Sunday, January 29, 2006

Potluck and Slow Food Community Meeting at Old Salem Feb. 10

Potluck and Slow Food Community Meeting
7:00 p.m., February 10, 2006
Single Brothers Kitchen, Old Salem, Winston-Salem


Bring a tasty dish that is flavored with local food and family tradition, meet Slow Foodies, and usher in our second year as the Slow Food Piedmont Triad convivium.

We want to announce the event schedule, explain our projects, solicit your feedback and encourage your help. Invite your friends. This will be a fun time!

Contact person: Jill Crouse, head vegetable gardener at Old Salem. Tel: 336-682-3715.

Directions: Head to Old Salem and park in the parking lot off Salem Avenue or on Main or Salt Streets. Enter the Single Brothers Workshop on lower level.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Slow Foodie Profiles

Kicking off a new ongoing feature on the blog, Charlie Headington and Lavonne Childs have filled out our new slow foodie questionnaire. We'd love to hear more about you, too - email me (ThoughtForFood@bellsouth.net) if you would like to share your experiences!

Name: Charlie Headington

Day Job: Teach about Sustainability Issues at UNCG and tend an Edible Schoolyard at Greensboro Montessori School

Your interests: good food, sustainable and simple living, gardening, learning Italian, playing chess.

How did you get involved in the Slow Food Piedmont Triad convivium? I've long been an organic gardener and teacher of gardening and sustainability, and thus concerned with the culture and availability of good food. My wife and I attended Terra Madre, a 2004 gathering of 5000 world-wide small farmers and producers, and we joined with Steve Tate of Goat Lady Dairy and others to form a Slow Food convivium in the Piedmont. I've enjoyed working with other committed volunteers from all walks of life.

What does Slow Food mean to you and how does it impact your daily life? Slow Food means a thriving local culture of fresh, tasty food, sustainable farms and markets, and a city swarming with family-run eateries. It also means eating mindfully, with the earth, land, and our bodies in mind.

Describe a Slow Food meal you've recently prepared or eaten: My wife and I belong to an Italian conversation group that occasionally gets together to eat. In January we brought together four courses of largely seasonal and locally available food. We made squash ravioli: fresh pasta filled with a butternut squash concoction that my daughter made. The meat dish featured local pork. The candlelight meal lasted for four hours and we spoke Italian throughout it!




Name: Laurie O'Neill

Day Job: Secretary at a local university

Your interests: Organic gardening, voluntary simplicity, fiber arts

How did you get involved in the Slow Food Piedmont Triad convivium?
I was in Charlie Headington's "Simple Living in a Complex World" class at UNCG and he mentioned that a local convivium would be formed soon. Because food is so much a part of my simple living philosophy, I was excited at the opportunity to help organize it and meet others with similar interests.

What does Slow Food mean to you and how does it impact your daily life?
As a cook and an eater, I enjoy the freshness and the challenge of eating locally and seasonally. As a gardener, I am interested in healthy food and heirloom varieties of vegetables. As a small farmer's daughter and sister, I am concerned that my heritage and culture are fast disappearing. As a citizen, I am frightened at the rate that industry has taken control over our entire food system. As a member of Slow Food, I hope to make a difference in supporting small farmers and promoting the benefits of local food.

Describe a Slow Food meal you've recently prepared or eaten:
The other night, we had a simple organic meal of field peas, corn on the cob, and baked sweet potatoes. I grew the field peas in my garden and froze them. I bought the corn at Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market this summer and froze it. The sweet potatoes were from the same market and I served them and the corn with a small amount of organic butter that I bought at Deep Roots Market. It was a very easy, quickly prepared meal. Learning to preserve and store foods for year-round enjoyment was one of the most valuable skills that I learned growing up on a small farm.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Food with a View: Big Night at the Scene Jan. 28

Food With A View: Slow Food Film Series, winter 2006, at The Scene at 604 S. Elm St., Greensboro, NC on January 28, February 25, and March 18 at 8 PM, $5.00 encouraged donation.

Want to warm up your Saturday nights this winter? Come to The Scene for an enjoyable time watching a great food film. Desserts and discussion will follow.

January 28, we will show the wonderful film, Big Night. As we enjoy homemade desserts after the film, Justin Cantanoso, executive director of The Business Journal, will lead an informal discussion with us. Justin, a second generation Italian American, will share his experience of visiting Rome recently with his family to witness the canonization of a cousin. Justin also enjoyed a homemade Sunday lunch in Reggio Calabria with dozens of relatives he was meeting for the first time.

In case you would like to know the plot summary of Big Night, here it is:

Big Night

In life and love, one big night can change everything.

Written and Directed by Stanley Tucci, this 1996 movie has an all-star cast including Marc Anthony, Tony Shalhoub, Minnie Drive, Isabella Rosselini, Ian Holm, Live Schreiber, Allison Janney, and Stanley Tucci.

Primo and Secondo are two brothers who have emigrated from Italy to open an Italian restaurant in America. Primo is the irascible and gifted chef, brilliant in his culinary genius, but determined not to squander his talent on making the routine dishes that customers expect. Secondo is the smooth front-man, trying to keep the restaurant financially afloat, despite few patrons other than a poor artist who pays with his paintings. The owner of the nearby Pascal's restaurant, enormously successful (despite its mediocre fare), offers a solution - he will call his friend, a big-time jazz musician, to play a special benefit at their restaurant. Primo begins to prepare his masterpiece, a feast of a lifetime, for the brothers' big night...

Rated R with a run-time of 107 minutes.

N.C. Natural Milk Meeting

NC NATURAL MILK MEETING
Saturday, January 21, 2006
2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
(919) 560-0260
Parkwood Public Library
5122 Revere Road
Durham, N.C. 27713
RSVP Alice Hall at tigrclause AT mindspring.com

This is for anyone interested in learning the health benefits of raw, unpasteurized milk and milk products. There will also be a discussion on the current attempt to legalize raw milk and cow share programs in North Carolina that will benefit both consumers and farmers. Raw milk is currently available about 30 states including Virginia and South Carolina.