Slow Food: Central New York

New Site! Update your RSS Feeds!

2009-04-30T08:41:00.004-04:00

Please check out www.slowfoodcny.org for future posts. The new site still has a blog at its core, but now also has so much more! We've added a calendar section, a page with some background information, created "Snail of Approval" awards for the CNY region, and so on....! All of the SFCNY blogspot posts have already been moved over to the new site, so join us over there in the conversation.

Stop on by and check us out!

April 1 Presentation: Eating the Landscape

2009-03-26T13:12:00.002-04:00

Eating the Landscape: Landscape Architecture, Urban Agriculture, and Food Systems

presented by Alethea Marie Harper

April 1, 4pm, Marshall Hall (ESF campus) room 409

I may or may not be there..that's very close to my thesis deadline!

White House Vegetable Garden

2009-03-20T17:03:00.003-04:00

Here is the article. I'm so glad they did this.

I love how they're incorporating

marigolds as an organic gardening technique!

Slow Food CNY's First Potluck

2009-03-03T15:46:00.003-05:00

When: Next Friday the 13th (March) at 6:30PM

Where: Westcott Community Center, 826 Euclid Avenue

Bring a dish to pass! Any food that you love to make will be welcome. SFCNY will provide cards so every dish can be identified. Please bring your own utensils and plates!

We are inviting our area Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms to the potluck as well. CSAs provide weekly deliveries of fresh, locally-grown fruits & veggies throughout the growing season. They are also a great way of supporting upstate organic farmers and you may even save some cash in the process....! Now is the season to think about joining a CSA so bring questions for them.

All are welcome!

Fasting

2009-02-25T09:00:00.005-05:00

Fasting. While this is a blog about food, I want to post about the absence of food. If you think about it, the slowest food possible is the food that never reaches your mouth. ;-) While I am not Catholic, I personally find this time of year a good time to fast. The long of winter is (mostly) behind us, and spring is around the corner. Time to do some internal spring cleaning, I say.

Almost every year, I conduct a carbohydrate fast, or some variety thereof. This year I am trying to fast from wheat, refined sugars, and artificial sugars. The wheat is because I am curious if I have a slight allergy to wheat. The refined sugars are because I want to loose my winter weight. And the artificial sugars are on the list as more of a spiritual objection to the overly sweetened foods we have so readily available to us. I want to cut down on the sweetness. (Sorry, but I am not giving up honey this year.)

Does anyone else around here fast? Do you do it for spiritual reasons or health reasons? (Or both??)

Next Meeting

2009-02-17T11:33:00.002-05:00

The next Slow Food CNY meeting will be held tomorrow night, 6PM, at Recess! We will be discussing updates from the committees and talk more about the future of Slow Food CNY.

Our next meeting will be April 15th, on the third Wednesday of April. At this meeting we will have our yearly officer elections and also approve our chapter's bylaws.

Hope to see you all at these meetings!

policy change advocacy

2009-02-03T13:38:00.002-05:00

i have been archiving most of the emails that were floating around about policy change. there seems to be a lot of energy here, but perhaps a lack of direction. at the end of the last meeting (syracuse grows/SFCNY joint policy change meeting) people were instructed to send their "wish list" to liz (alchemicalnursery@fastmail.fm) but she says that no one has written yet. anyways, send your wish list to her, and below is a link to a forum thread that i have been posting emails to (with a lot of usefull links and info if you have the patience to weed through it all, which by the way if you do perhaps you could do some cut and pasting to conslolidate and send me your distillation [yes, there is always some busy work to do])

http://www.alchemicalnursery.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=31&func=view&catid=23&id=246#246

lets keep the discussion going on this, now is an ausome time to make change.

Meeting #3 Minutes

2009-01-23T09:01:00.001-05:00

Slow Food Meeting #3 Minutes: 01/15/09

Location: Recess Coffee House @ 110 Harvard St.

Attendance: 27 people!

Started: 5:00pm

A. Introductions (Who are you? What is your favorite food?)

B. Updates

a. Media Activity

A lot of great feedback from the Post-Standard article! We now have nearly 60 people on our announcements list and had a lot of new faces at this meeting. Welcome all!

b. Slow Food USA application

We have had all of our round one information approved! Now we need to work on getting the more technical, legal information submitted. Then we'll be official. The chapter board will take these tasks on!

C. Designate interim Chapter Board positions

Paul can't do this alone. He called for two volunteers to fill two other executive roles. These roles are temporary, interim positions until we can set up our own bylaws for elections and actual positions.

a. Chair: Point person for the chapter, coordinates with regional and national officers. Paul will remain!

b. Secretary: Takes minutes, sets meeting agenda. Seth appointed!

c. Treasurer: Setting up bank account, getting EIN from government, managing dues. Meredith appointed!

D. Committee brainstorming

For this part of the meeting, we all broke out into six groups, listed below. Each group had a list of possible actions. They were tasked with brainstorming additional ideas, determining a committee leader and prioritizing one item for action. A LOT of ideas were generated during this part of the meeting. In order to keep these minutes mentally digestible, the committee chairs will be sending out an email on each committee within the next week. This email will do into more detail. In the meantime, here are the highlights:

a. Chapter Board

i. Chair: Paul

ii. Priority: Getting an EIN and submitting the second half of the application forms! ASAP!!

b. Event Coordination / Fundraising

i. Chair: Kris

ii. Priority: Introductory potluck.

c. Public Relations (Outreach and Communications)

i. Chair: Melissa

ii. Priority: Put together listserve groups and build a SFCNY website!

d. Slow Food in Schools

i. Chair: Jennifer

ii. Priority: Talk to a health class/food club in a specific school and do a harvest dinner. Perhaps Corcoran? Possible coordination with Syracuse Grows on this one.

e. Food Justice and Advocacy

i. Chair: Hanah

ii. Priority: Create a sustainable code to explicitly allow productive animals and urban gardening..

f. RAFT (Renewing America's Food Traditions)

i. Chair: Travis Hance

ii. Priority: Create a list of local varieties of foods!

E. Next Steps

a. Get listserves set up for each group.

b. Work on getting us to be on the SFUSA website to make signups easier!

c. Set up standardized meeting schedule and avoid conflicts. Veto 2^nd Tuesday of the month because of conflict with Syracuse Grows (4pm-6pm at CCE. Harold Pl/Franklin)

d. Finalize status with Slow Food USA

e. Get working on committee priorities!

F. Closing: 7:00PM

SFCNY Lists

2009-01-22T13:25:00.003-05:00

Slow Food Central New York now has a variety of lists. Before, I would just add you to a contact list I was keeping in my address book. Now, we have become quite a bit more sophisticated! Below are our lists:

SFCNY Announcements: This is the default list that everyone should be on. It is for the Chapter Board to send out announcements to the community. If you want to know what's going on with Slow Food in the area, sign up for this low-activity list.
SFCNY Discussion: Using this group is like sitting in a large meeting room. Everyone can hear you - you're never responding to just one person. Every email you send in will be received by every member of the group, whether you initiate a topic or hit "reply" in response to a message. Please be aware of this. If you want to reply privately to someone, you will have to CHANGE the email address in your "To" box before you hit that "send" button.
SFCNY _____ Committee: We now have five committees (more on this in the meeting #3 minutes), each with its own unique group discussion list. Committee chairs will email more information about his/her specific committee in the coming week.
o Slow Food in Schools

o Renewing America's Food Traditions (RAFT)

o Food Justice and Advocacy
o Public Relations
o Events and Fundraising
SFCNY Chapter Board. This list contains the Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and the five Committee Chairs. It is a way for the local leadership to all be on the same page.

To sign up for one or more of these lists, please email Lonnie at "lonnie dot chu / at / gmail dot com." She has taken charge of managing the lists and for that I am so grateful. Also, if you have a gmail account, you should be able to sign up for the groups on your own by following the links above (except for Chapter Board - you need to be on the board for that one).

Slow Food Meeting #3

2009-01-06T10:22:00.003-05:00

It's that time again! We will have our third meeting of Slow Food CNY next Wednesday. For you super-foodie activists, I am aware that this is the day after the Syracuse Grows meeting. If it helps, I'll be going to both too.

Slow Food Meeting #3
WEDNESDAY January 14, 2009 from 5PM to 7PM
Recess Coffee, 110 Harvard Place

Our tentative agenda will include some mitosis. We'll be defining leadership positions and splitting up into program groups. As a starting point, here are Slow Food USA's programs. Finally, we'll be discussing other possible meeting locations.

I hope I will see many of you next week! Look for the snail!

(By the by - I emailed this out to the Slow Food list but got a few bounces. If you want to be on the list but did not get an email from me today, contact me again please!)

Edible Gardening CNY

2009-01-05T08:43:00.004-05:00

I just recently found out about another group dedicated to slow food practices: Edible Gardening CNY. Started by John Allen, the focus of this group is on productive gardening at home. The next meeting is January 24th at 2PM in the Liverpool Library and will answering the question: "What do you need to start growing vegetables?" Shoot John an email if you want to get on his mailing list: eg.cny /at/ verizon.net (substituting the @ sign).

And if you haven't yet, send me an email to get on the Slow Food CNY list: earthscape / at / gmail.com (thanks to John for the email format inspiration!)

Phenology

2008-12-29T10:51:00.005-05:00

I recently read an article in Hobby Farms magazine about planning a garden. The article mostly discussed different ways to keep charts and store information, however it touched on phenology as a method of timing plantings. I had never heard of this before so I began to look around and inquire more about it. Phenology, for those not in the know, is basically looking at nature to tell you when to plant things instead of the calendar. It is filled with folksy sayings like "When elm leaves are the size of a penny, plant kindney beans if you'll have any." I have found myself incredibly attracted to this method and here's why:

I'm a Romantic (yes, that's a big R). I am inherently more attracted to these colorful folksy sayings. But that's not the true reason....
Climate change. I just don't trust freeze dates and frost dates anymore. I've even heard it said that Syracuse is not actually Zone 5 anymore, but more a Zone 6. This makes me less likely to trust some arbitrary, averaged-out calendar date for plantings. I think it just makes sense to look and see what the land is telling you.

Of course, nothing is without its problems. I've looked around a bit online and haven't found any good books or websites about this. The ones I have found are clumped in with sayings like "Sliver maples show their lining before a storm" which I find less useful for gardening. It seems like the best source for phenology is the Farmer's Almanac. If anyone has any other recommendations for books, websites, or has had experience using phenology around here in CNY, post your comments!

Holidays

2008-12-23T17:17:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, whatever your beliefs. Be aware of the food you eat, but also be aware that the most important thing (in my humble opinion) is to let food bring everyone together. I think April McGreger says it best in her Thanksgiving post on Grist (also a nice sweet potato roll recipe on the post). Quoting Jessica Prentice, she says "Whatever increases our sense of kinship is sacrament and nutritious food. Whatever increases our sense of alienation is poison.

So with that in mind, enjoy the food and enjoy the kinship, everybody!

Convivium Application

2008-12-17T15:52:00.003-05:00

The convivium application is in the mail! I can't say when the office in Brooklyn will get it, being the crazy holiday season and all. However, once that is recieved and approved, we will then have to get an EIN and a bank account and some other things. After that second round of stuff is submitted, we will be a full convivium.

Personally, I can't wait for us to become official so we can get on the SFUSA website. Why is that a big deal? When people sign up online they will be able to select our convivium from the lis! Right now people are getting placed in our local sister convivia. (I think we CNYers are split between the Rochester Convivium and the Leatherstocking Convivium.) It's the little things that excite me.

Secretary of Food

2008-12-11T12:12:00.000-05:00

Here's an awesome New York Times article discussing the possibility of redefining the position of Secretary of Agriculture into a role that actually focuses on nutrition and food rather than industrial profit (who would have thought?).

Learning to Learn Together

2008-12-10T13:33:00.001-05:00

The fabulous Georgianna Burke will be presenting tomorrow night at the Beauchamp Library! The meeting is titled:

"CREATING GARDEN HARMONY: Integrated planting to avoid pests and disease."

The meeting will go from 6PM to 8PM - I hope some of you can make it. Bring snacks or a dish to share too!

This, by the way, is not a Slow Food event, but rather part of a series called "Learning to Learn Together." It is sponsored by the Newell St. Community Garden. Again, I think this goes back to the idea of working with and supporting sister organizations whenever possible.

CNY Convivium Mission Statement

2008-12-09T10:26:00.000-05:00

Last night we worked on crafting our mission statement. We looked at Buffalo's convivium for inspiration (as Rochester's website was down!). Now, I will confess, I thought Buffalo's wording could use work and that some of the items are redundant. After some streamlining, and adding some food justice type statments, here is what I am suggesting:

At the Central New York Convivium, we intend to rediscover the rich and diverse food traditions of our region and ensure that everyone has access to quality and affordable food. We will support local growers, food artisans, and purveyors. We will empower individuals to become involved in their food from seed to fruit. Understanding that we are all interdependent, we will always strive to work with sister organizations and cultivate future food leaders whenever possible.

We didn't talk about that last interdependence line at the meeting, but I think it's something very important to add. On another note, we also decided on our motto:

"Growing the local food economy, one salt potato at a time!"

I modified it slightly by changing the action verb, but it is essentially what we discussed last night. Let me know what you all think!

We have a name!

2008-12-09T10:17:00.001-05:00

After much decision and deliberation, at the meeting last night we decided to call ourselves the Central New York Convivium of Slow Food USA. Some contenders were:

Central New York
Syracuse, NY
Onondaga
The Syracuse Hot Mamas

The "Hot Mamas" name didn't last longer than the laughter it brought forth. The Onondaga name was removed from consideration when we were informed that we should really ask the Onondaga Nation to use their name.

It was Syracuse versus Central New York. While all of us at the table (and stools, sofas, cushions and floor) were actually living in Syracuse, we wanted a more inclusive name. We wanted the local farmers and suburban residents to know: yes, this is for you too. It removed the urban focus of "Syracuse," which I regret, but I am happy that we could all come together on a decision. Good job everyone. Consensus achieved.

Quick updates

2008-12-09T08:41:00.000-05:00

So much awesome stuff going on!

Article: As many of you know by now, we've had an article in the Post Standard yesterday. Not just any story, but a front page story with me and my husband on the front cover! (Okay, yes, we're on the bottom half of the cover, but it's still the COVER!) Though I may be biased, I think it's a great story. I was even able to hook up the reporter with Joan Gussow, whom I deeply admire, and I think Joan added some really great comments. Thank you also to the great people who stopped by this blog and posted some comments!

Meeting: We also had our second meeting last night! I will be posting the mission, and write up of the Syracuse region to this blog for everyone to review and comment. I'll also work on getting the minutes posted here.

Joing Slow Food: If you're just now checking us out, please consider joining Slow Food USA. I did a post a while ago about why it's important to join. Joining is easiest through the Slow Food USA website, just tell them you'd like to be a part of the Central New York Convivium (we haven't officially been set up with them yet, so they might temporarily assign you to a different convivium).

Guess What!

2008-12-03T18:03:00.000-05:00

I had my first encounter with this locally plentiful green when I was living over on Judson Street. My landlord let his front yard pretty much do its thing, other than plant some daffodil bulbs here and there, and throw a bunch of corn, bean, and squash seeds (the three sisters) onto a heap of tilled earth and let it go. The yard was lined with a healthy row of tall day lilies and a couple big fat sunflower heads watching over the beautifully chaotic natural experiment. Chives and mint – both spearmint and peppermint – grew in large clumps lining the front near the sidewalk, guarding the three sisters from curious dogs and stamping feet. Further back amongst the meandering squash vines and practically choked out runner beans was a healthy stand of tall green leafy stalks competing for the sun with the corn stalks randomly punctuating the mass of vines. The leaves looked like jaggedy-edged diamonds. They were very easy to pull up, which I’ve always found to be very satisfying for some reason. One day I set to pulling them up, at first in an attempt to uncover the tangled mess of beans and squash trying to grow under their cover, but then pulling them up was so satisfying that I just kept going with it until I began to feel guilty, and looked at how bereft the space that I had been working on was starting to look without all the tall greens standing guard. After moving past that strange ingrained urge to rip everything out, I was happy to learn from my landlord that these tall green leafy things, known as Lambsquarters, were actually edible. Thank god, I thought to myself, there is a promise of redemption here after my destructive orgy. I gladly de-leafed and composted the stalks, rinsed the leaves, and put them into the batch of veggie pasta sauce I was making - just like cooking with any other leafy green, such as spinach or chard. It is a pretty tender green. Two years later, I happened upon another patch that I ended up juicing. Boy oh boy was that juice ever dark green! Forget about wheatgrass! This stuff grows just about anywhere, all you have to do is harvest it and you’re good to go – fabulous green nutrients free of charge!

Here’s some basic info about this amazing plant: Common Lambsquarters, Chenopodium album, are a summer annual that grows to about 3 1/2 feet tall. The plant's capable of producing thousands of seeds and will spread rapidly under the right conditions. The stems are light green, erect, hairless and have varying degrees of red. The roots are short with many small side roots and easily pulled from moist or wet ground, but can be broken off if the ground is dry. The plant will often re-sprout from the broken root. The flowers are green and inconspicuous and occur from June through September. The seeds are covered with a thin papery coating. Lambsquarters are a close relative of red pigweed (Amaranth reflexus) and spinach. Common Lambsquarters are very high in Vitamin A, high in Vitamin C, moderate in calcium and low in iron. They're also high in fiber but low in calories and fats. Lambsquarters contain known anti-inflammatory nutrients, including Beta Carotene and Vitamin K. Common Lambsquarters also contain carbohydrates, which may increase blood sugar levels. Common Lambsquarters are low in protein percentages but high in many amino acids. The vitamin and mineral profile reads like a who's who of healthful foods. (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/394508/eat_your_weeds_lambsquarters_and_giant.html?cat=5)

Local Food: Seneca Hominy Flint Corn

2008-12-01T16:29:00.000-05:00

For the local food homework assignment I’ve chosen Seneca hominy flint corn. This variety dates back about 1000 years to when maize itself was introduced to this region. Originally cultivated by the Seneca, who called it ha-gó-wa, Seneca hominy is one of several varieties of flint corn surviving in the region which date back to the millennium-old introduction. Some of these other varieties include: Tuscarora White flour, Longfellow flint, Mohawk Round Nose, Narragansett White Cap, and Seneca Blue Bear Dance. Seneca hominy is considered to be a critically endangered food.

Local Food: Seafood!

2008-11-24T18:37:00.001-05:00

So, for our homework assignment, we all agreed to take on discussing some of our local foods. Back when I was an ESF student, I took a class called "Food and the Landscape" by the wonderous Matt Potteiger (which is totally worthy of its own post). Regardless, my final project focused on Onondaga Lake as a productive waterway. Here is a list of fish that people used to eat from the lake and local creeks:

American Eels
Atlantic Sturgeons (yes, they used to be found in the lake!)
Atlantic Salmons
Onondaga Whitefish

Just for fun, I found my old project, titled "Eating Onondaga Lake." It is hard to read, but click on it, and it will take you to a (much) larger version.

I want to focus on the Onondaga Whitefish. If you notice, it is the only fish with a name specific to the area. It was a unique variety of whitefish found only in Onondaga Lake. It was a delicacy, getting shipped around the Northeast and featured prominently in restaurants in Boston and NYC. One thing that makes this whitefish so unique was that it lived in the salty water of Onondaga Lake, and was likely its own variety, if not its own species. The problem: they are in the past tense so no one can actually identify if they were unique or not. The last whitefish was caught in 1897. Again, no one knows exactly why, but it was likely due to overfishing as well as serious ammounts of pollution getting dumped into the lake at that time.

Most people around here dream of a day when we can swim in the lake without worry. I dream of a day we can eat fish from Onondaga Lake without worry.

Maple Syrup Nation

2008-11-22T13:27:00.000-05:00

Yet another NY Times article from my bookmarks. It discusses obscure or lost regional food varieties and how we can go about preserving/reviving them. If you don’t feel like reading the article, at least check out the cool food region map attached to it. It comes from a book called Renewing America’s Food Traditions by Gary Paul Nabhan. Apparently he created the map partially based on Native American food traditions. According to the map, we here in CNY are located in the “Maple Syrup Nation” and some of our endangered regional foods include: sugar maple of the Allegheny Plateau (this was a surprise to me!), Java chicken, Cayuga duck (google this bird; it’s beautiful), Oldmixon free peach (yum), Seneca hominy flint corn, and Buckeye chicken.

I haven’t yet read this book, but maybe we could use it in the future as a springboard for discovering more on our indigenous/local food traditions. I'm sure there's all kinds of goodies in the bibliography (can you tell I'm a grad student?).

The Perception of Slow Food

2008-11-14T15:48:00.000-05:00

I came across this New York Times article a few months ago, and thought it might interest folks as it pertains directly to what we discussed at our first meeting.

Actually, it was this article that helped change my opinion of Slow Food, because prior to reading it I also had a somewhat negative perception of the organization (like Paul brought up on Monday). To me, Slow Food was associated with the French ‘controlled name of origin’ system where traditional cheeses and other products can only be labeled and sold as such if they were produced in their “appropriate” geographic location. I’ve always been much more concerned with getting affordable, fresh local produce and dairy products into cities via farmer’s markets (something we’re blessed with here in Syracuse), as an alternative to ubiquitous fast food, and as a way to help revitalize a regional economy. However, the article discusses how Slow Food USA is really attempting to distinguish itself from the parent organization with a different focus and outreach.

Urban Chickens vs. Syracuse Zoning

2008-11-12T23:02:00.000-05:00

Okay, this is something that just makes me smile: urban chickens. I just saw an article from Greensboro, NC about people having chickens in their yards. Apparently, it's more difficult to have chickens than a cow in Greensboro. In the article, they also mention the website Backyard Chickens as a resource for starting up your own chicken coop. Finally, I remember visiting the Urban Chickens website this past year, which seems to be more legally-oriented, but is also a subscribe-able blog.

What are the local zoning codes like here? I looked at three sources, and each had it's own answer.

Zoning Office Conversation
I had a cursory conversation with someone in the Syracuse Zoning office about this about a year ago (when I found the Urban Chicken website), and the rule of thumb I was given was that anything considered a farm animal was not allowed in the city. Simple enough. But what's the law actually say?

Syracuse Zoning Ordinances
Writing this blog, I decided to take a quick scroll through the Syracuse Zoning Ordinances. Part C mentions "General Recommendations" for "Home Occupations." One cluster of "activities specially prohibited" are "Veterinary services, kennels, animal grooming, animal breeding, butchering, taxidermy, or other activities involving live or dead animals" in that they are "incompatible with maintaining the residential character of a dwelling unit or being potentially disruptive to other properties." Okay, a butcher I can understand, but any "activity involving live animals"? I can't have a chicken, cow.... or cat?

The City Chicken Website
Since I just posted about two informational blogs about city chickens, I figured I'd look through them a bit. Lo and behold, I found this. It says "Syracuse, NY. Chickens sometimes allowed. Depends on zoning. No roosters. " But there is no source! From where did this information come?

Conclusion
Nothing solid (other than I can't have any pets at all). Any one know anything more about this for Syracuse? What do the other towns and villages around Central New York say about this issue?

First Meeting: Success!

2008-11-11T17:35:00.000-05:00

We had our first meeting last night at Second Story Books and I feel it was a great success. We had a great turnout with a lot of passionate people (13 to be exact). I'm really excited where this chapter can go.

At the meeting we looked at the five pieces of the Convivium Application:

Description about your area
Bio about the team leadership
The convivium mission
Sign and return the Convivium Agreement name, logo and list letter.
Sign and return the convivium team application

.... and decided to focus on the first three for now.

1. Description about your area
Jonnell volunteered for this task, as she already has a lot of this written up. (I assume from grants to which she's applied?) Later in the meeting, we talked about including information about indigenous / local foods to Syracuse. We assigned ourselves homework: research about a local food and post it to this blog. Off the top of our heads we discussed the Three Sisters (Corn, Beans and Squash), strawberry, hops, and salmon all being food that used to be harvested here. We also mentioned SALT!! (Hey Yury / Ed, can we count that as a food? :-) ) I also warned that if you wait to submit a food, the easy ones will likely be taken! So act fast people! All people who attened the meeting are now blog authors. If you weren't at the meeting (or can't figure out how to post!) just email me and I'll post it.

2. Bio about the team leadership
We talked about having a one page bio for each person, complete with a photo! We talked about what questions we'd like to ask:

Name
Profession
What Slow Food means to you
Where you grew up
A dish indigenous to where you grew up, or a dish passed down within your family.
You favorite meal ever

Anything you want added / taken off? Other ideas? Make a comment here or email me! Meredith took on the task of putting together the template. I'll email it out to everyone when that is done. Everyone is asked to fill it out before our next meeting.

3. The convivium mission
For this item, we went discussed what Slow Foods meant to us, as well as what does "convivium" mean to us. Here are some of the comments:

Italians eating lots of food and local-pressed wine in a field.
Vermont. Clean water. Purity
Connection to people to their food. Teaching people what their food is and where it comes from.
Going Organic.
Knowing exactly what we are eating. What every ingredient is and where it comes from.
Michael Pollin going after that boar. Omnivore’s Dilemma. Food security. Connection between grocery store distance and low birth weight.
Cooking in the kitchen with spouse… best time I have!
Started thinking Slow Food was about affluency and exclusivity. Not suitable for a family on a budget! Slow Food is now actively trying not to be like that… I want to do my part to help that happen!
Food is unique… it should be fun!
Slow food… started as culinary arm of Italian communist party? Reclaiming cooking as a process of eating. Finding pleasure in the gathering and preparing of food. Pride in cooking!

We also had a discussion about what type of events we'd like to sponor:

Going to local farms.
Potlucks.
Pie eating contest.
Assure that local educational institutions have access to healthy/local food in their cafeteria.
Possibly teaching gardening/growing food in schools.
Block Party around community gardens.
Support Syracuse Grows in their endeavours!
Engage with food pantries to have Fresh Food Initiatives. Pair with CSAs to give excess produce to food pantries and distribute it with recipes on how to cook it.
Have a presence at the Thornden Park Chili Festival in February and Taste of Syracuse in June.
Seed Bank. Save seeds and seed exchange. Organic, heirloom varieties.
Just have fun and not reinvent the wheel or try to do everything ourselves!

I (Paul) took on the task of consolidating all these ideas in a mission statement for our convivium.

Convivium-shed
One item we discussed was "what is local?" We bascially decided that our coverage area would be everything between the Finger Lakes, Rochester area, Catskills and Leatherstocking Region, as all these areas already have convivia. We also said we should include anything within our ecoregion. We will have a New York State map on hand at the next meeting to discuss this further.

Other notes
Here are some miscellaneous thoughts / comments from the meeting

It was requested that we get copies of other Convivium Applications from Slow Food USA so we can see what SFUSA expects.
We discussed how Slow Food USA's new president is emphasizing food justice (see earlier blog entry about this).
We talked up Syracuse Grows canning workshop. November 23rd. SU's teaching kitchen. Room for 22.

Next meeting
Our next meeting will be sometime in December and we want to have it at Second Story again. I will send out infomation in the next week polling for the best date / time.

Thanks for reading this far, and thanks to everyone for a great meeting!!!

Native Food of Syracuse

2008-11-11T15:19:00.000-05:00

All are welcome to attend!.....(I found this event to be quite relevent to what we spoke about yesterday)

The event will be held in the basement of Marshall Hall , located on SUNY Environmental Science and Forestery campus (let me know if you need more info on location....9147150136

-michelle

BAOBAB SOCIETY'S "FILM & FEAST" - DR. ROBIN KIMMERER PRESENTER
Free Native American food and a short film about the struggles of twoWestern Shoshone grandmothers fighting to protect their land.

Featured foods include: Fry Bread, Corn Soup with Venison, Acorn Squash,Three Sisters casserole (corns, beans, squash)Wild Rice, Turkey,Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin Pie, Strawberry Juice.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH 5:00-7:00 PM ~NIFKIN

Co- Sponsored By Multicultural Affairs/Student Life & ExperientialLearning

Root Cellar

2008-11-10T08:49:00.001-05:00

How many of us have root cellars here in Central New York? How many of us have root cellars and don't even know it?

I just read a New York Times article titled "The Return of the Root Cellar." I believe one of the most poignant lines of the whole article came from a professor at Northeastern who is publishing a book about the architecture of food storage in the home. In this article she sums the importance of root cellars up quite effectively: "You’re not going to die if you don’t get a new dress, but if you don’t know this, it will kill you."

Now admittedly, we live in a time of unprecedented abundance (for now), so I don't except the lack of a root cellar to kill anyone in the near future. But with concerns about food security and the carbon footprint of imported foods, could it hurt to experiment around with one?

2nd Story Bookstore

2008-11-06T14:34:00.000-05:00

It has come to my attention that Recess is not open on Mondays. Thankfully, we have another local gathering spot a few doors down: 2nd Story Bookstore. We will meet at 2nd Story at 5:00PM this coming Monday. The address is 550 Westcott Street.

Also, Green Campus Initiative at ESF's Campus tonight at 7PM!

First Meeting

2008-11-04T18:26:00.000-05:00

We'll be having our first meeting on Monday, November 10th at 5PM at Recess Coffee House and Roastery. The address for Recess is 110 Harvard Place. A map is available here. I'll bring a Slow Food sign or something for people who haven't met other people involved in this yet. I hope to see many of you there!

Food Justice

2008-10-31T14:40:00.000-04:00

One aspect of starting this Slow Food chapter that I'm really excited to get involved with is collaborating with the Syracuse Grows organization. I haven't seen a mission statement from them yet (maybe because I forgot to attend their last meeting..!), but I frame the group as this:

Syracuse Grows is a coalition of community gardeners formed with the intent to create a unified cogent voice for this community and also act as a lobbying organization, giving previously dis-empowered groups the ability to have a voice in local political decisions.

And, personally, I feel that the Slow Food Syracuse chapter could have a mission statement very similar. With that in mind, I want Slow Food Syracuse to partner with Syracuse Grows. I was just reading a Victual Reality article about a recent Slow Food event, Terre Madre, and apparently Slow Food USA is on the same page as me on this. Here's a quote from the article:

Josh Viertel, Slow Food USA's new president, set the tone. He announced that the organization would from now forward pursue two main priorities: youth organizing and social justice. "Our food system disproportionately hurts poor people and people of color, and alternatives aren't accessible to those groups," he said.

He said that in the past, the group had focused its rhetoric on values: commitment to "good, clean, and fair food," for example. From now on, it would emphasize rights. "Access to good, clean, and fair food is not a privilege," he declared. "It's a right, and we have to make that clear." That message, he insisted, was the most important one that delegates could bring back to their communities.

Awesome stuff. Let's keep this in mind as we form our own mission statement!

ESF's Green Campus Initiative

2008-10-29T15:12:00.001-04:00

Hannah of ESF's Green Campus Initiative invited me to come to their meeting and talk about Slow Food in the hopes of getting some of them to sign up. I said I would attend next Thursday, November 6th. The meeting is at 7PM on ESF's campus. Please let me know if you're interesting in coming too!

Money doesn't grow on trees

2008-10-28T21:42:00.000-04:00

Let's see how long I keep to the pithy pseudo-agricultural post titles.

So to start a chapter (convivium) of Slow Food USA here in Syracuse, I need to get people to sign up to become Slow Food USA members. This costs money. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't really enjoy asking people for money. But many things require money to happen. Money is also a commitment (ie, "put your money where your mouth is"). So let's talk about the costs of Slow Food membership, what that money gets you, and where it goes.

Membership Costs
This information is taken directly from the Slow Food Memberships page.

Individual membership: $60 / year
Couple membership: $75 / year
Student membership: $30 / year

So, for an individual, it's equivalent to paying $5 a month. Not bad in greater scope of things. Also, I've gotten asked "what makes someone a couple?" Well, that is up to Slow Foods USA. But please don't short-change the organization. As you'll see below, they do some pretty awesome stuff.

Membership Benefits
Here are a list of the membership benefits, which were again taken from another Slow Foods USA page...

A one-year subscription to the Snail journal, which covers good, clean and fair food issues such as: sustainable seafood, food systems education, alternative food distribution, protecting biodiversity and regional food traditions.
The Slow Food Almanac from Slow Food International that features in-depth stories of the movement from around the world.
The Food Chain, our monthly e-newsletter that highlights the activities of our 200+ convivia, our diverse programs and the latest headlines in food sustainability.
A personal membership card and a copy of the Slow Food Companion (for first-time members, mailed quarterly), which details Slow Food's mission, network and projects.
Membership in your local Chapter and invitations to local, national and international Slow Food events ranging from seasonal feasts to film festivals, farm tours to taste workshops.
Discounts on merchandise including the Slow Food Guides to New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, as well as other items in our General Store. Call for member discount or order through the monthly Food Chain.

Phew! Glad I just had to copy and paste all that. As you can see, you get a lot of perks for being a member. And a card. You also get a card in the mail.

Where the Money Goes
Again, I will pull from one of the Slow Food USA pages. I get the feeling I'll be doing that a lot. The chart below breaks out all the money. I'll explain some pieces as best I can. However, if you want more detailed information, I encourage you to contact Slow Food USA directly. I'm really just working off what little I know.

First: Slow Food International Allocation. This portion of your money assists with opening up chapters of Slow Food across the globe. And as much as we don't like to think about it, we in America take up much more than our fair share of international resources. I personally see no problem with having about $20 of my dues go toward encouraging local, sustainable agriculture throughout the world.

Next biggest chunk: Leadership Training & Convivium Development. Well... that's money going toward helping Syracuse get off the ground. Every new convivium gets a disbursement of $100 its first year to assist with start up costs. I expect it also covers the operating expenses associated with assisting new convivia get off the ground.

Your money also goes toward making the publications happen, supporting Slow Food USA's programs (which I can get into in another posting if people want) and annual convivia disbursements (the first year we'll get $100 - every year thereafter we get an amount based on the number of people in our convivia). Oh, and let's not forget overhead expenses for the organization as a whole.

Breaking Ground

2008-10-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

This blog is intended to be a centralized resource for the not-yet-existing Slow Foods in Syracuse chapter. Right now, I am looking at gathering a core team of people who will be able to dedicate time and energy on getting this chapter off the ground. Why do we need a chapter in Syracuse? What is Slow Food? Why should I become a member?

Full disclosure time: I was in the middle of writing up a nice big long blog post (complete with charts and subheaders) addressing all this questions. ... and my computer froze. Bear with me people, I'm new to blogging. So I will just focus on the first question now.

What is Slow Food?

Slow Food started in Italy, as part of a protest to the fast food movement. It has since grow to over 50 countries, with thousands of grassroots chapters. The organization is about nourishing healthy food systems: supporting local farms, educating people about food choices, providing access to healthy fresh food to impoverished neighborhoods, patronizing restaurants that provide local fresh food.

Or, as I like to say: It's about making brownies from scratch instead of from a box.

Some people ask about what is the difference between Slow Food and organic food. Basically, organic food is good, but you can still have monocrop industrial organic farms that ship around the country and don't pay the workers fair wages. Slow Foods is about creating a sustainable food system. Farms that nourish the earth. Kitchens that nourish friends and family. Consumers and restaurants that support the hinderland. In a way, it's about fighting entropy through the blessed action of eating.

Not enough for you? Check out the Slow Food USA website. They have their own (probably better) explanation of what Slow Food is. It also has links to the benefits of membership and information and events happening around the country.

Thanks for reading this far. Check back in the future, or subscribe to the RSS feed! Next post I'll be talking about what membership in Slow Food USA gets you, and where the money from your member dues goes.