion of its proceeds from every flatbread sold to help fix the Giant Ant. Tonight, May 20, 4-9pm.

Nathan Walker, the artist who designed and built the Giant Ant now installed as public art in downtown Portsmouth, is also a friend of Seacoast Eat Local's. (He designed the banner art for the 2008 Seacoast Harvest local food guide, coming in early July!) On Saturday night, the Ant was vandalized. See the story in the Portsmouth Herald.

Flatbread makes efforts to use local and regional ingredients on their flatbreads (sometimes easier said than done). Don't hesitate to ask for the most local option as their servers are happy to talk about the sourcing of the ingredients. (They also supported Slow Food Seacoast last year with a similar fundraising night).

Other News:

Writers' Night is tomorrow! There are only a very few tickets left at SeacoastFoodie.com. Thanks to the volunteers, donors, and organizers of this amazing event.

On the RAFT

RAFT (Renewing America's Food Traditions) has been in the news a lot lately, largely because of a recent book by Gary Nabhan called Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent's Most Endangered Foods. In the New York Times, a recent piece titled "An Unlikely Way to Save a Species: Serve it For Dinner" includes a nifty interactive map that shows the endangered foods for each RAFT "nation" (NYT login required, but free). And Local Harvest has created a new portal which helps users find Ark of Taste foods available from farms nearby and via mail order.

Adventures of a Local "Lunch Lady"

Look tasty? It's the kind of school lunch kids around the Seacoast are eating every day. School nutrition programs are an important area for Slow Food to get involved in - as kids learn language arts and math, they're also taking in more subtle lessons about food through breakfast and lunch programs, bake sales, and classroom snacks. SFS member Amy W. will be writing a series of blog posts on her adventures working with the Dining Facilities program in Dover schools. You can follow along at Seacoast Eat Local, where her first post, "Kids Eat Kale," begins:

Last week I attended my first Dining Facilities Meeting for Dover Public School District. It’s an honor to be accepted to this committee as a future parent—my daughter is 2 and my son 5 months old. Our family has several years before we’ll officially cross Garrison school grounds. So why does public school food matter so much to me? Here are a few thoughts...

Read on at Seacoast Eat Local for more! It'll be interesting to follow and learn from Amy's adventures as she and others work in our local schools. Though there are significant obstacles, both budgetary and structural, there's plenty of room for progress and increasing willingness in some schools to lead the way.

Amy isn't alone - school nutritition has captured the attention of people who care about our food system all across the country. We've linked to Renegade Lunch Lady Ann Cooper's site before, and now seems like a good time to visit again. Alice Waters has a great piece called Slow Food, Slow Schools: Transforming Education Through a School Lunch Curriculum." A fascinating history of school lunch and set of lunch-reform links is available on the School Lunch Reform page of the FOOD Museum. A new documentary called "Two Angry Moms" chronicles the challenges faced by a couple of parents who began exploring the school food supply. And right here at home, the NH Farm to School program is working to connect schools with fresh food from local farms.

Newmarket Goes Green!

Looking for something to do this weekend? Drop in to "Newmarket Goes Green" - An Eco-Fair for Area Communities, Saturday May 17th from 10:00 - 2:00 at Newmarket High School, 1/2 mile from downtown Newmarket on Main Street (152 West). Over 40 vendors and 8 speakers on every aspect of sustainability; kid's puppet show, healthy food vendors. Slow Food will be there!

In other news, an op-ed by Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of the restaurants Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, appeared in the NY Times on Sunday. Barber discuss the small-farm/chef connection and considers the development of regional farm marketing networks. It's been making the rounds of the Slow Foodosphere.

To encourage small, diversified farms is not to make a nostalgic bid to revert to the agrarian ways of our ancestors. It is to look toward the future, leapfrogging past the age of heavy machinery and pollution, to farms that take advantage of the sun’s free energy and use the waste of one species as food for another....Leave our agricultural future to chefs and anyone who takes food and cooking seriously. We never bought into the “bigger is better” mantra, not because it left us too dependent on oil, but because it never produced anything really good to eat. Truly great cooking — not faddish 1.5-pound rib-eye steaks with butter sauce, but food that has evolved from the world’s thriving peasant cuisines — is based on the correspondence of good farming to a healthy environment and good nutrition. It’s never been any other way. The future belongs to the gourmet.

News & Notes - May Roundup!

Our friends at Apple Annie write: "Bloom is underway at Apple Annie and shouldcontinue this week. Drive by (come in if the gate is open) and enjoy the blossoms. You will also see the 90 new trees we have planted this spring in the NE corner of the orchard!"

Blue Moon Market's Greenability Lecture Series offers its next program on May 19th Earth Energies: Conscious Rising- Connections for Well-Being. Lori Nathan, founder & practitioner Sacred Oak Healing Services; Hilary McCann, Reiki Master, Natural Health Intuitive; Erica Rock, holistic/Spiritual Energy Worker Reiki Master. Meet three local spiritual healers, learn about their philosophy, practice and connection to our community, and of course soup!

Wendy from Lasting Legacy Farm writes about an opportunity for a cooperative buy on a composter: "With the growing concern about our food and a possible shortage that has been in the news many of us are considering or have started gardens. With this being said we also need to look at utilizing our scraps to the best possible ways. A customer of mine, Amy, has found an interesting machine for compoting your kitchen and food scraps called the NatureMill. Here is a link to the website. You can see it in use here with a video in the upper right hand corner. There is an offer of $50.00 off each composter if purchased in a group. Amy has volunteered to manage the buy, and has a website that is able to process credit cards and Paypal payments, for ease of ordering. However, you are also welcome to send her a check if you prefer.
The buy is for the Nature Mill Plus which comes only in black. They are $299.00 on the site, but $249 if bought in a group. Shipping is $15.00 each composter purchased. Amy will have them shipped to the Farm, for pick up. If you are interested you can email her at LastingLegacy@zooziis.com. She will provide you with how to order and the time frame for delivery.She would also like to know if you are interested in a training session facilitated by myself, to give you an overview of composting do's, don'ts and suggestions for using your new composter. If we have enough interest for a workshop we will put together a time and place, and I'll send that information onto you."

Seacoast Local writes with this request: "Create Our Summer Food Drive: Local food pantries tell us need is greatest during the summer, when children aren't able to participate in hot lunch programs at school. Just an hour or two of your time would help us plan a terrific summer food drive. Contact Patty Donovan at Eyelook Optical, patty@eyelookoptical.com, or seacoastbuylocal@gmail.com."

SF Member Amy W. writes with a note about this pollinating program you might want to participate in, noting that it's a great project for kids: "Pollinating Bee Study Seeks Participants: A San Francisco State University scientist conducting a study on bee pollination is seeking participants across the country to plant sunflowers and observe bees attracted to the flowers. The Great Sunflower Project, run by Gretchen LeBuhn, associate professor of biology at the university, will provide participants with a kit, available in English, Spanish and Mandarin, data forms to report bee patterns, a gardening guide, species information and a packet of sunflower seeds.Participants are being asked to plant the sunflowers and record the number and kinds of bees attracted to the flowers. Participating will take no more than 30 minutes twice monthly. Kits are ready to send out to those who request them online at www.greatsunflower.org or by calling (415) 847-1716."

Finally, we received a note about a Permaculture Design Certificate Course being offered this June in Southern NH: ""Permaculture Design Course - June 11-19 - Plowshare Farm, Greenfield, NH - 25-35 miles to Nashua/Keene, 60 to Worcester, 70 to Boston. Class, meals, lodging included. PDF here with full details and application.Plowshare Farm will provide all - classroom, project area, meals, rooms, and beautiful views of New Hampshire countryside.

Permaculture is a powerful set of design principles for living more sustainability, within local resources, cooperating with Nature's designs, realizing joy and abundance in the process. This course takes beginner/pro through Intro, Principles, Fundamentals of soil, water, climate, garden/farm, orchard/ timber, urban/rural, etc., and a Design Workshop to produce your own design. Class and field trips – great local speakers - farms, CSA, Green/natural building, timber, co-housing, renewable energy. Life/world changing. Earn up to $100 discount! Ride your bicycle to Course - $1/mile. $50 off for Seniors, or if you ride a motorcycle (Laconia is only 70 mi. north and runs thru June 22), or for 2 in a car. Email dickpiercedesigns@gmail.com for rules and OK.

First Annual Writers' Night May 21

TASTE, SIP AND ENJOY GREAT WRITING AT SLOW FOOD SEACOAST'S 1st ANNUAL FOOD WRITERS NIGHT.
This evening, the words are good enough to eat! On Wednesday, May 21 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Slow Food Seacoast will stimulate your mind and body in a celebration of local food writers and tasty recipes prepared from their cookbooks and essays.

PORTSMOUTH – The Seacoast's best food writers will whet your appetite when they read from their work in this unique evening program. After each reading, guests will be able to taste food inspired by the writer's recipes and essays. Tickets are $55 and includes the reading, food and libations. All proceeds will benefit Slow Food Seacoast. Tickets can be purchased through www.seacoastfoodie.com. The event will be held at The Pearl of Portsmouth, 45 Pearl St., Portsmouth. Tickets are limited to only 60 attendees and will go fast.

In an innovative experience of literature and flavors, each writer will present their enticing words in "courses" followed sips and tastes. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., guests will be able to sample hors d'oeuvres before sitting down at 7:00 pm to enjoy the reading and between each, they'll sample food and drink paired with the listening experience. After the program, all are invited to mingle and ask questions of the authors and purchase signed copies of the author's books, provided by RiverRun Bookstore.

Our nationally renowned food writers include:

Denise Landis, New York Times columnist and author of "Dinner For Eight: 40 Great Dinner Party Menus for Friends and Family"

Jean Kerr, author of the "Union Oyster House Cookbook" and "Mystic Seafood",

Kathy Gunst, author of "Stonewall Kitchen Favorites" and "Stonewall Kitchen Harvest" and "resident chef" on WBUR's Here and Now

James Haller, author of "Vie De France" and founder of the famed Blue Strawbery restaurant.

The evening will be hosted by Rachel Forrest, food writer and restaurant critic for The Portsmouth Herald and host of Wine Me Dine Me, a food and drink themed radio show on Portsmouth Community Radio. Books will be supplied by RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth and will be available for signing and purchase. The event is sponsored by Seacoast Media Group and Taste of the Seacoast Magazine and includes wine, beer and food donated by local caterers, restaurants and purveyors.

Bringing It All Back Home

From a friend at Slow Food Portland comes this wonderful and timely note:

Dear Friends of Good Food, Chefs, and Local Restaurants,

In my work, I cross paths with many, many chefs. I often end up in the kitchen, and we chat-- about what new ingredient is exciting them, grower or purveyor they've discovered, what dish they're experimenting with, and their views of the food world in general.

Well, folks, in the last few months never have I seen such gloomy kitchens, such careworn faces. Business off ten, twenty, thirty percent, banks tightening the revolving lending that keeps many places afloat in the lean season, suppliers not so willing to push out that invoice sixty days, food costs doubling or, in some cases, tripling, longtime staff being let go for lack of custom.

And while April may be the cruellest month, May ain't far behind. Spring is often tougher for restaurants because the holiday surplus is gone but the warm weather crowd not quite here yet. Still, they have to spruce up inside and out, and order up what is often the most expensive produce of the season.

Yes, we're in an economic crisis and times are hard. Your family, like mine, is looking for places to cut and conserve. You're probably driving less, keeping your thermostat down, exploring alternative energy, perhaps taking a more modest vacation or putting off a major purchase.

However.

Your local foodie joint -- and we all know the kind of place I'm talking about -- is the master link in the chain, the place where it all comes together.

Good restaurants buy locally, supporting our neighbors who cultivate the land sustainably and raise animals humanely, and that money gets recycled directly back into our community.

Good restaurants raise our awareness of the environment of food, where we learn why there's no sea bass on the menu or that tasty veggies don't have to come from Chile.

Good restaurants give back to their neighbors, and often very deeply: how often does this organization, for instance, fall back on the generosity of chefs to enliven and animate our gatherings?

Restaurants are often where we find our first jobs, or, sometimes, the only place where the undereducated can get work and find a career.

A good local restaurant is a terrible thing to lose. And if you don't eat there with your family and friends, one day you'll walk by and it will have been uglified overnight into just another Domino's.

So take some of that tax rebate and go out to eat! Get some friends together and go for a restaurant crawl, spreading the love with an app and a glass of wine here and a main course next door and dessert down the street.

Michael Sanders

PS: Maine is not the only place suffering through this particular crisis, so feel free to pass this on!

Market Open!

The Seacoast Grower's Association Portsmouth Market opened last Saturday to a cool drizzle, but plenty of excitement. Favorite vendors from recent years were already there with gifts, greens, prepared foods, and seedlings, and a few of the 14 new vendors were also there selling maple syrup, organic spice blends, and even fresh seafood and sushi!

The Herald observed the day with this great article: Interest Growing in Seacoast-Grown Foods.

Come to the official market Opening Day on May 10 - we'll be there along with partner organizations Seacoast Eat Local, Seacoast Local, and SGA!

The Future of Food in New England

Seacoast Local invites UNH professor John Carroll to talk about increasing local food security beyond peak oil as part of the 'Making the Connection' sustainability series, at RiverRun Bookstore on Thursday, May 8 at 7pm.

How can we boost the local economy and re-establish our food security? Dedicating land for grazing taps into New Hampshire's heritage and is a natural fit for the future. John E. Carroll, author of "The Wisdom of Small Farms and Local Food" and "Sustainability and Spirituality," comes to Portsmouth on Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m. to talk about restoring food independence, the subject of his new book "Pastures of Plenty: The Future of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Conservation in New England."

Seacoast Local and RiverRun Bookstore will host the event as part of their ongoing "Making the Connection" speaker series, which aims to be a catalyst for continuing education, community connections, and sustainable change.

"This is an important message for our community, especially in light of rising food prices," says Rich Wood, a board member of Seacoast Local, home to the Seacoast Buy Local program. "Food self-sufficiency represents security and independence. And we know that money spent locally stays in the community, so re-building local food capacity will make everyone's dollar stretch farther while enhancing our overall economic vitality."

Carroll explains why we should be thinking about raising our self-sufficiency. "In all of the preparations we must make in order to respond to the demands of greenhouse gas reduction—80 to 90 percent reduction in carbon dioxide by 2050 or sooner—and the end of the era of cheap oil, our greatest challenge will not be transportation nor home heating, but food and the threat to our food supply," he says.

Princeton petroleum geologist Kenneth Deffeyes, author of "Beyond Hubbert's Peak: The End of Oil," has said that agriculture is the first victim of peak oil. James Howard Kunstler, author of "The Long Emergency," has written that "Agriculture is going to come back to the center of the American way of life in a way that we couldn't imagine." Matthew Simmons, Houston oil analyst and investment banker, tells us that local agriculture will be of critical importance to our future.

Carroll offers a response for our locale, New England: grass-based agriculture. The how and why for a return to grazing; for a full range of dairy and meat product (not only cows, dairy and beef, but also sheep, pigs, goats and poultry); for integration with diversified horticulture for vegetables and fruit; and for integration with forestry, is spelled out in detail in the new University of New Hampshire book, "Pastures of Plenty: The Future of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Conservation in New England."

A sequel to his earlier work on sustainable agriculture at the local level, "The Wisdom of Small Farms and Local Food," Carroll's latest book takes a close look at the prospects for our own region. "Take advantage of your local circumstances," Carroll suggests, "and reconstruct your world around them."


John Carroll is professor of environmental conservation at the University of New Hampshire. He's published numerous books on issues of sustainability, including "Sustainability and Spirituality" and "The Greening of Faith," both with forewards written by Bill McKibben, who will be the next featured speaker in the "Making the Connection" series, on July 20.

Carroll will read at RiverRun Bookstore, located at 20 Congress Street in downtown Portsmouth. For more information on his research, visit http://www.unh.edu/natural-resources/fac-carroll.html. For more details on the event, call 603-431-2100 or visit www.riverrunbookstore.com. For more information on Seacoast Local, including its "Buy Local" program, visit www.seacoastlocal.org.