Please join Lynn and Curtis Vreeland for an extraordinary Chocolate and Wine Tasting on Sunday, February 17 from 4:00 to 7:30 at the Vreeland’s Sundown Farm to benefit Slow Food Harrisburg’s upcoming annual author and film events. For more details and to RSVP,

please go to  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5421056526/eorg

Slow Food Gainesville – Florida
This video was produced for the University of Florida to explain the Slow Food movement in Gainesville, which hopes to combat today’s push towards fast food, by asking people to produce their food organically and in a way that can sustain our environment.  Posted:  March 05, 2008  2,208 views

Slow Food Toronto – Ontario, Canada
The Slow Food concept was founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986, and celebrates the importance of connecting pleasure to food. Many of Toronto’s top chefs practice this idea, and encourage both visitors and locals to enjoy the region’s fine selection of fresh ingredients.  Join executive chefs Anne Yarymowich (Frank, Art Gallery of Ontario) and Teddy Corrado (C5, Royal Ontario Museum) as they discuss their approach to cooking in Canada.

The Slow Food Movement:

Slow Food Nation: An Evening with Carlo Petrini
An excerpt: From Fast Food Nation To Slow Food Nation, Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food International, speaks to us about his revolutionary ideas.

People & Power: the Slow Food Movement
People & Power looks at the work of Carlo Petrini, an Italian journalist and food activist, whose organization,  Slow Food, is considered the culinary wing of the anti-globalization movement.  Produced by Al Jazeera.

The Mother of Slow Food: Alice Waters
Alice Waters has been preaching the virtues of cultivating fresh food for decades. As Lesley Stahl reports, this world-renowned chef and restaurateur hopes a slower approach to the food we eat will keeps us healthier and greener.  Produced by CBS 60 Minutes.

Slowing Down in the Fast New World
In an event sponsored by Visions and Voices, the University of Southern California’s arts and humanities initiative, on November 9, 2007, the USC Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy hosted a panel discussion titled “Slowing Down the Fast New World.” The panel, moderated by USC professor Gelya Frank, focused on how technology and a fast-paced lifestyle inhibit our mental and physical well-being. The panelists were Peter Whybrow, director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and author of American Mania: When More is Not Enough; Robert Gottlieb, director of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College; Evan Kleiman, host of “Good Food” on KCRW 89.9 FM, founder of Slow Food Los Angeles and owner of local slow food movement eatery Angeli Caffe; and writer/photographer Paula Stoeke, executive director of the Sculpture Foundation. A picnic lunch catered by Angeli Caffe followed the discussion.

Slow Food School Garden – Carlo Petrini visit
Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini dedicates the Sanchez School Garden project. Produced by ABC News with Charles Gibson

*New* Fast Food Nation Trailer
Out in theaters November 17th.

A dramatic feature based on material from the incendiary book Fast Food Nation, a no-holds-barred exploration of the fast food industry that ultimately revealed the dark side of the “All American Meal.”  Produced by Fox Search Light Films.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by : Michael Pollan

The Art of Simple Food by : Alice Waters

What To Eat by : Marion Nestle

A Return to Common Sense by : John Ikerd

This Organic Life:Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by : Joan Dye Gussow

In Defense of Food by : Michael Pollan

Food Matters by : Mark Bittman

The Botany of Desire by : Michael Pollan

Second Nature: A Gardner’s Education by : Michael Pollan

Food Rules by : Michael Pollan

Eating Animals by : Jonathan Safran Foer

Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It by : Jill Richardson

The War on Bugs by : Will Allen

Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front by : Joel Salatin

Slow Food Nation:Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, And Fair by : Carlo Petrini

This year’s protein not only provides the Culinary Arts students with a wide canvas to demonstrate their talents, but it also benefits members of the East End Livestock 4H Club, of Juniata County.

We’ll also highlight the fruits of the vine with wines to complement each course. This year, we feature the outstanding wines of Vynecrest Vineyards and Winery, winners at this year’s Pennsylvania Wine Excellence competition.

To tie it all together, the ripe, luscious fruit of late summer and autumn will be celebrated creatively throughout the dinner. Come meet our producers and savor food grown with love, prepared with passion and enjoyed with good cheer!

Our Menu:

Hors D’ouevres reception-

Open-faced Pork Wrangler Sliders with an Espresso Barbecue Sauce, Bacon, and Fried Onion

Pork Rib Wellingtons with a Mushroom Duxelle

Apple and Gruyere Tartlets

Pork Sausage with a Whole Grain Mustard and Apple Relish

Pork Tenderloin Crostinis with an Apple Pear Chutney

Soup-

Roasted Apple and Butternut Squash Soup ( student, Rachael Powell’s, recipe)

Bread- Rustic French Bread with an Apple Maple Butter and an Herbed Butter

Salad-

Spinach Salad with a Hot Pecan Smoked Bacon Vinaigrette

Entree-

Sweet and Sour Pork Loin stuffed with a Peach and Cranberry Compote. Served with roasted carrots and beets, and a goat cheese polenta

Dessert-

Apple Creme Brulee, a cinnamon and nutmeg creme brulee baked in an apple and served with a cider caramel sauce and candied apple peel

For payment by check: Make the check out to “Slow Food Harrisburg” and mail it to 349 Oak Drive , New Cumberland, PA 17070. Payment must be received by the deadline. Payment by credit card Click here.

Seating is limited.  The deadline for reservations is Monday, September 24,2012.

Hosted by Lynn & Curtis Vreeland
Sundown Farm
236 Erford Road, Camp Hill, PA

Feel free to bring an instrument if you are inspired!
RSVP by July 30 at 717.695.2584 or lprall

• Farm to table generally means rusticity, authenticity, purity, and simplicity, but some chefs note that it stifles creativity and technique.

Each ingredient on my plate has an impeccable pedigree: local, house made, farm fresh, artisanal, ethically sourced. What could be wrong with such a well-intentioned dish? As it turns out, there is one thing: It’s incredibly boring and bland, lacking in any culinary point of view.
This is, alas, not the first ho-hum meal I have endured at a self-proclaimed “farm to table restaurant” (I will not say where this occurred), and so I wonder: As more and more restaurants jump on the locavore bandwagon, just what does the farm to table label really mean? Has it become just another trendy marketing ploy? For both chefs and diners, what is, or should be, more important: the message or the cuisine? And what happens if and when these two concepts are at cross purposes?

These musings, I thought, were innocent enough. But as I began to interrogate the assumption that going local is always better—and by implication, the notion that using anything non-local must somehow be morally or ethically inferior—I encountered some intense emotions and strong opinions on both sides of the debate.
“Farm to table is saying right up front that it is … ingredient-driven rather than chef-creativity-driven or technique-driven. It’s saying that the most important thing is where it comes from, how it was grown, who grew it, and not what you do with it. It’s basically patting yourself on the back for being there.”—Anthony Bourdain to Wylie Dufresne, from the food nerd quarterly Lucky Peach
Of course, “farm to table” doesn’t really describe a type of cuisine—it simply tells you where the food came from. But for many diners, the term comes with a host of expectations, many of which revolve around signifiers of rusticity, authenticity, purity, and simplicity. Some chefs, however, believe that meeting these expectations comes at the expense of technique and creativity.
Take “Chef X,” who runs the kitchen at a small, well-regarded local restaurant. Chef X, who prefers to remain anonymous, says, “For me, cooking is a craft, and the guys I respect most, like [molecular gastronomist Wylie] Dufresne, [Thomas] Keller, and the French gods, all take these beautiful ingredients and twist and augment them into something more than just food. That’s what I want when I go out to an expensive restaurant. Innovative techniques with exotic ingredients. I didn’t become a chef because I love how a carrot tastes.”
It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with a simple, rustic style of cooking, but why, he maintains, would anyone want to pay big bucks for it? “American farm to table cooking is just country European cooking, which was done by mothers and servants, not trained chefs. Many talented European chefs had the luxury of growing up with this cooking, but had the sense to give something more to the dining public.”
Nonsense, says Baltimore’s reigning sustainability and local food iconoclast, Woodberry Kitchen’s Spike Gjerde. “‘Farm to table’ doesn’t refer to cooking,” he says. “Actually, farm to table doesn’t really refer to anything, if it ever did. The point is to care about the food you are cooking—not only how it tastes, and how much it costs, and can I get it tomorrow, but also how it was grown, and how that affected the land and water where it was grown, and how the farmer made out, and then do with it what you will: Cook it like grandma would, or like a chemist would, or manipulate it like good old [Thomas Keller].”
Chef X bristles at any implication that he doesn’t care about the food on the plate. “I care very much that it was raised properly, fed right, and respected on its way to my back door. But does it matter to me whether it came from 60 or 6000 miles away? Not particularly.”
Anyway, Gjerde believes it takes more creativity to come up with a dish based solely on what’s available locally than it does to create something around far-flung ingredients. “When you don’t have all the colors you want on the plate, you’ve got to dig a little deeper,” he says.
Jerry Pellegrino, chef and proprietor of the “seed to table” eatery Waterfront Kitchen, says that Chef X and Gjerde are both right. “They’re both saying correct things. Any chef understands the concept of garbage in, garbage out. Ingredient-driven really means just finding the best ingredients. It doesn’t matter what you do with it; it must start with quality.”
“[At farm to table restaurants] we are paying for an experience, for a performance of sorts. But then, that’s part of what ‘restauranting’ is.”—Psyche Williams-Forson, associate professor of American studies and co-director of graduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park
Farm-to-table pioneer Jeff Smith, chef/owner of the Chameleon, has been doing his well-regarded version of Maryland cuisine for nearly a decade, and says, “People don’t realize that is very difficult to make most of your food local. You have to be creative, and you really have to be dedicated.” In an effort to make things a bit easier for locavore chefs, Smith is working on creating a food hub in the Hamilton/Lauraville neighborhood that will streamline the buying and selling process.
But, according to a local caterer, who also prefers to remain anonymous, it’s just not possible or practical for everyone to be 100 percent local. “Some restaurants can do it, but catering companies really can’t,” he says. “The menu would be limited … and it would be too expensive. … Woodberry, though, has the clientele that will pay for it.”
But Gjerde maintains that chefs and diners can’t afford not to source locally and sustainably. “‘Organic and local product is too expensive’—I get that all the time,” he says. “But on a practical level, our love of cheap salmon will cost us our last salmon. What’s the cost of that?”
But the fact is, despite appearances—Woodberry Kitchen is booked solid most nights—the majority of the dining public cannot afford to eat out at restaurants in that price point.
“We eat at one of these establishments, and that allows us to feel as if we’ve done our good deed for the day,” says Williams-Forson. “But we end up paying a lot in order to feel good about ourselves.” If farm to table dining is perceived—correctly or not—as elitist, something that’s only for the wealthy, does it have a future outside of a relatively small (read: privileged) audience?
Smith certainly hopes so. “Over time, I have seen [farm to table] dining become more of a trend and less of a philosophy,” he says. “People are doing it because it’s the thing to do. But if you want the movement to go forward, you want everyone to be doing it!”
“Spike is sincere, but he’s extreme. Extremists are great for proving the point, but they’re not really realists.”—Jerry Pellegrino, chef/co-owner Waterfront Kitchen
Ask Gjerde if there’s anything truly wrong with occasionally indulging in a sustainably raised Scottish grouse or wild boar that happens to be from far away, and he’ll point you towards a local alternative—that may or may not be the same beast. It doesn’t really answer the question, but for him that’s beside the point.
“No one can be absolute,” Pellegrino says. “Not even Spike is absolute.”
Indeed, Gjerde admits that he stocks some decidedly un-local products like lemons, limes, and coffee, a messy fact that he claims drives him crazy and points to one of the inherent difficulties in being 100 percent local in a climate without a year-round growing season. Yes, of course you can have a great meal at Woodberry Kitchen in the middle of the winter, as I recently did. But then, I’ve also had a just-as-great, though decidedly different meal, at Chef X’s restaurant in the winter. Some of the ingredients were local—some weren’t. Is it so wrong to appreciate that bit of variety?
Ultimately, Williams-Forson suggests, “You have to ask yourself what appeals to you about food. If you’re only eating for politics, you’ll probably be flip-flopping the rest of your life.”
As for me, I don’t feel shame about indulging in the occasional organic avocado, Meyer lemon, or bottle of French wine—and I certainly don’t want to live in a world where I can’t have a bit of Parmiggiano Reggiano on my spaghetti. At the same time, I would happily subsist on a diet of Maryland tomatoes, local basil, and the occasional piece of crispy bacon from Truck Patch Farms all summer long. And this may be the real lesson here. No matter your politics, as Gjerde correctly points out, “If it doesn’t taste good, it’s irrelevant.”

Follow Urbanite on Facebook and Twitter for the latest stories, updates, and events.

http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/baltimore/no-farm-no-foul/Content?oid=1471001

The vineyard is calling…YOU and ALL YOUR FRIENDS to join PA Wine Society and Slowfood Harrisburg on Saturday, June 23rd at Waltz Vineyards in nearby Manheim, Pa for great wines, live music and mingling with friends old and new. It’s a party in a vineyard and the special price of just $20.00 makes it easy for you and all your friends to come join the party.

We will be treated to an exclusive winemakers tasting beginning promptly at 4:30 pm where you’ll be sampling amazing handcrafted estate grown wines right in the vineyard! Afterwards, the party begins. Bring along a blanket or lawn chair, a picnic, or purchase food there…it’s up to you, and relax on the lawn while enjoying special music, warm breezes and some very outstanding wines.

Waltz Vineyards excels at creating wines from hand picked high quality fruit grown on their sixth generation family farm. Their fruit has been prized by other wine makers for many years leading up to their 2000 decision to produce their own wines from their superior quality fruit.

Make plans now and invite your friends to this very special occasion. Saturday, June 23, 2012, 4:30 pm – ?. Waltz Vineyards – 1599 Old Line Road, Manheim PA 17545. Only 30 miles from Harrisburg., 30 miles from York and 14 miles from Lancaster! $20.00 per person Payment can be made to the Pa Wine Society. Reservations are required.

For more information http://www.pawinesociety.org/Events.aspx

Trends in organic farming/ gardening: from backyard to  national food policy

 Presentation and Dinner Tuesday, March 27^, 6:00PM

 

The Rodale Institute’s executive director, Mark “Coach” Smallwood, will discuss the results of the Institute’s 30-year of farming systems trials. He will also describe the Institute’s new initiatives to support the growth of organic agriculture, efforts that have relevance for backyard gardeners as well as national food policy makers.  Join us for this informative discussion on how Rodale plans to grow the next crop of organic farmers.

At Harvest Restaurant Hotel Hershey

Harvest offers genuine American cuisine made from the freshest local and regional ingredients. The chef is preparing a special menu featuring an innovative selection of both classic and traditional American fare. Harvest specializes in fresh farm to table ingredients sourced locally.

Cost:  $45 per person includes tax & gratuity; cash bar.  To make a reservation, call the Harvest Restaurant at 717- 534-8800 and state that the reservation is for the Slow Food author presentation on March 27.  All dinners will be PREPAID by credit card.  The deadline for reservations is March 20.

About Slow Food: Slow Food Harrisburg is the local chapter of an international organization whose mission is to build consumer awareness and appreciation for food and its connection to community and the environment.  In essence, a food system that is good, clean and fair.

Harvest Restaurant Hotel Hershey

The second event is our annual fall Meet the Producers dinner at HACC.  The date for that is Friday, September 28. This will be held at the Wildwood Conference Center. Stay tunes for detail on the menu.

 We are working on a couple fo other events for early Spring so please keep an eye out on this site.

Enjoy Chinese New Year Dinner with Us!

Slow Food Harrisburg and the China Tea House celebrate the Year of the Dragon at our third annual Chinese New Year dinner on January 27. Enjoy a variety of delicious and authentic Chinese dishes prepared by Chef Jimmy Chan especially for this festive occasion and served buffet style. Choose from a selection of tantalizing appetizers (“dim sum”), plus more than half a dozen entrees, including seafood, chicken, beef and vegetables. Try several or try them all!  Have a sweet tooth? That’s covered, too, including a traditional Chinese New Year cake. BYOB.

Our Buffet Menu

Dim Sum (Appetizers)

Main Dishes

Sweets

When:  Friday, January 27 at 6:30 p.m.

Where:  China Tea House, 610 Simpson Street, Mechanicsburg

Cost:  $27, tax and tip included.  $15 for children 12 and under.  Pay at the dinner.

Reservations:  Reservations required by January 22. Contact Jeff at jeffkatcher or

545-8182.

Mark your calendar now for this pre-season celebration and tasting on Thursday, November 17 at 7 pm. This will be held at Glace Associates at their offices at 3705 Trindle Road in Camp Hill. Please park around back in the lot between Glace Associates’ building and the PCN Studio.

In the third of Slow Food Harrisburg’s 2011 workshop series, Chef Jeff will walk us through the process of preparing and sharing these Italian specialties. In another demonstration of culinary craftsmanship, he’ll ruin your appetite for dinner in a most delicious way. You won’t need a passport as he transports you to Italy, birthplace of the international Slow Foods movement.

After the demonstration and tasting, linger with us to hear more about upcoming workshops, demonstrations, festivals, dinners, tours and other activities planned by Slow Food Harrisburg.

 Tickets are $20 per person and to resevere your ticket please call or email Bonnie McCann 717-635-9673  or bonniejmccann

Fair Farms Campaign Kickoff Meeting!

Thursday, September 22^nd

7:00 – 8:00pm

HACC Midtown 2 – Room 118 – 1500 N 3^rd St, Harrisburg

**Refreshments provided**

Right now, our country’s food system is broken. A few large companies, like Cargill and Monsanto, control every part of our food system, squeezing consumers and driving out small and mid-sized farmers.

We all have the right to safe, healthy food. This year, we have a chance to make sure the USDA implements the 2008 Fair Farm Rules, which level the playing field for small and mid-sized farmers, giving consumers access to safer, more sustainable food.

Right now, Senator Casey is on the fence on this issue. We need your help to make sure he stands up to big agribusiness— and stands up for small farmers, consumers and the environment.

Come to the Fair Farms Campaign Kickoff Meeting to learn how you can help! All are welcome – bring friends.

Thursday, September 22^nd

7:00 – 8:00pm

HACC Midtown 2 – Room 118 – 1500 N 3^rd St, Harrisburg

**Refreshments provided**

To learn more about how you can get involved before the meeting, please contact Charlie Furman at cfurman. Thanks, and see you on the 22^nd!

1 large onion, chopped

2 to 3 tablespoons butter

2 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed

3 cups of water (or slightly more than needed to cover the squash)

3 or 4 bouillon cubes (veggie or chicken)

1/2 to 1 teaspoons marjoram or Herbes de Provence

1/4 teaspoon black pepper, to taste

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste

2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese

Saute the onion in butter.  Add squash and transfer to crockpot OR continue in large pot on stove top.  Add water to cover onions and squash.  Add remaining ingredients except for cream cheese. Cook until squash is soft.

Puree the squash mixture in the blender or with an immersion blender. Add the cream cheese in chunks and stir until smooth and hot.

6:00 pm – 8:30 pm                                                                               Friday, September 23, 2011

Slow Food Harrisburg welcomes fall at its annual Meet the Producers dinner with a celebration of the fruits of the harvest. The reception and dinner will be held at 6:00 pm on September 23 at the Wildwood Conference Center, Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC).

Award-winning Executive Chef Travis Mumma of Café Fresco, HACC Chef Instructor Autumn Patti and the students of the Culinary Arts Program at HACC will celebrate the fruits of the hunt with a sumptuous entree of venison prepared two ways. Venison from farm-raised red deer has a tender, velvety texture and a unique, delicate flavor. It is mild and delicious with no wild or gamey taste.

We’ll also celebrate the fruits of the vine with a full flight of wines to complement each course. This year, we feature the outstanding wines of Allegro Vineyards and Winery, which took four of the top 10 places in this year’s Pennsylvania Wine Excellence competition.

To tie it all together, the ripe, luscious fruit of late summer and autumn will be celebrated creatively throughout the dinner.  Come meet our producers and share in food grown with love, prepared with passion and enjoyed with good cheer!

Price

$60 (members of Slow Food, PASA, Buy Fresh/Buy Local, PA Preferred and ACF)

$65 (non-members)

Slow Food Harrisburg is a 501(c) non-profit organization.  Part of the price of the dinner may be tax-deductible.

Reservations & Deadlines

For credit card reservations: Click here to purchase tickets.  For payment by check:  Make the check out to “Slow Food Harrisburg” and mail it to P.O Box 1320, Harrisburg, PA 17105.  Payment must be received by the deadline.  Seating is limited.  The deadline for reservations is Thursday, September 15, 2011.

Dinner Menu 

Producers Reception (Hors d’Oeuvres)

• Open-faced venison slider on brioche with tomato confit, mustard aioli and chive
• Asian-inspired filet of venison tartare with fresh cilantro and crisp wonton
• Petite venison sausage quiche with smoked spinach, caramelized onion and cheddar
• Crispy panko red ripe tomato with fresh basil pesto

Salad

Farm fresh baby greens grenadine, five-spice poached apples, honey-roasted walnuts, chevre, apple cider vinaigrette

Main Course

Venison duet: osso bucco and a rib chop with a fig demi-glace, accompanied by tender braised local vegetables and roasted, whipped garlic potatoes

Dessert

Creamy vanilla cheesecake with a gingersnap crust, warm blueberry sauce and dark chocolate infused balsamic accent

Wines

2011 Pennsylvania Wine Society Wine Excellence winners from Allegro Vineyards and Winery

Vegetarian Meal

A vegetarian meal is available on request.  You must specify this option when you make your reservation.

Our Featured Producers

•   Highbourne Deer Farms (Dallastown)
•   Allegro Vineyards and Winery (Brogue)
•   Jade Family Farm (Port Royal)
•  HACC Culinary Garden (Harrisburg)
•  Conestoga Creamery (Leola)
•  Camelot Valley Goat Cheese (Dover)

Our Culinary Team

Travis Mumma, Executive Chef of Café Fresco, Harrisburg

Autumn Patti, HACC Chef Instructor and Kitchen, Purchasing & Events Manager

Students of the Benjamin Olewine III School of Culinary Arts at HACC

Averill Shepps, Pennsylvania Wine Society

Prep Time: 20 min

Inactive Prep Time: 2 hr 30 min

Cook Time:3 hr

Level: Easy

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 lamb shanks (each about 1 1/4 pounds; 1 shank is a portion)
• Kosher salt
• 1 large Spanish onion or 2 small yellow onions, cut into 1-inch dice
• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 3celery ribs, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 (12-ounce) can tomato paste
• 2 cups hearty red wine
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary leaves
• 10 to 12 thyme branches tied together in a bundle
• 3 to 4 cups water
• 4 bay leaves
• Gremolata, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat a large Dutch oven generously with olive oil and bring to a high heat. Season the shanks generously with salt and add them to the pan. Brown well on all sides. This is an incredibly important step; do not rush it.

Meanwhile, puree the onions, carrots, celery and garlic in a food processor until it becomes a coarse paste. Remove and set aside.

Remove the shanks from the pan to a sheet tray. Discard the excess fat from the pan. Add a little more oil to coat the bottom of the pan and add the pureed veggies. Season with salt, to taste. Saute the veggies until they are very brown and aromatic, about 20 minutes. The brown veggies should form a sort of crust on the bottom of the pan, do not let this burn; it is where a lot of the flavor is! Don’t rush this step either, since this is where you will develop the brown color and flavor.

Add the tomato paste and brown for 5 minutes. Stir in the wine, chopped rosemary and thyme bundle. Stir frequently and cook until the wine has reduced by about half.

Add the shanks back to the pot and pour in 3 to 4 cups of water. The shanks should be submersed, if they are not, add more water. Add the bay leaves to the pan, cover and put in the preheated oven. The cooking time will be about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Turn the shanks over about halfway through the cooking time. Check the shanks every 45 minutes or so. If the liquid has reduced too much add more water. Defat as you go.

Remove the foil during the last 30 minutes of cooking time for maximum browning. When the shanks are done the meat should be incredibly tender and flavorful. Transfer to serving plates and garnish with Gremolata. Serve with Hard Polenta Cakes, if desired,

Call yourself a superstar!!!

Gremolata:

• 1 orange, zested
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley leaves
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and set aside until ready to use.

Prep Time: 40 min

Inactive Prep Time: 2 hr 0 min

Cook Time: 35 min

Level: Easy

Serves: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups water
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• Kosher salt
• 1 cup polenta
• 4 sage leaves, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup mascarpone
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 tablespoons grated Parmigiano

Directions

In a saucepan combine the milk, water, bay and cayenne. Bring the mixture to a boil over low heat and season generously with salt. Take the seasoning to the edge of too salty. To do this you MUST taste as you go. Polenta acts as a salt eraser, if you don’t season abundantly here you will never recover from it.

Once the liquid is at a boil and is seasoned appropriately, sprinkle in the polenta whisking constantly. Once the polenta is combined switch over to a wooden spoon and stir frequently until the polenta has become thick. Taste the polenta to see if it has cooked through. If it still feels mealy and grainy, add some more milk or water and cook it to a thick consistency. Repeat this process, as needed, until the polenta feels smooth on your tongue, about 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and stir in the chopped sage and mascarpone.

Line a 7 by 7-inch square pan with plastic wrap. Pour the polenta into the prepared pan. Cover the top with more plastic smoothed onto the surface of the polenta. Chill in the refrigerator until needed. (All of this can totally be done ahead of time, like yesterday! Cool!)

When ready to use, remove the polenta from the pan and cut into desired shapes. Coat a nonstick saute pan with olive oil and bring to medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot and starting to smoke just a little, add the polenta shapes. Cook the polenta on both sides and finish by sprinkling with a little bit grated Parmigiano. Transfer to a serving platter and serve while hot.

What a corncake!!!!

• Jujo Acres (Loysville) – Grass-fed Limousin cattle.  They were a featured producer at a previous SF Slow Supper.
• Lark Rise Farm (Loysville) – Artisan breadmaker
• Pretty Meadow Farm (Newport) – Organic vegetables and a Bed & Breakfast on over 100 acres.  They will be the last stop on our tour, where we can relax and enjoy the scenery and light refreshments.
• Fourth location to be determined.

We’ll stop for lunch at Espresso Yourself Café in Newport. They use as much local food as possible.

Additional details will be provided within the week.

For reservations and more information, contact JeffKatcher.  Deadline for reservations is Wednesday June 15.

Logistics are still being worked out.  More information to come in our next email.  If you are interested in car-pooling, let us know.

Our headliner chicken, Rhode Island Red, has been called an iconic symbol of American agriculture.  Developed in Rhode Island around the 1880s, the bird sports deep reddish feathers and pink comb, remnants of its Malay, Shanghai and Java ancestry. The breed has been honored by two historic monuments and is listed in Slow Food’s Arc of Taste.  Other featured products include dandelion and red amaranth, tonic for the winter-weary soul. The dinner is BYOB.

Producer Reception: Pâté of Chicken Liver and local Beet Root; Tempura soft boiled eggs, smoked Paprika Aioli; and Deviled eggs with a variety of truffle, saffron and chicken mousse fillings. Complementary glass of wine.

Salad: Dandelion and Amaranth Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette.

Entrée: Ballotine of Rhode Island Red Chicken stuffed with York Apple, sautéed Morel mushrooms and English Peas; then poached in Green Tea-infused Chicken consommé.

Dessert: Meyer Lemon Semi-freddo with frozen egg custard, Moscato Honey.

Tickets are $55 (members) and $65 (non-members) are available by calling The Cellar @ 724.2803 or 24/7 online at www.BrownPaperTickets.com (search: Slow Food Harrisburg).  The deadline is Monday April 25. Slow Food is a 501c non-profit organization. As such, $16 of the dinner’s cost is tax deductible.

List of 100 food books

• Posted by Jerusha Klemperer on April 4, 2011 at 5:11pm
  

Food Movies

• Posted by Jerusha Klemperer on September 2, 2010 at 3:14pm
  

Film screenings and film-related events are always popular.  A recent leader call on planning & hosting an effective event turned up a bunch of questions about how to secure licenses, how much to charge, etc.  This thread will be a place to check in about current movie opportunities as well as a place to discuss the various logistics of planning a movie-related event.

Here are 3 current opps:

“Grown in Detroit”: Licenses still available for this documentary. The film is based on the urban gardening efforts of Catherine Ferguson Academy, a school where 300 pregnant and parenting teenagers are getting a high school education.  As part of the curriculum, the girls are taught agricultural skills in the school’s own garden located behind the school building.  The young mothers learn, through gardening, to become more independent and knowledgeable about the importance of food.  Click here for more information.

“Eating Alaska”: Screenings also available for this quirky documentary that follows the journey that Ellen Frankenstein, a former vegetarian, takes in search of a local, sustainable diet in Alaska.  You can read about it on the blog here. For more information contact info or call 907-747-3399.

“Lunch Line”: This is a brand new documentary that weaves together history and agriculture, advocacy and bureaucracy, and frames the current debate over school lunch reform within a larger national and political context. It features Jan Poppendieck, Debra Eschmeyer, Chef Ann Cooper (“Renegade Lunch Lady”) and other school lunch advocates.  Interested in a screening?  Contact lunchlinescreening

A vibrant farmers’ market will precede the dinner event in the Holland Union Building lobby from 3pm to 6pm!  This event is FREE.  A suggested donation of $15 – $20 is requested. For more information and to reserve or purchase a ticket, please contact farm or call 717-245-1969.

Cash only, pay at door

Dinner: $10 students & Slow Food members; $12 all others

Film: $5 general admission

Reception: included with movie

Reservations: email click here or call 717.221.1125. The deadline for reservations is April 13.  Cash only; pay at door.

Equal parts THE WIRE and HARLAN COUNTY USA, The Garden raises crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.  As the battle lines are drawn, the farmers’ cause becomes an international sensation that draws the attention of notable activists and politicians, including Dennis Kucinich, Daryl Hannah, Joan Baez and Willie Nelson. Witness how these gardeners, mostly immigrants from Latin America, find their voice, organize and fight back.

• Academy Award Nominee  (Best Documentary Feature)
• SILVERDOCS Documentary Festival (Best Documentary)
• IDA Pare Lorentz Award (Nominee)

Also featuring a vintage Popeye cartoon: County Farm (1949)

5:30 – 6:30 Farmstead dinner, HACC Midtown 2 Cafe

6:30 – 8:00 Film screening, HACC Midtown 2 Room 118

8:00 – 9:00 Reception & post-film dialog, Green Center lobby

9:00 – 10:00 Victoria Vox on ukulele, Midtown Scholar

Farmstead Dinner menu:

• Farmhouse roasted seasonal vegetable soup
• Hearty beef burgundy soup with winter vegetables
• Spring mix salad

• Artisan breads from Gettysburg Baking Co., Biglerville

Post-film Reception:

• Homemade Italian pastries from Nonna’s, Harrisburg
• Coffee & tea service

The food industry should not rage against the idea of professionalised local food systems, nor unleash its lobbying force to uproot them before their green shoots can reach maturity. Rather, it should explore ways to benefit from local foods and, in turn, foster their development.

These days we tend to pigeon-hole people by their eating habits. Is so-and-so a home cook, or do they live off ready meals? Do they potter down to the farmers’ market or Sundays, or are they on first name terms with the servers in McDonalds?

My friends and colleagues inhabit both camps, but there’s almost always some cross-over: many a ready meal aficionados goes weak at the knees with one bite of a ripe local tomato on an August afternoon. Yet according to an opinion from Europe’s Committee of the Regions on local food systems, in Europe the emphasis is heavily skewed towards large-scale, industrialised food production. Around 80 per cent of world food production is sold locally, but in Europe that figure is just 20 per cent.

It’s time to redress the balance, according to Lenie Dwarshuis-van de Beek, a Dutch regional councillor and the opinion’s rapporteur. That means professionalising local food systems.

Wait a minute. Doesn’t that mean seizing back a slice of consumer pie from big food players? People won’t by local tomatoes and imported ones, they’ll by one or the other. And if farmers have more bargaining power in the food chain, that means loosening the grip of the retailers. We could be heading for a lobbying storm…

Not necessarily. The intention is not to pitch local foods in competition with industrial agriculture, according to Mrs Dwarshuis, but to make local foods more available to local consumers, and make it easier for them to chose them. Food systems are not discrete, you see. They are intricate, organic structures that shift and overlap and feed off each other. The industrial and the local way of eating do not need to be at loggerheads. They can exist side by side in symbiosis.

Side-by-side on the shelves

First of all, the opinion does not limit the sale of locally produced food to their traditional stomping grounds of farmers markets and road-side stalls. Rather, it suggests that local retailers should stock more foods grown within, say 30 or 50 km – not just the independents, but neighbourhood branches of major chains too.

Tesco, Carrefour, and friends have been dreaming up a stream of new store formats in recent years – but I, for one, don’t see a huge difference in what’s on the shelf in my nearest Carrefour Market, the Carrefour Contact in the next town, or the several Casino-owned Huit à Huits in the city. Stocking local produce, supplied directly by farmers or cooperatives, alongside goods shipped in from the central buying units, would help embed retail stores in their communities, give to each a unique identity, and keep money in the local economy.

Minick has won grants and awards from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Virginia Commission for the Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Appalachian Writers Association, Appalachian Heritage, Now and Then Magazine, and Radford University, where he teaches writing and literature. His work has appeared in many publications including Shenandoah, Orion, San Francisco Chronicle, Encyclopedia of Appalachia, Conversations with Wendell Berry, The Sun, Appalachian Journal, Wind, and The Roanoke Times.   His books will be available for sale and autographing.He is also the author of two books of poetry, Her Secret Song and Burning Heaven, a collection of essays, Finding a Clear Path, and he edited All There Is to Keep by Rita Riddle.  This is Slow Food Harrisburg’s third annual author presentation.

Harvest offers genuine American cuisine made from the freshest local and regional ingredients. The chef is preparing a special menu featuring an innovative selection of both classic and traditional American fare. Harvest specializes in fresh farm to table ingredients sourced locally.

Cost: $25 per adult; $15 for children 12 and under; tax and service fee included; BYOB (bring your own opener and glasses).

Reservations: To make a reservation, call Jeff Katcher @ 545-8182 or JeffKatcher.  The deadline for reservations is Tuesday, February 8.

About our Menu: Chinese New Year is the most traditional of Chinese festivals. It is a 15-day celebration that begins each year in January or February, according to the lunar calendar.  We aim to merge two traditions in the food offered:  Cantonese dim sum and more substantial dishes prepared particularly for Chinese New Year.  China Tea House specializes in dim sum, which is the Chinese equivalent of tapas.  In Canton, Hong Kong, and in Chinatowns across the world, carts laden with a variety of small dishes are rolled through the dining room.  At our dinner, we will enjoy a selection of approximately ten meat, seafood, vegetable and sweet dim sum dishes.  Try several or try all of them!

Directions & Parking: The China Tea House (610 Simpson Street, Mechanicsburg) is just off (but visible from) Simpson Street.  It is very close to the Giant supermarket.  Turn left on Apple Dr. heading west, or turn right heading east.  There is a Pizza Hut next to the restaurant.  Parking is limited in front of the restaurant.  You may also park directly across Apple Drive in available spaces at the car repair business or along the side streets. China Tea House’s phone number is 691-8883 (but RSVP through Jeff Katcher).

October 23 (10 AM- 3 PM) with one-hour lunch break (noon to 1 pm)

Market Square Presbyterian Church @ 20 South Second Street, Harrisburg, PA

$25 per person (min. of 15 people for the class and max of 50) – includes a light lunch.

Deadline to register is October 10^, 2010.  For reservations or more information, contact Jennifer Briggs at 717-221-1125 or email to jenbriggs.  Checks should be made payable to Jennifer Briggs and mailed to 349 Oak Drive in New Cumberland, PA 17070.

Eric Burkhart is instructor and plant science program director for Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center.  He provides training and outreach in botany and horticulture including teaching courses for the Penn State School of Forest Resources on agroforestry, woody and herbaceous plant identification, and nonnative invasive flora.  Working with partners such as the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Eric also conducts research on native plants of economic and conservation importance (e.g., American ginseng and goldenseal) and offers practical guidance through related workshops and publications.

Eric holds degrees in Economic Botany (B.A, Idaho State University) and Horticulture (M.S., Penn State University), and is completing a PhD in Forest Resources (Penn State University).  A native of the Pittsburgh region, he currently farms on 3 acres of forestland in Pennsylvania Furnace.

During this program, participants will learn about:

▪ Wild mushroom collection, “cultivation,” stewardship, processing and markets with emphasis on popular/choice fungi (e.g., morels, chanterelles, hen-of-the-woods)

▪ Growing shiitake and other mushrooms on logs and stumps on forestlands

▪ Forest management considerations

▪ “Stocking” of forestlands with mushrooms for fun, personal consumption and income

This program will consist of slide presentations, a mushroom log “plugging” demonstration and ample opportunity for question and discussion.

213 S. 18th Street in Allison Hill, Harrisburg
9 am to noon (Potluck brunch/lunch to follow.)
No charge, but reservations are requested.
For more information or to RSVP, contact Bonnie McCann at 717-635-9673 or bonniejmccann.

It’s harvest time – even in the city! Farm Manager Kirsten Reinford invites everyone to visit Joshua Farm, an urban farm located in the Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg. As a program of Joshua Group, the mission is:

* To provide employment opportunities for youth already involved in Joshua Group’s mentoring and academic support programs,
* To make locally grown and organic produce more accessible and affordable to our neighbors in Allison Hill and beyond, and
* To offer service-learning experiences to students of all ages.

The Joshua Farm has a farm stand on site from June through September which is open Mondays and Thursdays from 2-7 p.m. At the stand, you’ll find a variety of fresh vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruit. Much of what is sold is grown on the farm using organic practices. They also sell fruit and vegetables grown by Paulus Farm in Mechanicsburg. They welcome Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) vouchers and SNAP (food stamp) benefits, as well as cash, check, and debit cards.

The farm’s community supported agriculture (CSA) program is a unique way for people to become partners with the farm. In exchange for an annual membership fee, members of the CSA receive a share of the harvest each week during the growing season (May through October).

This event will be held rain or shine, so be sure to dress appropriately for the weather.

Please bring a potluck brunch/lunch dish to share after the tour. Refrigeration is available and crock pots are welcome. There are no other heating facilities at the farm. Drinks will be provided.

The Slow Food movement began in Italy in 1989. As the name implies, Slow Food is the antithesis of fast food and not merely in speed of delivery. Adherents to the Slow Food philosophy of which Carol and I are two, believe in locally grown and raised food and sustainable agriculture.

The Harrisburg Convivium sponsors many events, most notably semi-annual “Slow Suppers” at HACC, with the culinary students, under the chefs’ supervision, visit the producers, plan a menu which they then prepare and serve.

Before the meal guests have the opportunity to meet the producers and sample hors d’oeuvres made from the various products.

All wines served at the latest dinner on April 23 were produced at Chaddsford Winery in Chester County. During the cocktail hour we tasted “Naked Chardonnay” Pinot Noir and Rubino, a blend of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon and syrah.

Meats from Jonas Stoltzfus’ Jujo Acres farm in Perry County were crafted into smoked pastrami, air cured tenderloin and pickled tongue. Many guests, Carol among them, were surprised to learn that tongue is actually delicious, especially if you don’t have to see it au naturel since it looks a lot like what it is. Mr. Stoltzfus was impressed by the students’ hors d’oeuvres and the use of his grass fed Limousin beef. This is a French breed of cattle with lean meat and high meat-to-bone ratios. Mr. Stoltzfus is among a small number of producers who do not feed his cattle any grain. You can tell the difference!

The first course at dinner was the freshest, crispest salad I have ever had, a mixture of baby lettuces from HACC’s own greenhouse garden, together with Camelot Farms feta, baby radishes and just the right amount of citrus vinaigrette. Chaddsford Spring Wine, made from vidal, seyval blanc and vignoles, French-American hybrid grapes, provided a slightly sweet, crisp counterpoint to the salad. Rosemary sourdough rolls were so good I had to have two. HACC uses its own 4 year old starter and fresh rosemary from the garden.

Jujo Acres short ribs were braised and then teased over olive oil potatoes with a hearty red wine sauce. While not as fatty as commercial beef, the Limousin has a big earthy flavor that combined well with Chaddsford’s award winning Chambourcin.

A tangy lemon ricotta cake with blackberry coulis and crystallized flowers made a light ending to the meal. Chaddsford Late Harvest Riesling added sweetness to the dessert course.

These dinners are always interesting, well-planned and well prepared. The service is certainly very earnest so we are willing to overlook some small glitches. The culinary program requires that cooks and front of house personnel must occasionally switch roles so that they will learn what goes on in each domain. These young people are the future of our restaurants and they are off to a fine start.

“Growing Yesterday’s Gardens” is about the growth of the heirloom seed movement, the traditional garden forms of the Pennsylvania Germans and the history of seed culture and seed marketing in America.  Much of the material is adapted from two of the author’s books: Pennsylvania German Farms, Gardens, and Seedsand Seed Art: The Package Made Me Buy It.  These books will be available for Mr. Richman to sign.

Harvest is the newest culinary experience at the Hotel Hershey.  The restaurant offers genuine American cuisine made from the freshest local and regional ingredients. The chef is preparing a special menu featuring an innovative selection of both classic and traditional American fare. Harvest specializes in fresh farm to table ingredients sourced locally.

Cost:  For presentation & dinner: $45 per person includes tax & gratuity; cash bar; for presentation and hors d’oeuvres only: $5.

Reservations:    To make a reservation, call the Harvest Restaurant at 534-8800 and state that the reservation is for the Slow Food dinner on Mar. 16.  All dinners will be PREPAID by credit card. The deadline for reservations is March 14.

Chinese New Year Dinner & Entertainment

Friday, February 26, 6:30 pm
China Tea House
610 Simpson Street
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055

Chinese New Year is the most important of traditional Chinese festivals. It is a 15-day celebration that begins each year in January or February, according to the lunar calendar.  In 2010, festivities welcoming in the Year of the Tiger begin on Feb. 14.  People spend lavishly on presents, decorations, food and clothing.  Just before the New Year, houses are cleaned thoroughly to sweep out any bad fortune and make way for good luck.  In Buddhist and Taoist homes in China, sweets are offered to the deities in the hope that they will look kindly on the family in the coming year.

Perhaps the biggest event of Chinese New Year is the New Year’s eve dinner.  Our meal at the China Tea House comes a little later in the 15-day period.  We aim to merge two traditions in the food offered:  the Cantonese tradition of dim sum and dishes prepared particularly for Chinese New Year.  China Tea House specializes in dim sum, which is the Chinese equivalent of tapas.  In Canton, Hong Kong, and in Chinatowns across the world, carts laden with a variety of small dishes are rolled through the dining room.  Guests point to the dishes they want.  At the end of the meal the number of plates and their shape (each shape represents a different price) determine the total bill for the table.  At our dinner, we will enjoy a selection of approximately ten meat, seafood, vegetable and sweet dim sum dishes.  Try several or try all of them!  In addition, the chef will prepare more substantial dishes that represent foods eaten during Chinese New year in southern China.

John Dhong from the Harrisburg Chinese-American Association will entertain us on the erhu, a traditional Chinese two-stringed instrument that is played on the lap while sitting down.  It is used extensively as both a solo and an ensemble instrument in Chinese music.

Cost:                  $25 per person, tax and service fee included; BYOB (also bring your own opener)

Directions:      The restaurant is just off (but visible from) Simpson Street.  It is very close to the Giant supermarket.  Turn left on Apple St. heading west, or turn right heading east.  There is a Pizza Hut next to the restaurant.

Parking:            Parking is limited in front of the restaurant.  You may also park directly across Apple St. in available spaces at the car repair business or along the side streets.

Reservation:  Go to Slow Food Harrisburg on Facebook or call Curtis @ 695.2584; Deadline is by Monday, Feb. 22.

Slow Food Harrisburg supports the following events:

Author presentations: Once a year we invite a nationally recognized author to speak about food issues or regional culinary traditions.

Film Fest: We sponsor showings of films on food policy, food heritage and the joy of eating good, clean and fair food.

Local farm tours: Generally held in the summer, these tours are designed to explore our local agricultural resources and support our local growers. The tours include special entrees to visit farms and local farm markets. The tours usually include lunch at a local restaurant that embodies the Slow

Food creed: local, fresh and organic.

Meet the Producer Dinners: Twice a year we sponsor a dinner at Harrisburg Area Community College’s Culinary Arts Department to showcase local foods. In return, the future chefs learn about the benefits of sourcing local, fresh products and witness the food cycle from field to fork.

Click here for a generic 2010 events calendar or click here for a listing of upcoming scheduled events. While Slow Food membership is not required to participate in our events, we encourage you to become a member. Go to Join to learn about becoming a member.

FRESH, the Movie

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.
6:00 supper (optional); 7:00 film (run time 72 minutes); post-film dialog with food policy experts.
Market Square Presbyterian Church, 20 South 2nd Street, Harrisburg. Complimentary parking available at the church’s garage next door.

* Environmental Film Festival 2009 Official Selection
* Sustainable Living Film Festival 2009 Official Selection
* Newport Beach Film Festival 2009 Official Selection
* Maine International Film Festival Official Selection 2009

Costs

Film (cash and/or gardening equipment donations* accepted); supper $5

* Donations of gardening equipment, seeds or gift certificates from appropriate vendors are gratefully accepted. Our recipient is the Ben Franklin Middle School, opposite the historic Broad Street Market, who will be establishing a new school garden as part of its math/science curriculum.

Reservations & Deadlines

Supper reservation is recommended. Call 230.9670 or jwilshusen by January 25.

Supper Menu

Chicken bot boi (traditional Amish pot pie), vegetable chili, crusty farm bread, fruit, wholesome cookies, drinks and coffee/tea (all made with fresh and local ingredients). Catered by New Leaf Catering

Film Review

“FRESH offers an uplifting look at what happens when farmers, business people, and the community band together to get involved in their own food production. If you’re still recovering from last summer’s Food, Inc., this may be the movie for you.” – Village Voice

Sponsors

Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture)
Market Square Presbyterian Church
Innovative Business Concepts

ABOUT SLOW FOOD: Food is a common language and universal right. Slow Food USA envisions a world in which all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet. In essence, food that is good, clean and fair. You don’t have to be a member of Slow Food to attend; but by becoming a member, you’ll accrue great merit.
Film Fest Invitation

http://www.freshthemovie.com/

Sushi at 7-Eleven.

For this was the decade of the gourmeting of America, an era when cola wars and burger battles made way for artisanal sodas and grass fed beef, when coffee went from a cup of joe to a double shot-half-caff-soy-latte, ethnic was de rigueur and local became the new global. It was a fine time to be a foodie.

Not that everything exactly whets the appetite. Contaminated produce and soaring food prices turned our stomachs. And we lost some of the luminaries and institutions — Julia Child and Gourmet magazine — that had worked so diligently to brighten our meals. More than ever before, issues long treated as the mushy peas on the collective American dinner plate — organics, local and sustainable agriculture, animal welfare — were getting sirloin-style treatment, sometimes in the least likely of places.

Walmart embraced organics — a $21 billion industry, up from $3.6 billion in 1997 — a decision that broadened access, but that critics feared would dilute the industry’s standards. And the home of the Egg McMuffin said it would study how to raise chickens without cramped cages.

Meanwhile, books and movies that tore into big industry food and would have been relegated to the granola set a decade earlier — Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 film “Super Size Me” and Michael Pollan’s 2006 tome “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” — pervaded the popular consciousness.

Eating became a political act. Whether prompted by concerns about the quality of school lunches, climate change or worker conditions in the Third World, more Americans started to vote with their stomachs. Suddenly, the carbon footprint of your carrots was an issue.

Slow Food, a highly politicized Italian-born movement dedicated to preserving artisanal and sustainable foods, made its first major foray into the U.S. in 2008. It sputtered shortly after, but that such a Euro-centric group even made it on the American scene is remarkable.

Speaking of voting… It says something about our appetite for good food when the most-watched kitchen is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Following the ketchup-as-vegetable Reagan years, the no-broccoli-allowed Bush Sr. years, eight years of Bubba’s burger fixation, and finally the fake turkey faux pas of Bush Jr., America put a Foodie-in-Chief in the White House. Everything from the peach cobbler President Barack Obama ate in Chicago to the arugula harvested from the South Lawn garden planted by Michelle Obama suddenly became sought after news.

Food also had a lighter side. We were primed by the Food Network (whose viewership jumped 392 percent from 1999 to 2009) and other channels to treat what we eat as entertainment.

The era of Child’s behind-the-stove television was fading, replaced by an army of reality programs with screaming chefs, cooking throw downs and towering cake creations. Good luck if you just wanted to learn how to make beef bourguignon.

For that, you’d have been better off tuning out and logging on. The Web exploded with food-driven content, much of it fed from social networks and blogs. Even Martha Stewart got in on it, using Twitter to send 140-character recipes.

By the middle of the decade, we’d pretty much given up demonizing carbs. And though our waistlines continue to expand, Americans haven’t latched on to any one diet since. We do, however, fret over gluten and trans fats, neither of which seems to be in anything anymore.

Weight problems be damned. Eating became ever more ubiquitous. The food industry sought to maximize our so-called eating opportunities. And so we were able to buy soda alongside our staples at the office supply store and candy with our kitty treats at the pet store.

As part of that, on-the-go grub got a serious upgrade. Convenience stores morphed into mini grocers. Nearly 1,700 7-Elevens now sell sushi. Wondering which Slurpee flavor pairs best with California rolls? It doesn’t matter. The chain also sells its own line of wines. And that’s because store brands have become the new must-have (non) label. Thanks mostly to the sagging economy — but also to sharp spikes in quality and marketing — so-called private labels have become an $88 billion industry. The economy also made us get old school in the kitchen. Sales of home canning supplies shot up and — especially after the first lady planted her kitchen garden — we all reached for our spades and seed catalogs.

Perhaps you ordered some bok choy and tomatillo seeds, because mainstream American food got seriously ethnic. It’s partly because we are an increasingly ethnic (and especially Hispanic) nation. But it’s also thanks to the growing ranks of young, adventurous eaters.

Sushi? Sorry 7-Eleven, that’s so ’90s. Young people today are eaters-without-borders and are forever on the hunt for new and more intense flavors. Vietnamese, North African, Indian and South American flavors are where it’s at.

Which explains the explosion of food trucks. The trucks themselves aren’t new, but the attention they got from serious foodies is. It’s also a credit to their inventiveness, quality and deeply ethnic roots. It helps that food trucks are cheap, both to operate and eat from.

Which brings it back to sushi. At 7-Eleven. It was an on-the-go decade that favored ethnic and affordable. Whatever the economy does, and whether we eat at home or in restaurants (or even more likely in our cars), that’s unlikely to change during the next 10 years.

Producer Reception

HACC Garden fresh Tomato Bruschetta

Blue Star Farms herb-crusted Emu medallions

on a Horseradish Potato Pancake

Bo-Ka Wild Mushroom Filo Tartlets

Dilled Green Bean Salad Spoons

Strite’s Macintosh & Smoked Cheddar Pastries

Ia Crianza Carinena 2003 & Domaine du Gouyat Bergerac Sec 2008

Lobster Mushroom Bisque

A creamy bisque of Bo-Ka Lobster mushrooms served

inside a Sourdough bowl, made from HACC”s 3-year starter,

and accented with lavash crackers

Clos Resnier Pouilly Fuisse, 2007

Main Plat

Bo-Ka’s Blue-foot mushroom stuffed Pheasant Breast (Eberly Poultry)

with Chantarelle Demi Glace, Carmelized Onion smashed Potatoes,

and fresh lima beans

Henry Fessy Morgon, 2007

Dessert

The Perfect Pair: Poached Bartlett Pears glazed with a Vanilla Fig Balsamic, resting on a delicate Pear Creme on a Franchipan leaf, joined with a Lavendar Ice Cream on a roasted Pear, and pulled together with a Huckleberry coulis and fresh huckleberries

Tomasello Winery Blueberry – Pomegranate Wine, NV

This means that Monsanto will OWN and CONTROL roughly 95 percent of all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S. Monsanto is blocking competition in the seed industry, forcing farmers into growing genetically modified crops, and all the while increasing seed prices. Now, when farmers buy bags of seed from obscure brand names, they are paying for Monsanto’s seeds. To read the AP article, click here.
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These practices are at the core of the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice to determine if Monsanto is violating anti-trust laws.

I don’t often feel tempted to raise my hand in salute but I’m making an exception for the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Slow Food Manifesto in Paris in December 1989. This is a fraternal greeting to the inspired organisation which, at the tail end of the most violent century in history, provided the perfect antidote to that lamentable paean to speed, Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto of 1909. Slow Food has not merely mobilised the beneficent force of slowness (which can be surprisingly powerful, like the tree-men Ents in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings) but has also provided one of the bases for a new politics of food and environmental quality.

Slow Food’s founder Carlo Petrini, as Italian as Marinetti but in every other way his polar opposite, saw – and set about resisting – the implications of a world and an economy in which food was being turned to industrialised fodder. Ultimately that means no less than a defence of the human and of nature, of cultural diversity and biodiversity.

But if Slow Food is a revolution, it is one conducted with style and grace, not violence. Almost everything about Slow Food is encapsulated in its first act, the protest Petrini organised against the opening of a McDonald’s hamburger joint at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome. Where the French activist and Roquefort farmer José Bové dismantled a half-built McDonald’s in Millau, Petrini showed he had learned more from the situationists than from the sans-culottes. Instead of breaking glass he set up some trestle tables and assembled a bunch of Italian grannies to load them with home-cooked penne.

Some might also say that act pointed to the limitations of Slow Food as a movement. It was essentially Italian and unserious. Certainly Petrini is a delightfully witty man, but just because someone is witty it does not mean he or she cannot be serious. And in terms of Italianness, it may still be the case that half of Slow Food’s 106,000 members are Italian but the movement has spread slow-growing but sturdy tentacles all over the world, from Burkina Faso to Bangladesh.

Slow Food is particularly strong in North America. That may sound strange but follows the poet Friedrich Hoelderlin’s logic that “where the danger is, there grows also the saving power”. The US is the centre of the global fast food or food-as-fodder industry; it is also the site of resistance movements, from Chez Panisse, Alice Waters’ seminal Berkeley restaurant based on local, seasonal produce, to the organic supermarket chain Whole Foods.

But let’s return to seriousness. In the UK, where the movement has not really taken hold, I get the impression Slow Food is still regarded as consisting of a few Islington foodies drizzling Ligurian olive oil over stone-baked ciabatta. It is seen as both elitist and frivolous – the concern of pampered metropolitan sophisticates with no relevance to the junk-food-eating masses.

This is both a grave misrepresentation of what Slow Food is about and a sad reflection of the hopelessly self-defeating nature of British class-based politics.

Slow Food is as much about farming as about foodiness; it is based on the American farmer-poet and essayist Wendell Berry’s observation that “eating is an agricultural act”.

Slow Food celebrations have been held this month in countries as diverse as Uganda, Chile, Mexico and India in defence of threatened local food traditions, crop varieties, artisanal methods of production and sustainable agriculture in general. This may sound quaint but it is also a matter of life and death. As BBC News reported last year, thousands of farmers have committed suicide in the Indian state of Maharashtra alone in recent years (the figure for the whole of India is estimated to be 10,000 a year), saddled with debts they could not repay. Many connect the debts with seeds and fertilisers sold on credit by large agribusinesses.

Ultimately, though, Slow Food is about pleasure. The pleasure of eating, eating as pleasure, is not an exquisite refinement reserved for the elite but an essential component of all human culture. Eating, even more than an agricultural act, is a cultural act, an act that gives meaning, that connects us to the earth and the seasons, and sustains community and conviviality.

Conviviality is at the heart of Slow Food’s philosophy, which is wonderfully non-utilitarian and, it has to be said, non-Protestant. The fast-food and food-as-fodder industries regard food as a means to an end; so too, in a different way, as the brilliant American writer Michael Pollan’s In Defence of Food has shown us, does the ideology of nutritionism, which holds that food is not really food but a collection of nutrients which make people healthy (but not necessarily happy or joyful).

There are no more intimate acts than eating and drinking, when we take the produce of the cultivated and uncultivated earth into our bodies, to sustain not only ourselves but a compact with nature. Slow Food’s revolutionary achievement is to remind us that everything starts with that communion, and we must work to make it joyful and responsible again.

It’s great to see the young Sous Chef Steve Eckerd pushing the envelope, stretching his skills and trying to create food that carries his signature. This was a really ambitious dinner, combining fresh and local ingredients combined with surprising tastes and textures.

Chef Eckerd set the pace with an array of appetizers- I particularly enjoyed the showcasing of the local chevre in a mousse en croute, and while I’ve never tasted a truffle coulis before but thought it gave a new spin to pork belly which is one of the foods du jour.

My fave of the evening was the soup because it skillfully complemented chilled sweet kohlrabi puree with a sharp vinegary pickled radish and a dash of stinging nettle yogurt. I have to say I wouldn’t have identified the stinging nettle but then stinging nettles are quite bland unless they sting you. Chef did really well again with the excellent local hybrid bass – which had that clean taste of a freshwater fish and was perfectly cooked, and I thought the two way broccoli was a neat trick, broccoli mousse then the crunch of purple broccoli. Very bracing red raspberry pop made an excellent palate cleanser.

Roasting the strip steak was a splendid idea, I liked that uniformly pink slice with a roasted new potato, but I think the other accompaniments, the spring onion, organic mushrooms and truffle vinaigrette got a little lost in the mix.

A gratifying finale: ricotta gelato in strawberry soup backed by grilled pound cake and a little dash of techno-emotional cooking with lemon foam.

A fine dinner overall: all Sous Chef Echerd has to do now is to more precisely define the dishes, cut out anything extraneous and focus on the most important ingredient of the dish. The roasted steak, for example, could have stood alone with just a roasted potato and a garnish. But this is just a note from a satisfied eater. Salut Gina

Appetizers:
Fried Arancini, Noble Cheddar and Beer Aioli
Camelot Valley Chevre Mousse en Croute
Crispy Pork Belly, Parsley, Truffle Coulis
Poached Octopus, Roasted Beets

Chilled Kohlrabi Soup, Pickled Radish, Stinging Nettle Yogurt
Spring Pea and Mizuna Salad; Camelot Valley Feta; Tahini Vinaigrette; Spiced Pita
Local Hybrid Bass; Broccoli Mousse; Purple Broccoli; Almond & Golden Raisin Gremolata
Red Raspberry Spiced Pop
Roasted New York Strip; Crispy Spring Onion; Organic Mushrooms; Roasted New Potato; Truffle Vinaigrette
Strawberry Soup; Marsala; Grilled Pound Cake; Ricotta Gelato; Lemon Foam

Roasting the strip steak was a splendid idea, I liked that uniformly pink slice with a roasted new potato, but I think the other accompaniments, the spring onion, organic mushrooms and truffle vinaigrette got a little lost in the mix.

A gratifying finale: ricotta gelato in strawberry soup backed by grilled pound cake and a little dash of techno-emotional cooking with lemon foam.

A fine dinner overall: all Sous Chef Echerd has to do now is to more precisely define the dishes, cut out anything extraneous and focus on the most important ingredient of the dish. The roasted steak, for example, could have stood alone with just a roasted potato and a garnish. But this is just a note from a satisfied eater. Salut Gina

Chilled Kohlrabi Soup, Pickled Radish, Stinging Nettle Yogurt
Spring Pea and Mizuna Salad; Camelot Valley Feta; Tahini Vinaigrette; Spiced Pita
Local Hybrid Bass; Broccoli Mousse; Purple Broccoli; Almond & Golden Raisin Gremolata
Red Raspberry Spiced Pop
Roasted New York Strip; Crispy Spring Onion; Organic Mushrooms; Roasted New Potato; Truffle Vinaigrette
Strawberry Soup; Marsala; Grilled Pound Cake; Ricotta Gelato; Lemon Foam

The tour lasts from 8:30 to 3:00pm. The featured locations are Strites Orchard, Palmyra Farmers Market and West Hanover Winery. Cost: free; reservations: contact Chef Miles. Deadline is 10 September.

Savor great food, mingle with the producers and enjoy great slow-fashioned conviviality. Dinner starts at 6:30pm. Cost: $50 (inclusive; BYOB). Reservations: Call The Cellar @ 717.724.2803. Deadline: 15 Sept.

Mid-day we will enjoy a specially created lunch (optional) using local ingredients by Chef Wolf at Pomona’s Woodfired Bakery Café, Biglerville. The lunch is limited to 25 guests. Meet at Boscov’s parking lot opposite routes 11 and 581 at 8:30am. Tour should end about 4:00pm. Cost: tour is free; lunch is $25 (inclusive); wine tasting is $5. Reservations: Call Jeff Katcher @ 717.545.8182. Deadline is 21 Sept.

Friday, June 19: Meet internationally renowned epicure/ food activist /author Gina Mallet and learn about the state of food today. What are the trends, the biggest risks to our food supply, and how we can help?

The all-inclusive $50 event includes a special 4-course dinner menu prepared by Executive Chef Hickey of The Cellar, Camp Hill. The Cellar is a BYOB restaurant. The presentation and dinner costs $50 (including gratuities), payable at the end of dinner to The Cellar. By not charging its own separate fee, Slow Food Harrisburg wants to keep this event moderately priced. However, please consider a donation to help support Chapter activities. The deadline for reservations is Wednesday, June 17.

To make a reservation, call The Cellar at 724.2803 (in the evening). Be sure to mention Slow Food Harrisburg event when making your reservation. The event starts at 6 PM with hors d’oeuvres and an informal presentation on The Future of Food. Then at 7 PM Chef Hickey works his culinary magic using fresh, local ingredients. Winner of the 2005 James Beard Award for writing on food, Ms. Mallet is author of Last Chance to Eat. Copies will be available for purchase and signing. She is currently restaurant critic for the National Post of Canada.

Saturday, July 11 Buy Fresh/Buy Local of Central PA has organized a self guided bicycle ride of Cumberland County’s farm stands and preserved farms. Riders of this Buy Fresh/Bike Local event will be provided with a map and queue sheet for two 25-mile rides.

The maps highlight farm stands, farmers markets and preserved farm land along the route and give information about the agricultural highlights of the area. Following the ride, sample delicious farm products from area farms including cheeses, fruits, baked goods and ICE CREAM!

Pre-registration by July 9 is required. Register online at www.BuyLocalPA.org/event . For more information, contact Susan Richards at 717.724.0009 or susan.richards.