Thursday, October 22, 2009

Report: Students Need More Veggies, Fewer Calories: NPR

This NPR story does a nice job discussing the state of the school lunch program today and how it may change in the future.

Neighborhood Supported Agriculture

This article about an urban farm near CSU was published recently in Matter Daily.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Photos of Cache la Poudre's First Event!

For our first event we cooked soup from the field to the pot - outside in the snow.



Lawrence and Ursula Holmes at Cresset Community Farm were our gracious hosts.

Lawrence started off the afternoon festivities with a farm tour.

Rows of spinach weathering the snow.





Lawrence told everyone about the history of the farm and their plans to create a sustainable farm community on part of this property and neighboring farmland.

While the tour was being conducted several members stayed at the outdoor kitchen with Chef Florian Wehrli to help make the soup.


All of the vegetables for the soup came from Cresset Community Farm, including these pumpkins, an essential ingredient in the pumpkin cheese soup.




Garth, Lawrence and Ursula's apprentice, directed the chopping efforts.


The pumpkins were then added to the stock pot with milk from Windsor Dairy.


Once they were cooked, Chef Florian blended the soup with his impressive industrial strength portable blender. Here Florian shows his son Emile how to use the blender.





Chef Florian answers questions while preparing four different kinds of soup: pumpkin-cheese, oxtail-vegetable, cream of spinach and mustard greens, and borscht with cilantro and fennel root.



Oxtail-vegetable soup in the silver stockpot and borscht in the red stockpot. A true feast for the senses.


Garth made all of the amazingly beautiful and delicious bread from local grains and ingredients.

Here he slices a slow rise whole wheat loaf.


Garth made six different kinds of bread for the event including pumpernickel and apple bread. The bread was served with Ursula's kimchee. Thank you Gareth and Ursula!

People were able to warm up and enjoy their food by the fire pit.


Florian, Garth, and Liz visit around the soup pot.


A farm cat helps itself to a taste of pumpkin-cheese soup that was left on the blender.

This duck seemed to enjoy the party as much as the rest of us.



Florian tells everyone that our next event will be held at the Lyric theater in Fort Collins. The Lyric will show the movie the "Cheese Nun" and then we will have a hands on Fondue making party. BYOFP (Bring Your Own Fondue Pot). The date for this event is yet to be determined. We'll keep you posted.



We had many Slow Food Denver members join us for the first event. Thanks to everyone for braving the weather and bringing your families.

Fiona helps herself to the honey-sweet apple crisp that was stewed over the fire pit.


The kids found enough snow to make a sizable snow ball.


Meg and her daughter Fiona showed everyone how to make corn husk dolls.

Elizabeth draws a face on the corncob doll she helped her sons make.

Corn-cob husk dolls are a traditional craft for this time of year.

The event started out cloudy and cold, but by the end of the day the sun was shining and we hope that everyone left feeling full and satisfied. Thanks, everyone for coming. If you couldn't make it, we hope you can make it to the next event.

NYT Food Issue

This week's New York Times Magazine section is the annual Food Issue. There are some interesting and thought-provoking pieces there - have a look here .

And here is a report from Grist on a conversation between Michael Pollan and Grist food writer Tom Philpott.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

“Pay what you can” membership extended with a matching grant!

“Pay what you can” membership extended with a matching grant!

Wow. It’s been a pretty exciting few days.

The September membership drive—where Slow Food USA waived our traditional $60 membership fee—was a huge success. More than 5000 people joined Slow Food, over ten times our normal monthly rate. It turns out there was some pent-up demand for lower membership rates, after all, and not just from my fellow non-profit-employed friends.

Perhaps our most incredible response came from Mr. Donald Sussman. He was so enthusiastic about the positive results that he encouraged us to keep the drive going. And his encouragement was particularly compelling: he has offered to match all new gifts that come in between now and October 15 dollar for dollar.

As you can imagine, there’s been a lot of excitement and positive spirits here in the Brooklyn office of Slow Food USA. What a welcome break from the grey spirits of a year where we’ve seen dips in charitable giving across the country and so many of our friends deal with layoffs and downsizing.

If you haven’t yet joined Slow Food, now is the time. Help us maximize this incredible opportunity that Mr. Sussman has given us. And if you have, know that there is an office full of hard-working food advocates toasting you with a glass of locally-grown, seasonally appropriate apple cider.

Join the Cache La Poudre Chapter of Slow Food USA by following the link:

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Latest Event at Cresset Farm


We so much appreciate that almost 150 of you that responded to our early summer survey on Activities of interest for a
local Slow Food Chapter. We've been taking some time to mull over the potential activities and focus of our chapter.

Interest in ALL types of activities were similarly high, so we have
decided to try to hold our own (and partner with) a variety of

activities to meet the needs of all those interested.

We now have a series of interesting activities organized for the

fall. We are sharing these with you in this newsletter, and hope it encourages you to get involved, to join our Slow food chapter, or to come and learn more at the events.

We have already had tables at the Sustainable Living Fair and
Collaborative Conservation Conference, where we interacted with many of you.
Our next event will be held on Sunday afternoon October 11th at Cresset Farm (see below). Join us for good food, fun and good friendship!
A great way to start our convivium.

(Note: Convivium is Slow Food's term for a local chapter. It comes from the same root as convivial which means, literaly to "live with".)

Also, please consider showing support for the Farm to School movement, an international initiative by Slow Food this year. See the petition at: http://www.slowfoodusa.org

Sincerely,

Slow Food Cache La Poudre
Florian, Meg, Hill, Dawn, Liz and Kelsy


Soup at the Farm

Directly from Field to Pot

Sunday October 11th

Join Slow Food's newest chapter around a pot steaming in the cool autumn air at Cresset Farm overlooking the Big Thompson River. Pumpkin and Crème Fraiche Soup; Grass-fed Beef Oxtail and Root Vegetables; Baked Apple and Lemon Verbena infusion are some of the treats we are planning to prepare all together with the heirloom vegetables grown from seed selected and grown by Lawrence Holmes.

PLEASE RSVP
slowfood@nocofoodincubator.com



Highlights

  • Slow Food Cache la Poudre First Social Event!
  • Enjoy Farm fresh Soup dinner made by the attendees from produce YOU picked in the field
  • Biodynamic Vegetable Garden and Pasture Tour
  • Kids Activities
  • Soup cooking demos

This event is:

  • BYOC (bring your own cup)
  • BYOS (bring your own spoon)
  • BYOB (bring your own adult beverage)


Schedule

  • 1:00 pm Vegetable Garden Tour
  • 2:00 pm Pasture Tour
  • 4:00 pm Soup is Served
  • Slow Food members:
    Join Chef Florian at 12:00 noon to learn how to prepare the food

Donations

$9 per adult / $18 per family
Give more for the cause if you can
Event open to everyone (Slow Food Members will get to take Soup Home).

Address and Directions
Cresset Farm
503 S. County Road 1
Johnstown, CO 80534
(970) 278-0499 / info@cressetcommunityfarm.com

Take the Highway 34 exit east to County Road 1 (County Road 13), Turn right . The farm is about 1 mile south on the right side.

Make a difference, Join us today!

Slow Food Cache la Poudre is part of a growing movement that needs you. On Labor Day, more than 20,000 people came together across the country to show their support for getting real food in school. You are helping us send a powerful message to decision makers that this is a movement of people who think it’s time to change what kids eat at the lunch table. Thank you to so many of you who already support us through your participation and membership.

To keep building momentum and change our food system, we are counting on you to be part of our local chapter. If you’re not yet a member, you can join the organization with a donation of any amount through October 15. Giving during this time period DOUBLES YOUR IMPACT as your donation will be matched! Give more if you can and less if you can’t. The point is – we want you with us. Membership normally starts at $60, so please visit http://www.slowfoodusa.org/growthemovement so you can take advantage of this offer and join today.

Your support will help legislators take notice of our cause, and your involvement in our chapter will make a difference. Please join us.