Growing Farmers Wins
/Congratulations to the film, Growing Farmers for winning the Audience Choice Awards for best short film at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Slow Food East End Feasting on the Future
/We all have heard of the word Fast Food and surely can name a dozen or so of these chains that participate on this fast track; however, Slow Food is a newer concept that started in Italy in 1986 by Carlo Petrini who founded the organization in 1989.
So what does Slow Food mean exactly? Well, it is quite simply the opposite of what Fast Food means and this is their philosophy:
Slow Food stands at the crossroads of ecology and gastronomy, ethics and pleasure. It opposes the standardization of taste and culture, and the unrestrained power of the food industry multinationals and industrial agriculture. We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to the pleasure of good food and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our association believes in the concept of neo-gastronomy - recognition of the strong connections between plate, planet, people and culture.
This concept counters the rise of fast food, the disappearance of local artisanal traditions and the disconnect of where the food comes from, how it tastes and how the choices we make affect our own local communities and the environment worldwide.
Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries, 1,300 local chapters, 2,000 food communities who practice small-scale sustainable production of quality foods and 100,000 members worldwide.
Slow Food East End
Slow Food East End is feasting on the pleasures of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment. I experienced this recently at their Potluck and Annual Meeting which was held at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton, NY in Jeff's Kitchen, which is a professional grade kitchen and classroom with classes in nutrition, food science and cooking for both children and adults. I found it fitting to have such a gathering at a school which promotes health and nutrition through gardening and culinary arts for children.
How amazing is it that these kids can plan their menu and lunch for the day? They go to their school garden, pick out their vegetables, and visit with the chicken coop to get their eggs and then partake in the making of it! When I was a child lunch was a mystery. Vegetables were not of the primary color, spaghetti floated in a neon maroon oil substance and Sloopy Joe's was just that slop on a cardboard bun.
I met with passionate Slow Foodies of the East End Community and together we did a tour of the Hayground Facility and grounds given by Arjun Achuthan who is one of the Founder's and Director of the Hayground Culinary Arts Program.
After our tour we were able to feast our eyes and palates on local delights prepared by the members of Slow Food East End and friends. Mingling amongst like minded folks we shared stories of our own heritage and discussed the bounty of the East End Community.
Mary Morgan, president of Slow Food East End kicked off the Annual Meeting. We were introduced to three New School Garden Coordinators which were given by Slow Food East End and funded by the generosity of the Josh Levine Memorial Foundation.
Jeff Negron and Peter Priolo spoke about their experience, unfortunately, KK Haspel had a prior engagement, however I am very much looking forward to meeting her in the near future. The common link amongst these three individuals is undeniably obvious. They are environmental stewards within their local communities, influencing the next generation, our children on what it means to nurture a local garden and the positive impact it has within its community. You can read about each Garden Coordinator here.
Top: Mary Morgan, President of Slow Food East End
Bottom Left: Jeff Negron Bottom Right: Peter Prioli
School Grants were announced by Bryan Futerman the chef and owner of Foody’s in Water Mill, NY and Slow Food East End educational coordinator. It has been Slow Food East End's mission since their founding in 2004 to help local schools start and develop school gardens. Grants of $500 each went to eight area schools: Bridgehampton School, East Hampton High School, Greenport School, Hampton Bays Middle School, Sag Harbor School, Southold School, Springs School, and Tuckahoe School. You can read about Bryan Futerman here.
Bryan Futerman the chef of Foody's in Water Mill, NY and the Slow Food East End educational coordinator.
New leaders were elected at the annual meeting. They are Jeannie Calderale, Sheryl Stair, Ivo Tomasini and Joan Turturro. You can read about these leaders here.
After the Slow Food East End Annual Meeting I realized how fortunate I was to be living amongst passionate and like minded individuals with a commitment to community, the environment and the future of our children. I am proud to say that I am now an official member of Slow Food East End. I made new friends, tasted some fabulous fare and met passionate individuals who are doing incredible work within our local communities.
If you would like to become a member of a Slow Food Community here is where you can start: Slow Food International, Slow Food USA and Slow Food East End.
9th Annual Long Island Garlic Festival
/I have to admit, I had no idea there were that many varieties of Garlic beyond the Elephant and Italian White. At this festival I came across, Turkish Red, Italian White, German White, French Red, Rocambole, Music, Pskem, Elephant Garlic, Purple Stripe. Who knew?
People are fanatics about garlic, like my father is about his fig tree, so I investigated further to see how many varieties of garlic there are. If you are interested to learn more about the varieties of garlic and its benefits, you can read all about it at the Garlic Blog.
Garden of Eve Farm edible snacks at the festival
Garlic Ice Cream
The vanilla and chocolate garlic ice cream peeked my curiosity. I chose the vanilla thinking this might possibly be the best combination. I thought the garlic flavor combined with the vanilla was palatable enough, however the "garlic buzz" at the festival was, "It needed more garlic!" I thought to myself, "What would happen if the garlic was roasted with some turbinado sugar, then mixed into the ice cream?" I don't know, maybe not. You will not see me experimenting with that here. Let's leave it to the garlic fanatics to figure it out.
Roasted Rocambole Soup alla Garden of Eve Farm
Many people asked me with caution, "How is the garlic soup?" People seemed more cautious about the garlic soup than the garlic ice cream, go figure! "So, how was the soup?" Not bad, I thought it could be creamier but the flavor was nice and not too overpowering. My new friend Will who is shown below thinks the Garden of Eve should not hang their hat on making soup, but he is a competitor of course so I am sure that bantering goes back and forth between them. I should have asked Garden of Eve what they thought of Will's soup.
Garlic Castilian Soup alla Will
This is Will and he is a garlic fanatic and passionate about his soup. He was the 2009 winner of the Garlic Cookoff for his Garlic Castilian Soup made with Music Garlic which has a sweet flavor. I enjoyed his soup very much but was more interested in his garlic donut idea. I will not share with you our discussion considering it was "top secret", so I am hoping he goes for it next year so I can taste it. He asked me what I thought of the garlic ice cream and you know what he said? "I hear it needs more garlic!" Maybe he can figure out my garlic ice cream idea!
Horman's Best Pickles
I picked up some of Horman's Best Pickles, Garlic of course and my favorite the Horseradish which had a spicy bite and a nice crunch.
Arlotta Food Studio
Arlotta Food Studio, makes specialty olive oils which are made in unfiltered small batches and cold-pressed from late-harvested, organic California olives. They also make exclusive balsamic vinegar, aged for over 25 years, as well as artisan made air dried pasta and specialty tapenades. I am typically not a fan of infused oils but these flavors were stunning, bright and buttery and the balsamic was sweet and smooth. I went home with their Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Traditional Balsamic to eventually pair these products with something delicious in the near future.
My father came with me to this festival and he saw they had a Fig Balsamic Vinegar. That is all he needed to see which stirred up a fig conversation trumping anything garlic. I think Mario to the left was showing my father a photo of his family's fig tree.
Overview about Garden of Eve Organic Farm and Market
Chris and Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht are owners of the Garden of Eve Farm. The farm began as just a garden in 2001. Today, the farm is on 100 acres and boasts to 70 varieties of vegetables, 20 herbs and 30 flowers which are all certified organic. They also have Nigerian Dwarf Goats, 1,500 Rhodie Island Red laying hens, Bourbon Red Heritage Turkeys, Border Leicester Sheep, and Maremma Livestock Guard dogs.
note: I am uncertain which local cook won the Iron Chef Garlic Competition or the Garlic Eating Contest! If you find out please let me know.
