By Katie Drake
The Salt Lake Tribune
July 30, 2010

Growing up on a farm in Idaho, Nicole Clawson loved eating home-grown produce. But the Salt Lake City woman has a hard time shelling out big bucks for fresh fruits and vegetables on her tight budget today.

A new program at the People’s Market aims to change that. This summer families can bring their Horizon food assistance cards to the market and get their money doubled, allowing them to purchase twice as much fresh food.

The program works on a token system, said market founder and president Kyle LaMalfa. Shoppers take their cards to the People’s Market tent, where the food cards are processed. Shoppers decide how much money they want to spend, and get tokens to spend like cash. If a shopper uses $5 in food credit, they receive $10 in tokens through the matching program.

“You get to get more coins and keep more food stamps,” Clawson said, adding that market produce is “cheaper here than it is in the grocery store, by far.”

Funds for the program come from a $2,500 grant from Salt Lake City; other city events get the same amount. The People’s Market could have used the money to cover operating costs, LaMalfa said, but decided instead to use it for those in need.

Need is great for many in the program, said Gina Cornia, executive director of Utahns Against Hunger and the market’s treasurer. To qualify for nutrition assistance, more commonly known as food stamps, people must be in the country legally and have a household income of 130 percent of the federal poverty level — about $14,000 a year for an individual.

Food is often the most flexible budget item for people in this situation, Cornia said, since expenses such as rent and utilities are the same each month. If things are tight, food is often the first thing sacrificed. If there is money to buy food, it can be stretched further by buying highly processed, calorie-dense food that provides little nutritional value.

“The lower income you are, the more likely you are to be obese,” Cornia said.

Clawson and her daughter, Janeye Jenkins, 14, came to the market in search of tomatoes, but were a little too early in the season. Clawson walked away with a loaf of fresh bread, homemade salsa and fresh garlic, and had tokens left over which she plans to use next week.

The program has benefited vendors as well, since it means more customers for the market. Larry Proctor sells his produce each week, and has seen an increase in the number of food stamp users. Proctor turns the tokens over to Cornia in exchange for cash at the end of each market day.

“I have no problem with it,” Proctor said. “It benefits the ones who need it the most.”

Market vendors do not have the capability to take credit or debit cards, so regular shoppers can also get tokens. These tokens are orange or purple, and can be used at any vendor. Food stamp tokens are green and can only be used for food.

The market plans to continue the food stamp match program as long as the funds hold out, said market manager Rosalyn Moreno. Based on the number of people using the program each week, she expects available funds will last throughout the summer.

If the program becomes more popular, the money might run out sooner, but Moreno doesn’t mind. Market officials hope the account has a balance of zero at season’s end, because that will mean all the money went to families in need.

kdrake@sltrib.com

—

Take advantage of the token program

The People’s Market runs Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., through Oct. 24 at the International Peace Gardens, 1000 S. 900 West. For more information on the program, visit www.slcpeoplesmarket.org.

To learn if you qualify for the Horizon card nutrition assistance program, visit Utahns Against Hunger at www.uah.org and click on the food stamp calculator.

Image Caption: Scott Sommerdorf / The Salt Lake Tribune.
Nicole Clawson hands over $6 in tokens to buy a loaf of sourdough bread and a jar of salsa at The People’s Market in Salt Lake City on Sunday.
The Market has a new token system program that lets shoppers double their food stamp dollars to buy fresh food. “You get to get more coins and keep more food stamps,” says Clawson, adding that produce at the market, held Sundays at the International Peace Garden, is “cheaper here than it is in the grocery store, by far.”

by Mike Callicrate
Writers on the Range
High Country News
July 15, 2010

We have the food system we asked for. There's a reason a burger at McDonald's sells for about a buck. There's a reason the food is of such poor quality in places where healthy nutrition is most important -- our schools, hospitals and nursing homes.

What we support prospers; what we feed grows. If we support Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart will prosper. If we demand $1 burgers at McDonald's and insist that surplus food donated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture be served in our schools, then the worn-out-cow meat business based on imports and crowded feedlots will grow.

When we demand cheap food, should we be surprised when our food is cheap? Not so long ago, close-to-death "downer” cows were ground into our food supply, and we are still getting exactly what we ask for -- stuff that hardly resembles food; garbage that, if tested, would often qualify as inedible and dangerous waste. This gutfill is so low in nutritional value and so high in unhealthy chemicals -- and has been consumed by us for so long -- that we are suffering from unprecedented levels of degenerative diseases and health-care costs.

Food produced on a factory scale for a mass market has steadily driven out local farmers and livestock producers, bakers, butchers and corner food stores. Yet we often seem surprised by some of the consequences of factory-food production. Perhaps you were taken aback when you learned not long ago that one beef-slaughtering plant could kill or paralyze people just by taking the meat from hundreds of cows, mixing it with fat and turning it all into burgers. Just a few years ago, you might have been surprised to learn that one spinach producer in California could sicken people in 26 states.

At the request of the big food companies, we have given mass producers much too much latitude to keep our food clean and safe. Federal inspection personnel have been reduced to paper-shufflers. Even worse, they have been spread so thin that they seldom inspect our meat-processing facilities. Do we really expect companies pressured by demands for unreasonable profits not to cut corners? Most companies don't tell their employees to cut corners; they simply demand that the workers make things happen fast -- or else. And that is why vigilant oversight is so necessary.

For too long, we have looked the other way, refusing to think about exactly how -- and why -- it is that things can be so cheaply produced. If we could somehow feel and experience the human, animal and environmental suffering that goes into our demand for cheapness, maybe we would act differently.

Worn-out dairy cows are found everywhere, the last precious drop of milk having been squeezed out of them. The market power of the large milk processors is driving dairies to extremes to survive. Highly stressed processing workers, lacking a living wage and essential health care, are treated like the animals in our industrial food system. They are continually asked to do more for less, and they are at their physical and mental limits. Some of them are severely abused and mistreated, and when they are used up, they, too, are discarded.

Even though what we eat is crucial for our health, we have become proud of finding the cheapest prices for everything. We are hypocrites: We celebrate the $1 price tag and then worry about our children's obesity, our high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

We have seen what our appetite for foreign oil has produced -- a dangerous dependency. Food is no different. From farmers and ranchers to packers and processors, the infrastructure for food production in this country has begun to collapse. We are now a net importer of food; 20 percent of the beef we consume, for example, is imported. Foreign companies are now buying our biggest food processors at deeply discounted prices.

Wouldn't our country be better served if we produced and processed almost all of our own food at home?

If we want a healthy, safe and dependable food system in this country, we need to demand it -- and support it. When we buy from farmers, butchers and bakers in our own neighborhoods and counties, we buy and consume food that tastes good, strengthens our local economies and is nutritionally satisfying.

Best of all, when our food is local, we always have the option of stopping by to see for ourselves exactly how the animals and gardens are growing.
 

 — Mike Callicrate is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News in Paonia, Colorado (hcn.org). He is a rancher in Kansas and runs ranchfoodsdirect.com in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

High Country News is a 501(c)3 nonprofit media organization that covers the important issues and stories that define the American West. Its mission is to inform and inspire people - through in-depth journalism - to act on behalf of the West's diverse natural and human communities.

Preserving
the Local Harvest

Join us for a series of classes on
     canning and preserving
          the wonderful flavors of the season’s harvest!

August 23, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Calvary Baptist Church, 1090 S. State, SLC - Tomatoes - we will discuss and demonstrate canning, freezing, salsa, and dried. We will have some samples for people to take home and others to sample in class, recipes, materials/resources handouts. Instructors: Gwen Crist, Kayne Pyatt, Brooke Cordray.	Class One  – Aug. 23 Slow Food Member - Night #1 - $15.00 Non-Member - Night #1 - $20.00
August 30, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Caputo's downtown, 314. W. Broadway, SLC - Jam - we will demonstrate 2-3 different kinds of jam. We will have samples from Butcher's Bunches for people to take home and others to sample in class, recipes, materials/resources handouts. Instructors: Liz Butcher, Gwen Crist.	Class Two  – Aug. 30 Slow Food Member - Night #2 - $15.00 Non-Member - Night #2 - $20.00
September 13, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Caputo's downtown, 314 W. Broadway, SLC - Pickles - type depends on what's available at harvest. We will discuss processed pickles as well as refrigerator pickles, with samples to take home, recipes, materials/resources handouts. Instructors: Liz Butcher, Gwen Crist.	Class Three – Sept. 13 Slow Food Member - Night #3 - $15.00 Non-Member - Night #3 - $20.00
September 20, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Calvary Baptist Church, 1090 S. State, SLC - Fruit (most likely peaches) donated by Tagge's Famous Fruit). We will have samples to take home, recipes, materials/resources handouts. Instructors: Cari Tagge, Gwen Crist.	Class Four  – Sept. 20 Slow Food Member - Night #4 - $15.00 Non-Member - Night #4 - $20.00
All Four Nights  – Aug 23 thru. Sept. 20 Pay all-at-once for all four nights listed above.	All Four Nights Slow Food Member 4-Nights $50.00 Non Slow Food Member 4-Nights $70.00

 All Classes are Monday Evenings from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Cost:

• $15 members / $20 non-members -- per class.
• $50 members / $70 non-members, if signed up for all four.

Limit of 20 people per class. 

Every now and then, newspapers print an article that makes it seem like locavores are running the U.S. food system, throwing our weight around, causing Big Ag to cower in corners. If only we had even a small fraction of that power...  In reality, the local food movement is  a tiny piece of the nation's food economy — about 1 percent, according a new report from the USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS). The report, "Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, and Issues," was written to provide an overview of local food systems — their size, how they work, their economic impact — while also reviewing recent research on consumer preferences, economics and other topics.

In this post, I'll take a look at three parts of the report: defining "local," the size of the local food economy, and how grocery chains are handling demand for local food.

Trying to Define "Local"

"What is Local Food?" is the first question the report addresses. While there are a multitude of definitions of "local," only one legal definition exists, a clause in the 2008 Food and Farm Act that says that a product can be called “locally or regionally produced” if it travels either less than 400 miles from its point of origin or is produced within the same state. A 100-mile limit is popular, more because of the roundness of 100 than for anything related to agriculture or economics. Beyond an odometer reading, other considerations apply: who grew the food, how it was produced, the story behind the food, and what the report calls "social embeddedness" — a "sense of social connections, mutual exchange, and trust." And so, bread baked in an independently-owned neighborhood bakery could get a local definition, even if it uses wheat from hundreds of miles away. This flexibility in definitions no doubt causes disapproving smirks from some quarters, but I see it as a reinforcement of one of the key objectives of the local foods movement: it's not just attaching virtual odometers to food, it's about building stronger communities, preserving farmland, making the food system more transparent, and much more.

Local Purchasing Power

Direct-to-consumer sales – farmers markets, farm stands, U-pick – were about $1.2 billion in 2007, about 0.4% of the total food economy. It's a small number, to be sure, but a significant increase over $551 million in 1997: an annual growth rate of about 10%, which far exceeds the rest of the food economy (about 5% per year). One of the reasons for the growth rate is an increasing number of farmers markets, as the chart below illustrates.

What USDA calls "direct-to-retail" — sales by farms to institutions such as hospitals and schools — is much larger than direct-to-consumer, accounting for about $5 billion in sales in 2007. Unfortunately, the report does not categorize the spending (and the citation for the $5 billion figure is a $3,000 market research report, something a bit beyond the Ethicurean's budget).

Note that these figures do not include a significant part of the local economy: businesses that are considered local for community reasons (like a bakery) or value-added producers (like a jam maker who uses ingredients from the farmers market), so the actual value of the local food economy is somewhat larger than the $6.2 billion cited in the report.

What the Grocery Chains Call Local

Big grocery chains have hopped on the local bandwagon, publicizing their purchases and setting up new initiatives.  The report authors visited the websites of the top ten U.S. food retailers to see what they say about local foods and how they define it. Seven of the ten sites mentioned local foods, but only two — Walmart and Delhaize America (Food Lion, Bloom, Bottom Dollar and others) — give specific definitions (within a store's state for Walmart and in any of the 16 states for Delhaize America). Walmart claims to be buying $400 million a year from what they define as local, a development that could act in ways contrary to the idea of "social embeddedness," buying from only the largest farms and squeezing their suppliers in the name of efficiency (these issues and more are raised in a piece that I wrote for Ethicurean and one that Tom Laskawy wrote for Grist).

Some stores are interactive mapping tools on their websites to explain the geography and story behind their local suppliers. Whole Foods uses different icons for each type of supplier and has a brief story about each one. Hannaford, a grocery chain in the Northeast owned by Delhaize America, showcases their Close to Home program with profiles of several local suppliers and interactive maps (New York, for example). It's a good start, but could use some significant improvement. For example, one of the vendors is "Sysco of No. New England", hardly a locally-rooted Mom and Pop operation (in fiscal year 2009, Sysco had global revenues of $36.9 billion across hundreds of outlets). A few more details, like identifying what each supplier does — farming, distribution, manufacturer and so on — would be a big help.

A Cavalcade of Information

The USDA report contains much more data about direct markets, including breakdowns by farm size, type of goods sold, and more. For those who want to dig into the primary research about the local food economy, the report has an extensive literature review that covers about 200 works from academia, think tanks and government. It also has an appendix that catalogs the local food programs in the 2008 Food and Farm Act.

Photo of Inner Sunset farmers market from Jen Maiser's flickr collection, subject to a Creative Commons License. Chart of farmers markets from USDA/ERS.

Download the original report: Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, and Issues (PDF)

Urban and rural collide in this wry, inspiring memoir of a woman who turned a vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving farm.

Novella Carpenter loves cities-the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways: a homegrown vegetable plot as well as museums, bars, concerts, and a twenty-four-hour convenience mart mere minutes away. Especially when she moved to a ramshackle house in inner city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage-strewn abandoned lot next door. She closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes, a beehive, and a chicken coop.

What started out as a few egg-laying chickens led to turkeys, geese, and ducks. Soon, some rabbits joined the fun, then two three-hundred-pound pigs. And no, these charming and eccentric animals weren't pets; she was a farmer, not a zookeeper. Novella was raising these animals for dinner. Novella Carpenter's corner of downtown Oakland is populated by unforgettable characters. Lana (anal spelled backward, she reminds us) runs a speakeasy across the street and refuses to hurt even a fly, let alone condone raising turkeys for Thanksgiving. Bobby, the homeless man who collects cars and car parts just outside the farm, is an invaluable neighborhood concierge. The turkeys, Harold and Maude, tend to escape on a daily basis to cavort with the prostitutes hanging around just off the highway nearby. Every day on this strange and beautiful farm, urban meets rural in the most surprising ways.

For anyone who has ever grown herbs on their windowsill, tomatoes on their fire escape, or obsessed over the offerings at the local farmers' market, Carpenter's story will capture your heart. And if you've ever considered leaving it all behind to become a farmer outside the city limits, or looked at the abandoned lot next door with a gleam in your eye, consider this both a cautionary tale and a full-throated call to action.

Farm City is an unforgettably charming memoir, full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmers' tips, and a great deal of heart. It is also a moving meditation on urban life versus the natural world and what we have given up to live the way we do.

Farm City: Novella Carpenter with Michael Pollan
73 min - Jun 18, 2009

FORA.tv Series: FORA's Foodies
Farm City: Novella Carpenter with Michael Pollan
Berkeley Arts and Letters

The author held a talk and signing at the Salt Lake City Main Library, June 10, 2010. The event was also boradcast live on KCPW.

About This Book

They had met and married on perilously short acquaintance, she an American chef and food writer, he a Venetian banker. Now they were taking another audacious leap, unstitching their ties with exquisite Venice to live in a roughly renovated stable in Tuscany.

Once again, it was love at first sight. Love for the timeless countryside and the ancient village of San Casciano dei Bagni, for the local vintage and the magnificent cooking, for the Tuscan sky and the friendly church bells. Love especially for old Barlozzo, the village mago, who escorts the newcomers to Tuscany’s seasonal festivals; gives them roasted country bread drizzled with just-pressed olive oil; invites them to gather chestnuts, harvest grapes, hunt truffles; and teaches them to caress the simple pleasures of each precious day. It’s Barlozzo who guides them across the minefields of village history and into the warm and fiercely beating heart of love itself.

A Thousand Days in Tuscany is set in one of the most beautiful places on earth–and tucked into its fragrant corners are luscious recipes (including one for the only true bruschetta) directly from the author’s private collection.

About the Author

Marlena de Blasi, who has worked as a chef and as a food and wine consultant, lives in Italy, where she plans and conducts gastronomic tours of its various regions.

She is the author of four previous memoirs—That Summer in Sicily, A Thousand Days in Venice, A Thousand Days in Tuscany, and The Lady in the Palazzo—as well as three books on the foods of Italy.

Author Interview

A Conversation with Marlena de Blasi
Jennifer Morgan Gray is a writer and editor in Washington,D.C.

Jennifer Morgan Gray: A Thousand Days in Tuscany is an autobiographical chronicle of your time in San Casciano dei Bagni. Did you keep a detailed journal during the time covered by the book? Was there one image or person in your life that compelled you to begin writing this memoir?

Marlena de Blasi: Friends keep giving me these lovely leatherbound journals, as though the empty books themselves would insure that I’d keep writing. I have quite a collection of blank ones and sometimes I recycle them, give them as gifts to others. But I did keep a journal of sorts during the San Casciano days, if not a particularly detailed one. I called it Florì’s book. It was a way for me to tell her things even when we couldn’t see each other or talk. I suppose I was the one who compelled the memoir, if “compel” is indeed the right word. I just wanted to tell my stories.

JMG: Do you view this book as a companion piece to A Thousand Days inVenice? How did you seek to make it a stand-alone work? Were there other titles you considered for either book and then abandoned? What is the “bittersweet adventure” of the book’s subtitle?

MdB:Surely it’s a companion piece to the first book. It begins on the very day we left Venice. But one who reads A Thousand Days in Tuscany first will not be at a disadvantage. I didn’t have to try to make it stand by itself. It’s a different story, albeit with two of the same protagonists. It recounts a whole other part of my life. A Thousand Days in Venice was my working title, my only title.The title I would never have considered changing. I was lucky that my publishers didn’t ask me to. But A Thousand Days in Tuscany is a title of which I’m hardly very fond, but my publishers loved it.The title is not even true since the book covers only a single year. But I guess “Three Hundred Sixty-five Days in Tuscany” doesn’t have the same ring. Apart from that little ruse, the book is not about Tuscany in the way that A Thousand Days in Venice is about Venice. The second book is more about people than it is about place.The original title was Dolce e Salata. Sweet and Salty. “That’s how life tastes to me,” I think I say at some point in the text. A Thousand Days in Tuscany is not another finding-the-villa-and-choosing-the-marble-for-the-staircase sort of story, or one about the darling peasants who come to clean the house and cook the suppers.The story is as much about pain as it is about beauty.All sugar or all salt—both end up as oppression.Even in Tuscany.

Read More »

Reader's Guide

1. This book is titled A Thousand Days in Tuscany:A Bittersweet Adventure. What do you consider to be the “bittersweet adventure” of the subtitle? What would you call a book that chronicled the past thousand days of your life?
    
2. San Casciano is itself a living, breathing character in the book. What is your most vivid impression of the town? How is it similar to, or different from, impressions you had about Tuscany prior to reading this book?
    
3. How do the author and her husband adjust to living in the rustic world of San Casciano? What does de Blasi see as the most rewarding and challenging aspects of this new life? In your view, what would be most appealing about living a similar existence in a simple, rural town? What would be the most frustrating?
    
4. How does de Blasi reconcile the tension that sometimes exists between “the simple life” and the march of progress, especially as she acclimates to her new environment? How do the villagers respond to this conflict—of “tradition versus the new”—in their own ways? Have you ever struggled with a similar tension in your life?
    
5. The author has said that this book is a companion piece to A Thousand Days in Venice. How does the book function as one standalone memoir, and how does it provide another piece in the puzzle of the author’s life? Do you think all readers would benefit from reading these books in tandem? If you’ve read both books, does de Blasi’s mindset change from one to the next, with her change in location?
    
6. A Thousand Days in Tuscany is separated into sections delineated by season. Discuss this organizational technique. How does the framework of the book mirror the way that rural Tuscan life unfolds? Could you imagine this book organized in any different way?
    
7. On page 99, de Blasi writes, “Right now all I know is that in love there must be some form of desperation and some form of joy.” Do you agree or disagree with this idea? How is this statement exemplified by the relationships in the book, particularly the one that de Blasi shares with her husband and the one between Barlozzo and Florìana?
    
8. De Blasi develops a passionate relationship with the land itself. Why does she so enjoy the grape and olive picking she becomes a part of during the course of the book? What connection does this give her to the earth? What activities do you enjoy that might impart that same sort of feeling?
    
9. “Both my clothes and I are survivors of some other time,” says de Blasi on page 133. How do the clothes that the author chooses to wear evoke her personality and character? Why does she choose to wear one particular ensemble per season?
    
10. How does de Blasi’s discussion of food throughout this memoir impact your understanding of her life? Do you plan to try any of the recipes that the book includes?
     
11. Why do de Blasi and Fernando nickname Barlozzo “the duke”? Why do you think Barlozzo immediately takes de Blasi under his wing? What characteristics do the two share? How does Barlozzo’s counsel and involvement shape the life that de Blasi and Fernando construct in San Casciano?
     
12. How does Barlozzo’s story about his past give clues about the formation of his adult personality? Ultimately, how is he constrained by the ghosts of his parents, and how is he able to triumph over them? Have you ever felt a similar struggle with the past?
     
13. What about Florìana was so compelling, and to the author and Barlozzo in particular? Why do you think she was so private about her illness? How did her fellow villagers respect her need for privacy and, ultimately, for companionship?
     
14. The note that Florì leaves for Barlozzo reads, “I wanted death to find me dancing.” How does Florì’s attitude about death mirror the one she holds about life? If you needed to leave someone a similar note at the end of your life, what would it say?
     
15. In which ways are de Blasi and Fernando a study in how “opposites attract”? How do their different personalities and cultures play a part in their relationship? How are the two similar, both in their approach to their relationship and to their new life in San Casciano? How does their relationship evolve during their time in Tuscany?
     
16. De Blasi tells Misha that security “is a myth.” Do you agree with her statement? What prompts Misha’s concern about his friends’ safety and security? Do you think that Misha fears change? Why? Does de Blasi value “risk more than comfort,” as Barlozzo contends? What is the largest risk you’ve taken in your life? How was it rewarding?

The gripping story of how Bent Skovmand and others preserved the world’s wheat harvest.

In 1999, a terrifying new form of stem rust—spotted in Uganda and dubbed “UG99”—quickly turned robust golden fields into dark, tangled ruins. For decades plant scientists had bred wheat varieties with rust-resistant genes, but these genes did not work against UG99. Unchecked, UG99 could spread all over the world, including the United States.

Breeders everywhere began searching wheat germplasm collections for sources of resistance. The largest collection was at the Center for Improvement of Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT ) in Mexico, developed by the brilliant Danish scientist Bent Skovmand.

For three decades, Skovmand amassed, multiplied, and documented thousands of wheat varieties. He served as an advisor on wheat genetic resources to dozens of countries, and hunted for seeds that would contain the genes to protect the harvest from plagues like UG99 and the stresses created by global warming. In an era when corporations and governments often jealously guarded breeding information, Skovmand fought to keep his seed bank a center for free, open scientific exchange.

By telling the story of Skovmand’s work and that of his colleagues, The Viking in the Wheat Field sheds a welcome light on an agricultural sector—“plant genetic resources”—on which we are all crucially dependent.

About the Author

Susan Dworkin has written several biographies, including The Nazi Officer's Wife, and her articles have appeared in Ms., Cosmopolitan, and numerous magazines.

Her fascination with agriculture dates from early stints at the United States Department of Agriculture and as a journalist covering aid programs in the Middle East.

She lives in New York City.

Article published in Salt Lake City Lunch Examiner

"Spring 2010 Dining Diversity event in SLC"
By Heather King
Salt Lake City Lunch Examiner
May 7, 2010

Beginning Friday, May 7, 2010 to Friday, May 23, 2010, 15 local restaurants will offer special $20 and/or $30 lunch and/or dinner menus that highlight new menu items and old favorites alike.

Different than the Downtown Dine O’ Round, Dining Diversity features only local restaurants spread around the entire Salt Lake Valley and even Bountiful.

You can also read reviews of some of my favorites.

Meditrina
5 tapas for $30
1394 S West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
801-485-2055
Read a full review here.

Vertical Diner
2280 SW Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
801-484-8378

Sage’s Café
473 E 300 S
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
801-322-3790

Tiburon
8256 S 700 E
Sandy, UT 84070
801-255-1200

Fresco
$30 dinner menu
1513 S 1500 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84105
801-486-1300

Moxi
1025 S 500 West
Bountiful, UT 84010
801-335-0394

Frida Bistro
545 West 700 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
801-983-6692
Read a full review here.

Log Haven
$30 dinner menu
6451 E Millcreek Canyon Rd
Salt Lake City, UT 84109
801-272-8255

Pago
878 S. 900 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84102
801-532-0777
Read a full review here.

Yamasaki
6055 S 900 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84121
801-293-7115
Read a full review here.

Citris Grill
2991 E 3300 S
Salt Lake City, UT 84109
801-466-1202

Cannella’s
204 E 500 S
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
801-355-8518

Trio
3-course $20 dinner menu
680 S 900 E
Salt Lake City, UT 84102
801-533-8746
Read a full review here.

Sego Lily
305 N Main St
Bountiful, UT 84010
801-294-3327

Wild Grape Bistro
3-course $30 dinner menu
481 E South Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
801-746-5565
Read a full review here.

Salt Lake City Food & Drink Examiners:

Brigham City Food Examiner

Daniella Nicole

Provo Cooking Examiner

David Tertipes

Provo Food Examiner

Elizabeth Nelson

Salt Lake City Asian Cuisine Examiner

Michael Folland

Salt Lake City Baking Examiner

Holly Hanks

Salt Lake City Budget Meals Examiner

Karen O'Brien

Salt Lake City Cocktails Examiner

Jim Mathews

Salt Lake City Cooking Examiner

Elizabeth Weight

Salt Lake City Dessert Examiner

Portia Millet

Salt Lake City Food Examiner

Marketa Howarth

Salt Lake City Food Examiner

Michelle Carfaro Stiner

Salt Lake City Food Examiner

Summer Hirschi

Salt Lake City Fresh Foods Examiner

Heather King

Salt Lake City Healthy Food Examiner

Michael LeClerc

Salt Lake City Low Carb Examiner

Gayl Sorensen

Salt Lake City Organic Food Examiner

Kay Irwin

Salt Lake City Wine Examiner

Patrick Gibbons

National Food & Drink Examiners:

American Food Examiner

Ron Beigel

Asian Wine Examiner

Toby Carlos

Bacon Examiner

mk Eagle

Baking Examiner

Annalise Kaylor

Beer Examiner

Charlie Papazian

Box Wine Examiner

Julia Hollister

Budget Wine Examiner

Bob Galivan

Caffeine Examiner

Big Red Boots  

California Wine Examiner

Steve Ferree

Candy Examiner

Aimee Plesa

Candy Examiner

Rick LaRue

Cheese Examiner

P.A. Flaherty

Chef Robert Irvine Examiner

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Mills Entertainment presents
No Reservations: An Evening with Anthony Bourdain
Saturday, June 19 at 8:00pm
Abravanel Hall, 50 West 200 South, Salt Lake City.
Tickets: $32.50 - $48.50
Salt Lake City Ticket Promo: Receive $5 or $10 OFF each ticket!!
Click on this link and use discount code: "travel" for $5 or "Bourdain" for $10 off each ticket.
Tickets through arttix.org or call 801-355-ARTS

No Reservations: Anthony Bourdain in SLC
By James Bennett
Published by SLUG Magazine, May, 2010 – Issue 257

Anthony Bourdain knows his way around a kitchen. In 2000, after two decades in the hospitality industry, he released the book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. The book is a memoir of sorts that provides a graphic, behind-the-scenes peek into restaurant kitchens. The popularity of the tome led to Bourdain’s next high-profile gig as host of the Travel Channel’s culinary and cultural adventure program Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. Currently using a string of spoken word gigs to work out some new material, the chef-turned-author-turned-television personality will grace our fair city in mid-June. SLUG recently had the chance to ask Tony about his planned visit to Salt Lake, his history of punk rock fandom and his perceived influence on the food industry. While we had him on the horn, we also asked him what he thought about several traditional Mormon dishes.

SLUG: Describe what fans can expect from your appearance in Salt Lake.
Bourdain: It’s a spoken word show—I talk for about an hour off the top of my head. It’s certainly about travel and food, but the content is determined by what’s pissing me off or exciting me that day. I don’t have a prepared speech. Generally it’s about an hour talk and then a Q&A with the audience. A lot depends on how good or how provocative, or even how confrontational the questions are. I like to get challenged from the floor—it helps me work out material that I may use later. And people get to say, “Hey, you said this in that last book, or on TV, but I think you’re full of shit and here’s why,” and that can lead to a spirited discussion. I much prefer that over questions about the grossest thing I ever ate.

SLUG: You came of age as a chef in New York City around the time that punk rock was really getting off its feet there. What do you remember about punk shows back in the day?
Bourdain: I was a huge fan during that time. I was lucky enough to be around, and to be going to the clubs where they were playing. And I obviously have a deep and lasting love for those few, brief years, but I was never a musician or anything.

SLUG: What are some bands that stand out, that you still listen to today?
Bourdain: Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Television, Ramones, those really stick out. And The Dead Boys’ song “Sonic Reducer” is a timeless classic. I was also a Velvet Underground fan and a huge Iggy Pop fan. I remember what an extraordinary, spit-in-the-face presence he was. The first Stooges album, an anti-social masterpiece, came out in 1969. Hippies were dead from that moment on. You need only to look at how awful and saccharine and bloated rock-n-roll was in ’72, and then you look at what some other people were doing around that time, even before punk, and it makes bands like the [New York] Dolls, and the Velvets and Iggy and the MC5 all the more extraordinary.

SLUG: Okay, so what about Iggy today—fronting a reunited Stooges, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in his 60s and still performing without a shirt...
Bourdain: I think that any day Iggy Pop can wake up in the morning and make a living in America is a good day for humanity. It pleases me to no end that he’s alive, apparently healthy and making money. He deserves it.

SLUG: With Kitchen Confidential, you really pulled the curtain back and showed people what was happening in restaurant kitchens. It was wildly popular. Why do you think it struck such a chord?
Bourdain: I really don’t know and I don’t try too hard to figure it out. I was only able to write that book in the first place because I didn’t think anyone was going to read it. I cling to the “not giving a shit” business model, and I worry that if I start thinking too much about who’s going to read it, or what their expectations are, that would be counterproductive.

SLUG: So who was the intended audience?
Bourdain: I wrote it with a tiny subculture of restaurant industry people in New York in mind. I just wanted to amuse and entertain them. I really didn’t think that anyone outside of the tri-state area was going to read it. No one was more surprised than me that it was a success, and continues to sell. I mean, no one cared about cooks and chefs 20 years ago and now everyone seems to care. I’m glad Kitchen Confidential was a success and I’m glad that chefs are stars now, I just, for the life of me, don’t understand why.

"Food is our common ground, our universal experience."  
 —James Beard

Discussion Course Goals:

• To explore food systems and their impacts on culture, society and ecological systems. 
   
• To gain insight into agricultural and individual practices that promote personal and ecological well-being. 
   
• To consider your role in creating or supporting sustainable food systems.

Topics Covered:

1. What's Eating America: Given the array of food choices and advice, eating in modern industrial society can be wrought with confusion, contradictions and anxiety.  Session One considers the effects of modern industrial eating habits on culture, society and ecological systems. 
    
2. Anonymous Food:  Session Two traces the historical shift from family farms to industrial agriculture to present day questions surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMO) and industrial organics.  The session examines the ecological and economic impacts that have accompanied the changes in how we grow and prepare food. 
    
3. Farming for the Future:  Session Three explores emerging food system alternatives, highlighting sustainable growing practices and the benefits of small farms and urban food production.  The session considers how individuals can make choices that lead to a more sustainable food supply. 
    
4. You Are What You Eat: Session Four explores food systems from a human health perspective.  The session considers the influences that shape our choices and food policies from the fields to Capitol Hill, and the implications for our health and well-being. 
    
5. Toward a Just Food System:  The readings in Session Five examine issues of hunger, equity, and Fair Trade.  The session considers the role that governments, communities and individuals can play in addressing these issues to create a more just food system. 
    
6. Choices for Change: Individuals and communities are discovering the benefits of choosing local, seasonal and sustainably grown and produced foods.  Session Six offers inspiration and practical advice in taking steps to create more sustainable food systems.
   
   

More "Menu for the Future" Resources:

• Menu for the Future – Course Description Flyer
• Film Resource: King Corn
• Film Resource: INGREDIENTS  A feature-length documentary film, illustrating what is good about food in America.  Narrated by Bebe Neuwirth, the film takes us across the United States; from urban food deserts to heavily diversified farms to the kitchens of celebrated American chefs.
  

COURSE BOOKS:

Contact the Northwest Earth Institute for discount pricing on orders of 30 or more.

Sustainable Systems at Work

A five session discussion course for the workplace, designed to further sustainability practices through the engagement of employees throughout the organization.

Price: $35.00


 

Menu for the Future

A six session discussion guide exploring the connection between food choices and sustainability.  110 pages

Price: $20.00



 

Global Warming Changing CO₂urse

A four session discussion guide exploring the history and science of global warming, and how personal values, habits and actions can curb its effects.  84 pages

Price: $20.00


 

Voluntary Simplicity

A five session discussion guide promoting living lightly and simply in order to maximize personal well-being and planetary health. 96 pages

Price: $20.00



 

Choices for Sustainable Living

A seven session discussion guide exploring the meaning of sustainable living and the ties between lifestyle choices and their impacts.  124 pages

Price: $20.00



 

Healthy Children-Healthy Planet

A seven session discussion guide addressing the pervasive effects of consumer culture on a child’s view of the world, and exploring ways to develop a child’s connection to nature. 109 pages

Price: $20.00


 

Discovering a Sense of Place

A seven session discussion guide focusing on knowing, protecting and taking responsibility for our place.  102 pages





 

Globalization and its Critics

An eight session discussion guide addressing the structural aspects of globalization, its impact on food production, the environment, social equity, public opinion, and culture. 110 pages




 

Reconnecting With Earth

A six-session course for the workplace, faith center, or home addressing core values and how they affect the way we view and treat the Earth. Only offered in paperless, PDF format to limit resources. Will be emailed to you.




 

NWEI Course Organizer’s Guide

A guide for course organizers with tips, flyers, and information on how to start and run a discussion course.  Also available as a free download. 30 pages.

Price: $3.00



 
 

Northwest Earth Institute

The Northwest Earth Institute is recognized as a national leader in the development of innovative programs that empower individuals and organizations to protect the Earth. These programs emphasize individual responsibility, the importance of a supportive community, and the dual need to walk lightly on and to take action for the earth. By reaching out to people in their workplace, home, faith center, neighborhood, and community, NWEI provides easy access to tools for individual and cultural change.

To underscore the powerful effect of personal change, NWEI holds the following mission:

Inspiring people to take responsibility for Earth.

For over 17 years, the Northwest Earth Institute has been motivating individuals to:

• examine and transform personal values and habits,
• accept responsibility for Earth, and
• act on that commitment.

Northwest Earth Institute
107 SE Washington Street #235, Portland, OR 97214
503.227.2807 : contact@nwei.org 

INGREDIENTS is a seasonal exploration of the local food movement.

The local food movement takes root.

American food is in a state of crisis. Health, food costs and our environment are all in jeopardy. A movement to put good food back on the table is emerging. What began 30 years ago with chefs demanding better flavor, has inspired consumers to
seek relationships with nearby farmers.
This is local food.

The Story

At the focal point of this movement, and of this film, are the farmers and chefs who are creating a truly sustainable food system. Their collaborative work has resulted in great tasting food and an explosion of consumer awareness about the benefits of eating local.

Attention being paid to the local food movement comes at a time when the failings of our current industrialized food system are becoming all too clear. For the first time in history, our children’s generation is expected to have a shorter lifespan than our own. The quality, taste and nutritional value of the food we eat has dropped sharply over the last fifty years. Shipped from ever-greater distances, we have literally lost sight of where our food comes from and in the process we've lost a vital connection to our local community and to our health.

A feature-length documentary, INGREDIENTS illustrates how people around the country are working to revitalize that connection. Narrated by Bebe Neuwirth, the film takes us across the U.S. from the diversified farms of the Hudson River and Willamette Valleys to the urban food deserts of Harlem and to the kitchens of celebrated chefs Alice Waters, Peter Hoffman and Greg Higgins. INGREDIENTS is a journey that reveals the people behind the movement to bring good food back to the table and health back to our communities.

The Cast

We are fortunate to have some of the most passionate and dedicated participants from within the local food movement as the storytellers for Ingredients. Their collaborative work over the past three decades has reinvigorated our idea of good food and nourishment at a time when we need it most.

We are also fortunate to have film and stage actress Bebe Neuwirth as the film’s narrator.

Awards:

Best non-broadcast film - Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival
Official Selection - Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival

Plot Outline:

A celebration of the work of peter Proctor in India and the amazing success of marginal farmers across India: as they save their soils, their communities and their lives with organic and biodynamic farming.

A celebration of the amazing success of marginal farmers across India: as they save their soils, their communities and their lives with organic and biodynamic.

One Man, One Cow, One Planet available direct from the film makers at www.onemanonecow.com

About the Film

What does an environmentally friendly biodynamic food system capable of feeding everyone actually look like?

This film is a blueprint for a post-industrial future. It takes you into the heart of the world's most important renaissance. The outcome of the battle for agricultural control in India may just dictate the future of the earth. Our existence on this planet is precarious.

Modern industrial agriculture is destroying the earth:
Desertification, water scarcity, toxic cocktails of agricultural chemicals pervading our food chains, ocean ecosystem collapse, soil erosion and massive loss of soil fertility.

Our ecosystems ore overwhelmed. Humanity's increasing demands are exceeding the Earth's carrying capacity.

A simple recipe to save the world? One old man and a bucket of cow-dung. Are you crazy?

Why YOU should see this film

Modern agriculture causes topsoil to be eroded at 3 million tons per hour. (that’s 26 billion tons a year) Human mass is replacing biomass and other species. The carrying capacity of the earth is almost spent. To maintain our comfort zone lifestyles we will soon need five earths to sustain us in the style to which we have become accustomed.

The mantra of free trade has failed the world’s poor. There is a better way.

Biodynamic agriculture may be the only answer we have left.

A funny and heart-warming debut about three sisters, an old box of recipes and a new, exotic café in a small Irish town.

Beneath the holy mountain Croagh Patrick, in damp and lovely County Mayo, sits the small, sheltered village of Ballinacroagh. To the exotic Aminpour sisters, Ireland seems like a much-needed safe haven. It has been seven years since Marjan Aminpour fled Iran with her younger sisters, Bahar and Layla, and she hopes that in Ballinacroagh, a land of "crazed sheep and dizzying roads," they might finally find a home.

From the kitchen of an old pastry shop on Main Mall, the sisters set about creating a Persian oasis. Soon sensuous wafts of cardamom, cinnamon and saffron float through the streets - and exotic aroma that announces the opening of the Babylon Café, and a shock to a town that generally subsists on boiled cabbage and Guinness served at the local tavern. And it is an affront to the senses of Ballinacroagh's uncrowned king, Thomas McGuire. After trying to buy the old pastry shop for years and failing, Thomas is enraged to find it occupied - and by foreigners, no less.`

But the mysterious, spicy fragrances work their magic on the townsfolk, and soon, business is booming. Marjan is thrilled with the demand for her red lentil soup, abgusht stew and rosewater baklava - and with the transformation in her sisters. Young Layla finds first love, and even tense, haunted Bahar seems to be less nervous.

And in the stand-up-comedian-turned-priest Father Fergal Mahoney, the gentle, lonely widow Estelle Delmonico, and the headstrong hairdresser Fiona Athey, the sisters find a merry band of supporters against the close-minded opposition of less welcoming villagers stuck in their ways. But the idyll is soon broken when the past rushes back to threaten the Amnipours once more, and the lives they left back in revolution-era Iran bleed into the present.
Infused with the textures and scents, trials and triumphs of two distinct cultures, Pomegranate Soup is and infectious novel of magical realism. This richly detailed story, highlighted with delicious recipes, is a delectable journey into the heart of Persian cooking and Irish living.

* Includes eleven original Persian recipes

Readers' Guide & A Conversation with Marsha Mehran

Additional Resources

• A reading group guide to Pomegranate Soup is available on this site.
  Click here to open A Readers' Guide & A Conversation with Marsha Mehran
   
• Want to start a reading group or book club, but don’t know where to start?
  Click http://www.randomhouse.com/BB/read/ to begin the adventure!
   
• To get Marsha to visit with your reading group,
  contact her at pomsoup@yahoo.com

All About Marsha

Born in Tehran, Marsha Mehran escaped the upheaval of the Iranian revolution with her family.

She grew up in the United States, Australia and Argentina, where her parents operated a Middle Eastern café.

She lives in both Brooklyn and Ireland and is at work on her third novel.

The sequel to Pomegranate Soup, Rosewater and Soda Bread, [was published May 13,] 2008.

Rosewater and Soda Bread

More than a year has passed since Marjan, Bahar, and Layla, the beautiful Iranian Aminpour sisters, sought refuge in the quaint Irish town of Ballinacroagh. Opening the beguiling Babylon Café, they charmed the locals with their warm hearts and delectable Persian cuisine, bringing a saffron–scented spice to the once–sleepy village.

But when a young woman with a dark secret literally washes up on Clew Bay Beach, the sisters' world is once again turned upside down. With pale skin and webbed hands, the girl is otherworldly, but her wounds tell a more earthly (and graver) story–one that sends the strict Catholic town into an uproar.

The Aminpours rally around the newcomer, but each sister must also contend with her own transformation–Marjan tests her feelings for love with a dashing writer, Bahar takes on a new spiritual commitment with the help of Father Mahoney, and Layla matures into a young woman when she and her boyfriend, Malachy, step up their hot and heavy relationship.

Filled with mouthwatering recipes and enchanting details of life in Ireland, Rosewater and Soda Bread is infused with a lyrical warmth that radiates from the Aminpour family and their big–hearted Italian landlady, Estelle, to the whole of Ballinacroagh–and the world beyond.

"delights the senses on every page. The story pulses with life as three Iranian sisters struggle to make sense of matters of the heart and the spirit" 
—Elizabeth Cox, author of The Slow Moon.

By Maggie Wolf
Special to The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 04/12/2010

Some Utah gardeners probably don't mind waiting until August to enjoy fresh tomatoes from the garden. But the rest of us want to eat juicy tomatoes a lot sooner.

For the impatient gardener, we suggest 10 tomato varieties that will be ready for picking about 65 days from transplanting.

There are two types of tomato plants indeterminate and determinate. Indeterminate varieties grow like vines, while determinate varieties grow more like bushes. Determinate varieties are preferable if you want to grow more plants at once.

If you are looking for disease-resistant plants, hybrid tomatoes have several desirable characteristics. The more letters behind the name, the better. Jetsetter VFFNTA, for example, is less susceptible to verticillium, fusarium (both races), nematodes, tobacco mosaic virus and alternaria.

The best tomato production occurs when the plants are in full sun and deep, well-drained fertile loam soil. To improve sandy or clay soil conditions, incorporate high quality compost and raise the bed 6 to 12 inches above grade. Soil pH of 6.0 to 6.5 is optimum but up to 7.0 is OK. Over fertilizing with nitrogen prompts more stem and leaves than flowers and fruit; a water-soluble complete fertilizer may be the easiest application.

Cool spring temperatures can cause fruit disorders such as catfacing, blossom end rot, puffiness and green gel. Realize that early-set fruit is susceptible to these environmental problems; be patient and your next picking will probably be higher quality.

Here are a few tips to help you protect and harvest early-season tomatoes:

You can plant tomatoes several weeks before the last frost if you protect them from chilling temperatures with a wall o'water. As the name suggests, these clear plastic tubes are filled with water to collect heat during the day, and then release it at night. Wall o'waters can protect tomatoes on nights as cold as 16 degrees and allow gardeners to harvest tomatoes four to six weeks earlier than without protection. However, on very cold nights, it's best to cover or close the open top to keep more heat inside.

Another way to protect plants is to use a frost cloth or floating row cover, made from lightweight spun polyester material. Available in many weights and sizes, these covers prevent damage from late spring frosts and early fall frosts.

Gardeners on a budget may want to cover their tomatoes with one-gallon milk jugs with the bottom cut off. These "hot caps" are an inexpensive way to boost soil and air temperature for small transplants.

Also, placing black plastic over the planting area will pre-heat the soil in preparation for earlier planting.

You'll need to be diligent about protecting your plants until fear of frost has passed, usually around Mother's Day. Tomato plants grow best when daytime temperatures are 70 to 84 degrees and night temperatures are 65 to 68 degrees.

Locally owned garden centers and nurseries are more likely than national chains to carry cold-tolerant tomatoes that grow best in Utah. Look for seed packets from Mountain Valley Seeds, a Utah company, or visit their Web site at www.mvseeds.com.

features@sltrib.com

Early-season tomato plants to consider

• Early Girl VFF » The most famous early determinate variety, it produces 4- to 6-ounce tomatoes that are disease-resistant.
   
• Bush Early Girl VFFNT » A more compact version of Early Girl that produces slightly larger fruit; this hybrid is even more disease-resistant.
   
• Glacier » Produces small, 2- to 3-ounce tomatoes, which are orange-red and surprisingly sweet.
   
• Jetsetter VFFNT (indeterminate) » Vigorous producers of tomatoes that are about 8 ounces; also disease-resistant.
   
• Northern Delight » Bears 2-inch fruit on compact plants and does well in cool weather and a short growing season.
   
• Oregon Spring V » Developed at Oregon State University to withstand cool nights, this tomato has few seeds, making it ideal for making ketchup and sauces.
   
• Prairie Fire » This short, bushy plant earned its name because it "lights up" the garden with intense red fruit about 3 to 5 ounces each. A cross between Sub Arctic and Beefsteak.
   
• Red Rocket » A compact, bushy plant takes off like a rocket, producing bright red tomatoes 8 to 10 ounces.
   
• Siberia » This small plant produces bright red, juicy tomatoes that are about 2 ounces.
   
• Stupice (indeterminate) » A variety that is cold-tolerant and produces sweet 2-ounce tomatoes.

(Image Caption: Gardener Maggie Wolf uses a wall of water to protect her tomatoes from cold temperatures. (Jim Urquhart / The Salt Lake Tribune)

For more information, see:

• U. S. House of Representatives
• U.S. Senate

There has never been a better time to be making and selling great cheese. People worldwide are consuming more high-quality, handmade cheese than ever before. The number of artisan cheesemakers has doubled in recent years, and many of the industry’s newcomers are “farmstead” producers— those who work only with the milk of their own animals. Today, more than ever before, the people who choose to become farmer-cheesemakers need access to the knowledge of established cheese artisans who can help them build their dream.

Few career choices lead to such extremes of labor, emotion, and monetary challenge. In The Farmstead Creamery Advisor, respected cheesemaker, instructor, and speaker Gianaclis Caldwell walks would-be producers through the many, and often confusing, steps and decisions they will face when considering a career in this burgeoning cottage industry. This book fills the gap that exists between the pasture and cheese plate. It goes far beyond issues of caring for livestock and basic cheesemaking, explaining business issues such as:

• Analyzing your suitability for the career
• Designing and building the cheese facility
• Sizing up the market
• Negotiating day-to-day obstacles
• Ensuring maximum safety and efficiency

Drawing from her own and other cheesemakers’ experiences, Caldwell brings to life the story of creating a successful cheesemaking business in a practical, organized manner. Absolutely essential for anyone interested in becoming a licensed artisan cheesemaker, The Farmstead Creamery Advisor will also appeal to the many small and hobby-farm owners who already have milking animals and who wish to improve their home dairy practices and facilities

About the Author

Gianaclis Caldwell

Gianaclis Caldwell, along with her husband, Vern, and their teenage daughter, Amelia, owns Pholia Farm situated in the verdant Rogue Valley of southern Oregon, where they make aged cheese from the milk of their Nigerian Dwarf goats. The twenty-three-acre, off-the-grid farm and forest has been in Caldwell’s family since the 1940s. Caldwell’s critically acclaimed cheeses have been featured in books, articles, and top-ten lists. She is a former nurse and mixed-media artist.

View Gianaclis's full profile page »

• Timpano Feast - 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. - Sept. 12, 2010
• Preserving the Local Harvest - Canning and Preserving Classes - Aug. & Sept., 2010
• Morgan Valley Lamb Feast - July 18, 2010
• Creminelli Salami Workshop at Caputo's - May 17, 2010

We may have a waiting list for this event.
If you are interested in being added to the wait-list or in having this event repeated,
please contact Slow Food Utah to let us know of your interest.

(You either came across this page while searching our site, or you were directed here by PayPal.
This page is not a regular article in the Slow Food Utah Website.)

• Timpano Feast - 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. - Sept. 12, 2010
• Preserving the Local Harvest - Canning and Preserving Classes - Aug. & Sept., 2010
• Morgan Valley Lamb Feast - July 18, 2010
• Creminelli Salami Workshop at Caputo's - May 17, 2010

Depending on if you supplied an email address to PayPal,
you may receive a confirmation from PayPal.

If you have questions about this event,
please refer to the appropriate event-link above or contact Slow Food Utah.

(You either came across this page while searching our site, or you were directed here by PayPal.
This page is not a regular article in the Slow Food Utah Website.)

Utahn Wins Ag Education Award

By Kathy Stephenson
The Salt Lake Tribune
"Bite by Bite" Blog
Posted on April 23rd, 2010

Christi Paulson, a first grade teacher at Salt Lake City's Riley Elementary School, has been named the National “Agriculture in the Classroom” teacher of the year for 2010.

The award recognizes teachers who help children understand how food is produced and where it comes from. Paulson, who also is the leader of Slow Food Utah, is the 7th Utah teacher to earn the award since it began in 2000.

Paulson receives $500 and a paid-trip to the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, in June.

Food briefs: Pack out a helping of ideas -- visit the storage fair at WSU

By Kathy Stephenson
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 04/27/2010

Utahn wins national agriculture award

Christi Paulson, a first grade teacher at Salt Lake City's Riley Elementary School, has been named the National "Agriculture in the Classroom" teacher of the year for 2010. The award recognizes teachers who help children understand how food is produced and where it comes from. Paulson, who also is the leader of Slow Food Utah, is the seventh Utah teacher to earn the award since it began in 2000. Paulson will receive $500 and a trip to the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in Baltimore, Md., in June.

Table Talks

Compiled by Valerie Phillips
Deseret News
Published: Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Christi Paulson, a first-grade teacher at Riley Elementary School in Salt Lake City, has won the 2010 National Agriculture in the Classroom Program Teacher Award. The awards program recognizes teachers for their efforts to re-establish connections between food and agriculture so that students understand how food is produced and where it comes from.

Paulson, who is also the leader of Slow Food Utah, is one of five national winners. She receives an honorarium of $500 and up to $1,500 for travel-related expenses to the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in Baltimore, Md., in June. Some of her lessons included cycles in nature, making bread from wheat kernels, composting with worms, learning how burgers, buns and condiments are made, and making a movie showing the students and their schoolyard garden.

Food Matters – Acme, Moxi, Christi Paulson, Dining Diversity

By Ted Scheffler
Salt Lake City Weekly.net
Wednesday, May 5,2010

Agro Award
Congrats to Slow Food Utah Leader Christi Paulson, who has been awarded the 2010 National Agriculture in the Classroom Program Teacher Award. The AITC acknowledges and supports efforts by educators to re-establish connections between food and food origins so that students understand how food is produced and where it comes from. According to AITC, “Increased national concern for this issue is partially evidenced by First Lady Michelle Obama’s ‘Let’s Move’ Campaign, and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution television series.” The work Christi Paulson does in her “Slow Food Utah in Schools” program is derived from her classroom practices, for which she received this award. SlowFoodUtah.org

USU Cooperative - Extension News: "Paulson Named 'Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award' Winner"

Utah State University
Cooperative Extension Service
"Extension News" - June, 2010

Christi Paulson, first grade teacher at Riley Elementary School in Salt Lake City, is the recipient of Utah State University Cooperative Extension’s Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award. Additionally, Paulson was selected as one of five national winners for this award and will be recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture and the national AITC Consortium at the National AITC Conference in Baltimore in June. This award is given to recognize teachers for their successful efforts in teaching agricultural concepts in their curriculum.

Read More (PDF) »

You may make a general contribution to Slow Food Utah using our PayPal account below, or you may contribute to support specific Slow Food Utah projects.

For more information on contributing to specific SFUtah projects
please email Christi Paulson, Slow Food Utah Leader.

Contribute to Slow Food Utah:

To donate to Slow Food Utah directly,
please contribute via PayPal.
 

Contribute to Slow Food USA & the Foundation for Biodiversity:

• Support Slow Food USA.
   
• Foundation for Biodiversity.
  (The Slow Food International Foundation.)
   

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Jonathan and Julie Krausert's house is hard to miss. Nestled deep inside Rose Park, surrounded by simple modern red brick homes with standard-issue lawns, the Krausert house is a gardener's masterpiece.

The front yard is a puzzle of garden plots fitted together with flagstone paths. Life vibrates from the ground up, even in these final days of winter when we visit. Seven medium-sized fruit trees call this yard their home, surrounded by a spread of tiny green leaves—three kinds of oregano, basil, mint and thyme. Onion greens join the push upward through the leaf litter mulch. Rosemary, currants and strawberries also make the list of edibles; and this is just the front yard.

Jonathan approaches his work in the garden and at home with the attitude of an older generation whose values, once old-fashioned, are new again: Everything has a place and use; waste not, want not. For instance, an extensive water cachement system retrieves the rainwater that rolls off all of the roofs.

Raised in a family of farmers in Green Bay, Wisconsin, he learned by example. "My grandparents and great uncles and aunts lived through the Depression and World War II. They grew gardens and raised animals and were very conscious of their environment," he says.pioli_krausert

For Jonathan, providing for oneself through food production and other means is not just a hobby, it is a working-class way of life. In the days of his grandparents, he points out, it was the only way that it could be. But you can see in Jonathan that in addition to a dozen hobbies and a houseful of food, his urban homestead offers him the prospect of adventure in the microcosm of his own yard.

And as more people become interested in sustainability and connecting more intimately with a spot of Earth, people like Jonathan are becoming the elders, the bearers of hands-on wisdom.

Jonathan left his Wisconsin home 25 years ago on a hitchhiking trip that landed him in Salt Lake City, where he met and married his wife Julie. Jonathan held on to his working-class roots, finding work in construction. The job often provided materials for off-site projects and beautiful pieces of scrap wood became dining room tables, cabinets and bookcases in his own house. Now that Julie and Jonathan are both mostly retired (he still takes on some remodeling projects) the once part-time garden has become a more full-time operation. Most days, Julie prefers to direct her attention to projects in her new sewing and quilting room while out in the garden Jonathan makes the desert bloom.

Walking to his back yard (the gate and fence built entirely of recycled wood), we move into a space of preparation for spring. One garden bed along the garage shows healthy young garlic tops. "I planted those Labor Day weekend and I will harvest in June," says Jonathan.

It is early March and still too early to plant. High-rise shelves of seedlings grow under lights indoors. More seedlings sprout from pots in the garage.

I notice the conical wire cages stacked along the west-facing fence. These contraptions are tomato cages on steroids. "We do bio-intensive gardening," says Jonathan. "Everything goes up into the air." Just like cities whose limited space requires the upward growth of skyscrapers, the modest size of Jonathan's yard requires the same vertical movement. "Our tomatoes sometimes grow to 10 feet and I need a ladder to reach them," he says. Besides maximizing production, this technique also grows a more beautiful product: "My vegetables ripen completely. This way, instead of having one yellow spot from the side that sits on the ground, the whole fruit ripens."

Jonathan has other techniques for maximizing space. To begin with, he plants earlier than most people. It is only the first week of March and already the garden beds are turned and waiting. "In the next few weeks I will be planting peas, cabbage and onion," he says. "We do two crops of everything except the slow growers like corn and tomatoes." By July, when most people are just beginning to see the fruits of their labor, Jonathan will be moving on to phase two of planting. After the first crop, he says, "I will plant beets and new potatoes, probably some beans. I always plant every bed twice."

All this planting can start to sound tiring, and Jonathan admits that none of it is fail-proof even for him. But each mistake teaches something that can be done better next time. Jonathan quotes his grandfather: "If you are not learning, you might as well be dead."

So far Jonathan's tireless personality combined with his penchant for trying new things has turned this backyard garden into much more than just an urban grow box. Along the back fence, 11 hens chitter-chatter from their homemade coop. Proud of his handiwork, Jonathan gives a quick tour of their home. Connected to their open-air chicken run by a modified pet-door, the coop has a concrete floor for easy cleaning. The galvanized walls and door are foam-insulated and there is even a screen door to replace the solid one during the hot summer days. The coop, Jonathan brags, is better constructed for efficient heating, cooling and cleaning, than are most people's houses.

The garage holds many more food-related projects. Stepping inside we are greeted by the chirping of this year's chicks keeping warm in a brooder box on the table. Also on the table sits a two-foot-high green plastic box. The box is made of sections stacked on top of each other. Jonathan lifts the top cover. It is filled with kitchen vegetable scraps and worms. "These are our worm farms," he announces. "By the time the worms are done you get a great soil amendment and," he says, turning a spout at the bottom of the boxes, "worm tea." A black, odorless liquid pours out into a jar. "This is a great nitrogen-rich fertilizer. But you have to be careful with it. I know people who have burned crops with this. You only need a quarter cup per gallon."

Turning around we bump into a freezer filled with handmade sausages, frozen jams made by Julie and other frozen garden foods. In corners and on shelves around the freezer are drying racks, another method Jonathan uses for preservation of his garden harvest.

A tour of the solar drying racks, Jonathan's own construction, leads us to the bee room. After years of serious gardening, Jonathan and Julie realized the valuable role of pollinators not only for gardening, but also for their seven fruit trees. They set up a hive and have been adding about one hive every year since then. They now have colonies around Salt Lake in the yards of neighbors and friends, with three more hives this year. Jonathan cares for each of these hives. "If the hives just sit in their yards I give them a couple of quarts of honey at the end of the year. If they actually help me harvest, I split the honey with them."

While having bees isn't necessarily difficult or time-consuming, the end of year honey harvest, he explains, is a lot of work. Each hive is normally composed of a stack of two or three boxes. Each box at the time of harvest can contain roughly four gallons of honey and weigh 80-90 pounds. Last year Jonathan harvested from his five hives 18 gallons of honey.

When the garden isn't full, the cupboards, freezers and shelves are. Jonathan and Julie convert all of their food—from the trees to the hives—into preserved items. A look through their kitchen reveals homemade marinara sauce, barbeque sauce and ketchup. The bathroom shelves have soaps, lotions, balms and candles made over their stove with their own honey and bee's wax. It is a reliable, independent cache that would make any Christian preparing for the Apocalypse green with envy (and we'd hope they'd even be thankful for the homebrew—made with homegrown hops, no less). It is also the epitome of what we now call a sustainable lifestyle. Jonathan remembers making soap with his grandmother and still makes his grandfather's recipe for sauerkraut in the same crock his grandfather used. "Back then," he reminds us, "it wasn't sustainability; it was survival."

Julie, however, wants to make sure that her husband's passionate fervor for food-based self-reliance doesn't scare other people away from home gardening. Even though Jonathan puts in hundreds of hours doesn't mean that everyone has to do the same just to grow their own tomatoes. Even one potted plant, she suggests, is a healthy beginning.

Jonathan is frequently found on FaceBook (at least till planting season takes off), where his friends, photos, memberships and pages careen toward progressive politics and, of course, the broad topic of the garden. There, he describes himself as a teacher of self-sufficiency. It is a recent role that he has spent his life preparing for.

Though his Wisconsin farming roots make him at home in the garden, he admits that he never in a million years imagined himself as a teacher. But he became active in Wasatch Community Gardens (WCG), which hosts gardening classes for people of all ages. With five gardens in Salt Lake and Sandy, WCG provides urban dwellers space to grow their own food.

Together with Julie he teaches seasonal gardening classes for adults. This year they are offering a course on solar cooking and dehydrating, a container gardening class and a canning class to help people keep their garden glories long after the winter snows have begun to fall. He is also on WGC's board of directors.

It's curious to imagine what Jonathan's grandfather would say if he saw his grandson today, exchanging the latest on bee diseases and cold-weather planting techniques with people contacted through a box on his desk and growing 10-foot-high tomatoes on his tiny city farm. It's certain he would be happy to see that the skills of the farm live on and that Jonathan congenially shares his time-tested knowledge with others of all ages as they, too, explore a dozen hobbies, grow a houseful of food and discover the joy of adventuring in the microcosms of their own yards.

Katherine Pioli is a staff writer for CATALYST.

Jamie Oliver is back to inspire those of us who have spent little time in the kitchen with ways to create meals that are simple, tasty, and wholesomely delicious.

Cooking good food from scratch is a skill that can save you money, keep you healthy, and make you and your family and friends happy. What I’ve tried to do in this book is pick a whole load of meals that we all love to eat and break them down to make them as simple as possible. There are plenty of clear instructions and step-by-step pictures, so whether you’re an accomplished cook or a complete beginner, you’ll be able to enjoy cooking and achieve great results in the kitchen.

This book is inspired by all the people I’ve met who thought they could never and would never learn how to cook. I believe that good home cooking is one of the most essential, fundamental skills that every single person on this planet should have in order to look after themselves, their families, and their friends. This food revolution is all about people learning how to make a recipe, then teaching that recipe to their friends and family . . . if enough people do this, pretty soon everyone will be cooking. So cook something today, then PASS IT ON!

Jamie demonstrates one of many inexpensive and easy-to-make recipes that can be found in his new cookbook, Jamie’s Food Revolution.

View Jamie's Food Revolution Author Video.

See also Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

"Edible: A Celebration of Local Foods" - our brand new, full-color book that showcases the photography, stories and recipes from the pages of our magazines. Don't miss it!

From the Publisher

Discover the joys of local foods,
from the experts at Edible Communities

A gorgeous full-color celebration of America's local food heroes and traditions, Edible is a must-have for anyone interested in the local food movement, environmental issues, or just a great meal. The book profiles local food artisans who are making a difference and provides 80 seasonal specialty recipes that incorporate the very best local foods from every region of the United States.

Edible Communities is a dynamic and growing network of regional food magazines in the United States and Canada that celebrates place-based foods with compelling stories about and recipes from farmers, fishermen, chefs, and food artisans.

With its emphasis on sustainable agriculture, small family farmers, and amazing artisanal food products, Edible is an earth-friendly guide to great eating.

• Six in-depth portraits of America's distinct culinary regions are included, highlighting the unique cuisine and local foods of each.
• The first section of the book features "Local Hero" essays that explore how people in our own neighborhoods are changing the way Americans eat.
• The second section of the book includes recipes from each of the six regions, divided by seasonal availability of ingredients.

Whether you want to experience the very best food from your region or be inspired by all the success stories in other regions, Edible is the ultimate guide to eating right for yourself, your community, and for the world.

View Full Cover (PDF)

Called "the high priest of the pasture" by The New York Times, Joel Salatin likes to refer to himself as a "Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-lunatic farmer." He lives with his family on Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Salatin has developed a system of pasture rotation that produces nutrient-rich grass and maximizes the composting of animal waste. Each species on the farm is dependent on another. The cows, for example, eat the nutrient rich grass in Pasture A and then are moved to Pasture B. The chickens then move to Pasture A where they pick through the cow pies eating bugs and grinding the waste into the ground where it revitalizes the grass for the cows.

Salatin's innovative system has gained attention from around the country and he travels in the winter giving lectures and demonstrations. Salatin is the author of a number of books including Holy Cows and Hog Heaven, $alad Bar Beef, You Can Farm, Pastured Poultry Profit$, and Family Friendly Farming, all available from Chelsea Green.

 You can find more about his other titles at Chelsea Green Publishing's profile for Joel Salatin.

Joel Salatin's Titles

Pastured Poultry Profit$

A couple working six months per year for 50 hours per week on 20 acres can net $25,000-$30,000 per year with an investment equivalent to the price of one new medium-sized tractor. Seldom has agriculture held out such a plum. In a day when main-line farm experts predict the continued demise of the family farm, the pastured poultry opportunity shines like a beacon in the night, guiding the way to a brighter future.

Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal
War Stories from the Local Food Front

Salatin’s expert insight explains why local food is expensive and difficult to find and will illuminate for the reader a deeper understanding of the industrial food complex.

You Can Farm
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise

Starting and succeeding in a farming enterprise.

Family Friendly Farming
A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament

A well-written, easily read book on raising a family, children, and running a farm for a profitable business.

Holy Cows and Hog Heaven
The Food Buyer's Guide to Farm Friendly Food

Holy Cows and Hog Heaven encourages every food buyer to embrace the notion that menus are a conscious decision, creating the next generation's world one bite at a time.

Salad Bar Beef

Beef can be lean and good for you when it is not a product of the industrial agriculture machine--Salatin brings us back to small scale family farming and teaches us how to make "salad bar beef."

References

From the film Food, Inc.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

From FRESH - The Movie

Among several main characters, FRESH features:

• urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur's 2008 Genius Award;
• sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma; and
• supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

From the "Deconstructing Dinner" series from 2006 Bioneers

• "Deconstructing Dinner – Bioneers I" with Andrew Kimbrell, Michael Ableman, Joel Salatin. March 2, 2006.

Drawing upon 40 years’ experience as an ecological farmer and marketer, Joel Salatin explains with humor and passion why Americans do not have the freedom to choose the food they purchase and eat. From child labor regulations to food inspection, bureaucrats provide themselves sole discretion over what food is available in the local marketplace. Their system favors industrial, global corporate food systems and discourages community-based food commerce, resulting in homogenized selection, mediocre quality, and exposure to nonorganic farming practices. Salatin’s expert insight explains why local food is expensive and difficult to find and will illuminate for the reader a deeper understanding of the industrial food complex.

About the Author

Called "the high priest of the pasture" by The New York Times, Joel Salatin likes to refer to himself as a "Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-lunatic farmer." He lives with his family on Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Salatin has developed a system of pasture rotation that produces nutrient-rich grass and maximizes the composting of animal waste. Each species on the farm is dependent on another. The cows, for example, eat the nutrient rich grass in Pasture A and then are moved to Pasture B. The chickens then move to Pasture A where they pick through the cow pies eating bugs and grinding the waste into the ground where it revitalizes the grass for the cows.

Salatin's innovative system has gained attention from around the country and he travels in the winter giving lectures and demonstrations. Salatin is the author of a number of books including Holy Cows and Hog Heaven, $alad Bar Beef, You Can Farm, Pastured Poultry Profit$, and Family Friendly Farming, all available from Chelsea Green.

You can find more about his other titles at either Slow Food Utah's "Books by Joel Salatin"
or at Chelsea Green Publishing's profile for Joel Salatin.

More than twenty years ago, when Italian Carlo Petrini learned that McDonald’s wanted to erect its golden arches next to the Spanish Steps in Rome, he developed an impassioned response: he helped found the Slow Food movement. Since then, Slow Food has become a worldwide phenomenon, inspiring the likes of Alice Waters and Michael Pollan. Now, it’s time to take the work of changing the way people grow, distribute, and consume food to a new level.

On a global scale, as Petrini tells us in Terra Madre, we aren’t eating food. Food is eating us.

Large-scale industrial agriculture has run rampant and penetrated every corner of the world. The price of food is fixed by the rules of the market, which have neither concern for quality nor respect for producers. People have been forced into standardized, unnatural diets, and aggressive, chemical-based agriculture is ravaging ecosystems from the Great Plains to the Kalahari. Food has been stripped of its meaning, reduced to a mere commodity, and its mass production is contributing to injustice all over the world.

In Terra Madre, Petrini shows us a solution in the thousands of newly formed local alliances between food producers and food consumers. And he proposes expanding these alliances—connecting regional food communities around the world to promote good, clean, and fair food.

The end goal is a world in which communities are entitled to food sovereignty—allowed to choose not only what they want to grow and eat, but also how they produce and distribute it.

Terra Madre: Forging a New Global Network of Sustainable Food Communities is from the
Chelsea Green Bookstore – Gardening & Agriculture collection of titles.

Terra Madre: Book and DVD Set

More than twenty years ago, when Italian Carlo Petrini learned that McDonald’s wanted to erect its golden arches next to the Spanish Steps in Rome, he developed an impassioned response: he helped found the Slow Food movement. Since then, Slow Food has become a worldwide phenomenon, inspiring the likes of Alice Waters and Michael Pollan. Now, it’s time to take the work of changing the way people grow, distribute, and consume food to a new level.

About the Author

Carlo Petrini, born in the small northern Italian town of Bra in 1949, is the founder and international president of the Slow Food movement, committed to the promotion of “good, clean and fair food.” The author of several books, he contributes regularly to Italian dailies and magazines on matters related to gastronomy and food politics. To write Terra Madre, he collaborated closely with Carlo Bogliotti, an editor of the Slowfood magazine and governor of the Slow Food Italy association.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: In Search of School Food
1. School Food 101
2. Food Fights: A Brief History
3. Penny Wise, Pound Foolish: What's Driving the Menu?
4. How Nutritious Are School Meals?
5. The Missing Millions: Problems of Participation
6. Hunger in the Classroom: Problems of Access
7. Free, Reduced Price, Paid: Unintended Consequences
8. Local Heroes: Fixing School Food at the Community Level
Conclusion: School Food at the Crossroads
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Slow Food USA Blog Review

Fixing School Lunch in America
Posted on Fri, February 26, 2010 by Slow Food USA
by intern Christine Binder

Last month, I attended a meeting of parents at a Brooklyn public school. Janet Poppendieck, the author of Free for All: Fixing School Lunch in America, led a discussion about the state of school lunches, describing to us the changes in the National School Lunch Program over the years, and explaining the various forces that continue to shape what students eat. Afterward, we discussed the potential of the upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization – which only happens every five years – to improve school lunches.

In researching for Free For All, Dr. Poppendieck, a professor of sociology at Hunter College, visited school cafeterias and kitchens all over the country, and even spent time working in one. Along the way, she met many people striving to improve school food in their own communities, whom she describes in the “Local Heroes” chapter of the book. It is heartening to hear their stories of success, but I can’t help but agree with her when she says, “It shouldn’t be so hard. One should not have to be a superhero, a magician, or a saint to get healthy, tasty food into the school cafeteria, or to make school food truly accessible to children.”

Currently, there are many obstacles for those working to improve school food. It is very difficult to serve delicious, healthful meals to children with a food budget of less than a dollar per meal. Many schools need to sell junk food in vending machines and snack bars in order to break even. Procuring local food is not always possible, due to bureaucratic and logistical barriers. Poppendieck points out, however, that the National School Lunch Program is ultimately the responsibility of Congress, and that only Congress can “step up to the plate to enact changes in federal law that make local improvements much easier to achieve.”

Towards the end of the meeting, Dr. Poppendieck asked a profound question: “How old will your children be in five years?” Everyone in the room sat in thoughtful silence, imagining the state of school food and the well-being of their children five years from now. When you think about it that way, it’s very clear; America’s children cannot wait any longer for healthy school food. Tell Congress to prioritize school lunches. To quote Free for All one final time, “It’s time to see what we can do if we put children first.”

To contact your legislator, click here!

See University of California Press – California Studies in Food and Culture for additional titles.

Locavore is an inspiring new documentary about the inevitable return to the local diet. Less than a generation ago human beings worldwide traveled less than 10 miles to obtain the majority of the food they ate. Today the average conventionally grown vegetable has traveled more than 1500 miles by the time it has reached your pantry. Our food today is over processed, stale, and lacks nutrition. This new film, featuring some of the neo-pioneers of the Locavore movement will educate, inspire, and revitalize bringing health to our bodies AND our communities.

It is a film about the return to local food or "Locavorism". Featuring farmers, families, and respected authorities and neo-pioneers in the movement, Locavore will educate, inspire, and create some food for thought. (Pun intended!)

Locavore Local Diet healthy Planet (Movie Trailer) from Jay Canode on Vimeo.

FAQs

Here are the answers to the questions we get asked most frequently.

What is a Locavore?

Definition: Someone who exclusively (or at least primarily) eats foods from their local farmers, growers and food sheds or a radius of 100 miles from their homes (250 miles depending on location). By eating locally, Locavores hope to create a greater connection between themselves and their community food sources, resist industrialized and processed foods, and support their local economy.

Local food (also regional food or food patriotism) or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place" and is considered to be a part of the broader sustainability movement. It is part of the concept of local purchasing and local economies, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. Those who prefer to eat locally grown/produced food call themselves "localvores" or “locavores”.

Why should I become a Locavore?

1. Local food tastes better & is better for you.
2. Local foods are seasonal & seasonal foods taste best.
3. Local foods maintain farmland and green space.
4. Local foods lower your carbon footprint.
5. Local foods support your local economy.
6. Local foods promote food safety.
7. Local foods support community.
8. Local foods support good health & immunities.
9. Local foods contribute to the legacy you leave.
10. Local foods support your local growers and neighbors.

How do I become a Locavore?

1. Plant a garden (even a small herb garden in your home is a good start).
2. Visit your local farmers market.
3. Commit to one locally grown or raised meal per week (to start).
4. Choose 5 foods you will only buy locally (move to 10 after 30 days-it’s not that hard).
5. Preserve, can and freeze local food for off season enjoyment.
6. Barter with your neighbor (trade foods you grow with another local grower or neighbor for variety).
7. Buy foods grown and raised within a 100 mile radius of your home (for city dwellers, within 250 miles).
8. Share the news…invite your friends, neighbors, co-workers and family to watch the Locavore movie.

How do I stay a Locavore?

1. Learn what’s in season.
2. Shop at farmers markets and your local growers food co-op.
3. Visit locally owned food producers.
4. Buy family farmed or fair trade when local is unavailable.
5. Choose restaurants that use locally grown and raised food.
6. Encourage your local grocer to carry locally grown and raised foods.
7. Educate your friends, neighbors, co-workers and family by infecting them with the Locavore bug.

Where can I find local foods in my area?

There are many great websites where you’ll be able to find your local growers, restaurants that serve locally grown foods and your local farmers markets…

Here are a few you can start with…

• http://www.ediblecommunities.com 
• http://www.localharvest.org
• http://www.100milediet.org 
• http://www.sustainabletable.org
• http://www.eatwellguide.org
• http://www.foodroutes.org  
• http://www.slowfoodusa.org

Visit Locavore - Local Diet, Healthy Planet for more information.

Product Details
ISBN-10: 1605296864
ISBN-13: 9781605296869
Published: Rodale Books, 03/16/2010, 03/01/2010
Pages: 256
Language: English

The Galaxy Bookshop - 7 Mill Street - Hardwick, Vermont - 802-472-5533

Description

Over the past 3 years, Hardwick, Vermont, a typical hardscrabble farming community of 3,000 residents, has jump-started its economy and redefined its self-image through a local, self-sustaining food system unlike anything else in America. Even as the recent financial downturn threatens to cripple small businesses and privately owned farms, a stunning number of food-based businesses have grown in the region—Vermont Soy, Jasper Hill Farm, Pete's Greens, Patchwork Farm & Bakery, Apple Cheek Farm, Claire's Restaurant and Bar, and Bonnieview Farm, to name only a few. The mostly young entrepreneurs have created a network of community support; they meet regularly to share advice, equipment, and business plans, and to loan each other capital. Hardwick is fast becoming a model for other communities to replicate its success. The captivating story of a small town coming back to life, The Town That Food Saved is narrative nonfiction at its best: full of colorful characters and grounded in an idea that will revolutionize the way we eat.

About the Author

BEN HEWITT was born in northwestern Vermont and raised in a two-room cabin; his father was a poet and his mother worked on a nearby dairy farm. He now lives with his wife and two sons on a diversified, 40-acre farm in Vermont, where they produce dairy, beef, pork, lamb, vegetables, and berries.

His work has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including Best Life, Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure, the New York Times Magazine, Outside, and Skiing.

From Slow Fod USA Blog

We all know what local, sustainable food can do for the health of our bodies, but could it also be a cure for the health of ailing economies? Ben Hewitt’s book The Town that Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food delves into this question, exploring the growth of a vibrant local food economy in Hardwick, Vermont, population 3,200.

Hardwick is a lot like how it sounds – unemployment in the town is 40 percent higher than the state average; incomes are 25 percent lower. But in the last few years, Hardwick has returned to its historical roots in farming, with a new twist – local, sustainable agriculture. It’s growing a vibrant local food system that is restoring not only some jobs and higher wages, but a sense of community and food that’s connected to it.

A diverse network of “agrepreneurs” in Hardwick– High Mowing Organic Seeds, Pete’s Greens, Jasper Hill Farm, the Vermont Food Venture Center and so on - are producing organic and artisanal foods and seeking investors. Business owners share advice, capital and facilities. About a hundred jobs have been created.

Sounds great, but is the story of this one town’s thriving local food system unique, or is it a viable model for other communities? As I read, part of me hoped to find an easy-to-follow plan - just do it like we did! Farm this way, market that way, save the world, take a nap. Sadly, social change isn’t that easy, but while Hardwick doesn’t offer an exact blueprint, it is a thought-provoking example of a thriving local food economy.

Hewitt suggests that a couple of unique, and surprising, variables have contributed to the town’s growing local-ag economy: poverty and small size. Hewitt believes that Hardwick’s success is founded upon trust and collaboration which “are in no small ways social and cultural responses to economic hardship.” He also suggests that the population had a “just right” quality that was big enough to be ambitious, and small enough to be fast-acting and flexible.

The best lesson to be learned here is about cooperation and inspiration. The Town that Food Saved is a story about the ability of a group of likeminded folks to come together in pursuit of a passion for sustainable, local food– not without challenges, but with dedication to a bigger vision. That’s what Slow Food is all about too.

If you’re interested in learning more about thriving local food entrepreneurs, BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) has some exciting network programs focused on sustainable agriculture.  And for ideas on how to invest in other inspiring small food enterprises, you can check out Slow Money, a non-profit dedicated to investing in local food systems and connecting investors to local economies.

Dual Immersion Academy - Garden

Sharing Food Traditions

The Dual Immersion Academy (DIA) of Salt Lake City is a dream come true for many families who wish to celebrate and share their language and culture with their community. It is a bilingual and bicultural school, (Spanish and English) where we celebrate one another's languages and cultures openly. We wish to continue this by including our traditions related to food. The families at our school are diverse. They speak many languages, come from many countries, and practice many cultures. All of them have their roots in growing, preparing, and enjoying food. We wish to pass that on to our children.

We are creating a school garden where our children will grow traditional foods such as tomatillos, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, and potatoes to be eaten by our children in our cafeteria. The project will be driven by the sixth and seventh grade classes. They will be taught lessons in the garden by parent volunteers and then will in turn teach the same lessons to all the other children in the school. This promotes the tradition of passing on the stewardship of the Earth from older to younger children.

We will also be planting heirloom varieties of vegetables so that the children may harvest the seeds and grow a sustainable garden.

Garden Leadership & Philosophy

The founding members of the DIA School Garden Committee bring many talents and abilities to this project. Some of the skills of our group include construction contracting, graphic design, gardening, cooking, fundraising, educating, and leadership. We are parents, students, and teachers who come together with the power to create a sustainable and successful garden program. I am one of those parents.

At DIA, we currently have 400 students and we are growing fast with the prospect of adding three new kindergarten classes next year. DIA teaches preschool to seventh grade and will possibly add an eighth grade class in the fall. We have the opportunity to impact a great number of children at the most critical time of their learning and emotional growth.

We need to see these children know that the essence of life, food, comes from the soil, sun, rain, and their own hands. We refuse to allow them to think that food is born in plastic. We desire for them the opportunity to regain their power, which has been lost to our current food system through dependency on it. We want them to sit down for a meal that they have grown with their own hands, taste real food, and feel free because of it. Our children hunger and thirst for the magic that flows from the earth.

Garden Structure & Funding

We will be building garden boxes to grow our food in. We are building garden boxes for a few reasons. One, we have built our school in an old strip mall where the land has had many uses and has been contaminated. We will ensure that the soil our children will grow their food in is safe. Also we want our garden to be accessible to all children despite any disability. Having the beds raised in this way makes it so. Finally we are creating the garden with the possiblity of portability. Because we are a charter school and we are growing, there is the possibility of relocation in the future. Our children will be able to take their garden with them where ever the school may go.

This project will serve the local charter school Dual Immersion Academy (DIA) of Salt Lake City, Utah. DIA is located in Glendale, an inner-city, low income neighborhood. We are currently looking for partners in our community and have been offered support from the University of Utah Bennion Center. However we know that the greatest success will be realized if our greatest support comes from within the school. For that reason we are planning fundraisers to be conducted by the children in order to raise [any] remaining money needed. [Slow Food Utah has awarded a grant in support of this schoolyard garden, with funds generated from the Noodles & Co. fundraising effort on April 17, 2010. Fund-raising at the DIA will help support the garden] beyond what the Slow Food Utah grant may provide.

In February 2010, the sixth and seventh graders moved and repaired a greenhouse donated to the school by Home Depot last year. Those two grades will soon prepare lessons and teach the younger classes how to plant and transplant seeds and seedlings. Extra seedlings will be sold to the families of the school to raise funds and promote home food propagation. Other fundraisers will take place over the next two months and in-kind donations will be solicited from the community and the families of the school. Work projects will take place throughout April to build and fill the garden boxes. University of Utah [Bennion Center] volunteers will help parents, teachers and students do this. The garden will be maintained by committed students from the sixth and seventh grades. The harvest will feed the children who return to school in August [,2010].

[The DIA garden project has relied on] fund-raising within the school and a matching grant from parents at the school. [The Slow Food Utah grant has enabled the DIA garden project to proceed, although future fund-raising will still be needed.]

DIA Overview and Description

Dual Immersion Academy provides a dual language educational opportunity for families in our community. The goal of Dual Immersion Programs such as what we have at DIA is to promote native like bilingualism and biliteracy, achieve grade level academic achievement or higher, and encourage positive cross-cultural attitudes and behaviors in all students.

Through a lottery system we work to achieve the ideal Dual Immersion classroom which is made up of 50% native Spanish speakers and 50% English speakers. The native English speakers and native Spanish speakers are integrated throughout the school day receiving content instruction and literacy instruction in both languages. Therefore, both groups of students have an opportunity to be peer role models.

According to research, the benefits of the Immersion Bilingual Program are educational, cognitive, socio-cultural, and economic (Calderon & Carreon, 2000; Cloud et al., 2000).

• Educational: Students acquire high levels of proficiency in both their first and second language while developing high-level academic skills.
• Cognitive: Bilingual students are able to problem solve more creatively. Their knowledge of the structural properties of the language allows them to decode academic language more efficiently.
• Socio-cultural: Bilingual people are able to understand and communicate with members of other cultural groups. They are also able to respect the values and customs of the speakers of other languages.
• Economic: There are jobs that call for bilingual or multilingual proficiency. Bilingual students' knowledge of another world language is a valuable resource that can contribute to the nation's economic relations with other countries.

Program Structure

Research has indicated that the more literate our Spanish speakers are in their first language the easier it will be for them to become literate in English. Research also indicates that most students need significant exposure to a second language to promote high levels of proficiency and achievement. This is especially true for the native English speakers in reaching high levels in Spanish because they live in an English dominant society. Therefore, Dual Immersion Academy has chosen the 90-10 Dual Immersion Model where both native English and native Spanish kindergarten and 1st grade students will receive approximately 90% of their school day in Spanish and 10% in English. As students move through the grades, there will be incremental increases of student instructional day in English:

Find out more about the Dual Immersion Academy »
1155 S. Glendale Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84104
Phone: (801) 972-1425
Email: info@diacharter.org

Slow Food Utah - Micro-Grant

Slow Food Utah and Noodles & Co. in Sugarhouse at 1300 East 2100 South, Salt Lake City, teamed-up to help the Dual Immersion Academy (DIA) schoolyard garden get off the ground.

Noodles & Co. has generously donated half of their day's sales on April 17, 2010 to support the new schoolyard garden at DIA.

Slow Food Utah would like to thank the folowing individuals for volunteering during the April 17 fundraiser at Noodles & Co.-Sugarhouse:

• Chantelle Bourdeaux
• Gwen Crist
• John Frasier
• Marguerite Henderson
• Cathie Mooers

Slow Food Utah would also like to acknowledge the support of Noodles & Co. and especiallly Ken Pierce, Noodles & Co. Marketing Manager.

Thanks to those who ate at Noodles & Co.-Sugarhouse on April 17th,
the funds raised during this day totaled over $1,000 all of which will be contributed to the Dual Immersion Academy Schoolyard Garden.

Contact Slow Food Utah for more information about this newest Schoolyard Garden.
Amy Spendlove is the DIA Schoolyard Garden Coordinator.

Visit the photo gallery documenting the construction of the outdoor garden.

• Construction of the Schoolyard Garden Boxes - September, 2006

Last Saturday of July through last Saturday of September.
Saturday 9:00 a.m. to Noon.

The Spring City Farmers' Market runs from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and is generally open from the Saturday after the 4th of July through the last Saturday in September. The market also includes live music. There may be events in early in October. Check with Vicki Allen for more information.

May 22 through October 1, 2010
Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Cache Valley's newest farmers market (20 minutes north of Logan) features fresh produce, homemade crafts, prepared foods, and live music at the historic Rockhill Farm, home of Rockhill Creamery, makers of fine farmstead cheeses. New vendors welcome.

The 2010 Harvest Market will run each Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm, at Rockhill Creamery (563 South State Street).

Click here for the market guidelines and an application
(the application is on the last 3 pages of the pdf document).

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of the market,
please contact Terrie or Pete for more information.

2009 Harvest Market Sponsors

• Richmond City (Terrie Wierenga, City Council)
• Rockhill Creamery (Pete Schropp, Owner)
• Smithfield Implement
• Lowers Foods
• The Herald Journal
• Utah Public Radio
• Center for Persons with Disabilities

Thursdays 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
July 1st - September 30th 2010

Promenade (prom-uh-nahd):
A public place for strolling.
Pleasant Grove Promenade: A place to
experience some of the joys in life and
kindle a sense of community.

The Pleasant Grove Promenade is a place where families and friends can stroll through a quaint historic park and be introduced to fresh produce, unique gifts and distinctive foods -- all in conjunction with live entertainment and kids’ activities.

Background – The Pleasant Grove Farmer’s Market is held every Thursday throughout July through September between the hours of 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. Booths are $10 per week. Farmers pay $5. Registration is simple. No contract or time commitment is required, although, in some cases a sales tax and or County Health Department permit may be required. Find out all you need to know on the Promenade’s website. The Promenade Committee is especially interested in attracting farmers and amateur musicians.

Experience Fresh

Locally grown vegetables, fruits, flowers, and plants – sold by the farmers that produce them.

While you're purchasing your fresh vegetables and fruits enjoy a tasty pastry from local bakeries or enjoy a meal created by local chefs.

Experience Unique

Specializing in creative, original and decorative gifts, accessories, clothes and art pieces. Also distinctive foods from "Utah's Own" food companies and other personal items of a unique nature.

Experience Fun

Enjoy an eclectic mix of live, local musicians. Nearly everyone enjoys music and its power to lift the spirit. Come let our entertainment be a part of your day.

Experience Growth

The Kiwanis Club of Pleasant Grove is sponsoring a free area in the park that provides activities which are educational and stimulating for kids and fun for all involved.

Come enjoy the summer evenings with us and let your family and friends know to meet you in downtown Pleasant Grove at "Second & Main".

Saturdays through October, 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Produce, food, art, and fun.

2010 Season: Saturdays May 1 to October 2, 2010
9:00 a.m. to Noon

Fresh produce, nuts, herbs, arts & crafts, garden related items.

Market Hours: Saturdays beginning April 3, 2010
9:00 am to 1:00 pm
Admission and entertainment is free.

The Tuacahn Saturday Market will start its Second Successful Year Saturday April 3rd 2010 and will continue to be your preferred entertainment, food and fun every Saturday all year. This season starts our year-around Saturday Market. Youll find something new and different every Saturday morning at Tuacahn.

Patrons will be able to stroll along the tree lined walkway next to the running water feature and browse the displays by local painters, artists and crafters. Food, including seasonal fruits and vegetables will be available for purchase including weekly co-op baskets with all your favorite fresh fruits & vegetables.

Tuacahns Plaza is just the place from 9:00am to 11:00am to purchase a pancake breakfast with bacon and juice for the whole family with an abundance of tables nearby or bring a blanket and have a picnic on the grass. Many vendors have a diversity of food for purchase all during the market hours to accommodate hungry shoppers.

Tuacahn is already a well known place for live music and professional theatre and now is well known for Tuacahns Saturday Market. It is one more way that those who want to experience more of Tuacahn can enjoy its wonderful surroundings in an outdoor market in the canyon featuring local artwork, crafts, food and entertainment.

Tuacahn Gift Gallery Manager and Saturday Market organizer, Chris Graham, knows this can be a great opportunity for people looking for something fun to do on a Saturday morning and for crafters who want to earn additional income in the current economic climate. This will become a fun tradition in St. George for locals and visitors alike, she says. It will really be a fun event year-round for the whole family. Our hope is that this event will become a staple in the community.

For more information or for a vendor application please call (435) 652-3218 or visit tuacahn.org.

Tuacahn Center for the Arts is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

Click here for vendor information (PDF)

Wednesdays from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

[Webmeister's Note: According to Juniper Sky Art Gallery, this market is no longer open. 04/01/10]

Every Saturday 8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
July 10 through September 4, 2010

Healthy and fresh local produce – Handmade crafts – Music and entertainment
Fun for the whole family – Come join the excitement

Locavore Market is held Saturdays at Caputo's Market
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Check Caputo's events listings on Facebook for the latest details.

Locavore Market Overview

• Tony Caputo’s Market & Deli began Locavore Market in the fall of 2008 to offer local food artisans and ranchers access to customer’s in the months the Farmer’s Market was not running. Many local producers felt the Locavore Market was so great for them that they expressed interest in keeping it running even during the Farmer’s Market. Now the Locavore Market is year round.
   
• Vendors are able to set up booths similar to those in typical Farmer’s Market style and sell to the public with no fees.
   
• Caputo’s does not charge the vendors a single cent to be a part of the Locavore marketplace. We take no cuts from sales, they keep the money they make.
   
• Customers are able to shop the Locavore booths, eat at the most beloved deli in the Salt Lake Valley, and shop the nationally recognized market all on any given Saturday in close proximity to all downtown Salt Lake City has to offer.
   
• Featuring Organic Local Pork, Poultry, Beef & Lamb. Jams made w/ Local fruit, and candy made locally.
   
• Please come support these local artisans.

Sample of Weekly Vendors

Lau Family Farms

• Fifth generation famers on Five Mile Meadow ranch in Soda Springs, Idaho specializing in cuts of beef and lamb.
• Focused on management intensive grazing like biological weed control.
• High quality cuts from passionate stewards advocating for natural care of the farmland and animals.

Butcher’s Bunches

• Jams and Preserves all created solely by Liz Butcher from Logan, Utah.
• Natural fruit flavors are complimented by fine chocolates such as local Amano and French Valrhona or fine liqueurs like Grand Marnier, amaretto, and cognac.

Melanie’s Sweets & Treats

• Treats are made using the best ingredients and kept consistent by great dedication to excellence and ultimate enjoyment.
• Highlighted Treats: Sweet & Spicy Pretzels, Chili Chocolate Popcorn, Salted Caramels, Cara-Mallow Nut Dreams.

Heritage Valley Poultry

• Organic free range chickens, turkeys, duck, and rabbit.

Star G-Bar Free Range Piedmontese Beef

• Free range & grass fed.
• Rare breed of cattle from Northern Italy.
• Jen and Nick only raise a few animals at a time to make sure each animal represents Northern Italian perfection.

Sweeten Family Farm

• Organic green garlic.

Taylor Natural Farms - Taylor Made Beef

• Certified organic beef and pork.

Contact and Further Information

• Contact Jamey in Caputo’s Market 801-531-8669.
• Caputo’s Market fanpage on Facebook details which vendors will be attending each week.
• Caputo's also uses Twitter to spread the word.
• Locavore Hours: Every Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm.
• Locavore vendors accept cash and check only; Caputo’s accepts cash and all major credit cards.

Black Island Farms is a working vegetable farm, with about 400 acres in cultivation! We grow carrots, onions, cabbage, corn, pumpkins, squash and gourds. Black Island Farms has been in the same family for more than 45 years, and we're proud of our heritage here in Davis County.

Each Fall, we host a Harvest Festival and Cornfield MAiZE — Utah agri-tourism at it's best, with hayrides, bonfires, and a haunted maze. We offer school field trips in September and October. And ... we have a Farmers Market where you can get flowers, gifts and produce.

Farmers Market: Buy Fresh!

Open from September 18 - October 31, 2009

Staheli Family Farm is a "Real" working farm. This 5 generation farm is located in beautiful Washington City. We offer garden plots...where you can grow your own crops. We also will grow the crops for you sign up for our CSA. We offer a weekly Farm market that is held on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. We offer farm fresh eggs. Our farm is also open for groups to tour, family reunions and so much more. Please visit our website for more detailed information.

Farmers' Market

Each Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., our local farmers bring their fresh picks out to Staheli Family Farm for our Farmer's Market. This is the best place for Fresh, Wholesome, Local Produce!

Hailed by The New York Times as “A poet of farming” and the Los Angeles Times as the “Rockstar Farmer” who “uses his farm as Thoreau did his Walden Pond,” David Mas Masumoto weaves together stories of family and farming, life and death to reveal age-old wisdom that is fast disappearing—and urgently needed.

When Slow Food activist David Mas Masumoto’s father has a stroke in the sprawling fields of their farm, the reality of his father’s mortality drives Masumoto to reevaluate the significance and meaning of farming in an information-driven, modern world. As Masumoto nurses his father back to health, and becomes a teacher to the master who had once schooled him, he reclaims the practical and emotional wisdom that they and their ancestors had learned from working the land. Realizing that he himself needs to pass on a wealth of knowledge to the next generation, he writes this impassioned narrative—part memoir, part life instruction—about re-connecting to the land.

In Wisdom of the Last Farmer, Masumoto farms stories as he farms peaches—finding the natural connections between families and farming, fathers and children, booms and declines, and relating them to larger, more sweeping themes of life, death, and renewal. His insights are beautiful, lyrical descriptions on how to nurture both the tangible and intangible and make them grow—and when to step back, surrender, and let nature or the market take over. Through Masumoto’s quiet eloquence, we see how our own destinies are involved in the future of our food, the land, and the farm.

David Mas Masumoto is the award-winning author of Epitaph for a Peach and other books, popular columnist, spokesperson for organic farming, and a fellow at The Kellogg Foundation. A third-generation farmer, he grows certified organic peaches, nectarines, and grapes on his family’s eighty-acre California farm. He lives in Del Rey, California.

Saturdays, (Rain or shine) August 7 - October 2, 2010.
HOURS 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Vendor set up: 9:00 a.m.

ROOTS in Lehi Farmers' Market, is new and we're starting small, but hope to become a thriving community market for Lehi's (and surrounding areas) Farmers, growers, gardeners, and citizens looking for fresh, seasonal, locally grown produce and products. We are actively seeking vendors with agricultural produce and agriculturally related products at this time.

(Downtown Market will not be in operation this year, 2010)

Fridays 3:00 p.m. to dusk fro 15 weeks from July 9 through October 15, 2010, offering fresh produce, crafts, prepared food, and fun!

The Sugar House Farmers Market is taking place on Monument Plaza in the heart of the Sugar House Shopping District. The side street on the south side of 2100 S at 1100 E will be closed off, allowing space for 24 vendors.

Mission

The mission of the Sugar House Farmers Market is to create a family-friendly neighborhood farmers & craftspersons market, to provide fresh produce, delicious food and unique Utah products with a local Sugar House flair. The organizers hope to bring the Sugar House community together through food and fun, and to provide a new opportunity in Salt Lake City for local growers and food and craft artisans to sell directly to the public.

The Sugar House Farmers Market is unique in that its conception came from a small group of local community members, business owners and farmers. It is run entirely by volunteer efforts with a board of nine members and a committee of over thirty individuals. The ultimate goal of the market is to revitalize the heart of the Sugar House Business District with a true neighborhood market.

The Sugar House Farmers Market has worked to attract small urban farms, entrepreneurs in the area of homemade crafts, and food businesses. The goal for the first year is to offer goods from about twenty-five booths. In addition, we will feature several prepared food vendors. Each week one non-profit organization from the Sugar House area will be featured. Booths will be set up on both sides of the side street at 21st South and 11th East (Monument Plaza).

Sugar House Farmers Market is a licensed charitable organization in the state of Utah and working toward 501(c)3 non-profit status. Fees paid by vendors cover most of the budget, but not all. Sponsorship opportunities are still available. We need at least $2000 in small contributions to the market in the next two weeks to help with our marketing push and to ensure that the market remains strong for next year. For questions about sponsorship, contact Chris Carson, 801-673-5694.

Vendors

Policies and Guidelines

See Also Related Documents:

• 2010 Vendor Application (MS-Word DOC)
• Vendor Packet 1-Rules and Regs (PDF)
• Vendor Packet 2-Vendors List and Guidelines (PDF)

Fridays 3:00 p.m. to dusk July 9 through October 15, 2010.

Check Whole Foods Market Fourth South Website for current information.

Update (July 17, 2010)

• Jamie’s Food Revolution 
  – More than 609,224 people have signed the petition, with 5,507 from Utah. Read More »
• Jamie Oliver's Facebook has over 333,749 fans. Read More »
• Food Revolution Community Is the newest addition with 31,408 fans so far.
  Use it to let the Food Revolution Community Team know
  how they can help you keep the Revolution going! Read More »
• The un-official Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution is at over 109,764 fans. Read More »
  

Series Ratings

Epsiode 101 Ranking Notes

• Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution produced ABC’s highest Adult 18-49 series number in the Friday 9-10pm time period in well over 3 years – since 12/29/06.
• Among Adults 18-49 it was ABC’s top-rated Friday night premiere (returning or new) in more than 4 years – since 2/24/06. In addition, Food Revolution registered as the highest-rated Adult 18-49 premiere for any network on the night (returning or new) since September 2007.
• Impressively, Food Revolution even finished ahead of its Sunday preview this past week, coming out of Desperate Housewives, by 1.4 million viewers and by 18% in Adults 18-49
  (6.1 million and 2.2/6 on Sunday 3/21 in the 10pm hour).
  Source: TV Ratings: March Madness Wins; “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” Cooks for ABC.
  Posted on 27 March 2010 by Robert Seidman, TV by the Numbers.
   
  

Message from Jamie

The American Food Revolution needs to start now! If you care about your country and the health of its children please help us make a difference. We need your support to get people back in touch with food and keep cooking skills alive before it's too late. We want to make sure every kid gets good, fresh food at school. It's proven that real food promotes more effective learning. If you want better health for your kids the junk food must go.

I need to be able to show The President and industry how many of you out there really care about this issue so please don't wait, sign up today. It will only take 30 seconds.

America's health needs you!

Thank you. Please forward this to your friends, family, classmates, teachers, colleagues and anyone else who you think cares.

AMERICA's food revolution - be a part of it!

Great revolutions happen when the people get mad enough about a problem to do something radical. If you believe in your right to better food and health prospects for your children, join America's Food Revolution now. You have the power to change America, family by family.
Here are some things you can do:

• Sign the petition.
• Get your family, friends, and everyone you know to sign the petition too.
• Start a food revolution in your child's school.
• Start a food revolution in your community.
• Pass on your knowledge and show your kids how to cook.

Jamie's Platform for Change

Jamie's Food Revolution is all about replacing junk, snacks and processed food with freshly cooked nutritious meals – in schools and at home.

After three months working in Huntington, WV, Jamie has seen how a little bit of confidence can change people's lives and their health prospects.

He believes that American people have the power to halt the obesity epidemic.
 

How are You Starting Your own Food Revolution?

"Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" wants to hear about what you are doing to start your own Food Revolution! Whether its planting your own vegetable garden, “passing it on,” cooking dinner for your family, or if you just want to bring attention to something in your community that you are trying to change - we want to hear about it!

E-mail us at JOFoodRevolution@gmail.com and tell us a little bit about what your doing, or how you would like Jamie to help. Please include your name and contact information – you may be selected to be featured on Jamie's new American TV show!
 

Jamie Olivers' Food Revolution - TV Series

Jamie has made a new series for the ABC American TV network about food – how families eat, what kids get at school and why, like the UK, the diet of processed food and snacks is causing so many health and obesity problems.

The series is set in Huntington, West Virginia. Jamie's challenge is to see if he can get a whole community cooking again. He works with the school lunch ladies and local families to get everyone back in the kitchen and making tasty meals with fresh ingredients – no packets, no cheating.

He's started a Food Revolution:
to get people all over America to reconnect with their food and change the way they eat.

View "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" on the ABC network

• Episode 1 Sunday 21st March 10pm EST / 9:00pm MST (sneak peak!)
  Episode 1 Friday 26th March – 8pm EST / 7:00pm MST
   
• Episode 2 Friday 26th March– 9pm EST / 8:00pm MST
  Episode 2 Saturday 27th March – 4pm EST (repeat)
   
• Episode 3 Friday 2nd April – 9pm EST / 8:00pm MST
  Episode 3 Saturday 3rd April – 3pm EST (repeat)
   
• Episode 4 Friday 9th April – 9 pm EST / 8:00pm MST
  Episode 4 Saturday 10th April – 3 pm EST (repeat)
   
• Episode 5 Friday 16th April – 9 pm EST / 8:00pm MST
   
• Season finale Friday 23rd April – 9 pm EST / 8:00pm MST

Watch the Trailer on JamieOliver.com.
Watch Full Episodes or video clips on ABC.
Watch Full Episodes on Hulu.
(Episodes are available until streaming rights for the series expire on June 5, 2010.)

Jamie's Food Revolution Series Overview

Jamie Oliver is in the United States to start a revolution. The impassioned chef, TV personality and best-selling author is determined to take on the high statistics of obesity, heart disease and diabetes in the US, where the nation's children are the first generation not expected to live as long as their parents. Oliver is inviting viewers to take a stand and change the way America eats, in home kitchens, schools and workplaces, with the thought-provoking new series, "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," debuting Friday March 26 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. The series is produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions and Fresh One Productions.

In the series, Jamie heads to Huntington, West Virginia - which has been called the unhealthiest city in America -- to start his new cooking initiative. He hopes to help get Huntington off that list and start a chain reaction of positive change across the country. Jamie says, "The time is right for people to rediscover the sense of pride, satisfaction and fun you can get from cooking for the people you love. There's an incredible community in Huntington, and I want this experience to be a celebration of what we can achieve when people come together. I want to prove that turning around the epidemic of obesity and bad health doesn't have to be boring or dull in the slightest. Wonderful stories will unfold in Huntington, and hopefully this will inspire the rest of the States."

Needled by local naysayers, challenged by ingrained unhealthy habits and government bureaucracy, and welcomed by some of the most surprising youngsters, families and local leaders, Jamie shows how, in just a few short months, he tried to transform Huntington as a template for the entire country. The stakes? Simply the health of our country's citizens and the legacy for its children.

The series is loosely based on Jamie's U.K. series, "Jamie's Ministry of Food" and "Jamie's School Dinners," which saw his successful grass-roots efforts improve the school lunches in communities there. For the latter show, it resulted in a total overhaul of the school dinner program in the U.K. In America, he's turning his attention to helping people of all ages eat more balanced meals and cook with fresh ingredients, not only at schools, but also homes, workplaces and even restaurants.

Jamie's Kitchen in Huntington, WV

Jamie's Kitchen West Virginia on Facebook – A community cooking center where Jamie has been teaching local people how to cook from scratch.

School Food

Want better food in your school? Download Jamie's school lunch recipes and menus, find advice for principals and superintendants, and meet our Revolution Heroes – the amazing people who are already giving kids a better diet in other parts of the US.

Jamie's School Food Charter

Twelve simple things every school can do to improve their school food. Download (PDF)

Facts and Figures

Facts and figures about how obesity and diet is affecting America's health, plus food facts and information about the federal school lunch program. Download (PDF)

Cook with your family

Recipes and videos from the show. Ditch the processed food and get cooking! These recipes are quick, easy and cheap – your family and friends will love them. More coming soon, check the Campaign Website for the latest.

School Nutrition Links

People and organizations leading the way for improvement to school food, farm-to-school programs, information about the government's school nutrition programs and more...

Federal programs

• Centre for Disease Control - Adolescent and School Health
• CDC Obesity Statistics
• Know your farmer know your food
• USDA School Nutrition program

School food and child nutrition
Great organisations leading the field for better school food and child nutrition programs

• Alice Waters Edible School Yard project
• Better School Food
• Centre for Science in the Public Interest
• Centre for Science in the Public Interest school food kit
• Chef Ann Cooper's F3 Foundation
• Chef Ann Cooper's school lunch site
• Community Food Security Coalition
• Food Research and Action Centre (FRAC)
• National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity
• Nourishing the Nation One Tray at a Time
• Prof Marion Nestle
• Rachel Ray's Yum-O! Foundation
• School Food Focus
• The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University Sustainable Food Systems

Must see movies

• Food Inc
• Two Angry moms

Food and farming

• National Farm to School Network
• Slow Food

Good media pieces

• Food writer Michael Pollan
• Time for Kids

Diet, health and obesity

• Action for Healthy Kids
• Alliance for a Healthier Generation
• Center for Food & Justice
• Calculate Your BMI
• F as in Fat 2009 – How obesity policies are failing in America
• MEND USA
• Optimal Weight for Life
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Trust for America's Health

Trade organizations

• School Nutrition Association
• The National Association of State Boards of Education

State programs

• Boston
• Boston – Chefs in School
• California
• New York

UK School Food

• School food trust
• British Nutrition Foundation
• Food for life partnership
• Adopt a School (academy of culinary arts)
• Healthy School Meals & Education Outcomes
   

Also on Slow Food Utah

• Let's Move – First Lady Michelle Obama
• Time for Lunch Campaign – Slow Food USA

Jamie Oliver's News RSS Feed

Choose local – choose life for our communities

A Farmers Market is a great way to unite the community will all the fresh produce grown by your local farmers. Other excitement as well with this festive environment. Giving the community the opportunity to display their talents to the people.

When: Every Saturday at 8:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m. Season will follow through October 17th.
Where: The Farmers Market will be held at Wallace Park on Main Street (next to swimming pool).

Contact Information

Non-food vendors

• DaVona Baum (435) 848-5648
• Jen Guzel (435) 650-6868

Farmer vendors

• Bob Renner (801) 685-7817

Other food vendors (example: baked goods)

• Sherry Lott (435) 548-2637 home or (435) 630-1803 cell

Regulations regarding food handling

• Becca Peatross (435) 650-8175

Vendor Information

We are looking for diverse vendors who have unique and tasteful items to sell.

Rules and Regulations:

1. Booth Fee $5 each week
2. All booths will be out doors and 10x12 feet. Food booths will have first choice of being under the pavilion if possible. Other vendors will be assigned spaces according to need. Vendors will provide their own covers, tables, chairs, counters, display boards, tarps, etc.
3. Absolutely no pets.
4. Farmers Market Committee will not be liable for any damages to goods, theft of merchandise, personal injury to any person participating in activities.
5. Absolutely no alcoholic beverages, smoking, weapons, fireworks, or flammable material allowed in premises.
6. Vendors will be responsible to clean their own area.
7. Vendors need to set up between 7:00 a.m.- 7:45 a.m. and be parked at vendor parking area behind school.
8. Vendors are responsible to maintain and clean up booth space.

All applicants must be approved by Farmers Market Committee. We reserve the right to ask the vendor to remove any items.

• Application-farmersmarket.doc - Jul 20, 2009 by Rebecca Peatross Download (MS-Word DOC)

The Boulder Food Chain - a group of neighbors producing and eating the best in fresh garden vegetables - is committed to promoting local food and expanding the local production of grain and other staples. We have organized a community market in Boulder Utah. Hosted by the Burr Trail Outpost and Grill, the 2009 market will begin on May 16th with our annual plants sale/community market.

May 16th is the first community market and plant sale. The market will be held every other Saturday until the beginning of July. [2009]

A wide array of produce is available.

By Maggie Wolf
Assistant Professor for Utah State University Extension in Salt Lake County
Special To The Tribune
Updated: 03/11/2010

In late spring, garden stores, food markets and even big-box warehouses will sell ready-to-plant seedlings for many of our favorite garden vegetables and bedding plants. These products are convenient, but they can be expensive and are not always the variety you might like. That's why many gardeners are starting seeds indoors right now, when the snow is still on the ground. They can grow hard-to-find varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers. And, specifically in the case of flowers or bedding plants, they can save a lot of money.

Growing sturdy, healthy seedlings isn't difficult, but it does require following a few steps:

Start with quality seed » Buy fresh seeds or use seeds from last year that were stored in airtight packages under dry, cool conditions. Most types of seed, when stored properly, can stay viable for many years.

To plant » Besides seed, you will need a shallow, well-drained container and fresh or pasteurized potting mix. To plant, pour potting mix into the container until it is about 3 inches deep. Plant seeds at depths 1 1/2 times the seed diameter. Wet the potting mix and seeds thoroughly. Cover the container with plastic wrap to keep moisture high. Place the container in a warm room. Check the containers daily to make sure the potting soil is moist. At this stage, don't worry about how much light the plants are getting. Most annual plant seeds germinate in four to eight days, depending on the temperature.

From sprouts to seedlings » Immediately after seeds sprout, remove plastic cover so plant stems and leaves stay dry. Move the containers to a cooler room and place under lights. Too often, windowsill starts flop because seedlings need more light and lower air temperatures. With a simple set-up of three hanging shop lights, you can easily grow four flats of bedding plants.

Inexpensive cool white fluorescent bulbs provide sufficient wavelength for seedling growth. Because fluorescent lights are relatively weak compared with nature's sunshine, keep the seedlings as close to the lights as possible -- within 2 inches. But the plants should never actually touch the bulbs. Keep the lights turned on 16 to 18 hours a day, another way to compensate for weaker intensity. With enough light, seedlings will grow short and sturdy.

Once the seedlings' true leaves unfold, transplant into bedding plant trays. Most plants have true leaves after two weeks.

Maggie Wolf, a certified professional horticulturist, gardens and consults in the Salt Lake Valley.

 

Gardening Classes and Events

Learning in Lehi » Thanksgiving Point will offer 15 one-hour gardening classes on March 13 in the Garden Visitor Center, 3003 Thanksgiving Way, Lehi. Classes begin at the top of every hour from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Topics include basic vegetable gardening, building cold frames, composting, pruning, seed starting and getting rid of weeds. Each class is $5 per person. For details or to register, call 801-268-7443 or visit www.thanksgivingpoint.com. (Click on the "learn" button and proceed to horticulture classes.)

Gardening share fair » The newly organized Utah Fruit and Vegetable Association (UFAVA) will hold a free "Share Fair" March 20 from noon to 4 p.m. at The Columbus Center, 2530 S. 400 East, South Salt Lake. Anyone who grows fruits or vegetables, from farmers to backyard hobbyists, is invited. Lunch and prizes. Pre-registration required. Go to www.ufava.org.

Adult and child organic vegetable gardening » Share the joys of digging in the dirt during this parent/child class being offered through Lifelong Learning at the University of Utah. Class is held Mondays at 6 p.m. from March 22 to April 19. (No class April 5.) Cost is $179 for each adult/child pair. By the end of the series, participants will have a garden plan and month-by-month calendar for growing their own food. To register, call 801-587-5433 or visit www.lifelong.utah.edu.

Vegetable gardening basics » Create a garden plan and have a month-by-month calendar for growing your own food during this Lifelong Learning class. Two sessions available: Wednesdays from March 24 to April 21 or Thursdays from March 25 to April 22. Both classes begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Annex Buildings on the University of Utah campus. Cost is $114 per person. To register, call 801-587-5433 or visit www.lifelong.utah.edu.

The art of pruning » On March 27, The Ogden Botanical Gardens, 750 Monroe Blvd., will offer free pruning demonstrations at 9, 10 and 11 a.m. Each hour there will be a demonstration for pruning fruit trees, ornamental tree and shrubs and roses. Participants can attend one or all three back-to-back. For more details, call the gardens at 801-399-8201.
 

Troubleshooting

During seed growing, some common problems might arise. Here's a list of causes and how to fix the issue.

Problem » Seedlings are tall, weak and spindly.

Possible causes » solution

1. Too little light » Keep lights close to seedlings and lengthen day to 18 hours.
2. Air temperature too high » Move seedling to a cooler room.
3. Crowded sprouts » Plant fewer seeds per square inch and/or thin seedlings after sprouting.

Few seeds germinate.

Possible causes » solution

1. Seeds planted too deep » Planting depth should be 1 1/2 times the seeds' diameter.
2. Poor seeds » Buy fresh seed packed this year.
3. Too cold » Germinate seed at 70 to 80 degrees.

Seedling stems look gray and shrunken at their base and the top dies.

Possible causes » solution

1. Fungal disease » Sometimes called "damping off." Make sure potting mix is sterile or pasteurized.
2. Potting mix is too wet » Plant in shallow containers with only 2 to 3 inches of potting mix. Avoid overwatering.
    

Planning your garden starts

Seed packages list when plants should be transplanted outdoors. This usually depends on the type of plant -- tender or hardy -- and the date of the last frost. Typically in Salt Lake, the last frost is around May 15 -- or Mother's Day.

Tender crops » Plants that will be damaged by even a light frost. They must be protected if transplanted outdoors before mid-May. They include snap bean, cowpea, sweet corn, tomato, cucumber, eggplant, lima bean, muskmelon, okra, pepper, pumpkin, squash, watermelon.

Hardy crops » These plants can tolerate frost. Broad bean, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, chives, collards, garlic, horseradish, kale, kohlrabi, leek, mustard, onion, parsley, pea, radish, rhubarb, spinach, turnip.

Half-hardy crops » Able to tolerate a light frost. They include beet, carrot, cauliflower, celery, chard, chicory, Chinese cabbage, endive, lettuce, parsnip, potato, salsify.

Source: Knott's Handbook for Vegetable Growers by Oscar A. Lorenz and Donald N. Maynard.
 

How long do seeds last?

Seeds will last for many years if stored in dry, cool conditions. A dry environment is one that has 10 percent or less moisture. Cool place has an average temperature between 40 and 50 degrees. Under these optimal conditions, here are some common vegetable seeds and their life expectancy:

• One year » onion, parsley, parsnip, salsify, sea kale
• Two years » sweet corn, leek, okra, pepper
• Three years » bean, broccoli, carrot, celery, chervil, Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, pea, spinach
• Four years » beet, brussels sprouts, swiss chard, cabbage, cauliflower, chicory, eggplant, fennel, kale, mustard, pumpkin, rutabaga, squash, tomato, turnip, watermelon
• Five years » cardoon, collard, cucumber, endive, muskmelon, radish
• Six years » lettuce

Source: Knott's Handbook for Vegetable Growers by Oscar A. Lorenz and Donald N. Maynard.
 

How warm?

For best seed germination, the daytime temperature of your soil should reach the following level. (The nighttime temperature must drop to 60 degrees or lower.)

• 70 degrees » spinach
• 75 degrees » lettuce, onion, parsley, pea
• 80 degrees » bean, carrot, cauliflower
• 85 degrees » lima bean, beet, cabbage, swiss chard, eggplant, pepper, radish, tomato, turnip
• 90 degrees » muskmelon, pumpkin
• 95 degrees » corn, cucumber, okra, squash, watermelon

Source: Knott's Handbook for Vegetable Growers by Oscar A. Lorenz and Donald N. Maynard

Maggie Wolf is an assistant professor for Utah State University Extension in Salt Lake County. Her area of expertise is horticulture. E-mail her at maggiew@ext.usu.edu.  

One out of three American children is overweight or obese. Details of First Lady Michelle Obama's new initiative to improve the way American children eat and play.

Guests

• Maya Rockeymoore, president and CEO of Global Policy Solutions, a social change strategy firm based in Washington, and director of Leadership for Healthy Communities, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
   
• Paul Campos, professor, University of Colorado School of Law; author, "The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health."
   
• Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Related Link: Leadership for Healthy Communities.

The Diane Rehm Show is produced at WAMU 88.5 and distributed by National Public Radio, NPR Worldwide, and SIRIUS satellite radio.

Dates: March 10 through May 5, 2010
Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Cost: $10 per person, per class (Registration)
Location: Salt Lake County Gov. Center, 2001 South State Street, South Building, Room S1007/8.
Sponsor: USU Extension Salt Lake County
Presented by Maggie Shao, Extension Agent, Assistant Professor of Horticulture.
Contact Person: Maggie Shao - 801-468-3179 - Email: usuext@slco.org

• Part 1 – Starting Seeds Indoors: (March 10) You don’t need a greenhouse to start your vegetable and herb seedlings. All you need is the floorspace for a bookshelf in a warm room and you can start unique heirloom variety of tomatoes or your favorite culinary herbs under fluorescent lights. Come learn the basic requirements for starting vegetable and herb seeds inexpensively for your vegetable garden.
   
• Part 2 – Fruit Tree Pruning Basics: (March 24) Measure Twice and Cut Once. Learn the basics of pruning and begin to understand the art and science of pruning. Learn the right tools to use for pruning and introduction to how different fruits develop and why you need to “consider twice and cut once”.
   
• Part 3 – The Real Dirt on Garden Soil: (April 7) Soil is the foundation for healthy plants. Learn the necessary requirements plants need from soil and how to develop that foundation of healthy soil. Learn the principles of composting, the importance of organic matter in our soil that will improve water and air soil capacity and available nutrients. Learn about the soil food web, and “The Living Soil” which will make your garden grow.
   
• Part 4 – Organic Cool Season Vegetable Gardening: (April 21) We are fortunate that we have both spring and fall on either side of our summers when we can grow cool season vegetables like broccoli, carrots, lettuce, radishes, and beets. Learn the basics on growing these vegetables organically in your garden.
   
• Part 5 – Organic Warm Season Vegetable Gardening: (April 28) Tomatoes, peppers, chilies, eggplants, melons are some of the warm season vegetables we can grow in Utah. Learn the basic requirements on growing these vegetables organically in your garden.
   
• Part 6 – Container Gardening, Herbs and Vegetables: (May 5) Containers offer a lot of variety and flexibility to your landscape. Learn the basics of setting up container gardens. A space on a sunny deck can be a kitchen herb container garden or use containers to brighten up your landscape. Herb seedlings will be provided to start your own herb container garden.

(July-September) Wednesday evenings 6:00 - 8:30 p.m.

We strongly support and encourage self-reliance, sustainability, charity, and community involvement. We welcome anyone sharing similar interests. Excess produce will be collected for donation to charity at the end of each market. Simply let us know if you would like to donate some of your produce, and we will deliver it to those in need.

The Paradise Market is going to be even better this year. We're working on some fun things we hope you'll enjoy. Anyone is welcome to participate. We can always use great ideas and volunteers.

We will post information on our Calendar about area garden classes, rough planting dates, what items will be available at the market, and more. To see a list of upcoming events, use the agenda tab on the Calendar. Click the event listing to find out more about each event.

Want some Fun Ideas to do with your family?

Our Cooking Section can help you find recipes that use items you may find at your local farmers' market. We have tried to include sites to suit a variety of tastes and dietary needs, with flavors from around the world. Many of the recipes you'll find are vegetarian, vegan, healthy, or gluten-free.

If you're new to gardening in Utah, and would like to learn more, be sure to check out our Garden Tips page as well.

We are still working on the new applications and guidelines for 2010, but expect to have them completed within the next few weeks. Food Handler's Permits will be required for those selling baked goods and other prepared foods. Vendors are strongly encouraged, but not currently required to have their own insurance, and proof of it, in case of accidents. Most produce and raw goods you grow, do not carry a sales tax. Most other items are taxed. Tax rates vary depending on the item. We will make you aware of sales tax regulations and help you obtain any necessary forms, numbers, and rate schedules we know about. Ultimately, taxes are up to you, though. We do not file taxes for you and will not take responsibility for any decisions you make regarding the payment of sales tax.

Contact us for a printed application:
Paradise Market
PO Box 28
Paradise, UT 84328

Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process.

Domestic Programs

• US Ark of Taste
• Renewing America’s Food Traditions
• Slow Food In Schools
• Slow Food On Campus
• US Terra Madre Network
• US Youth Food Movement
• US Presidia

International Programs

• Terra Madre
• Salone del Gusto
• Slow Fish
• Cheese
• Ark of Taste & Presidia
• University of Gastronomic Sciences

Slow Food Domestic Programs

US Ark of Taste

The Slow Food USA Ark of Taste is a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure that they remain in production and on our plates. Learn More.

Renewing America’s Food Traditions
Managed by Slow Food USA, RAFT is an alliance of food, farming, environmental and culinary advocates who work to identify, restore and celebrate America’s biologically and culturally diverse food traditions through conservation, education, promotion and regional networking. Learn More.
 

Slow Food In Schools
Slow Food in Schools teaches youth about the values of eating locally, seasonally and sustainably through hands-on projects. Programs range from collaborating on curricula and after school activities to improving school lunches and school garden programs. Learn More.

Slow Food On Campus
Slow Food on Campus is a network of Slow Food campus chapters that engages college students around food system and food justice issues. Programs are run by college and university students across the country. Learn More.

US Terra Madre Network
Terra Madre is a network of over 7,000 food producers, cooks and university educators from 150 countries, including over 1,000 delegates from the U.S. united by a common goal of global sustainability in food. Learn More.

US Youth Food Movement
Around the world, youth are mobilizing to bring good, clean, and fair food to their communities. The Youth Food Movement is a network of these local projects connected through international communication and exchange. Learn More.

US Presidia
If unique, traditional and endangered food products can have an economic impact, they can be saved from extinction. This is the simple reasoning behind the Presidia—small, targeted projects to assist groups of artisan producers. Learn More.

International Programs

Terra Madre

Terra Madre is an international network of over 7,000 food producers, cooks, and university educators. Every for years, network delegates come together to discus global food sustainability issues. The next Terra Madre takes place in the fall of 2010. Visit Site.

Salone del Gusto

In October of every even-numbered year small-scale food producers from all over the world come to Turin, Italy to showcase their products to more than 150,000 people. Visitors taste presidia products and cuisines from nearly every continent and participate in taste workshops. Visit Site.

Slow Fish

First held in the Italian port city of Genoa in 2004, this biennial sustainable seafood exhibition brings together fishers, processors, researchers, government agencies and consumers to explore ways to combat the depletion of our fish stocks and enjoy seafood responsibly. Visit Site.

Cheese

Held in Bra, Italy, this biennial event is the leading international festival for artisan cheese producers. The world’s most renowned artisans, affineurs, cheesemongers and shepherds come to present their cheeses to tens of thousands of visitors and host taste workshops. Visit Site.

Ark of Taste & Presidia

Overseen by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, the Ark of Taste is a catalog of hundreds of extraordinary products from around the world. Presidia are small projects to assist groups of artisanal producers worldwide. Visit Site.

University of Gastronomic Sciences

UNISG was founded in 2004 to bring academic strength to the field of food studies and create a new definition of gastronomy. Four programs combine humanities, science, and sensory training for a multi-experiential understanding of food production. Visit Site.

A year ago I sat in a room at the Earth Institute at Columbia surrounded by executives from big food companies. One of them, I believe from Unilever, clicked to a slide that read “The solution to global hunger is to turn malnutrition into a market opportunity.” The audience—global development practitioners and academics and other executives—nodded and dutifully wrote it down in their notebooks; I shuddered. The experience stayed with me and I haven’t gotten over it. Last month, I had a flashback.

On a Tuesday evening I sat in a room on the 44th floor of a building in the financial district of lower Manhattan with representatives from General Mills, Monsanto, Dean Foods, Deutsche Bank, and the Rainforest Alliance. We were there to speak to institutional investors—the hedge fund managers, bankers, and others who invest in big food companies—about sustainability and food. In particular, we were there to talk about how sustainability and hunger issues may give these companies both exposure to risk and access to opportunity.

It was not your average sustainable food panel discussion. Reflecting back on it, three things jump out at me. The first was a false premise that is taken for fact. The false premise:

Both Deutsche Bank and Monsanto made it clear that they are basing their business strategy on answering a simple question: How will we feed the world in 2050, when the population reaches over 9 billion and global warming puts massive strains on our resources? The answer for Deutsche Bank: increase yields by investing in industrial agriculture in the developing world, with an emphasis on technology; put lots of capital into rural land to shift subsistence and local market agricultures to commodity export agriculture. The answer for Monsanto: increase yields by decreasing resource dependence using genetically modified crops.

At first glance, these answers make both Monsanto and Deutsche Bank look virtuous. But they rest on a false premise: “There will be over 9 billion people by 2050. We have less than 7 billion today, and people go hungry. We need to increase food production if we are going to feed them.” Indeed, there will be over 9 billion people by 2050, and indeed, with less than 7 billion today, people still go hungry. But we don’t need to increase crop yields to feed these people. In 2008, globally, we grew enough food to feed over 11 billion people. We grew 4,000 calories per day per person—roughly twice what people need to eat.

Eric Holt Gimenez, of Food First (The Institute for Food and Development Policy) put it eloquently in a conversation earlier last year: “In 2008 more food was grown than ever before in history. In 2008 more people were obese than ever before in history. In 2008 more profit was made by food companies than ever before in history. And in 2008 more people went hungry than ever before in history.”

Hunger is not a global production problem. It is a global justice problem. We need to increase global equity, not global yields. There may be profit to be made in exporting our high-tech, input-reliant, greenhouse-gas-emitting agricultural systems to the developing world. But let us not pretend it will solve global hunger or address climate change. After all, high-tech, input-reliant, commodity agricultural is a major cause of global hunger and climate change.

So what changes are necessary for us to feed the world? In 2005, the World Bank, the FAO and the UNDP brought together 400 leading natural and social scientists, representatives from government (including the U.S.), private sector and non-governmental organizations to ask how we would feed the world in 2050. It’s called the IAASTD report, and it just came out last year.The scientists concluded that genetically modified crops and chemical agriculture had failed to show much promise in feeding the world. They won’t be a big part of the solution. Instead, tomorrow’s agriculture will need to be much more regionally controlled and locally adapted, and will need a diversity of approaches to meet the challenges of climate change and resource scarcity. The result is a farming system that uses water frugally, sequesters carbon, and doesn’t require external inputs.

A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists called Failure to Yield found that genetically modified crops have not delivered on increased yields. In fact, nearly all of the gains in yields over the last two decades can be attributed to other practices. Vast tracts of rainforest are indeed being cut down to plant commodity crops, particularly soy. This deforestation isn’t happening because the varieties are old, unimproved, and not intensive. These are acres of chemically farmed, genetically modified crops.

The IAASTD concluded that if we want to feed the world, we need regional ownership and control, locally adapted varieties and practices, and farmers to grow for subsistence and local markets—and we don’t need export commodities.

“So,” I said to the institutional investors, “I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news.” The good news is that feeding the world in 2050 is completely possible; these solutions are within reach. The bad news is that there isn’t a ton of money to be made by a small number of companies in doing it. You can make money investing in technology and putting great gobs of capital into rural land that currently doesn’t have it, but you will likely be exacerbating climate change and global hunger, not fixing it.”

This, of course, gets to the heart of what it means to help.

When I was a little boy, my dad was building a tool shed in our back yard. It looked like fun, and I had always wanted to use a hammer. I wandered out to help him as he sawed a two-by-four. I picked up a hammer and some nails and started pounding them, without any particular plan, into a piece of wood. My dad looked over at me and said, “Josh. Tell me, what are you doing?” “I’m helping.” I responded, completely sincerely. He gently explained to me that if you want to help, first you have to ask the people you want to help what they need. In this case, he told me, he could really use someone to sit on the sawhorse to hold down the piece of wood he was trying to saw, so it didn’t bounce all over the place. When I protested that that wasn’t nearly as fun as pounding nails, he agreed with me.

“You are welcome to pound nails into that board,” he explained. “Just don’t pretend you are helping me build this shed.” Yes, global hunger is a market opportunity; some corporations will make money treating it as such. But it in so doing they are about as likely to end hunger as seven-year-old me was to build a shed by pounding nails into a piece of plywood.

[photo courtesy of Nozee le Snoop, flickrcc]

Categories:
Biodiversity, Events, Farms and Farming, Food Justice, News, Current Events, Policy.

Outside the Oasis Cafe

What » Produce-only market
Where » Outside the Oasis Cafe, 151 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City
When » First Three Saturdays each month from 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
What's available » Fresh local produce and eggs.
Info » chadsproduce@gmail.com to get weekly updates.

The Market Hall

What » The Market Hall
Where » 1680 Ute Blvd., Kimball Junction, Park city area.
When » Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
What's available » Some cool-weather produce such as potatoes and garlic, as well as sustainable seafood, Utah lamb, grass-fed beef, honey, preserves, bakery items, gelato and arts and crafts.
Info » www.themarkethall.org; or call managers Kurt Vonputtkammer, 801-509-2829; or Jesse Swing, 801-550 -1293

Locavore Market

What » Locavore Market
Where » Caputo's Market and Deli, 314 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City
When » Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
What's available » Local artisans sell their hand-made, small batch products. Offerings vary each week but can include local honey, cheese, chocolates, mushrooms and preserves.
Info » 801-531-8669

Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to Noon during the growing season, mid-July until mid-October.

Long-term solutions for healthy beehives.

The various chemicals used in beekeeping have, for the past decades, held Varroa Destructor, a mite, and other major pests at bay, but chemical resistance is building and evolution threatens to overtake the best that laboratory chemists have to offer. In fact, there is evidence that chemical treatments are making the problem worse. Natural Beekeeping flips the script on traditional approaches by proposing a program of selective breeding and natural hive management.

Conrad brings together the best organic and natural approaches to keeping honeybees healthy and productive. Readers will learn about nontoxic methods of controlling mites, eliminating American foulbrood disease (without the use of antibiotics), breeding strategies, and many other tips and techniques for maintaining healthy hives. Specific concepts and detailed management techniques are covered in a matter-of-fact, easy-to-implement way.

Natural Beekeeping describes opportunities for the seasoned professional to modify existing operations, increase profits, and eliminate the use of chemical treatments. Beginners will need no other book to guide them. Whether you are an experienced apiculturist looking for ideas to develop an integrated pest management approach or someone who wants to sell honey at a premium price, this is the book you've been waiting for.

About the Author

Ross Conrad learned his craft from the late Charles Mraz, world-renowned beekeeper and founder of Champlain Valley Apiaries in Vermont. Former president of the Vermont Beekeepers Association, Conrad is a regular contributor to Bee Culture - The Magazine of American Beekeeping. Ross has led bee related presentations and taught organic beekeeping workshops and classes throughout North America for many years. His small beekeeping business, Dancing Bee Gardens, supplies friends, neighbors, and local stores with honey and candles among other bee related products, and provides bees for Vermont apple pollination in spring...

Visit the "Natural Beekeeping book Website

English Legal History

The term originated with the historical principle of an heirloom in English law, a chattel which by immemorial usage was regarded as annexed by inheritance to a family estate.
Loom originally meant a tool.
Such genuine heirlooms were almost unknown by the beginning of the twentieth century.

Any owner of a genuine heirloom could dispose of it during his lifetime,
but he could not bequeath it by will away from the estate.
If he died intestate it went to his heir-at-law, and if he devised the estate it went to the devisee.

The word subsequently acquired a secondary meaning, applied to furniture, pictures, etc.,
vested in trustees to hold on trust for the person for the time being entitled to the possession of a settled house. Such things were more properly called settled chattels.
As of 1 January 1997, no further settled land can be created and the remaining pre-existing settlements have a declining importance in English law.

An heirloom in the strict sense was made by family custom, not by settlement.

– A settled chattel could be sold under the direction of the court,
and the money arising under such sale is capital money.

The court would only sanction such a sale if it could be shown that it was to the benefit of all
parties concerned and if the article proposed to be sold was of unique or historical character.
The court had regard to the intention of the settlor and the wishes of the remainder men.

The Reference to Heirloom Foods.

An Heirloom plant, heirloom variety, or (especially in the UK) heirloom vegetable is
a cultivar that was commonly grown during earlier periods in human history,
but which is not used in modern large-scale agriculture.

Many heirloom vegetables have kept their traits through open pollination,
while fruit varieties such as apples have been
propagated over the centuries through grafts and cuttings.

The trend of growing heirloom plants in gardens has been growing in popularity in the
United States and Europe over the last decade. (2000 - 2009)

Origin

Origin - Before the industrialization of agriculture, a much wider variety of plant foods was
grown for human consumption.

In modern agriculture in the industrialized world,
most food crops are now grown in large, monocultural plots.
In order to maximize consistency, few varieties of each type of crop are grown.
These varieties are often selected for their productivity, their ability to withstand
mechanical picking and cross-country shipping, and
their tolerance to drought, frost, or pesticides.

– Heirloom gardening is a reaction against this trend.

Typically, heirlooms have adapted over time to whatever climate and soil they have grown in.
Due to their genetics, heirloom varieties are often
resistant to local pests, diseases, and extremes of weather.

Read More in Wikipedia "Heirloom" »  

Heirloom, mostly plants, animals too, can be an "ARK" or Presidia food also.

Ark of Taste

Slow Food (International) Ark of Taste

The Ark of Taste aims to rediscover, catalog, describe and publicize forgotten flavors. It is a metaphorical recipient of excellent gastronomic products that are threatened by industrial standardization, hygiene laws, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental damage.

The Ark is an international catalog of foods that are threatened by industrial standardization, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental damage. In an effort to cultivate consumer demand—key to agricultural conservation—only the best tasting endangered foods make it onto the Ark. Since 1996, more than 800 products from over 50 countries have been added to the international Ark of Taste.

Ark products range from the Italian Valchiavenna goat to the American Navajo-Churro sheep, from the last indigenous Irish cattle breed, the Kerry, to a unique variety of Greek fava beans grown only on the island of Santorini. All are endangered products that have real economic viability and commercial potential.

US Ark of Taste

The US Ark of Taste profiles over 200 rare regional foods, and is a tool that helps farmers, ranchers, fishers, chefs, retail grocers, educators and consumers celebrate our country's diverse biological, cultural and culinary heritage. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates.
 
Latest News from SFUSA Blog

Presidia

The Presidia

• sustain quality production at risk of extinction,
• protect unique regions and ecosystems,
• recover traditional processing methods,
• safeguard native breeds and local plant varieties.

The Presidia directly involve producers, offer technical assistance to improve production quality, organize exchanges among different countries, provide new market outlets (both locally and internationally).

With more than 120 International Presidia, Slow Food protects biodiversity in the whole world: from Rimbas Black Pepper in Malaysia, to Mananara Vanilla in Madagascar.

Queen of The Sun is a feature-length documentary
celebrating bees from a perspective of reverence and renewal.
Queen creatively explores the global honeybee crisis as a catalyst for change.
 

Bees are a barometer of the health of the world and they are in a state of emergency. The bond between humans and bees, once a sacred partnership, is now a profit-driven exploitation.
 

Queen of The Sun highlights unsung heroes from past and present who are dedicated to the survival of bees: from poets and philosophers to scientists and shamans, from political activists to biodynamic beekeepers.

A central presence in Queen of The Sun is Rudolf Steiner, the spiritual scientist who founded biodynamic agriculture and Waldorf education.

In 1923, he predicted that, in 80 to 100 years, the continued practice of artificial queen-breeding would bring about the demise of the honeybee.

Now, pesticides, herbicides and genetically engineered plants exacerbate the problem, and the current bee crisis confirms Steiner's dire prediction with Colony Collapse Disorder.
 

On a pilgrimage across continents and centuries, Queen of The Sun
exposes civilization's broken relationship with the natural world.

It seeks answers through unique and unusual characters who have
heart-felt respect for their bees and who share a common belief that
solutions for regeneration lie in a renewal of agriculture and
in a culture that is in balance with nature.

Queen of The Sun creatively explores the global bee crisis
as a catalyst for culture shift.

Collective Eye, Inc.

Collective Eye explores social and environmental topics to bring provocative, entertaining documentaries to grassroots organizations and to the world. We build bridges with marginalized cultures, shed light on our planet's needs and uncover unique points of view. We believe that awareness and a celebration of diversity inspire social change. Collective Eye, Inc. is a non-profit distribution and production company based in Portland, Oregon.
 

Join the Effort – Queen of the Sun

The creators of The Real Dirt on Farmer John want you to join the hive and become part of Queen of the Sun, a feature documentary film dedicated to saving the bees. There has never been a more urgent call to action than now: our honeybees are in crisis and they need your help.

Bees pollinate the food we eat, they give us honey, medicine and wax and they keep earth in bloom. In the last fourteen years, the world has lost 70 to 90 percent of its domestic and wild colonies.

In the United States alone, more than 24 billion bees have disappeared since spring 2006.

The bees have been giving to us for millions of years; now it's our turn to give a little back.

By donating to Queen of the Sun you can become
a Queen Bee, a Flower Blossom, a Worker Bee, a Drone Bee,
a Hive Builder or a mixture of simply Pollen and Honey!

All contributions will help complete the film and help prepare for a grass-roots campaign.
All contributors who give $500 or more will a receive a copy of
Queen of The Sun, a credit in the film and a poster upon release.

Dear Friends,

Today, I am asking you to make a donation to support and complete my new film Queen of The Sun.

Queen of The Sun, like my previous film The Real Dirt on Farmer John, is a film with nature at its center. It is a passionate inquiry into the problems plaguing honeybees, the pollinators that make most of our food possible.

Queen of The Sun draws attention to the wisdom of Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian scientist who foresaw the coming bee crisis as early as the 1920's, and reveals forward thinkers such as Gunther Hauk, a world-renowned biodynamic beekeeper who created the world's first bee sanctuary, Spikenard Farm. With Queen of The Sun, I realized the bees are guides; they model collaboration and community, which, in turn, is the standard for the revitalization of our world.

We are nearly complete with Queen of The Sun. In the roughest economy in recent times, we have received support from the Rudolf Steiner Foundation and the Fleishhacker Fund and most of all we've received donations from people like you. You are our community. Your donations have not only kept us moving forward, but have helped build the community that is so essential to bringing a film like ours into the woCollective Eyerld.

Our goal is to complete the film for a premiere on Earth Day, 2010. In order to do this, we're raising money for our music composer, Jami Sieber, to create a beautiful score for the film. In addition, animators are creating stunning sequences throughout the film and a sound designer will bring the film sonically alive. Additionally we need to work with an online editor to ensure the highest quality in HD. Your donations will go towards keeping this vibrant creative community working in unison to complete all aspects of the film.

Documentary films have the incredible power to bring people together to do extraordinary things. The Real Dirt on Farmer John continuously surprises me as I hear of the deep and profound impact it has on all of you around the world.

You don't have to donate a lot to make a difference. A generous donor has agreed to match the funds you put in. Our goal is to raise $75,000 before March 1st, 2010. That equals about $35 a piece if about 1000 individuals donate. Please be part of bringing Queen of The Sun into the world with your donation.Donations are 100% Tax Deductible and with donations of $250 or more you will receive a signed copy of The Director's Cut of Queen of The Sun (upon release) and a signed copy of The Director's Cut of The Real Dirt on Farmer John.

In addition, donations of $1000 or more will ensure your name in the credits under "Funded By" and entitle you to two tickets for the premiere of Queen of The Sun. If you are enthusiastic about being a bigger part of the Queen of The Sun Team, donations of $10,000 or greater will cast you in the role of an Associate Producer for Queen of The Sun.

Please feel free to pass this along to your friends and family.

Thank you for giving your time to support Queen of The Sun.

Warmly,

Taggart Siegel
Director - "Queen of The Sun" & "The Real Dirt on Farmer John"
www.queenofthesun.com
Collective Eye, Inc.
503.232.5345

Reintroducing a Classic Tribute to Julia Child

Due to renewed public interest, in September UC Press will be reissuing the Summer 2005 issue of Gastronomica, a tribute to legendary food icon Julia Child.

This special issue of Gastronomica is many things. It is a glimpse into Julia's world--her childhood, her college years, her romance with her husband, Paul--for those who don't know as much about her as they might like. For those who respected her both as chef and colleague, it is a tribute. And it is a farewell and final bon appétit for those who knew her best.

A complete table of contents for this special issue, along with select downloadable articles, are available below.

from the editors darra goldstein and corky white

For five years now, Gastronomica has celebrated eclecticism by featuring the work of scholars and artists, amateurs and professionals, cartoonists and cooks. Only once before (in Fall 2001) have we devoted an entire issue to a single subject. But last year, after Julia Child died, it seemed only right to compile a special issue to honor Julia and deepen our understanding of her place in American culture.

Julia wasn’t merely a narrow popularizer of French food or an implausibly tall and high-voiced tv personality. She was a far more complicated person than those readily accessible images might imply. How many viewers of The French Chef or readers of Mastering the Art of French Cooking knew that she began her career in the Office of Strategic Services, or that she spoke out against McCarthyism, or that she really did devote weeks to testing and retesting recipes to make sure that they worked perfectly? Julia Child’s recipes represented far more than their precise measurements suggested. By opening the nation to a new range of gastronomic possibilities, she truly changed the way Americans thought about food. Yet even that was not enough for her. Julia believed that with her dream of a good culinary landscape came social engagement, and that responsibility is something she did not shirk.

In these pages you’ll discover the woman beneath the icon as you learn about Julia’s politics, for which she was willing to stick out her considerably long neck. It is worth noting that despite the hate mail she received for her political stance, she backed down not an inch. Julia had the power of her convictions—whether that meant making a proper baguette from scratch or standing by her progressive political beliefs. She chose at some risk to do the latter publicly, and for this, too, she deserves praise.

Inside you’ll also find the playfully erotic poems her husband, Paul, wrote for her birthdays. You’ll share in the jokes—sometimes off-color—that she loved to tell. And you’ll find out what happened the first time she dined alone. Yet even with these offerings, we merely begin to touch on the richness of Julia’s life and legacy. I hope that it will prove a starting point for others to consider her contributions.

As usual, we have an exciting roster of writers and artists, including people who knew and loved Julia and those who never knew her but loved her anyway.

Special thanks are in order this time around. First, to my husband, Dean Crawford, who not only suggested an issue devoted to Julia Child but shepherded it through with his continual love and support; Corky White, who recruited an amazing cast of contributors and kept me laughing, even at the worst moments; Jacalyn Blume, from the Schlesinger Library, who brought undiscovered treasures to our attention and whose cheerful competence kept the project on track; Jane Canova, Gastronomica’s dauntless managing editor and de facto house counsel; Frances Baca, Gastronomica’s brilliant designer, who turned an especially challenging batch of materials into a splendid issue; and the production team at the University of California Press, whose enthusiasm for Gastronomica never wanes.

As you read this, Gastronomica’s new Web site should be up and running, with links to many of the artists and chefs whose work has been featured in these pages. You’ll find new orts every week, as well as an annotated list of great food films. Visit www.gastronomica.org, and be sure to let me know what else you’d like to see!
—Dana Goldstein  
 

For about a year now, Julia Child has been my nearly daily companion. You couldn’t ask for a better one. When Darra Goldstein asked me to join her in putting together this volume, I hesitated—for a nanosecond. But Julia was more insistent than anything on my crowded schedule, and now I’m finding it hard to say that our work together, Darra’s, Julia’s, and mine, is done. I have more than revisited Julia in this work; I have heard new lessons in the same old wonderful tones. I hope that her voice—funny, valiant, passionate, intimate—comes through loud and clear.

Using editorial privilege, I will speak of how she was— and is—part of my life. Forty years ago, as a young bride, I had two cookbooks: Joy of Cooking and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume i. I show these volumes, covered now in grey duct tape, to my anthropology food classes. They have become fetishes for me, in the anthropological sense of objects imbued with layers of magic and identity. Each opens to its most stained and used page: J of C, to Brownies Cockaigne, and JC’s, to Reine de Saba. No coincidence that both are chocolate.

When the books and I were still relatively untried, I was a very young caterer and often desperate for help. When you are only as good as your last meal, you need skill and nerve. I had little of the first and sometimes too much of the second, but both failed me on occasion. Julia had offered to help at such moments. I suspect all of my calls to her began in tears. One example will suffice.

Preparing a casual luncheon for fifty Europeanists at Harvard, I burned a cauldron of Ukrainian borscht, and the acrid stench filled the room. In terror, I decanted the lot into several clean pots, sat on the floor and sobbed, thinking all was lost. Still gasping and tearful, I called Julia.

“Dearie—get working! Do you have lemons? Squeeze them into the soup; they’ll cut the scorch. Do you have sour cream? Make sure they take a lot of it! More fresh parsley! Now, here’s what you do: in the nicest tureens you can find, carry the soup into the dining room and announce the special of the day: SMOKED BORSCHT!”

Rescued. And taught a lesson not so much in cooking but in confidence, all in one fantastic demonstration of showmanship.

Through working with the wonderful writers in this issue, I have learned so many stories of Julia’s gallant, optimistic bravery. And more news of my old neighborhood and its denizens than my parents, who lived there, ever told me: reading the collection of Julia’s letters and those of her friends in the Schlesinger Library, I felt that I was eavesdropping on adult conversations from the staircase during my parents’ dinner parties. But Julia was so much less snobby, precious, or intellectually competitive than her academic neighbors. She was opinionated, and more power to her, but she hated sacred cows, and our world at the time had a huge herd of them.

One of these letters rings with Julia’s iconoclasm; she could make fun even of French pretensions and “authenticity”:

This dogmatism in France is enraging…making a damned mystery out of perfectly simple things just to puff themselves up….For instance, I am always having fun asking various people about La Vraie Bouillabaisse, and get as many dogmatic vraies recettes de la vraie B as made by the vrais pecheurs as I ask questions.…Well, says one woman, “Nous, nous de la vraie Mediterranee, nous ne mettons jamais les tomates dans la Bouillabaisse, nous, jamais….” Balls. La Vraie Recette from le vrai cuisinier provencale Reboul, has tomatoes…. (To Avis De Voto, 28 February, 1953)

My last encounter with Julia, just before she moved west, cast the same old glow. After many good-bye parties and public appearances, Julia and I were shopping. We pushed our carts through the market together. Her companion helped her find just the right things, some strawberries, greens—mesclun, I believe—then a stop at the fish counter for six perfect oysters, down the aisles for a bit of veal, a crusty bread, a half pint of heavy cream. As we went through the market, I noticed that a cluster of carts, at a respectful distance, was following, and indeed one man was taking exactly what Julia had taken, even asking the fish man to give him “the same oysters Julia bought.” When we reached the checkout, I turned around and saw a huge half-circle of carts massed behind us. I nudged Julia, who seemed not to have noticed her following: “Turn around, Julia! Look who’s here!” And she did, seeing a sea of broad smiles and love. She waved and called out, “Bon Appétit!”
—Corky White
 

GASTRONOMICA
Summer 2005 • Volume 5 Number 3

Cover: Elsa Dorfman, "Julia" (1988), 22" x 28", courtesy of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. www.elsa.photo.net

Table of Contents

from the editors
The Woman Behind the Icon | Darra Goldstein and Corky White
download this article

borborygmus
Rumblings from the World of Food

poems
Birthday Poems for Julia | Paul Child

illustration
The Joy of Julia | Ed Koren

tribute
My Friend Julia Child | Jacques Pépin

insights
A Full Measure of Humor | Stephanie Hersh
Julia's Greatest Lesson | Sara Moulton
La Bella Julia | Franco Romagnoli
Writing Pulia | Alex Prud'homme
download this article

kitchen stories
Julia: The Ever-Curious Cook | Judith Jones
download this article
In Julia Child's Kitchen, October 5, 1998 | David Nussbaum

personal history
A Woman of Affairs | Julia McWilliams

conversations
Charlotte and Julia | Nina M. Scott

rites of passage
Julia at Smith | Alice Julier

investigations
Sacred Cows and Dreamberries: In Search of the Flavor of France | Laura Shapiro
Mastering the Art of French Cooking: A Near Classic or a Near Miss | Joan Reardon

devotees
Notre Dame de la Cuisine and the Prince des Gastronomes |Noel Riley Fitch

scrapbook
Remembering Julia | Anne Willan, Jasper White, Susan Hermann Loomis, Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, Richard Dyck, Nach Waxman, Jill Norman, Susan Regis, Daphne Derven, Noriko Nakamura, Jessica Battilana, Rebecca Alssid

interlude
Bon Appétit! | Lee Hoiby

interview
A Conversation with Julia Child, Spring 1984 | Sharon Hudgins

politics
Whatever Would Julia Say Now? | Merry White
Cooking Up a Storm | Darra Goldstein

archive
A Menu Fit for a King

pastimes
In France with Julia | Patrick Healy

point of view
Stardom and the Hungry Public | Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft

diary
Notes from a Cataloger's Diary | Susan Riecken

the bookshelf
Books in Review

lagniappe
Bubble Bath

View the entire is of GASTRONOMICA Summer 2005 • Volume 5 Number 3

from the editors darra goldstein and e. melanie du puis

If we are to believe the simple slogans surrounding us, all we need do to nurture a sustainable food system is “think globally and buy locally.” But world realities are far more complicated than that. Take the case of Georgia. That’s the Republic of Georgia—for those who think locally—the one in the Caucasus Mountains on the Black Sea. By the standards of politically correct food activists, the farmers in Georgia are doing things right. Their farms are small, and their food is, for the most part, organically grown. The Georgians enjoy the freshest of local produce. Artisanal cheeses, homemade grape spirits, and backyard-dried fruit leathers are widely available. But a network of smallscale farms boasting beautiful soil and careful attention does not necessarily make agriculture sustainable. For better or worse, international exports are needed to make farming viable in Georgia and across most of the world.

During the Soviet era Georgia supplied Russia with much of its produce. I well remember crowded flights from Tbilisi to Moscow with bulging sacks of lemons blocking the exits and aisles—the carry-on luggage of market vendors importing their goods. Georgia was paradise in those days, a land of Cockaigne to Russia’s dearth. Even though the Georgians felt the weight of Soviet oppression, they led a good life.

Now Georgia is autonomous, but Russia still wants to keep it under the imperial thumb. And so a struggle for independence is being waged. This struggle is considerably subtler than the one in Chechnya to the north. It is not fought with guns or grenades, but its effects are still devastating. With many billions of dollars at stake, the Russians are furious that the new us-brokered natural gas pipeline winds through Georgia instead of Russia, and so they have retaliated. Thousands of Georgian workers have been expelled from Russia on accusations of terrorist activity, and Georgian products have been embargoed (an announcement that sent Muscovites racing to the stores to buy up any remaining Georgian wine). Although the Russians will miss Georgian produce, these days they can buy lemons from Argentina and stone fruits from the Netherlands. The loss of their major trading partner is a much greater hardship for the Georgians, whose economy depends heavily on the trade of agricultural goods.
 

As some of you may know, my background is in Russian literature and Russian studies, so it’s characteristic that I should take three paragraphs and seven thousand miles to reflect on how food is used as a political weapon. Fortunately, others are less circuitous and have been focusing on this issue right here at home. Last summer, Melanie DuPuis, a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, wrote to tell me about a very active interdisciplinary group of scholars that convenes to discuss issues of food, sustainability, and hunger. She wondered whether Gastronomica might consider a few articles that the group had written dealing with the politics of food. A few articles, I thought—why not put together an entire issue? And so this special issue of Gastronomica was born. Inside you’ll discover how a new generation of sociologists, political scientists, artists, and social activists is thinking about the interplay between politics and food. You’ll read about early plant hunters who scoured the globe for exotic produce to introduce to the American market, about the battles over refined bread that took place well before Wonder Bread hit the grocery stores, about the labor struggles of migrant workers. Other articles examine the role of government in regulating foodstuffs and in creating a new semantics of hunger. Because most of the participants in the California group are Americanists, this issue is largely focused on food politics in the States.

Of course, we’re still connected to the rest of the world. The problem is that we sometimes get so caught up in the local that we fail to consider the broader ramifications that our choices might have. As any food historian knows, the global economy is nothing new; foodstuffs have, from the earliest times, been transported afar. Local produce is generally tastier and healthier, but in our eagerness to support local farmers let’s not forget entirely about the farmers struggling elsewhere. Thinking locally and buying globally also works—as long as we’re selective and remain aware that, in a world economy, we vote at every meal.

—Dana Goldstein

Over the past year the Slow Food Forum has been compiling a “Mandatory Reading List” on food, including works from authors like Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and Alice Waters. Slow Food members suggest books, which the Web site moderator adds to the list. This list does not include any of the authors you are about to read in this issue of Gastronomica. As you peruse their articles, think about why that might be. It’s not because these authors write in ways that are not interesting or accessible to a broader public. And it’s certainly not because they don’t know much about food. It’s because their understanding of food politics goes beyond the simple dichotomies of “global and fast = bad; local and slow = good.” These writers explore the broader impacts of the choices we make, and their conclusions are not necessarily what the public wants to hear. After all, when we are up against the Goliath of the Fast Food Nation, the simpler explanations of popular food writers are much more reassuring. Gary Paul Nabhan’s idea of “coming home to eat” makes the political path start from inside our front door, a place where we feel safe. But sometimes it’s better to walk out the door and discover things that we don’t always want to see.

To a degree, we as consumers are already doing that. We increasingly demand the right to make decisions about what we eat, and we are questioning our food system. This approach is part of a larger political movement in which people are taking personal responsibility for changing the world. Yet, what exactly are we responsible for? A more just world through our personal eating habits? What do we mean by “just,” and how will our food choices get us there? If our food choices are political, then we need to be accountable for them. Unfortunately, there is no label to read on the side of a political choice to help us understand what we are choosing. Nevertheless, we need to examine what’s “behind the brand” of our political choices as deeply as we examine the foods we buy. It is this sort of exploration that the writers in this issue are engaged in.

Many of these writers have been part of this political movement for many years. We have worked to make and expand the alternative food system, from csas to ethnic food brokers, from community gardens to farmers’ markets. Last fall, as fellows of the University of California Humanities Research Institute at uc Irvine, a number of us spent several weeks together talking about issues of food, race, and inequality. We are grateful for the support of that institute and its director, David Theo Goldberg, especially since many of the contributions you will read are part of the larger projects we began there.

I personally have been thinking about food and sustainability for a long time. More than a decade ago I helped found the Regional Food and Farm Project, a group working to expand the local food system in upstate New York. When another group “next door” in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts started their own project, I worked with them for a period of time. One participant in that group was Darra Goldstein. Neither of us could have foreseen that we would work together again on issues surrounding food. We hope that this special issue of Gastronomica deepens the public discussion about the politics of food.

—E. Melanie DuPuis

Cover Art: Daniel Jackson, Pair, 2002. Oil on panel 13" x 14". Courtesy of Robert Desantis

View the entire issue at GASTRONOMICA Summer 2007 • Volume 7 Number 3

A N   E AT E R ’ S   M A N I F E S TO

Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

Do All Your Eating at a Table.

Eat Slowly.

Try Not to Eat Alone.

Have a Glass of Wine with Dinner.

Don’t Eat Anything Your Great Grandmother Wouldn’t Recognize as Food.

Avoid Food Products Containing Ingredients That are Unfamiliar, Unpronounceable or More than Five in Number.

Shop the Peripheries of the Supermarket and Stay out of the Middle.

Don’t Get Your Fuel from the Same Place Your Car Does.

Pay More, Eat Less.

Eat Well-grown Foods from Healthy Soils.

Eat Wild Foods When You Can.

Cook and, If You Can, Plant a Garden.
 

— Michael Pollan

Broadside published by Point Reyes Books on the occasion of Slow Food Nation, held in San Francisco, August 2008.
Text: Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, copyright 2008, used by permission of Penguin Press.
Art: Onions by David Goines, Copyright 1999. Printed Letterpress by Point Reyes Printing Co.

Through a grant from the National Governor's Association "Healthy America" Initiative, the Utah Department of Health funded the garden projects listed below.

Mini-grants from $1,300 to $4,000 were awarded to enhance or start new community gardens in Salt Lake or Weber Counties.

Over twenty applications were received from potential community garden projects.

Lynda Blades is the Utah Department of Health coordinator for this project - lblades@utah.gov or (801) 538-6229.

Ten awards were given to support four existing gardens and six new gardens.

• Factors related to the community’s health and income status were considered when scoring and selecting projects to be funded.
• All projects will provide community members with opportunities for physical activity and improved access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Printable List of Funded Garden. (PDF)

The community gardens selected were:

1. Forest EcoGarden - 1575 W. 1000 N.
   Jeff Ward - 801-364-2122, jeff@treeutah.org
   The garden project's goal is to engage the Rose Park community through gardening workshops, classes, and events. Partners include Day-Riverside Library, U of U Lowell Bennion Center, SLC Urban Forestry Division, and SLC Parks & Recreation.
    
2. Full Circle Garden - 555 E. 200 S.
   Shea Wickelson - 801-596-8489, shea@cityacademyslc.org
   The school-based project will benefit not only students but surrounding businesses and apartment residents. Students will learn about biology, cooking, and food preservation techniques through this project. Partners include City Academy, Action for Healthy Kids, West High School, and Western Garden Center.
    
3. Heritage Commons Garden - 2140 E. Red Butte Rd.
   Aaron Sisson - 801-587-0852, asisson@housing.utah.edu
   The garden will be developed at Heritage Commons - the site utilized as "Olympic Village" during the 2002 Winter Games. Partners include Housing & Residential Education and Shoreline Ridge Community Council. Plans are to focus on organic gardening and provide gardening education to residents.
    
4. Historic Sandy Garden - 300 E. 9000 S.
   Jenny Winkel or Shane Siwik, utahgardens@comcast.net
   The garden is being developed at a new location in the Historic Sandy City neighborhood. Partners include Utah GARDENS and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Target is low-income families and individuals who wish to stretch their grocery dollar by supplementing with garden produce.
    
5. Pioneer Garden - 2046 Adams Ave.
   Crystine Riches - 801-393-8130, wnriches@yahoo.com
   The project will provide stability and unity among residents of this low-income and highly transient Ogden neighborhood. Produce will be available on Sundays to those in need. Sponsors include Pioneer Ward (LDS Church) and Pioneer Lawn & Landscape.
    
6. Riley Pride Garden - 1410 S. 800 W.
   Christi Paulson - 801-974-8310, christi.paulson@slc.k12.ut.us
   The garden project located at Riley Elementary School has a strong focus on parental involvement. Students will have a chance to be more active and to try new fruits and vegetables. Produce will be distributed to students and their families. Partners include Slow Food Utah and the Parent Teacher Association.
    
7. Seven Canyons School - 2150 S. Foothill Dr.
   Jennifer Hamilton - 801-463-1360, sevencanyonschool.jhamilton@earthlink.net
   The elementary school-based project will involve Biodynamic Farming methods of gardening. Students, staff, teachers, and parents will maintain the garden and community workshops will be offered. Partnering with First Congregational Church and Utah Organics.
    
8. South Valley Gardens - 7631 Chapel Street and
   244 E. Vine Street
   Billy Swartzfager - 801-256-9008, williamswartzfager@yahoo.com
   Enhancements will be made to gardens at Boys and Girls Clubs in Midvale and Murray. The gardening experience will be incorporated into academic lessons while gaining the opportunity for proper nutrition and physical activity. With the fresh produce, the onsite "Kid's Café" will provide healthy snacks and meals to low-income children, teens, and families.
    
9. Urban Growth - 300 N. 900 W.
   Gina Zivkovic - 801-638-0666, djohnhansen@mac.com
   The project will provide opportunities for Fairpark residents to beautify and revitalize their community while benefiting from being physically active in the garden. Partners include First Step House, Of The Earth, People's Market, Reagan Outdoor Advertising, and others.
    
10. Watchwood Garden - 2200 W. 4130 S.
    Priscilla Jones - 801-955-1055, pjones@pureutah.com
    The garden will be developed on a lot that has been vacant for 30 years. Raised plots will allow accessibility to those who have challenges working at ground level. Partners include Taylorsville Elementary School, Salt Lake Community College, and the City of Taylorsville.

Helpful Resources:

Community Gardens Handbook Excerpt:

• Word Document (800KB)
• Rich Text Format (800KB)

Community Gardens Resource Guide:

• Word Document (1.3MB)
• Rich Text Format (1.3MB)

See the News page for more information about the Utah Department of Health's NGA "Healthy America" Initiative application and grant.

A list of edible seeds here includes seeds that are directly foodstuffs, rather than yielding derived products.

A variety of species can provide edible seeds. Of the six major plant parts, seeds are the most important source of human food.

The other five major plant parts are roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits. Most edible seeds are angiosperms, but a few are gymnosperms. The most important seed food source is cereals, followed by legumes, and nuts.

The list is divided into the following categories:

1. Beans (or Legumes) are protein-rich soft seeds.
2. Cereals (or grains) are grass-like crops that are harvested for their dry seeds. These seeds are often ground to make flour. Cereals provide almost half of all calories consumed in the world. Botanically, true cereals are members of the Poaceae or Grass family.
   • Pseudocereals are cereal crops that are not members of the Poaceae or Grass Family.
3. Nuts are botanically a specific type of fruit but the term is also applied to many edible seeds that are not botanically nuts.
   • Gymnosperms produce nut-like seeds but not flowers or fruits.

1. Beans
(See also: Category:Edible legumes, Seed cake.)

Beans, also known as legumes or pulses include:

• Bambara groundnut
• Chickpeas
• Cowpeas
• Dry beans, including
  • Common bean
  • several species of Vigna
• Fava or broad beans
• Hyacinth bean
• Lablab
• Lentils
• Lupins
• Moringa oleifera
• Peas
• Peanuts
• Pigeon peas
• Sterculia
• Velvet beans
• Winged beans
• Yam beans
• Soybeans

Although some beans can be consumed raw, some need to be heated before consumption. In certain cultures, beans that needed heating anyhow were inmediatelly prepared as a seed cake. Some beans that needed heating include:

• Acacia spp. (eg Acacia aneura (mulga), Acacia cowleana, Acacia estrophiolata (ironweed), Acacia ligulata (umbrella bush), Acacia murrayana (tjuntjula), Acacia tetragonophylla (wakalpulka), Acacia kempeana (Witchetty bush), Acacia coriacea (Wiry wattle), Acacia notabilis, Acacia pyrifolia, Acacia tetragonophylla, Acacia victoriae, Acacia sophorae, Acacia stenophylla, Acacia tumida)
• Aleurites moluccana
• Atriplex nummularia (Old man saltbush)
• Panicum spp. (eg Panicum australiense, Panicum decompositum, Panicum effusum)
• Amaranthus mitchellii
• Amaranthus grandiflorus
• Brachiaria spp. (eg Brachiaria piligera Brachiaria milliformis)
• Brachychiton spp. (eg Brachychiton diversifolium Brachychiton gregorii, Brachychiton paradoxum, Brachychiton populneum)
• Bruguiera rheedii
• Calandrinia balonensis
• Canarium australianum
• Canavalia maritima
• Entada phaseolides
• Eragrostris spp. (Wangunu) (eg Eragrostris eriopoda)
• Eucalyptus leptopoda
• Eucalyptus microtheca
• Astrelba pectinata (Mitchell grass)
• Portulaca oleracea
• Portulaca intraterranea
• Marsilea drummondii (Nardoo)
• Nymphae gigantea
• Rhyncharrhena linearis
• Themeda australis

2. Cereals

True cereals are the seeds of certain species of grass. Three — maize, wheat and rice — account for about half of the calories consumed by people every year. Grains can be ground to make flour, used as the basis of bread, cake, noodles or other food products. They can also be boiled or steamed, either whole or ground, and eaten as is. Many cereals are present or past staple foods, provided a large fraction of the calories in the places that they are eaten.

Cereals include:

• Barley
• Fonio
• Maize (corn)
• Pearl Millet
• Oats
• Palmer's grass
• Rice
• Rye
• Sorghum
• Spelt
• Teff
• Triticale
• Wheat
• Wild rice

2.1 Pseudocereals

• Breadnut
• Buckwheat
• Cattail
• Chia
• Flax
• Grain amaranth
• Kañiwa
• Pitseed Goosefoot

3 Nuts

According to the botanical definition, nuts are a particular kind of seed. Walnuts and acorns are example of nuts, under this definition. In culinary terms, however, the term is used more broadly to include fruits that are not botanically qualified as nuts, but that have a similar appearance and culinary role. Examples of culinary nuts include almonds, peanuts and cashews.

• Almond
• Beech
• Brazil nut
• Candlenut
• Cashew
• Chestnuts, including:
  • Chinese Chestnut
  • Sweet Chestnut
• Colocynth
• Cucurbita ficifolia
• Filbert
• Gevuina avellana
• Hickory, including:
  • Pecan
  • Shagbark Hickory
• Terminalia catappa
• Hazel
• Indian Beech
• Kola nut
• Macadamia
• Malabar chestnut
• Pistacia
• Mamoncillo
• Maya nut
• Mongongo
• Oak acorns
• Ogbono nut
• Paradise nut
• Pili nut
• Walnut
• Water Caltrop

3.1 Nut-like gymnosperm seeds

• Cycads
• Ginkgo
• Gnetum gnemon
• Juniper
• Monkey-puzzle
• Pine nuts, including:
  • Chilgoza Pine
  • Korean Pine

4 Other

• Cempedak
• Egusi
• Euryale ferox (Fox nut)
• Fluted pumpkin
• Hemp seed
• Jackfruit
• Lotus seed
• Malabar gourd

The End of the Line is not against fishing. It is not against eating fish.
But it is for a responsible attitude towards the oceans.

Narrated by Ted Danson and based on the book by Charles Clover, THE END OF THE LINE explores the devastating effect that overfishing is having on fish stocks and the health of our oceans. Scientists predict that if we continue fishing at the current rate, the planet will completely run out of fish by 2048.

The Campaign

The film has three messages for consumers, citizens and companies:

1. Ask before you buy: only eat sustainable seafood.
2. Tell politicians: respect the science, cut the fishing fleet.
3. Join the campaign for marine protected areas and responsible fishing.

We hope that when people buy fish in a shop or in restaurant, they will ask where it comes from; whether it is from a sustainable source, whether it is an endangered or over-exploited species.

There are useful guides to what fish you can buy with a (fairly) clear conscience.  In the UK one is produced by the Marine Conservation Society. You can find the guide on their website.

In the USA, the Monterey Bay Aquarium issues one. You can click through from here. www.SeafoodWatch.org

And the Marine Stewardship Council runs a certification scheme for fish produced according to principles of sustainability, which you can find out about on the MSC website

But we also want people to put pressure on politicians to listen to the scientists and act upon their recommendations. Write to your representative. Sign up to our Pledges.

And, finally, join the campaign to make more of the oceans protected areas, where industrial fishing is not allowed and where fish stocks can replenish themselves.

At the moment only 3 per cent of the world's oceans are marine protected areas.

You can learn more about why they should be increased and those who are campaigning for them, on the websites on our Organisations page.
 

The Film

The world’s first major documentary about the devastating effect of overfishing premiered at Sundance Film Festival.

Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.

The End of the Line, the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. Sundance took place in Park City, Utah, January 15-25, 2009.

In the film we see firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food.

It examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.

Filmed over two years, The End of the Line follows the investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs, who exhibit little regard for the damage they are doing to the oceans.

One of his allies is the former tuna farmer turned whistleblower Roberto Mielgo – on the trail of those destroying the world's magnificent bluefin tuna population.

Filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world.

Global campaign

The End of the Line premiere at Sundance will also kick-off a global campaign for citizens to demand better marine policies. Leading international environmental organizations are lending their full support to the film.

The End of the Line will be released worldwide in 2009 using multiple formats and venues including theaters, broadcast and cable television networks, film festivals, online video campaigns, aquariums, museums and special screenings for environmental and educational organizations.

"There is no better place than Sundance for The End of the Line to have its world premiere," said the film's director, Rupert Murray.

"Sundance has a long history of making cutting edge, issue-based documentaries matter." Murray's first film, "Unknown White Male" premiered at the festival in 2005.

Charles Clover, the book's author, said: "We must stop thinking of our oceans as a food factory and realize that they thrive as a huge and complex marine environment.

"We must act now to protect the sea from rampant overfishing so that there will be fish in the sea for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

"Overfishing is the great environmental disaster that people haven't heard about," said producer George Duffield.

"A recent global conference about bluefin tuna stocks saw almost no media coverage in the U.S. We hope this film really sounds the alarm. We can fix this problem starting right now."

"Reading the book The End of the Line changed my life and what I eat. I hope the film will do the same for others," said producer Claire Lewis.

How the film was financed

The End of the Line is a leading example of the new wave of documentary. It is an independent film – made outside the established broadcasting structure.

It is a campaigning film which aims to change the world by engaging large public audiences in a political issue. And it is a project which is integrated with the work of NGOs and progressive companies to achieve this change.

The film’s financing is an example of the new model of funding: with cornerstone funding from the UK’s Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, the vast bulk of the finance came from not-for-profit foundations in the UK and the USA.

In the UK the cinema release of the film was supported financially by Waitrose - a major UK retailer.

The film has received financial support from: The Waitt Family Foundation, Marviva, The Oak Foundation, Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, WWF, The Weston Foundation, The Clore Foundation, The Marine Conservation Society, AD Charitable Trust, GD Charitable Trust, Waterloo Foundation and Oceana.

The End of the Line Blog

Produced and directed by Mischa Hedges, Sustainable Table is a feature documentary that takes an unadulterated look into the food you eat. What’s on your plate? Where does it come from? What effects does it have on the environment and your body? What can you do to help?

Over nine months, Mischa Hedges and Digital Sense Productions traveled the west coast to learn more about our food system. During production, he found that the standard methods of producing food do not take environmental or human health costs into consideration. He also explored the many alternatives to the current agricultural system.

There are many questions about the sustainability of our current agricultural practices. This film tries to find some of the answers to problems that we face today and will face tomorrow.

Produced and directed by Mischa Hedges, Sustainable Table is a feature documentary that takes an unadulterated look into the food you eat. What’s on your plate? Where does it come from? What effects does it have on the environment and your body? What can you do to help?

There are many questions about the sustainability of our current agricultural practices. This film tries to find some of the answers to problems that we face today and will face tomorrow.

Sustainable Table includes interviews with:
Howard Lyman: Author of "Mad Cowboy"
Kenneth Williams: Champion Vegan Bodybuilder
Fred Kirschenmann, PhD: Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Marc Grossman: Spokesman for United Farm Workers
Actors/activists Ed Begley Jr., James Cromwell and many more.

Digital Sense worked with individuals representing The Sierra Club, P.E.T.A., The University of California at Davis, Organic Valley Dairy Farms, Chapman University and many others while producing this film.

The result is a documentary that takes an unadulterated look into the food you eat.

What's on your plate? is a witty and provocative documentary produced and directed by award-winning Catherine Gund about kids and food politics.

Filmed over the course of one year, the film follows two eleven-year-old multi-racial city kids as they explore their place in the food chain. Sadie and Safiyah take a close look at food systems in New York City and its surrounding areas. With the camera as their companion, the girl guides talk to each other, food activists, farmers, new friends, storekeepers, their families, and the viewer, in their quest to understand what’s on all of our plates.

The girls address questions regarding the origin of the food they eat, how it’s cultivated, how many miles it travels from the harvest to their plate, how it’s prepared, who prepares it, and what is done afterwards with the packaging and leftovers. They visit the usual supermarkets, fast food chains, and school lunchrooms. But they also check into innovative sustainable food system practices by going to farms, greenmarkets, and community supported agriculture programs. They discover that these programs both help struggling farmers to survive on the one hand and provide affordable, locally-grown food to communities on the consumer end, especially to lower-income urban families. In WHAT’S ON YOUR PLATE?, the two friends formulate sophisticated and compassionate opinions on the state of their society, and by doing so inspire hope and active engagement in others.

Relationships between children and the food they eat have become more complicated and more important than ever. In a free-market system in the richest and most culturally diverse country in the world, the stakes could not be higher when it comes to who controls food production, distribution, cost, and quality. So, how do kids feel about food — accessing it, choosing what to have, preparing it and eating it — as an element of their daily lives? How do kids feel about contending with the life-threatening epidemics of childhood obesity, heart disease and diabetes that are so prevalent in their families, schools, and communities?

WHAT’S ON YOUR PLATE? shows city kids opening their lunch boxes and digging in, families unpacking groceries bought at the supermarket and at the co-op, adults who are learning with children how to take care of their food, their bodies and the environment all at the same time. Sadie and Safiyah visit restaurants supplied with locally grown food, an upstate New York carrot farmer hoping to sell his local harvest to the New York City Department of Education school lunch program, and a local CSA. The film will culminate with a delicious local meal that the girls will cook with their classmates.

When it comes to food production, children and families need much more knowledge to combat the industry’s financial interest in keeping their practices secret, with no concern for consumers or the planet. The filmmakers are committed to helping children and families of all backgrounds, classes and locations learn about where their food comes from so that they can make healthy, informed choices about what they feed their bodies. The purpose of our documentary film project is to educate, enlighten, and inspire our community, and will address health concerns, issues of class and race as they relate to food availability, questionable food production and consumption practices, and general food consciousness in terms of cultivating a taste for local food within a community.

What's on Your Plate Blog Feed:

Neighborhood dinner co-ops are taking over our city and have sprouted in Seattle, Portland, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Austin, Denver, Berkeley—all across the US. Why not start your own? You can learn how in our new book: Dinner At Your Door: Tips and Recipes for Starting a Neighborhood Cooking Co-op. Our book offers simple advice on starting a dinner co-op, more than 60 favorite dinner co-op recipes, and easy worksheets to determine compatibility and food preferences.

You love to cook. But every night? No way! A neighborhood dinner co-op is a circle of nearby cooks who alternate delivering fresh, hot weeknight meals so you get more than you give. It’s a fun logistical trick to guarantee a delicious family dinner hour with only a fraction of the work. Also known as “cooking co-ops,” “supper clubs,” and “supper swaps,” a dinner co-op can bring you some serious benefits:

COOK ONLY ONCE, DINE IN STYLE ALL WEEK
Choose the weeknight when it's most convenient for you to cook, then receive dinner on the other 2 or 3 nights. After your cooking night is done, you're on easy street. You may even enjoy gourmet leftovers for lunch during the week.

RELAX LIKE A SLACKER, PRESENT LIKE A CHEF
Abandon your mealtime responsibilities for most of the week—work or goof off all afternoon, then simply answer the doorbell to hot homemade dinners. And when it’s your night to shine, make something amazing.

HOT AND READY TO EAT, RIGHT FROM A FRIEND’S KITCHEN
A true 'dream dinner' is having a friend deliver a freshly prepared meal, hot out of the oven. We’re often served locally-grown herbs and vegetables from our neighbors’ gardens. It's like having a team of personal chefs, but no invoice.

ENJOY A CLEAN KITCHEN FOR MOST OF THE WEEK
Enough said.

PROTECT THE PLANET, ONE DINNER AT A TIME
Imagine a single oven preheating instead of four. No takeout containers, plastic bags or credit card receipts from the restaurant. Just hot food, made from scratch, delivered on foot, by bike, by stroller or wagon. Neighbors and friends teaming up weekly for a simple, common-sense endeavor that runs mostly on human power.

See also:

• Inspiration - Links and Resources
• Look Inside
• The Co-op Map

By author: Steve Dowdney
By photographer: Rick McKee
Publisher: Gibbs M Smith
ISBN: 978-1-4236-0280-4

In Putting Up, author Steve Dowdney colorfully and descriptively guides readers safely through the home canning process. In his plainspoken narrative, Dowdney explains how to put up crops harvested during each month of the year and includes 65 of the most popular and delicious recipes he produces for his successful canning business. Also included is a resource section that contains information on where all essential canning supplies can be purchased.

More than just a how-to manual, Putting Up is a wonderful guide for canners and non-canners alike. It is chock full of anecdotes, stories and vignettes of a long gone agrarian south that filled the author's youth and still fills his heart and memory.

For twelve years, Steve Dowdney was the owner and chief operator of South Carolina's premiere "small batch" processing and canning company. As founder of Rockland Plantation Products, he takes great pride in the knowledge that the company's products taste exactly like the best of a grandmother's home put up stores. An avid writer with a novel in the works, Dowdney is a former Ranger, Airborne and Special Forces qualified combat veteran, and a graduate of The Citadel where he and fellow classmate Pat Conroy co-wrote the yearbook. He resides in Charleston, SC.

A worldwide NETWORK of farmers' markets respecting the SLOW FOOD philosophy.

COMMUNITY-run markets that strengthen local food networks.
Quality food you can TRUST, bought directly from the producers.
Fair prices for both consumers and producers that foster LOCAL ECONOMIES.
Access to good, clean and fair food from the local area to
reduce food miles and SHORTEN the FOOD CHAIN.
Consumers become COPRODUCERS, learning from producers and EDUCATIONAL activities.

The Network

As Earth Markets are created around the world, a network is developing through which experiences and resources can be shared, transmitting stories and experiences to learn from each other and demonstrating Slow Food principles in action – a network which operates from the local to the international level.

By creating a group of linked and united producers’ markets – of varied cultural, geographical, rural or urban, or social contexts – we build support for the common Slow Food principles that they share and are guided by. At the same time, the diversity and unique character of each market is respected.

Individuals involved in each market communicate with each other through a forum on this website and at periodical international meetings for training and exchange.

Finally, each Earth Market is a network itself: a network of institutions, associations, citizens, restaurant operators and producers who collaborate in setting up and running the market. The market’s objectives expand to include the creation of purchasing groups and the involvement of local catering and school canteen operators.

Markets that are part of a connected and active group are stronger and more likely to be able to make a lasting contribution to the life of their communities.

Earth Markets:

• Tel Aviv, Israel
• Bologna, Italy
• Cairo Montenotte, Italy
• Milan, Italy
• Montevarchi, Italy
• San Daniele del Friuli, Italy
• San Miniato, Italy
• Beirut, Lebanon
• Saida, Lebanon
• Bucarest, Romania

Alphabetical List of Book Titles
(Links to book listings here at Slow Food Utah.)

1. A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure
2. A World of Presidia: Food, Culture & Community
3. American Farmer: The Heart of our Country
4. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
5. Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution
6. Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses
7. Botany of Desire A Plants-Eye View of the World
8. Changing the Way America Farms: Knowledge and Community in the Sustainable Agriculture Movement
9. Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty
10. Come to the Table: The Slow Food Way of Living
11. Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods
12. Cultivating the Web: High Tech Tools for the Sustainable Food Movement
13. Diet for a New America
14. Dinner at Your Door: Tips and Recipes for Starting a Neighborhood Cooking Co-op
15. Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket
16. Edible: A Celebration of Local Foods
17. Engineering The Farm: The Social and Ethical Aspects of Agricultural Biotechnology
18. Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front
19. Family Friendly Farming: A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament
20. Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer
21. Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables
22. Fast Food Nation (The Book)
23. Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill
24. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
25. Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World
26. Four Season Harvest
27. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America
28. Growing Local Value: How to Build Business Partnerships that Strengthen Your Community
29. Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen
30. Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating
31. Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide to Farm Friendly Food
32. Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet
33. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
34. In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed
35. Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation
36. Jamie's Food Revolution (Book)
37. Menu for the Future & EarthMatters Blog
38. Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture
39. Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
40. Pastured Poultry Profit$
41. Pleasures of Slow Food: Celebrating Authentic Traditions, Flavors, and Recipes
42. Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally
43. Pomegranate Soup
44. Putting Up: A Year-Round Guide to Canning in the Southern Tradition
45. Raising Less Corn, More Hell: The Case for the Independent Farm and Against Industrial Food
46. Renewing America's Food Traditions: Bringing Cultural and Culinary Mainstays from the Past into the New Millennium
47. Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continents Most Endangered Foods
48. Renewing Salmon Nation's Food Traditions
49. Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism
50. Salad Bar Beef
51. Seeds of Deception
52. Slow Food Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food
53. Slow Food Companion
54. Slow Food Nation: A Blueprint for Changing the Way We Eat
55. Slow Food Revolution: A New Culture of Eating and Living
56. Slow is Beautiful: New Visions of Community, Leisure, & Joie de Verve
57. SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town
58. Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis
59. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Food and Nutrition
60. Terra Madre: Forging a New Global Network of Sustainable Food Communities
61. The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World
62. The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food
63. The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation
64. The Viking in the Wheat Field: A Scientist's Struggle to Preserve the World Harvest
65. The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter
66. This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader
67. Twinkie, Deconstructed
    
68. What To Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating
69. Winter Harvest Manual
70. Wisdom of the Last Farmer: Harvesting Legacies from the Land
71. With a Measure of Grace: The Story and Recipes of a Small Town Restaurant
    
72. You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise

Soil Not Oil dares us to imagine a world where people matter more than profits.

With Soil Not Oil, Vandana Shiva brilliantly reveals what connects humanity’s most urgent crises—food insecurity, peak oil, and climate change—and why any attempt to solve one without addressing the others will get us nowhere.

Condemning industrial biofuels and agriculture as recipes for ecological and economic disaster, Shiva champions the small independent farm instead. With millions hungry and the earth’s future at peril, only sustainable, biologically diverse farms that are more resistant to disease, drought, and flood can both feed and safeguard the world for generations to come.

Bold and visionary, Soil Not Oil calls for a return to sound agricultural principles —
and a world based on self-organization, community, and environmental justice.

Soil Association

The Soil Association's Annual Conference took place November 18 - 19, 2008, Passenger Shed, British Empire,
and Commonwealth Museum, Bristol.

Selection of conference issues included fuel depletion, climate change, diminishing soil and water resources, and population growth preset an unprecedented threat to global food security. To address these challenges Britain and every country in the world needs a future food plan, now.

Soil Association Annual Conference – 2010

February 3 & 4, 2010
The Custard Factory
Google Map
Gibb Street, Birmingham, United Kingdom

The challenges of climate change, resource depletion, population growth, diet-related ill-health and meeting UK-Government agreed greenhouse gas reduction targets of 80% by 2050 means that business as usual in our food and farming systems is no longer an option.

This two day conference presents a series of challenging debates about the role of science, politics, farming and food sectors and their respective roles in the action, innovation and transition to sustainable models that is needed if we are to feed ourselves now and in the future.

• Soil Association annual conference

• Events

1. Vicia
   Faba or broad bean
    
2. Vigna
   Aconitifolia or Moth bean
   Angularis or azuki bean
   mungo or urad bean
   radiata or mung bean
   umbellatta or ricebean
   unguiculata or cowpea (includes the black-eyed pea, yardlong bean and others)
    
3. Cicer
   arietinum or chickpea (also known as the garbanzo bean)
    
4. Pisum
   sativum or pea
    
5. Lathyrus
    
6. Lathyrus sativus (Indian pea)
    
7. Lathyrus tuberosus (Tuberous pea)
    
8. Lens
   culinaris or lentil
    
9. Lablab
   purpureus or hyacinth bean
    
10. Phaseolus
    acutifolius or tepary bean
    coccineus or runner bean
    lunatus or lima bean
    vulgaris or common bean (includes the pinto bean, kidney bean, caparrones, and many others)
     
11. Glycine
    max or soybean
     
12. Psophocarpus
    tetragonolobus or winged bean
     
13. Cajanus
    cajan or pigeon pea
     
14. Stizolobium
    spp or velvet bean
     
15. Cyamopsis
    tetragonoloba or guar
     
16. Canavalia
    ensiformis or jack bean
    gladiata or sword bean
     
17. Macrotyloma
    M. uniflorum or horse gram
     
18. Lupinus or Lupin
    L. mutabilis or tarwi
    Lupinus albus or lupini bean
     
19. Erythrina
    E. herbacea or Coral bean

Read More in Wikipedia "Bean" »

Hard times aren't just coming, they are here already. The recent economic collapse has seen millions of North Americans move from the middle class to being poor, and from poor to hungry. At the same time, the idea of eating locally is shifting from being a fringe activity for those who can afford it to an essential element of getting by. But, aside from the locavores and slow foodies, who really knows how to eat outside of the supermarket and out of season? And who knows how to eat a diet based on easily stored and home preserved foods?

Independence Days tackles both the nuts and bolts of food preservation, as well as the host of broader issues tied to the creation of local diets. It includes:

• how to bulk buy and store food on the cheap
• techniques from canning to dehydrating
• tools: what you need and what you don't.

In addition, it focuses on how to live on a pantry diet year-round, how to preserve food on a community scale, and how to reduce reliance on industrial agriculture by creating vibrant local economies.

Better food, plentiful food, at a lower cost, and with less energy expended, Independence Days is for all who want to build a sustainable food system and keep eating - even in hard times.

About the Contributor: Sharon Astyk is a former academic who farms in upstate New York with her husband and four children, raises livestock, grows vegetables and writes about food and peak oil.

Visit Contributor's Website

Take Action! – Sign the FRESH petition to the Department of Justice:
break up the food monopoly to free our farmers.

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features:

• urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur's 2008 Genius Award;
• sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma; and
• supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

FRESH is more than a movie, it’s a gateway to action. Our aim is to help grow FRESH food, ideas, and become active participant in an exciting, vibrant, and fast-growing movement.

When I write we, I don’t mean our small team (officially two of us, with lots of amazing helps from our interns and volunteers) but I mean YOU. All of you. FRESH is a grassroots efforts for a grassroots movement. It’s been tremendously exciting to see the movie catch on and spread like wild fire, being used all over the country as a platform to raise awareness and connecting people to the solutions available in their community.

Within a month of our launch, we’ve received over 20,000 visitors and hundreds of screenings have already been organized. We want to reach 1 million folks. Not just because that would totally feel nice to our ego (mine especially!), but because, we believe that FRESH can truly help get us to a tipping point, when sustainable food will no longer be just a niche market.

Please help us reach 1 million people (to start with that is.) Organize a home screening or a community screening. Get in touch with us, let us know what we can do more and better. We’re open!

And join us on Facebook & Twitter.

— Ana Joanes & The FRESH Team

Important Topics in the Sustainable Food Movement:

(From Sustainable Table's Issues)

Ana’s 10 FRESH Solutions

1. Drink plenty of water, but avoid bottled water when you can. It pollutes the environment and is often bottled from tap water. Plastic is harmful to your health and to the environment. Buy a reusable water bottle and invest in a good water filter!
    
2. Avoid GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms)! When buying processed food (anything packaged) buy organic to avoid GMO (Since almost all the soy, corn, and canola in the US is genetically modified, over 70% of all processed food contain GMOs from by-products of these grains.)
    
3. Buy local products when possible, otherwise, buy organic and fair-trade products. You will support your local economy and small farmers, reduce your exposure to harmful pesticides, improve the taste and quality of your food, and protect the environment from fertilizer and pesticide run-offs. Shop at your local farmers market, join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and get weekly deliveries of the season's harvest, and by buy from local grocers and co-ops committed to stocking local foods.
    
4. Support restaurants and food vendors that buy locally produced food. When at a restaurant, ask (nicely!) your waiter where the meat and fish comes from. Eventually, as more and more customers ask the same question, they'll get the message!
    
5. Volunteer and/or financially support an organization dedicated to promoting a sustainable food system. And stay informed by joining the mailing list of the advocacy groups you trust.
    
6. Get involved in your community! Influence what your child eats by engaging the school board, effect city policies by learning about zoning and attending city council meetings, learn about the federal policies that affect your food choice and let your congress person know what you think.
    
7. Visit a farm, grow a garden, volunteer in your community garden, teach a child how to garden. GET DIRTY! Have fun!
    
8. SHARE your passion! Talk to your friends and family about why our food choice matters. And organize a FRESH screening!
    
9. TEACH by example. Your children learn from you - teach them the value of buying local and buying healthy. Our earth, health and ecology are hurting NOW because of the industrial food system, but if we don't take action and start the healing process, the effects are going to be catastrophic and perhaps irreversible for our children.
    
10. COOK! Our culture has forgotten the joys of cooking. Not only is it better for you and saves money, but it's an invaluable skill to pass on to your children.
     

Call to Action

• 10 Fresh Actions
• Child Nutrition Reauthorization
• Know Your Farmer
• Student Activism
• Fresh Cookbook
• Volunteer
• Donate

Take Action!

• Sign the FRESH petition to the Department of Justice: break up the food monopoly to free our farmers.
  
  
• Write to Congress: Continue to Support Fresh, Healthy School Meal Programs.

For more information:

• FRESH – the movie
• FRESH – Recipes
• FRESH – Video Clips

FRESH – the movie RSS Feed

In the United States, members of Slow Food USA's 200 chapters celebrate the amazing bounty of food that is available and work to strengthen the connection between the food on our plates and the health of our planet. Our members are involved in activities such as:

• Raising public awareness, improving access and encouraging the enjoyment of foods
  that are local, seasonal and sustainably grown.
   
• Caring for the land and protecting biodiversity for today's communities and future generations.
   
• Performing educational outreach within their communities and working with
  children in schools and through public programs.
   
• Identifying, promoting and protecting fruits, vegetables, grains, animal breeds,
  wild foods and cooking traditions at risk of disappearance.
   
• Advocating for farmers and artisans who
  grow, produce, market, prepare and serve wholesome food.
   
• Promoting the celebration of food as a cornerstone of pleasure, culture and community.

Good, Clean and Fair

Good: The word good can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.
For Slow Food, the idea of good means enjoying delicious food created with care
from healthy plants and animals.
The pleasures of good food can also help to build community and
celebrate culture & regional diversity.

Clean: When we talk about clean food,
we are talking about nutritious food that is as good for the planet as it is for our bodies.
It is grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on our
local ecosystems and promotes biodiversity.

Fair: We believe that food is a universal right.
Food that is fair should be accessible to all,
regardless of income, and produced by people
who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor.

Seven Pillars of Slow Food

1. Access to good, clean and fair food;
    
2. Agricultural and food biodiversity;
    
3. Small-scale food production;
    
4. Food sovereignty;
    
5. Language, cultural and traditional knowledge;
    
6. Environmentally responsible food production; and,
    
7. Fair and sustainable trade.
    

When photographer Paul Mobley set out to capture the soul of our country's farm communities, he encountered an enduring rural culture that remains rooted in the principles of tradition, family, integrity and hard work.

Traveling across the country from Tennessee to Montana, Mobley and his camera were welcomed time and again into the homes of over two hundred farm families, who graciously shared their personal histories and private thoughts, along with the fruits of their labor. Visit after visit, Mobley came to know the independent farmer's spirit from both behind the lens and across the dinner table.

Author Interview: Paul Mobley

The result is the first portrait collection of modern American farmers ever published to reach so deeply and gracefully into its subject. Images are accompanied by short and revealing first person narratives, told in the farmers' own words, that offer an intimate look inside the hardships and joys of a quickly disappearing way of life—one that once defined our national identity and now struggles to remain vital. From Walter Jackson, a 104-year-old Florida citrus farmer; to Patsy Fribley, a stockyard dealer from Montana; to Aaron Bell, a young 9th generation organic dairy farmer in Maine, Mobley's exquisite photographs reveal the true face of American farming and remind us what it means to live with simplicity, contentment, and decency in a world that so often forgets.

States included: Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming.

About the Authors

Paul Mobley's early training as a photographer began at Detroit's Center for Creative Studies, and continued in the New York studios of such leading photographers as Annie Leibovitz and David Langley, where he apprenticed for many years before embarking on his own career. Mobley has successfully worked with a broad range of corporate, advertising, and editorial clients, including American Express, Sony, Citigroup, Ford, Compaq, Gourmet, Max Factor, Chevrolet, Microsoft, and many others. Mobley lives in New York City and Michigan with his wife Suzanne, and their two wonderful daughters, Camden and Paige.

Katrina Fried has edited, written, and produced numerous illustrated books, including most recently: On the Street: 1980-1990 and The Fourth Wall by Amy Arbus; Animal House by Catherine Ledner; Red Carpet by Frank Trapper; Los Angeles by Tim Street-Porter; and Wild Birds of the American Wetlands by Rosalie Winard. She lives and works in New York City.

Michael Martin Murphey, one of America's most respected songwriters and performers, was inducted to the Western Music Hall of Fame in 2004. An icon for the American cowboy, Murphey grew up working on ranches in Arkansas and Texas, and continues to breed livestock, such as Texas Longhorns and American Quarter horses, through his Rocking 3M Ranching Co. He is deeply involved in issues important to America's farmers, and is co-founder of American Prairie Partners, which helps restore land to prairie with native grasses.

Willard Scott, famous for his work on NBC's The Today Show, has won over Americans' hearts through his ebullient personality, good service and solid reporting. Be it fund-raisers, state fairs, parades, or civic events, Scott has shown Americans what it means to work hard and humbly. His ancestors settled in America in 1759 and every "Scott" in his family line has made his living by farming. He never forgets to wish centenarians a Happy Birthday when he reports on The Today Show. A number of these are photographed in American Farmer.

Press — Awards, Tour, Events, Multimedia, National Television and Radio, National Print and Online, Regional Print and Online, Blogs.

For more information, please visit American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country.

Photographs and text by Douglas Gayeton.
Introduction by Alice Waters.
Preface by Slow Food Founder, Carlo Petrini.
Published October, 2009 by Welcome Books.
ISBN 9787-1-59962-072-5
176 pages, 11”x13”
75 sepia toned 4-color images 8 gatefolds, Acetate jacket & 4 acetate tip-ins printed with Text from underlying images. Includes a sampling of authentic Tuscan recipes.

SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town is an unprecedented photographic personal journey into the heart of hidden Tuscany that celebrates the principles that define the Slow Food movement and pays tribute to the region’s kaleidoscope of vibrant characters, whose shared culture revolves around the everyday pleasure of growing, preparing, and eating food.

With an anecdotal charm reminiscent of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, Douglas Gayeton’s interplay of pictures and words conveys a thrilling narrative that transports you halfway around the globe to the charming town of Pistoia, nestled in the outskirts of Florence. There we meet the mushroom hunters and sheep farmers, the winemakers and fishermen, the bakers, butchers and chocolate makers whose lives are profoundly bound to the rhythms of nature.

It is a riveting story told in a riveting way: each image comprised of multiple photographs taken over a period of time that can range anywhere from ten minutes to several hours, and layered with Gayeton’s handwritten notes, recipes, facts, and sayings. With this process, Gayeton has managed to introduce the concept of story and time, both compressed and exploded, into his portraits. The result is a photographic approach critics have dubbed flat film; the effect is exhilarating.

As Gayeton observes,
“What my eyes saw was always grander than any lens could capture…How could I introduce the presence of time, of an emerging and evolving story comprised of not one, but many moments, into a single photograph?”

In the accompanying text, Gayeton offers an absorbing first person account of his immersion into rural Italian culture, offering an intimacy that draws us deeper into this romantic and rustic world. A photographer, a pioneering new media creator, a wonderful writer and an award winning documentarian, Gayeton is passionately interested in food, culture, art, and people.

DOUGLAS GAYETON is a filmmaker, photographer, and writer.
His images are held in a number of influential museum and private collections around the world, and have been featured in numerous print and online media, such as Time Magazine. Since the early 90s he has created award-winning work at the boundaries of traditional and converging media for MTV, Sony, National Geographic, and PBS. Recent projects include LOST IN ITALY, a 26 episode interstitial TV series Gayeton created, directed, and shot for Fine Living, and MOLOTOV ALVA AND HIS SEARCH FOR THE CREATOR: A SECOND LIFE ODYSSEY for HBO, the first documentary shot inside a virtual world. Gayeton lectures frequently on art, technology, and sustainability. He is also coowner, with his wife, Laura Howard, of Laloos Goat Milk Ice Cream in Petaluma, CA.

ALICE WATERS is an internationally renowned chef and the co-owner of Chez Panisse, the restaurant where she helped define California cuisine. A passionate advocate of cooking with locally grown and seasonal ingredients, Waters has written several books on the subject. She is the founder of Slow Food Nation, founder of the Chez Panisse Foundation, and an International Governor of Slow Food International.

CARLO PETRINI is the founder of the Slow Food movement and author of several books on the subject, including Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, and Fair. He is the founder of the University of Gastronomic Sciences, President of Slow Food International and now working extensively with Terra Madre to support farmers and food education projects in poor countries.

“Many have tried to explain Slow Food in written words, but few have managed to communicate the essence of this movement as successfully.”
      —Alice Waters, internationally renowned chef and the co-owner of Chez Panisse, and the founder of Slow Food Nation

“These photographs are rich and undeniably authentic…that goes beyond the boundaries of nations and languages and represents the principles at the heart of the Slow Food movement.”
      —Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement

SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town gives us a visual and written window on a rapidly disappearing world, ruled by the land, the seasons and simple interactions. Industrialized food is breaking the web that connects us intimately to what we eat at a cost to our health and our environment.”
      —Robert Kenner, director, producer, Food, Inc.

A little background

PBS started this project and a Webby grew out of it:
Photographed over the course of Douglas’ years in Tuscany, SLOW grew out of a request from PBS to document Italy’s burgeoning Slow Food movement. Gayeton told them that while most Italians didn’t know what Slow Food was, their lives exemplified the principles that define the movement. Evidence of it was all around him, so why not document the people of Pistoia?

When Gayeton makes films he always brings along a still camera. But this time when he looked at his prints he added handwritten notes, which he scribbled directly on the photographs. At first these were meant to remind him of things he’d seen or heard, but he quickly realized that the act of telling his subjects’ stories with words and phrases (and even Tuscan sayings) was more compelling than the film itself.

Exhibitions: Gayeton’s photographs were featured at Slow Food Nation, the Slow Food movement’s first ever event in the US which took place in San Francisco in September 2008. Over the three days of the event more than 85,000 people passed through the exhibit. Arte Italia just opened a SLOW exhibition in Reno (April 30-July 11) and, after travelling, it will return to San Francisco in January 2010.

For more information, visit the publishers website:

• Welcome Books - www.welcomebooks.com/slow
• Press Release: http://welcomebooks.com/slow/Slow_pressrelease.pdf

About Welcome as Publisher – Welcome Books® is a publisher of distinctive, exquisitely crafted visual books on a variety of subjects including art, photography, fashion, nature, travel, history, design, religion, sports, parenting, and food. Distributed by Random House, Welcome Books is among the premier publishers of illustrated books in the United States and offers formats ranging from anthologies and journals to elegant photographic volumes and lavish limited editions.

For more information, please visit SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town.

 
Please support your local independant bookseller, e.g. The King's English Bookseller in Salt Lake City,
or find your favorite local seller through IndieBound.

Additional Related Links:

• KCPW/PRI-Sirius XM-Radio: Bob Edwards Weekend, December 5-6, 2009, Hour 2: sociologist Patrick Carr; author and photographer Douglas Gayeton; author and music critic Anthony DeCurtis. (DOUGLAS GAYETON, a multimedia artist and champion of the Slow Food movement, combined his two passions in his new book "Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town."
  [This segment begins at 12:00.])
  Sirius XM Radio, 51:20, Society & Culture, Publish Date Thu, 03 Dec 2009
  (Bob Edwards Hour Home Page.)
   

1. Access to good, clean and fair food
2. Agricultural and food biodiversity
3. Small-scale food production
4. Food sovereignty
5. Language, cultural and traditional knowledge
6. Environmentally responsible food production
7. Fair and sustainble trade

Terra Madre Day celebrations (December 10, 2009) will celebrate 20 years of Slow Food and raise awareness of the importance of "eating locally" and the right of all communities to maintain and build:

Access to good, clean and fair food

Slow Food's approach to agriculture, food production and gastronomy is based on a concept of food quality defined by three interconnected principles: good, clean and fair. Good: a fresh and flavorsome daily diet which satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture; clean: produced using methods that don't harm the environment or human health; and fair: providing fair conditions and compensation for producers and accessible prices for consumers. Slow Food works to defend the right to good, clean and fair food for all people and emphasizes that pleasure and responsibility must go hand-in-hand.

Agricultural and food biodiversity

Over the past century we have lost 80% of our food biodiversity: one third of native cattle, sheep and pig breeds are now extinct or endangered, three hundred thousand vegetable varieties have become extinct, and we continue to lose one more every six hours. Slow Food is committed to defending the biodiversity of cultivated and wild species and native breeds. We commit to protecting quality foods that are traditional and sustainable as well as their methods of cultivation and processing. Without this there can be no food security.

Small-scale food production

The hyper-productive system shaped by industrial agriculture and globalization has failed. It has not fed the planet, with today one billion people facing starvation, has polluted the land and water, destroyed the cultural identities of entire peoples and drastically reduced biodiversity. Small-scale food production, based in local communities, has the knowledge to show us the way to a sounder future. The best approach to agriculture and fishing, especially for the poorest regions of the world, is one that respects local cultures and is based on the wisdom of local communities.

Food sovereignty

All peoples must retain the knowledge and freedom to decide what they grow, how it is transformed and the make up of their daily diet. Especially in developing countries, maintaining agricultural traditions and knowledge are vital for the health of communities and cultures. Small farmers are rapidly losing farmland dedicated to local food production as it is diverted to export or biofuel production, as well as losing their most precious asset: seeds. As farmers start to buy seeds from companies who patent the most productive varieties, they abandon traditional crops in favor of those that require massive amounts of fertilizers and pesticides, and are intended for export or animal feed. Education is crucial to support food sovereignty.

Language, culture and traditional knowledge

All peoples must have the possibility to preserve their language, culture and traditional knowledge. The term ‘food community' was coined to describe a new idea of a local economy based on food, agriculture, tradition and culture. Through raising the profile of food communities and the essential work they do, we return cultural dignity to small producers, valuing their knowledge and skills. By doing so, we also assist indigenous communities to uphold their culture and way of life, and help to ensure that their knowledge is passed on to new generations. Education is vital to ensure cultural diversity.

Environmentally responsible food production

Agriculture and fishing must be considered to be strongly interdependent with the environment. They cannot be considered simply as economic sectors, subject to the laws of supply and demand. We must ensure that food production eliminates or reduces the use of chemicals, protects the fertility of our land and water ecosystems, eliminates or reduces waste, and promotes sustainable energy sources.

Fair and sustainable trade

Social justice and fair trade can be reached through labor that is respectful of producers and provides them with fair pay, as well as accessible prices for consumers and solidarity and respect for cultural diversity and traditions. Short food supply chains are one of the key elements of sustainable agriculture. Local food networks reduce environmental impact by decreasing transport, and contribute to preserving a region's food culture by giving it value. Furthermore, by reducing the number of intermediary steps involved, we are better able to reach a fair financial outcome for producers and consumers alike.

Webmeisters Note:  This article was originally published by Slow Food (International) as "Our 7 Pillars" in connection with Terra Madre Day celebrations.

Almost any conference having to do with our food systems -- processing, organics, security -- will likely include Joan Dye Gussow. She comes to food with a global perspective, concerned that our agricultural 'progress' -- genetically engineered food, synthetic additives, industrialized production, and artificial price supports -- is destroying environments as well as economies around the world.

—The Valley Table

Joan Dye Gussow is an extraordinarily ordinary woman. She lives in a home not unlike the average home in a neighborhood that is, more or less, typically suburban. What sets her apart from the rest of us is that she thinks more deeply--and in more eloquent detail--about food. In sharing her ponderings, she sets a delightful example for those of us who seek the healthiest, most pleasurable lifestyle within an environment determined to propel us in the opposite direction. Joan is a suburbanite with a green thumb, with a feisty, defiant spirit and a relentlessly positive outlook.

At the heart of This Organic Life is the premise that locally grown food eaten in season makes sense economically, ecologically, and gastronomically. Transporting produce to New York from California--not to mention Central and South America, Australia, or Europe--consumes more energy in transit than it yields in calories. (It costs 435 fossil fuel calories to fly a 5-calorie strawberry from California to New York.) Add in the deleterious effects of agribusiness, such as the endless cycle of pesticide, herbicide, and chemical fertilizers; the loss of topsoil from erosion of over-tilled croplands; depleted aquifers and soil salinization from over-irrigation; and the arguments in favor of "this organic life" become overwhelmingly convincing.

Joan's story is funny and fiery as she points out the absurdities we have unthinkingly come to accept. You won't find an electric can opener in this woman's house. In fact, you probably won't find many cans, as Joan has discovered ways to nourish herself, literally and spiritually, from her own backyard. If you are looking for a tale of courage and independence in a setting that is entirely familiar, read her story.

About the Author

Joan Gussow: A highly acclaimed nutritionist whose work has been published in Country Journal and Annals of Earth, Joan Dye Gussow is living testimony that eating well year-round from an average-sized lot in the suburbs of Piermont, New York, is both possible and desirable. To live this civilized version of "the good life" involves no sacrifice of variety or taste, and only enhances life's sensual pleasures and one's mental outlook. ...

See also: Resource: KRCL-91FM RadioActive! Nov. 4. 2009 "Joan Gussow" Food Activist and Bioneer.

In 1999, Slow Food launched the Presidia project which has since involved thousands of small producers across the world, strengthening local economies and saving cheeses, breads, vegetable varieties and breeds from extinction. The worldwide Terra Madre network was launched in 2004 to give a voice and visibility to these farmers, breeders, fishers and artisan producers, and to bring them together with cooks, academics, youth and consumers to discuss how to improve the food system and strengthen local economies. Today the Terra Made network is made up of more than 2,000 food communities.

Slow Food has chosen to celebrate its first 20 years with Terra Madre Day in recognition of these communities' remarkable achievements and their crucial role. Terra Madre Day will be celebrated by food communities and Slow Food's network of more than 100,000 members across 150 countries, grouped in 1,300 convivia - local chapters - who are working to defend their local culinary culture. The convivia have always formed the backbone of Slow Food, spreading the philosophy far and wide by organizing events and activities.

Slow Food develops countless activities, projects and events all around the world, at the local, national and international levels. Most of these actions revolve around four key themes: food biodiversity, food and taste education, connecting producers and co-producers (shortening the food supply chain)and developing networks.

More About Slow Food and Terra Madre...

www.terramadre.org
www.slowfood.com

How much do we really know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families?

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Food, Inc. illustrates the dangers of a food system controlled by powerful corporations that don’t want you to see, to think about or to criticize how our food is made. The film reveals how complicated and compromised the once simple process of growing crops and raising livestock to feed ourselves and our families has become. But, it also reminds us that despite what appears to be at times a hopeless situation, each of us still has the ability to vote on this issue every day – at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

About the Filmmakers

Robert Kenner, producer/director
Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner worked for over six years to bring Food, Inc. to the screen.

Eric Schlosser, co-producer
Eric Schlosser is an investigative journalist, best-selling author, playwright and a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. He is considered a leading authority on the impacts of industrialized agriculture.

The Issues:

Food, Inc. exposes America's industrialized food system and its effect on our environment, health, economy and workers' rights. Learn about these issues and take action through the Hungry For Change cafeteria and check out the 10 Simple Tips for making positive changes in your eating habits. Learn more about these issues and how you can take action on Takepart.com.

Find organic, local foods

Sustainable foods can be found in your community by purchasing organic and/or locally grown produce and products. It's easy to find farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture programs, restaurants and more with the user-friendly Eat Well Guide. Simply type in your zip code to find out what's in season near you. 

Diabetes and Obesity

High calorie, sugar laden processed foods coupled with our sedentary lifestyles is growing our waistlines and contributing to serious health issues like diabetes, heart ailments and cancers. One-third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Tell Congress that kids should be served healthy meals, not soda and junk food. 

Factory Farming

Approximately 10 billion animals (chickens, cattle, hogs, ducks, turkeys, lambs and sheep) are raised and killed in the US annually. Nearly all of them are raised on factory farms under inhumane conditions. These industrial farms are also dangerous for their workers, pollute surrounding communities, are unsafe to our food system and contribute significantly to global warming. 

Pesticides

Cancers, autism and neurological disorders are associated with the use of pesticides especially amongst farm workers and their communities. Learn about what pesticides are in your food and their effects. 

Environmental Impact

Did you know that the average food product travels about 1,500 miles to get to your grocery store? And that transporting food accounts for 30,800 tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year? 

The Global Food Crisis

Approximately 1 billion people worldwide do not have secure access to food, including 36 million in the US. National and international food and agricultural policies have helped to create the global food crisis but can also help to fix the system. 

Kevin's Law: Foodborne Illness

In Food, Inc. we meet Barbara Kowalcyk, whose 2 year old son, Kevin, died from E.coli poisoning after eating a hamburger. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from foodborne illnesses. Although Kevin's law is not pending in Congress right now, there are other important national food safety legislation pending now for you to support. 

Put Nutritional Labels on Restaurant Food

Ever wondered how many calories are in your restaurant food? Most restaurants don’t list the actual nutritional value of their food. Listing calories on menus in chain restaurants is an easy way to educate consumers about calorie content to help them make the healthiest choice. 

Genetic Engineering

Some of our most important staple foods have been fundamentally altered, and genetically engineered meat and produce have already invaded our grocery stores and our kitchen pantries. 

Farm Worker Protection

Farm workers are the backbone of our agricultural industry, bringing fresh food everyday to our tables. They deserve basic workplace protections like good wages, access to shade and water. 

Cloning

In January 2008, the FDA approved the sale of meat and milk from cloned livestock, despite the fact that Congress voted twice in 2007 to delay FDA's decision on cloned animals until additional safety and economic studies could be completed. 

Facts from Food, Inc.

• In the 1970s, the top five beef packers controlled about 25% of the market. Today, the top four control more than 80% of the market.
• In the 1970s, there were thousands of slaughterhouses producing the majority of beef sold. Today, we have only 13.
• In 1998, the USDA implemented microbial testing for salmonella and E. coli 0157h7 so that if a plant repeatedly failed these tests, the USDA could shut down the plant. After being taken to court by the meat and poultry associations, the USDA no longer has that power.
• In 1972, the FDA conducted 50,000 food safety inspections. In 2006, the FDA conducted only 9,164.
• During the Bush administration, the head of the FDA was the former executive VP of the National Food Processors Association.
• During the Bush administration, the chief of staff at the USDA was the former chief lobbyist for the beef industry in Washington.
• Prior to renaming itself an agribusiness company, Monsanto was a chemical company that produced, among other things, DDT and Agent Orange.
• In 1996 when it introduced Round-Up Ready Soybeans, Monsanto controlled only 2% of the U.S. soybean market. Now, over 90% of soybeans in the U.S. contain Monsanto’s patented gene.
• Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas was an attorney at Monsanto from 1976 to 1979. After his appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas wrote the majority opinion in a case that helped Monsanto enforce its seed patents.
• The average chicken farmer invests over $500,000 and makes only $18,000 a year.
• 32,000 hogs a day are killed in Smithfield Hog Processing Plant in Tar Heel, N.C, which is the largest slaughterhouse in the world.
• The average American eats over 200 lbs. of meat a year. 30% of the land in the U.S. is used for planting corn.
• The modern supermarket now has, on average, 47,000 products, the majority of which is being produced by only a handful of food companies.
• 70% of processed foods have some genetically modified ingredient.
• SB63 Consumer Right to Know measure requiring all food derived from cloned animals to be labeled as such passed the California state legislature before being vetoed in 2007 by Governor Schwarzenegger, who said that he couldn’t sign a bill that pre-empted federal law.
• Corn products include: ketchup, cheese, Twinkies, batteries, peanut butter, Cheez-Its, salad dressings, Coke, jelly, Sweet & Low, syrup, juice, Kool-Aid, charcoal, diapers, Motrin, meat and fast food.
• Corn, which is the main ingredient in animal feed, is also used as a food additive. Those products commonly include: Cellulose, Xylitol, Maltodextrin, Ethylene, Gluten, Fibersol-2, Citrus Cloud Emulsion, Inosital, Fructose, Calcium Stearate, Saccharin, Sucrose, Sorbital, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Di-glycerides, Semolina, Sorbic Acid, Alpha Tocopherol, Ethyl Lactate, Polydextrose, Xantham Gum, White Vinegar, Ethel Acetate, Fumaric Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Baking Powder, Zein, Vanilla Extract, Margarine, and Starch.
• 1 in 3 Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes; Among minorities, the rate will be 1 in 2.
• E. coli and Salmonella outbreaks have become more frequent in America, whether it be from spinach or jalapenos. In 2007, there were 73,000 people sickened from the E. coli virus.
• Organics is the fastest growing food segment, increasing 20% annually

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Regular Seats - Kitchen Table Seats

We have sold all available seats in the section you requested.
You may check the other section to see if any seats remain there. (e.g. If you first selected Kitchen Table Seating, try Regular Seating.)

As an alternative, you may send an email to slowfoodutah@xmission.com and indicate that you would like to be added to the Feast of 5 Senses waiting list.  We will contact you if there are any cancellations.

Thank you for your interest in Slow Food Utah.

Please visit our 6th Annual Feast of Five Senses Invitation Page.

(You either came across this page while searching our site, or you were directed here by PayPal. This page is not a regular article in the Slow Food Utah Website.)

Join us for an extraordinary gathering of chefs and local food artisans at
Slow Food Utah’s 5th Annual Feast of Five Senses.

Sunday, October 18, 2009 - 5:30 p.m.
Current Slow Food Utah Members please arrive @ 4:30 p.m.
for a special artisanal cheese and wine tasting.

Kimball Distributing – Viking Cooking School & Showroom
2233 South 300 East, Salt Lake City, Utah

—  Feast Makers  —
Antipasti by Liberty Heights Fresh
Greg Neville of Lügano
Dave Jones of Log Haven
Adam Kreisel of Tipica … A Caputo Project
Ali Sabbah of Mazza
Romina Rasmussen of Les Madeleines Patisserie

We’ve built a schoolyard garden.
We’ve helped our food-producing neighbors with a successful micro-grant program.
We’re building a food community.

We couldn’t have done it without you.

Now, we’re looking to enrich this food community of ours with new faces and new flavors.
We’re at it again. This time it’s all about tradition: Celebrating ours and welcoming others.
This year, we’re developing micro-grants to sustain food cultures and
the memories and flavors that go with them.
Together, we can ensure we all have a place at our community table.

The Annual Feast of Five Senses is Slow Food Utah's major annual fund-raising event. Our "Feast Makers" have graciously contributed their talents and foods for your enjoyment. We invite you to share in this community event. Your support of this event will help ensure that this community continues to grow and flourish.

Five Senses Regular Seating: $100 per person, $25 optional wine pairing.
Five Senses Kitchen Table Seating: $125 per person, $25 optional wine pairing.
(Watch and mingle with our Feastmakers at the Five Senses Kitchen Table!)
Seating is limited.

For further information please email or call (801) 706-8828.

Feast of Five Senses: Luscious Success

Slow Food Utah’s annual Feast of Five Senses fundraiser rocked the house at Salt Lake’s swanky Kimball Distributing and Viking Cooking School on Sunday night, October 11, 2009.

One hundred and twenty Slow Food members, guests, chefs and volunteers mixed and mingled, ate and drank and sang the praises of our bounty of local foods--all prepared with heart and soul by a dedicated group of chefs and volunteers. And, we savored it all amid fantasy-inducing kitchenware, countertops and Viking appliances, beckoning with their gorgeous, saturated colors. From auction to appetizers, dinner to dessert, the evening truly dazzled and delighted all the senses as it successfully raised needed funds for local micro grants.

Antipasti by Steven Rosenberg, Amber Billingsley and the Liberty Heights Fresh crew showcased Miya Farm pumpkin soup shooters, Wight Family Farm turkey leg confit and a superb local cheese selection, all accompanied by perfectly chilled Caymus Conundrum, and tempting silent auction items from local purveyors.

Chefs and their crews gathered in the cooking school’s huge, gleaming kitchen where each orchestrated his or her dish with great aplomb—no easy task considering there were five chefs and endless plates and platters to fill.

Lugano chef/owner Greg Neville plated single servings of an unforgettably silky cauliflower flan topped with Beehive Barely Buzzed Cheddar and Bell Organic Braising Greens.

Adam Kreisel, Tipica chef dished up a fragrant, slow-cooked local organic “chicken coccione” with cinnamon-scented eggplant and a rich poultry reduction.

Log Haven chef Dave Jones followed up with a refreshing salad of frisee, Utah crispin apples and butternut squash chips in a pumpkin-cider vinaigrette with a pecan and feta spanokopita on the side.

Finally, Mazza owner/chef Ali Sabbah’s slow-braised aromatic lamb with Middle Eastern spices was spooned over spicy fava bean stew…and, we were full. But not too full to gobble down Pastry chef Romina Rassmussen’s now-famous, buttery kouing aman, dressed up with a brilliant twist of bacon, served with apple compote and salted caramel ice cream.

Thanks to Francis Fecteau of Libation for inspired wine pairings and to Steve Kuftienec of Uinta Brewing Company for the array of autumny brews paired to each course—and for their descriptions of each beverage.

Thanks also to all of our silent auction donors and to food stylist Susan Massey for procuring and arranging the stunning, seasonal flowers, and to Steve Smith for providing photography.

Thanks to all who attended and supported Slow Food Utah.

Thank you to our supporters and sponsors for the 5th Annual Feast of Five Senses.

Kimball Distributing – Viking Cooking School & Showroom
located at 2233 South 300 East, Salt Lake City, Utah.
(Google Map)

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By Kathy Stephenson
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 06/02/2009
Photo Gallery

Note to readers » Many people dream about owning a restaurant, but what does it really take -- in time, money and culinary know-how --to launch an eating establishment? The Salt Lake Tribune goes along for the ride as Scott and Shannon Evans turn their restaurant dream into reality. Here's their story:

When the spring onion appetizer was served at -- coincidentally 5:27 p.m. on May 27 -- it was the first "official" dish out of the Pago kitchen and marked the opening of Salt Lake City's newest restaurant and wine bar.

This was the moment that owner Scott Evans had talked about, planned for, worked on and lost sleep over for years.

There was, however, no celebrating, as Evans was fixing a glitch in the computerized cash register and ordering system. While he worked, other potential business-breaking disasters weighed on his mind. The most pressing was the gas line to the kitchen stove that wasn't providing enough fuel to boil water for the gnocchi.

Instead of joy, Evans was near despair. "If things don't improve dramatically, I'll be disappointed," says the 30-year-old Utah native. "It's all the little things."

Beginnings » For nearly a decade, Evans and his wife, Shannon, have been working to open a restaurant: developing a business plan, gaining on-the-job experience and saving money.

Scott Evans took his first restaurant job at Salt Lake City's Park Ivy restaurant in 1999 while attending the University of Utah. Later he worked at Sage's Café, Stein Eriksen Lodge, The Grand America, Butterfly, Zola and Squatters Pub Brewery learning the business as an employee, supervisor and general manager.

When Evans earned his master's in business administration at Westminster College in 2005, his final paper was a business plan for his restaurant.

In 2006, while studying Spanish wines, he came across the word Pago. which means "single vineyard" but also "something that easily fits in." The word described the essence of the business he wanted to create and became the restaurant's official name.

"Everything has been leading up to this point," says wife Shannon. That includes saving for "years and years" while they raise their two daughters, ages 2 and 4. "Our house, everything, is invested in this place."

For two years, they had been searching for the right space. They had specific requirements: It had to be in Salt Lake City's eclectic 900 East and 900 South neighborhood or the 1500 East and 1500 South area.

It all came together in December, when Evans was saw a "for lease" sign in the window of newly renovated spot at 878 South and 900 East, the location of the old Park Ivy, his first restaurant job.

"We walked in and it instantly felt like home," Evans says. "It was small and personable with character. It was exactly what we had been looking for."

Dan Colangelo, owner of the century-old building, had concerns. It is a small space, just 1,200 square feet, and while it had been completely updated, it didn't have the plumbing, electrical and gas lines needed to be a restaurant. Colangelo, who had four or five other offers for the space, did his homework, going so far as to ask area residents and business owners what they wanted to see in the spot.

"They wanted something unique and local," he said. "They liked the idea of a casual place where you could get something yummy to eat and order a drink."

It took more than six weeks to negotiate the lease. Evans immediately applied for construction permits and a Utah state liquor license. If all went as schedule, he planned to open May 10.

The Evans cobbled-together money from myriad of outside sources to help finance their project. They're approved for a $64,000 low-interest business loan from Salt Lake County's revolving loan program, but are waiting to hear on a second $30,000 loan with Mountain American Credit Union. Evans' older sister, who lives in Washington D.C., is also an "investor."

Choices » Hooked into Utah's dining scene, Evans asks trusted colleagues to suggest a chef who could implement his "farm-to-table" concept.

Michael Richey, who had recently returned to Utah after working in top restaurants in San Francisco and Florida, was first on the list.

When Richey's roommate and fellow chef, Adam Findlay, learned of the project, he wanted in. Findlay's culinary credentials were just as impressive as Richey's, having worked in Alaska as well as several Utah restaurants, including The Globe Café, Metropolitan and the Viking Yurt.

With two impeccable choices, Evans decides on hiring the pair as co-chefs. In the weeks before opening, the move seems genius, as Findlay's reserved nature proves to be a calming force next to Richey's out-spoken, cavalier personality.

The first week of April, the restaurant begins taking shape. New plumbing and electrical systems are installed, additional framing is completed and a new cement floor is poured.

Evans posts a job listing for service staff on Craigslist.com and receives 250 applications for only 15 jobs. Many of the applicants have experience at five-star restaurants, and he's thrilled that it won't have to spend a lot of time training.

Richey and Findlay, who have been working on the menu, offer the first of several tastings. Evans says she is blown away by the cinnamon beet salad appetizer and the chicken paillard entrée. "It's so close to what I envisioned and what I've talked about," he says.

Can this euphoria last?

Red tape » On April 21, one day before he's to receive his state liquor license, Salt Lake City inspectors tell him that he needs to get more permits. Without local approval, there's no state liquor license. Opening day is now pushed back to May 27, the next day the DABC meets.

"It's frustrating," he says. "The process definitely makes it difficult and more expensive to open a small business."

Later in the day, Evans learns his loan application from Mountain America has been denied.

"Now I have to ask my family for more money," he says. "I wanted the entire burden to be on me, but now I'm asking them to increase their risk. I'm lucky I have options and people who believe in me. But it's disappointing when you want to do it on your own."

Evans takes out his frustration through manual labor. He scrubs the walls, vents and ceilings to get the restaurant ready for a fresh coat of paint. "I'm trying to keep the bigger picture alive."

Coming together » May presents a daily roller coaster ride. The interior looks better every day. Evans is thrilled with the recycled countertop for the bar and the trim and wall mosaic made from reclaimed wood. He's happy when the appliances arrive and the outdoor sign is hoisted into place.

He tries not to stress a few days later when Richey and Findlay express concern about the size of the kitchen.

"It's a little tight," Findlay says, "and that gives us the jitters."

Later, the two admit to overreacting. "We get nervous because we are thinking about the 250 seat restaurant we used to work at. Then we walk in and remember the numbers." Pago's maximum capacity is 47.

Once the staff is hired, they tour Layton's East Farms, where most of the fresh fruits and vegetables for the restaurant will be harvested. Evans' excitement is visible as he lifts his arms above his head and announces: "Soon we'll be serving food from this plot of land." The group sits side by side on a the large irrigation pipe and has its first wine tasting, while looking out at the cabbages and the beans.

Keeping calm » Evans sets up a meeting with Smith's Food & Drug officials about using the grassy area on the east side of the store (adjacent to the restaurant) as an patio. Smith's offers to rent the area to him for $1,000 a month, far more than his new business can afford, especially for something that will be used only four or five months a year. He'll keep trying to negotiate.

The cash register system proves to be another headache and expense. When they arrive, they're not compatible with the restaurant's Macintosh computer. Evans spends another $750 for new personal computer and software to make them operate.

Through it all, Evans shows an outward calm.

"But he's waking up about 4:30 every morning because he can't sleep," Shannon confides.

Countdown » On May 20, the one-week countdown begins. Evans plans two public open houses and two private dinners for family and industry friends. These test events will help servers learn the menus and allow the chefs work out any kinks in the kitchen.

The open houses, which Evans hopes will get neighbors excited about the restaurant, attract more than 100 people who nosh on fresh oysters, halibut ceviche and Wagu beef appetizers.

The dinner for family didn't go as smoothly, as the stereo system wasn't working and the air conditioning was on the blink. But those were minor hiccups next to the problem with the stove. The chefs couldn't get enough natural gas to boil water and the first batch of potato gnocchi had to be tossed.

Time to call the plumber. Again!

Doors open » Opening day starts with a panic. The city has forgotten to fax the proper paperwork to the DABC. If it's not there by the time the commission's meeting starts at 9 a.m., Evans will be forced to wait another month for his license. At 7:30 a.m., Evans starts calling every secretary and inspector he has ever dealt with to make the deadline. The information arrives, with a few minutes to spare, at 8:35 a.m.

By noon, Evans has his liquor license. At 2 p.m. the fire department has given its final approval. At 3 p.m. he heads to the DABC warehouse to pick up his wine and spirits order.

Shortly after 5 p.m., the restaurant's first customers, Sherry Wang and Rebecca Rodriguez, are escorted to their table. They're regular shoppers in the Ninth and Ninth neighborhood and have watched the restaurant take shape. They each order a glass of wine and share the spring onion appetizer and a plate of gnocchi.

It would be a perfect moment for Evans, except that the cash register isn't working and the chefs are making do with burners that don't fire properly. "I'm really dissatisfied that things are not perfect," he says.

Fast forward, three hours -- and 50 satisfied customers. Now Evans is more relaxed and has a different take as he looks back on opening night.

"We pulled it off and didn't look too bad."

End note » The day after opening, the plumber fixed the stove and the gnocchi now is being cooked to perfection.

kstephenson@sltrib.com

Pago timeline

December » Evans finds the perfect restaurant location.

January » Applies for business loans.

February » Monitors changes to Utah state liquor laws; negotiates building lease.

March » Finalizes lease; obtains construction permits; applies for state liquor license; hires chefs; sets May 10 opening date.

Early April » Building remodel in full swing. Job listings posted. Menu tastings.

April 22 » Business license denied; liquor license postponed. Loan application denied. Opening day changed to May 27

Late April » Painting; hiring employes; menu tastings.

Early May » "Green" touches added to interior; appliances installed.

May 15 » Outdoor sign hung.

May 18 » Employees tour East Farms in Layton; staff wine tasting.

May 19 » Preparing for open house until 3 a.m.

May 20 » Early morning inspections. Stove isn't working. First public open house attracts about 50 guests.

May 21 » Second public open house draws about 60 guests.

May 22 » Friends and family dinner. Staff practices serving. Gas line to stove still not working properly.

May 23 » Industry night dinner; staff gets more practice.

May 24 » Finalizes investments from family.

May 26 » Program cash register; plumber works on gas lines; last-minute details.

May 27 » Opening day

If you go

Pago » 878 S. 900 East, Salt Lake City; call for reservations at 801-537-0777, www.pagoslc.com

Atmosphere » Located in a century-old building, this casual 47-seat restaurant and wine bar has an urban feel with reclaimed wood tables, chairs and trim.

Menu » A farm-to-table restaurant that relies on local farmers and artisan producers. It offers 20 select wines by the glass. The first Salt Lake City restaurant to use a Cruvinet temperature-controlled wine dispensing system, which keeps uncorked wines fresh for several weeks.

Prices » dinner $12-27; Lunch $7-$13.

Hours » Monday-Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the Salt Lake Tribune for the Photo Gallery.

The dates are June 20, August 29, and September 26.

There are two shifts, 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
We need 2 volunteers per shift.

As a volunteer you would represent Slow Food in general to people attending the Downtown Farmers' Market. You should have a good idea of what Slow Food stands for and be able to answer general questions about Slow Food. We will ask you to gather names and email addresses for persons interested in getting more information about, or involved with, Slow Food Utah. (If people have questions that you don't know the answers to, that's okay of course, and we would simply ask that you provide them with our contact information or suggest that they visit the Slow Food Utah Website where contact information is readily available.)

To find out more or to volunteer, please email Slow Food Utah.

Collections of Links from Kindred Organizations

• Deborah Madison’s Links including Organizations, Information Sources, Friends and Places.
   
• Ecological Farming Association ("Eco–Farm") Resources

  "EFA is involved in a number of exciting projects with partner organizations: Californian’s for GE–Free Agriculture, California Energy Efficiency for Farmers, California Food & Farming Coalition, Eco–Landscape Working Group, and World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms." EFA provides numerous valuable and interesting links.
   

• Edible Communities Links

  "This is a compendium of websites that [Edible Communities] have found that describe organizations, books, restaurants, farmers’ markets, food artisans and lots more. [These links cover topics including] sustainable agriculture and related topics. [Edible Communities is] continually adding sections and links to this list so visit often!"

• FoodRoutes.org Links

  A "guide to sustainable food and farming links on the World Wide Web. Here you’ll find a large list of links to sites related to food and farming issues. Choose a category to see links on a particular topic."

• Green Guerillas Links Featuring: Links to Community Gardens related organizations within the USA; Horticultural Sites and Resources; and Links to Gardening Information, Supplies, Products and Services.
   
• Maple Rock Farm (Orcas Island, Washington) WebLinks – Links Page
   

• The Meatrix List of Organizations

  The Meatrix and Sustainable Table ask, "Do you ever wonder if we can solve all the problems surrounding our food supply? Well, there’s no need to worry. If you have any doubt, come to this page and look at all of these great groups working to promote sustainable food, stop factory farming, and save family farms. There is hope – and by the looks of this list, there’s a lot of hope! Find a group you like and get involved, especially if there’s one in your area!"
  
  
   

• Michael Pollan – Links

  Michael Pollan is the author of "The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" and "The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s–Eye View of the World" and provides a set of wide–ranging links on his Website. Also available for downloading is a PDF document, resources for "sustainable eating", listing several of the links. He also provides access to his articles & books plus his reviews & interviews. A lot of good information is provided in this material, well worth visiting. Michael Pollan’s books named here are listed in the Slow Food Utah Books section.

• Seeds of Deception Links

  Is Your Food Safe? What the biotech industry doesn’t want you to know: The explosive exposé Seeds of Deception reveals how industry manipulation and political collusion–not sound science–allow dangerous genetically engineered food into your daily diet. Company research is rigged, alarming evidence of health dangers is covered up, and intense political pressure applied. Institute for Responsible Technology, Fairfield, Iowa.
   

Collections of LInks from Slow Food Convivia

• Slow Food in Schools Program – Links Page
• Slow Food Dallas – Links Page
• Slow Food Kansas City – Links Page
• Slow Food Monterey Bay – Links Page
• Slow Food Piedmont Triad – Links Page
• Slow Food Portland – Links Page
• Slow Food Tallahassee – Links Page
• Slow Food Wisconsin South East – Links Page

Slow Food Utah does not necessarily endorse the websites that are linked here, or the organizations they represent. These links are simply offered as a resource for you, for your information.

Why Support Locally Owned Businesses? from Local First Utah:

1. Local Character and Prosperity – In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.
    
2. Community Well-Being – Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of relationships, and contributing to local causes.
    
3. Local Decision-Making – Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.
    
4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy – Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.
    
5. Job and Wages – Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in most sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.
    
6. Entrepreneurship – Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.
    
7. Public Benefits and Costs – Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.
    
8. Environmental Sustainability – Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers — which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.
    
9. Competition – A marketplace of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long term.
    
10. Product Diversity – A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

The Buy Local Movement from LocalHarvest:

The Buy Local movement is quickly taking us beyond the promise of environmental responsibility that the organic movement delivered, and awakening the US to the importance of community, variety, humane treatment of farm animals, and social and environmental responsibility in regards to our food economy.

Why Buy Local? from LocalHarvest:

Most produce in the US is picked 4 to 7 days before being placed on supermarket shelves, and is shipped for an average of 1500 miles before being sold. And this is when taking into account only US grown products! Those distances are substantially longer when we take into consideration produce imported from Mexico, Asia, Canada, South America, and other places.

We can only afford to do this now because of the artificially low energy prices that we currently enjoy, and by externalizing the environmental costs of such a wasteful food system. We do this also to the detriment of small farmers by subsidizing large scale, agribusiness-oriented agriculture with government handouts and artificially cheap energy.

Cheap oil will not last forever though. World oil production has already peaked, according to some estimates, and while demand for energy continues to grow, supply will soon start dwindling, sending the price of energy through the roof. We'll be forced then to reevaluate our food systems and place more emphasis on energy efficient agricultural methods, like smaller-scale organic agriculture, and on local production wherever possible.

Cheap energy and agricultural subsidies facilitate a type of agriculture that is destroying and polluting our soils and water, weakening our communities, and concentrating wealth and power into a few hands. It is also threatening the security of our food systems, as demonstrated by the continued e-Coli, GMO-contamination, and other health scares that are often seen nowadays on the news.

These large-scale, agribusiness-oriented food systems are bound to fail on the long term, sunk by their own unsustainability. But why wait until we're forced by circumstance to abandon our destructive patterns of consumption? We can start now by buying locally grown food whenever possible. By doing so you'll be helping preserve the environment, and you'll be strengthening your community by investing your food dollar close to home. Only 18 cents of every dollar, when buying at a large supermarket, go to the grower. 82 cents go to various unnecessary middlemen. Cut them out of the picture and buy your food directly from your local farmer.

Why Buy Local? from Sustainable Table:

There are countless reasons why buying local food is both rewarding and delicious, including enjoying the taste of fresh food, improved health and nutrition, environmental stewardship, support for family farms and rural communities, and ensuring animal welfare.

There is also significant peace of mind in knowing where our food comes from. One of the biggest benefits to buying food locally is having someone to answer questions about how it was grown and raised. What goes into that loaf of bread? Can we be certain that the hog that is now bacon lived a life without suffering? How do we know those jalapeños are salmonella free?

Developing a relationship with local farmers gives us an "in" with our local food system. At farmers' markets we can get answers to questions like: When do tomatoes come into season? How might I use celeriac? Often, we can take a tour of the farm our food comes from. Some farmers are thrilled to share their knowledge and experience with their customers. Ask about the challenges your local farmers face and what they are doing to address them. It doesn't have to be complicated. Ask about the weather! Any farmer will be pleased to talk about how the growing season is going and how that affects the food they grow. Knowing local farmers can go a long way to simplifying buying local.

Another significant reason to buy local is to keep food miles to a minimum. "Food miles" refer to the distance a food item travels from the farm to your home. The food miles for items in the grocery store are, on average, 27 times higher than the food miles for goods bought from local sources.

Read More » The economics of local – If you can't buy local – What you can do

Why Buy Local? From the "Buy Fresh Buy Local Campaign"

A partnership project launched in October 2002, by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), in partnership with FoodRoutes Network. 

1. YOU WILL GET EXCEPTIONAL TASTE AND FRESHNESS.
   Local food is fresher and tastes better than food shipped long distances from other states or countries. Local farmers can offer produce varieties bred for taste and freshness rather than for shipping and long shelf life.
    
2. YOU'LL STRENGTHEN YOUR LOCAL ECONOMY.
   Buying local food keeps your dollars circulating in your community. Getting to know the farmers who grow your food builds relationships based on understanding and trust, the foundation of strong communities.
    
3. YOU'LL SUPPORT ENDANGERED FAMILY FARMS.
   There's never been a more critical time to support your farming neighbors. With each local food purchase, you ensure that more of your money spent on food goes to the farmer.
    
4. YOU'LL SAFEGUARD YOUR FAMILY'S HEALTH.
   Knowing where your food comes from and how it is grown or raised enables you to choose safe food from farmers who avoid or reduce their use of chemicals, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, or genetically modified seed in their operations. Buy food from local farmers you trust.
    
5. YOU'LL PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT.
   Local food doesn't have to travel far. This reduces carbon dioxide emissions and packing materials. Buying local food also helps to make farming more profitable and selling farmland for development less attractive. When you buy local food, you vote with your food dollar. This ensures that family farms in your community will continue to thrive and that healthy, flavorful, plentiful food will be available for future generations.
    
6. FOOD TRAVELS ON AVERAGE 1500-2500 MILES FROM FARM TO TABLE.
   Fruits and vegetables shipped from distant states and countries can spend as many as seven to fourteen days in transit before they arrive in the supermarket. [2] Most fruit and vegetable varieties sold in supermarkets are chosen for their ability to withstand industrial harvesting equipment and extended travel, not taste. This results in little variety in the plants grown.
    
7. TASTE THE DIFFERENCE!
   Premium Taste. Produce picked and eaten at the height of ripeness has exceptional flavor and, when handled properly, is packed with nutrients.
   Maximum Freshness. Buying locally means you pay for taste, not transportation and packaging.
   Unique Varieties. Local farmers often grow a large assortment of unique varieties of products to provide the most flavorful choices throughout the season.
    
8. FAMILY FARMS ARE AN AMERICAN TRADITION IN DANGER OF FADING AWAY.
   Family farms are an important part of the American tradition of self-sufficiency, forming the bedrock for communities across the U.S. Since 1935, the U.S. has lost 4.7 million farms. Fewer than one million Americans now claim farming as a primary occupation. Meanwhile, large corporations increasingly dominate U.S. food production. Four large firms control over 80% of beef slaughter, 59% of pork packing, and 50% of broiler chicken production.
    
9. FAMILY FARMERS ARE THE HEART OF AMERICA'S RURAL COMMUNITIES.
   Local family farmers spend their money with local merchants. The money stays in town where it benefits everyone and builds a stronger local economy. Independent, family-owned farms supply more local jobs and contribute to the local economy at higher rates than do large, corporate-owned farms. Eating locally grown, healthy food strengthens your family and community. Local farmers who sell direct to consumers receive a larger share of the profit for their food.
    
10. BUYING LOCAL IS THIS EASY:
    Find a farmer, farmers' market, farm stand, CSA, restaurant, retailer, or other local food outlet near you: click here to search the guide. Shop at your local farmers' market or farm stand for the freshest, best tasting food available. It's easy to find local food. There are over 4,285 farmers' markets in the U.S. Encourage your local grocery stores and area restaurants to purchase more of their products from local farmers.

Why Buy Locally from FamilyFarmed.org.

Your food is fresher and more nutritious.
Top chefs choose locally grown food when it is available because of its superior quality. Reducing the time from farm to table ensures that food flavors are at their peak. Locally grown food can be 3-10 days fresher than food shipped in from far away. When you eat locally grown foods soon after harvest, it is fresher and riper because it is picked closer to peak. Studies have shown that the nutrient levels of food are highest closer to the time they are harvested.

You can reduce your carbon footprint.
Growing more food locally can reduce the need for long-distance trucking, thus reducing greenhouse gas contributions. If grown efficiently, local food can also minimize the emissions of pollutants that dirty the air and cause global warming.

You support family farmers and the regional economy.
Buying locally helps farmers and food producers thrive. This supports the regional economy by building demand for supplies and services from other regional companies, thus contributing tremendously to regional economic development.

You contribute to a healthier environment and community.
The EPA states that agriculture is responsible for a significant amount of the pollution to the country's waterways. Responsible, local farming may be one of the best ways to keep both ecosystems and rural communities healthy and thriving.

Why should I become a Locavore?
from the film Locavore...Local Diet, Healthy Planet:

1. Local food tastes better & is better for you.
2. Local foods are seasonal & seasonal foods taste best.
3. Local foods maintain farmland and green space.
4. Local foods lower your carbon footprint.
5. Local foods support your local economy.
6. Local foods promote food safety.
7. Local foods support community.
8. Local foods support good health & immunities.
9. Local foods contribute to the legacy you leave.
10. Local foods support your local growers and neighbors.

Why Eat Local? from 100-Mile Diet:

1. Taste the difference.
   At a farmers’ market, most local produce has been picked inside of 24 hours. It comes to you ripe, fresh, and with its full flavor, unlike supermarket food that may have been picked weeks or months before. Close-to-home foods can also be bred for taste, rather than withstanding the abuse of shipping or industrial harvesting. Many of the foods we ate on the 100-Mile Diet were the best we’d ever had.
    
2. Know what you’re eating.
   Buying food today is complicated. What pesticides were used? Is that corn genetically modified? Was that chicken free range or did it grow up in a box? People who eat locally find it easier to get answers. Many build relationships with farmers whom they trust. And when in doubt, they can drive out to the farms and see for themselves.
    
3. Meet your neighbors.
   Local eating is social. Studies show that people shopping at farmers’ markets have 10 times more conversations than their counterparts at the supermarket. Join a community garden and you’ll actually meet the people you pass on the street.
    
4. Get in touch with the seasons.
   When you eat locally, you eat what’s in season. You’ll remember that cherries are the taste of summer. Even in winter, comfort foods like squash soup and pancakes just make sense–a lot more sense than flavorless cherries from the other side of the world.
    
5. Discover new flavors.
   Ever tried sunchokes? How about purslane, quail eggs, yerba mora, or tayberries? These are just a few of the new (to us) flavors we sampled over a year of local eating. Our local spot prawns, we learned, are tastier than popular tiger prawns. Even familiar foods were more interesting. Count the types of pear on offer at your supermarket. Maybe three? Small farms are keeping alive nearly 300 other varieties–while more than 2,000 more have been lost in our rush to sameness.
    
6. Explore your home.
   Visiting local farms is a way to be a tourist on your own home turf, with plenty of stops for snacks.
    
7. Save the world.
   A study in Iowa found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country. The ingredients for a typical British meal, sourced locally, traveled 66 times fewer “food miles.” Or we can just keep burning those fossil fuels and learn to live with global climate change, the fiercest hurricane seasons in history, wars over resources…
    
8. Support small farms.
   We discovered that many people from all walks of life dream of working the land–maybe you do too. In areas with strong local markets, the family farm is reviving. That’s a whole lot better than the jobs at Wal-Mart and fast-food outlets that the globalized economy offers in North American towns.
    
9. Give back to the local economy.
   A British study tracked how much of the money spent at a local food business stayed in the local economy, and how many times it was reinvested. The total value was almost twice the contribution of a dollar spent at a supermarket chain.
    
10. Be healthy.
    Everyone wants to know whether the 100-Mile Diet worked as a weight-loss program. Well, yes, we lost a few pounds apiece. More importantly, though, we felt better than ever. We ate more vegetables and fewer processed products, sampled a wider variety of foods, and ate more fresh food at its nutritional peak. Eating from farmers’ markets and cooking from scratch, we never felt a need to count calories.
     
11. Create memories.
    A friend of ours has a theory that a night spent making jam–or in his case, perogies–with friends will always be better a time than the latest Hollywood blockbuster. We’re convinced.
     
12. Have more fun while traveling.
    Once you’re addicted to local eating, you’ll want to explore it wherever you go. On a trip to Mexico, earth-baked corn and hot-spiced sour oranges led us away from the resorts and into the small towns. Somewhere along the line, a mute magician gave us a free show over bowls of lime soup in a little cantina.

Leafy and salad vegetables

• Amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus)
• Beet greens (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris)
• Broccoli Rabe (Brassica rapa subsp. rapa)
• Bitterleaf (Vernonia calvoana)
• Bok choy (Brassica rapa Chinensis group)
• Brussels sprout (Brassica oleracea Gemmifera group)
• Cabbage (Brassica oleracea Capitata group)
• Catsear (Hypochaeris radicata)
• Celery (Apium graveolens)
• Celtuce (Lactuca sativa var. asparagina)
• Ceylon spinach (Basella alba)
• Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius subsp. aconitifolius)
• Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
• Chinese Mallow (Malva verticillata)
• Chrysanthemum leaves (Chrysanthemum coronarium)
• Corn salad (Valerianella locusta)
• Cress (Lepidium sativum)
• Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
• Endive (Cichorium endivia)
• Epazote (Chenopodium ambrosioides)
• Fat hen (Chenopodium album)
• Fiddlehead (Pteridium aquilinum, Athyrium esculentum)
• Fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis)
• Golden samphire (Inula crithmoides)
• Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus)
• Jambu (Acmella oleracea)
• Kai-lan (Brassica rapa Alboglabra group)
• Kale (Brassica oleracea Acephala group)
• Komatsuna (Brassica rapa Pervidis or Komatsuna group)
• Kuka (Adansonia spp.)
• Lagos bologi (Talinum fruticosum)
• Land cress (Barbarea verna)
• Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)
• Lizard's tail (Houttuynia cordata)
• Melokhia (Corchorus olitorius, Corchorus capsularis)
• Mizuna greens (Brassica rapa Nipposinica group)
• Mustard (Sinapis alba)
• Napa/Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa Pekinensis group)
• New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides)
• Orache (Atriplex hortensis)
• Pea sprouts/leaves (Pisum sativum)
• Polk (Phytolacca americana)
• Radicchio (Cichorium intybus)
• Garden Rocket (Eruca sativa)
• Samphire (Crithmum maritimum)
• Sea beet (Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima)
• Seakale (Crambe maritima)
• Sierra Leone bologi (Crassocephalum spp.)
• Soko (Celosia argentea)
• Sorrel (Rumex acetosa)
• Summer purslane (Portulaca oleracea)
• Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla var. flavescens)
• Tatsoi (Brassica rapa Rosularis group)
• Turnip greens (Brassica rapa Rapifera group)
• Watercress (Nasturtium officinale)
• Water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica)
• Winter purslane (Claytonia perfoliata)

Fruiting and flowering vegetables

- The fruit of trees:

• Avocado (Persea americana)
• Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis)

- Fruits of annual or perennial plants:

• Acorn squash (Cucurbita pepo)
• Armenian cucumber (Cucumis melo Flexuosus group)
• Eggplant or Aubergine (Solanum melongena)
• Bell pepper (Capsicum annuum)
• Bitter melon (Momordica charantia)
• Caigua (Cyclanthera pedata)
• Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana)
• Cayenne pepper (Capsicum frutescens)
• Chayote (Sechium edule)
• Chili pepper (Capsicum annuum Longum group)
• Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)
• Luffa (Luffa acutangula, Luffa aegyptiaca)
• Malabar gourd (Cucurbita ficifolia)
• Parwal (Trichosanthes dioica)
• Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var)
• Perennial cucumber (Coccinia grandis)
• Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita pepo)
• Pattypan squash (Cucurbita pepo)
• Snake gourd (Trichosanthes cucumerina)
• Squash (aka marrow) (Cucurbita pepo)
• Sweetcorn aka corn or maize (Zea mays)
• Sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum Grossum group)
• Tinda (Praecitrullus fistulosus)
• Tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica)
• Winter melon (Benincasa hispida)
• West Indian gherkin (Cucumis anguria)
• Zucchini or Courgette (Cucurbita pepo)

- Flowers or flower buds of perennial or annual plants:

• Artichoke (Cynara cardunculus, C. scolymus)
• Squash blossoms (Cucurbita spp.)
• Broccoli (Brassica oleracea)
• Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea)

Podded vegetables

• American groundnut (Apios americana)
• Azuki bean (Vigna angularis)
• Black-eyed pea (Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata)
• Chickpea (Cicer arietinum)
• Drumstick (Moringa oleifera)
• Dolichos bean (Lablab purpureus)
• Fava bean (Vicia faba)
• French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
• Guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba)
• Horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum)
• Indian pea (Lathyrus sativus)
• Lentil (Lens culinaris)
• Moth bean (Vigna acontifolia)
• Mung bean (Vigna radiata)
• Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)
• Pea (Pisum sativum)
• Peanut (Arachis hypogaea)
• Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan)
• Ricebean (Vigna umbellata)
• Rice (Vigna umbellatta)
• Runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus)
• Soybean (Glycine max)
• Tarwi (tarhui, chocho; Lupinus mutabilis)
• Tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius)
• Urad bean (Vigna mungo)
• Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens)
• Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)
• Yardlong bean (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis)

Bulb and stem vegetables

• Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis)
• Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus)
• Celeriac (Apium graveolens var. rapaceum)
• Celery (Apium graveolens)
• Elephant Garlic (Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum)
• Florence fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var. dulce)
• Garlic (Allium sativum)
• Kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea Gongylodes group)
• Kurrat (Allium ampeloprasum var. kurrat)
• Leek (Allium porrum)
• Lotus root (Nelumbo nucifera)
• Nopal (Opuntia ficus-indica)
• Onion (Allium cepa)
• Prussian asparagus (Ornithogalum pyrenaicum)
• Shallot (Allium cepa Aggregatum group)
• Welsh onion (Allium fistulosum)
• Wild leek (Allium tricoccum)

Root and tuberous vegetables

• Ahipa (Pachyrhizus ahipa)
• Arracacha (Arracacia xanthorrhiza)
• Bamboo shoot (Bambusa vulgaris and Phyllostachys edulis)
• Beetroot (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris)
• Black cumin (Bunium persicum)
• Burdock (Arctium lappa)
• Broadleaf arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia)
• Camas (Camassia)
• Canna (Canna spp.)
• Carrot (Daucus carota)
• Cassava (Manihot esculenta)
• Chinese artichoke (Stachys affinis)
• Daikon (Raphanus sativus Longipinnatus group)
• Earthnut pea (Lathyrus tuberosus)
• Elephant Foot yam (Amorphophallus_paeoniifolius)
• Ensete (Ensete ventricosum)
• Ginger (Zingiber officinale)
• Gobo (Arctium lappa)
• Hamburg parsley (Petroselinum crispum var. tuberosum)
• Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)
• Jícama (Pachyrhizus erosus)
• Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)
• Pignut (Conopodium majus)
• Plectranthus (Plectranthus spp.)
• Potato (Solanum tuberosum)
• Prairie turnip (Psoralea esculenta)
• Radish (Raphanus sativus)
• Rutabaga (Brassica napus Napobrassica group)
• Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius)
• Scorzonera (Scorzonera hispanica)
• Skirret (Sium sisarum)
• Sweet Potato or Kumara (Ipomoea batatas)
• Taro (Colocasia esculenta)
• Ti (Cordyline fruticosa)
• Tigernut (Cyperus esculentus)
• Turnip (Brassica rapa Rapifera group)
• Ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus)
• Wasabi (Wasabia japonica)
• Water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis)
• Yacón (Smallanthus sonchifolius)
• Yam (Dioscorea spp.)

Sea Vegetables

• Aonori (Monostroma spp., Enteromorpha spp.)
• Carola (Callophyllis variegata)
• Dabberlocks or badderlocks (Alaria esculenta)
• Dulse (Palmaria palmata)
• Hijiki (Hizikia fusiformis)
• Kombu (Laminaria japonica)
• Mozuku (Cladosiphon okamuranus)
• Laver (Porphyra spp.) (nori in Japan, gim in Korea)
• Ogonori (Gracilaria spp.)
• Sea grape (Caulerpa spp.)
• Sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca)
• Wakame (Undaria pinnatifida)

Source: Wikipedia article "List of Culinary Vegetables."

A

• Ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi)
• Akudjura (Solanum centrale)
• Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum)
• Alkanet (Anchusa arvensis), primarily for color
• Allspice (Pimenta dioica)
• (Alpinia galanga) Galangal
• Amchur - mango powder (Mangifera)
• Angelica (Angelica archangelica)
• Anise (Pimpinella anisum)
• Aniseed myrtle (Syzygium anisatum)
• Annatto (Bixa orellana L.)
• Apple mint (Mentha suaveolens)
• Asafoetida (Ferula assafoetida)
• Avocado Leaf (Peresea americana)

B

• Barberry (Berberis vulgaris)
• Basil (Ocimum basilicum)
• Bay Leaf (Laurus nobilis)
• Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)
• Borage (Borago officinalis)
• Black Cardamom (Amomum subulatum)
• Black Mustard (Brassica nigra)
• Blue Fenugreek, Blue melilot (Trigonella caerulea)
• Brown Mustard (Brassica juncea)
• Burdock (Arctium lappa)

C

• Calamint, (Calamintha spp.)
• Calamus, (Acorus calamus americanus)
• Calendula, Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis)
• Cananga, Ylang-ylang, Kenanga (Cananga odorata)
• Candle nut (Aleurites moluccanus)
• Capers (Capparis spinosa)
• Caraway (Carum carvi)
• Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum)
• Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
• Cassia (Cinnamomum aromaticum)
• Cayenne pepper (Capsicum annuum)
• Celery seed (Apium graveolens)
• Chamomile (Matricaria recutita)
• Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium)
• Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
• Chili pepper (Capsicum spp.)
• Chipotle (Capsicum annuum)
• Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)
• Cicely (Myrrhis odorata)
• Cilantro, Coriander Greens, Coriander Herb (Coriandrum sativum)
• Cinchona (Cinchona)
• Cinnamon, True or Ceylon (Cinnamomum verum)
• Cinnamon Myrtle (Backhousia myrtifolia)
• Clary, Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea)
• Clove (Syzygium aromaticum)
• Coriander seed (Coriandrum sativum)
• Costmary (Tanacetum balsamita)
• Cowslip (Primula veris)
• Cuban Oregano (Plectranthus amboinicus)
• Cubeb pepper (Piper cubeba)
• Cudweed (in Vietnamese cuisine)
• Culantro (Eryngium foetidum)
• Cumin (Cuminum cyminum)
• Curry leaf (Murraya koenigii)
• Curry Plant (Helichrysum italicum)

D

• Dill seed (Anethum graveolens)
• Dill herb or weed (Anethum graveolens)
• Dorrigo Pepper (Tasmannia stipitata)

E

• Elderflower (Sambucus spp.)
• Elecampane (Inula helenium)
• Epazote (Chenopodium ambrosioides)
• Eryngium foetidum (Culantro, Long Coriander)

F

• Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
• Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum)
• Filé powder (Sassafras albidum)
• Fingerroot, krachai, temu kuntji (Boesenbergia rotunda)
• French sorrel (Rumex scutatus)
• Fumitory (Fumaria spp.)

G

• Galangal (Alpinia officinarum)
• Galingale (Cyperus spp.)
• Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum)
• Garlic (Allium sativum)
• Ginger (Zingiber officinale)
• Ginkgo nuts (Ginkgo biloba)
• Golpar (Heracleum persicum,)
• Gotu Kola, Centella (Centella asiatica)
• Grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta)
• Grains of Selim (Xylopia aethiopica)
• Green tea (Camellia sinensis)
• Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea)

H

• Hops (Humulus lupulus)
• Horehound (Marrubium vulgare)
• Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana)
• Houttuynia (Houttuynia cordata)
• Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)

I

• Indian Bay-leaf, Malabathrum, Tejpat (Cinnamomum tamala, C. tejpata)
• Indonesian Bay-Leaf, Daun salam (Eugenia polyantha, Syzygium polyanthum)
• Indonesian Cinnamon (Cinnamomum burmannii, Cassia vera)

J

• Jasmine (Jasminum spp.)
• Juniper berry (Juniperus communis)

K

• Kaffir Lime Leaves (Citrus hystrix, C. papedia)
• Kokam (Garcinia indica)

L

• Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum)
• Lavender (Lavandula spp.)
• Laser, laserpicium, or lasarpicium
• Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
• Lemon basil (Ocimum × citriodorum)
• Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus, C. flexuosus, and other species)
• Lemon Ironbark (Eucalyptus staigeriana)
• Lemon mint (Monarda citriodora)
• Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora)
• Lemon Thyme (Thymus × citriodorus)
• Lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora)
• Lesser galangal, Kentjur (Kaempferia galanga)
• Licorice, Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra)
• Lime Flower (Tilia spp.)
• Limnophila aromatica, rice paddy herb (in Vietnamese cuisine)
• Long pepper (Piper longum)
• Lovage (Levisticum officinale)
• Luohanguo, (Siraitia grosvenorii)

M

• Mace (Myristica fragrans)
• Mahlab (Prunus mahaleb)
• Malabathrum (Cinnamomum tamala, C. tejpata)
• Manchurian Thorn Tree (Aralia manchurica)
• Mang da (Lethocerus indicus)
• Marjoram (Origanum majorana)
• Marrubium vulgare (white horehound)
• Marsh Labrador Tea
• Mastic (Pistacia lentiscus)
• Meadowsweet (Filipendula vulgaris)
• Melegueta Pepper ( Aframomum melegueta)
• Mexican Pepperleaf (Piper auritum)
• Mexican Tarragon (Tagetes lucida)
• Mint (Mentha spp.)
• Micromeria (Micromeria spp.)
• Mitsuba (Cryptotaenia japonica)
• Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
• Murraya koenigii, Curry Tree, Curry Leaf
• Mustard Seed
• Myrtle berry and leaf (Myrtus communis)

N

• Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)
• Neem (Azadirachta indica)
• Nigella sativa (Kalonji, Black caraway)
• Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans)

O

• Olida (Eucalyptus olida)
• Oregano (Origanum vulgare, O. heracleoticum, and other species)
• Orris root (Iris germanica, I. florentina, I. pallida)
• Osmorhiza, Sweet Cicely

P

• Pandan flower, Kewra (Pandanus odoratissimus)
• Pandan leaf, Screwpine (Pandanus amaryllifolius)
• Paprika (Capsicum annuum)
• Paracress (Spilanthes acmella, S. oleracea) (used in Brazil)
• Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
• Pelargonium (Pelargonium spp.)
• Pepper: black, white, and green (Piper nigrum)
• Peng (Celastrus paniculatus)
• Peppermint (Mentha piperata)
• Peppermint Gum leaf (Eucalyptus dives)
• Perilla, Shiso (Perilla spp.)
• Pink Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius)
• Piper sarmentosum
• Poppy seed (Papaver somniferum)

Q

R

• Ramsons, wood garlic (Allium ursinum)
• Riberry (Syzygium luehmannii)
• Rice Paddy Herb (Limnophila aromatica)
• Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
• Rue (Ruta graveolens)

S

• Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), primarily for color
• Saffron (Crocus sativus)
• Sage (Salvia officinalis)
• Saigon Cinnamon (Cinnamomum loureiroi)
• Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor)
• Salep (Orchis mascula)
• Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
• Savory, Summer (Satureja hortensis), and winter (S. montana)
• Sesame seed (Sesamum indicum)
• Sheep's sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
• Sichuan pepper (Xanthoxylum piperitum)
• Silphium
• Sloe berries(Prunus spinosus)
• Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis)
• Sorrel (Rumex acetosa, R. acetosella, R. scutatus)
• Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum)
• Spearmint (Mentha spicata)
• Spikenard (Nardostachys grandiflora or N. jatamansi)
• Star anise (Illicium verum)
• Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana)
• Suma (Pfaffia paniculata)
• Sumac (Rhus coriaria)
• Summer savory (Satureja hortensis)
• Sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata)
• Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum)

T

• Tamarind (Tamarindus indica)
• Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare)
• Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)
• Tasmanian Pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata)
• Tea (Camellia sinensis)
• Teucrium polium (felty germander)
• Thai basil (Ocimum basilicum var. thyrsiflora, O. ×citriodorum, or O. sanctum)
• Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
• Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum)
• Turmeric (Curcuma longa)
• Twinleaf onion (Allium anceps)

U

V

• Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia)
• Vietnamese Balm (Elsholtzia ciliata)
• Vietnamese Cinnamon (Cinnamomum loureiroi)
• Vietnamese Coriander (Persicaria odorata)

W

• Wasabi (Wasabia japonica)
• Water Pepper, Smartweed (Polygonum hydropiper)
• Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquatica)
• Wattleseed, Australian acacia
• White Mustard (Sinapis alba)
• Wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum)
• Winter savory (Satureja montana)
• Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
• Wood Avens, Herb Bennet (Geum urbanum)
• Woodruff (Galium odoratum)
• Wormwood, Absinthe (Artemisia absinthium)