The first item of business was to write a mission statement for our convivium. Steve Tate led us in a fun process, in which we paired off and wrote a mission statement of around ten words or less. Then, each couple wrote each noun, verb, adjective, and adverb in their sentence on separate cards. We placed these cards on a table, and noted the words that were used the most often. Standing around the table, we swapped the cards around until we came up with a simple, forthright statement: "To celebrate and support our local food community."
The second part of the evening was spent brainstorming in small groups to produce ideas for events for each season. Then we came back to the group and decided on which ideas to focus on, and assigned volunteers to work on each event. Here are the anchor events we came up with, subject to change, of course! We still need volunteers for events. Please email Charlie at headington@intrex.net.
Winter - A Slow Food film series at the Scene on South Elm St., accompanied by a potluck that will pick up on the theme of the movie. Dabney, Jill, and Debbie have volunteered to organize this event.
Spring - A Wild Foods event was mentioned. We think that there is already an event set up at Chinqua Penn in late April that we possibly could co-sponsor or at least attend individually or as a group. I will check on this. Another idea was a one day farm tour of 1-3 farms. Would a farm tour be of interest to you? How many farms? Are there any specific farms you are interested in? We would need someone to volunteer to organize this event.
Late Spring - Cherry picking at the Levering Orchard. This is the orchard of Wanda Urbanska and Frank Levering. Gordon, George, and Jan will organize this event, possibly renting a bus to take us up there and back.
Summer - A family picnic at Old Salem that focuses on children (and heirloom gardens). Jill, Beatrice, and Laurie are volunteers for this event.
Late Summer – Sept. 9 is Farm Fest at Rising Meadow Farm. We will join the annual fiber celebration. This could include a pig-picking and feature local meats. Steve and Jan have volunteered.
Other ongoing projects:
- The Local Food Guide will probably be ready in the spring. There will be a print version and it will be available from our web site. George will program a database for our web site that will allow farmers and food producers to add and change information to the guide so that the most current information is always available.
- Public Schools Wellness Policy - Donna has already begun working on this project. Charlie, Deb, and Jill are interested in this nationally-initiated Slow Food project as well as working with the local schools in other food and gardening education projects.
- Monthly informal meet-ups at local restaurants and coffee houses. I'll pick a night (different weeknights per month to accommodate different schedules) and send out a place to meet on the listserv. No agenda, no program. Just good company. Suggestions for places to meet are welcome.
There were lots of ideas for ongoing projects. There was not time to discuss these Wednesday night, and we want to develop these ideas further. Very briefly, these include community dinners, a Slow Food challenge to local restaurants, a connection between the Piedmont region of Italy and our Piedmont region, and a "food of the month" to be featured on the web site with recipes and sources.
We would like very much to get your feedback on these ideas, and hear any ideas that you might have for our convivium's work (and play) in 2006. What specific goals would you like to see our convivium accomplish in 2006? What role would you like to play in implementing these goals? We need volunteers for the coming year's events.
Well, Thanksgiving went REALLY well. I ended up cooking the free range turkeys myself, which I didn't know I was going to have to do (I've never done it before), but they came out great! 
There were about 40 people at my family's Thanksgiving meal this year. I have a HUGE family between my dad's family and my mom's family, and we usually combine them at my parents' house for Thanksgiving. I decided, after learning so much about the slow food movement and organic and local food, that I wanted to do a really healthy, environmentally sound meal this year. Slow food is all about food and family, right? So what's a better way to celebrate food and family than Thanksgiving?
We got two 
I cooked for basically 24 hours from Wednesday to Thanksgiving day, if you don't include the 5 or 6 hours of sleep I had in between... and the breaks I took to enjoy some beer and whiskey with my brother and cousin. I cooked two turkeys, curry pumpkin soup (freakin' yum), two pumpkin pies, an apple pie, and a squash casserole. My dad and my brother John helped me clean the turkeys, and john actually made the pumpkin pie filling once I had the pumpkins cooked and the meat scraped out.
Aside from a few ribs from my uncle about the meal being a "Hippy Thanksgiving" and another cousin joking about me "burning my bra," everyone loved the meal. Other family members got into the thing, even though I didn't want anyone to think that what they brought had to be any different than usual. One cousin's new wife, Brandee, brought an organic broccoli casserole. One of my aunts made an organic Greek salad. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few details, but the really great thing is that everyone got into the spirit, we had some good food and family time, and I planted some seeds in their heads about sustainable food. My mom especially surprised me. The whole thing was great.
Sliced French bread from 
, may have helped me reach my goal. Don't be put off by the seemingly high cost of pine nuts. A small amount packs a lot of flavor and they are very lightweight. If you buy a little at a time in bulk, it is definitely worth the money.
