Slow Times August 2007

Slow Food Piedmont Triad Events

Saturday, August 11, 2007
Slow Food Potluck and Heritage Cooking at Old Salem
Winston-Salem, NC
Cooking Classes begin at 10 a.m. (Reservation required)
Garden Tours 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Potluck 11:30 a.m. -1 p.m.
Single Brothers Workshop, Old Salem

Old Salem and Slow Food Piedmont Triad welcome you to spend a day exploring the rich food heritage of the Moravian settlers at the Single Brothers Workshop in Old Salem. Garden tours will be available at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and Slow Food will sponsor a splendid late-summer potluck from 11:30 – 1:00. Suggested donation to Slow Food for the potluck is $5 per person or $10 per family.

As an added feature, a limited number of Slow Food members will be able to spend a morning in the kitchen preparing a traditional recipe with heirloom ingredients to enjoy with lunch! Two cooking class sessions will be scheduled at 10-10:45 a.m. and 11:00-11:45 a.m.; cost for the class $10. You must reserve your space in the class. Call the Group Sales Office at 1-800-441-5305 to reserve your space in the kitchen!

Here is a link for directions: http://www.oldsalem.org/index.php?id=91.

Once at Old Salem, the best place to park is on the street around the square or along Main St. (near Main St. and Academy). The Single Brothers’ Workshop is the building directly behind the Single Brothers’ House (the timber-frame building facing Main St., at the corner of Main and Academy). The entrance is from a ramp on the south side of the building.

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Movie and Market Events

“Black Gold: Wake Up and Smell The Coffee”

Saturday, August 4, 2007
Movie – Black Gold: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
The Green Bean
341 South Elm St., Greensboro, NC
8 p.m., free admission

If you missed the showings of this documentary about Fair Trade certification in the spring, here’s your chance to see it again. What’s the real cost of coffee? Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil. But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields. Follow one Ethiopian farmer’s journey as he travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price. For more information, contact Shawn Wozniak, A&T Aggies for Fair Trade, at woznia17@riseup.net.

Friday, August 10, 2007
Watermelon Day
Piedmont Triad Farmers’ Market
Off Interstate 40, Exit #208 at Sandy Ridge Road
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Free samples of farm fresh North Carolina Watermelon for everyone.

Saturday, August 18, 2007
Watermelon Day
Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market, corner of Yanceyville and Lindsay Sts., Greensboro
6 a.m. – noon

Enjoy free tastings of different types of melons. Everyone who comes to the Curb Market will have a chance to win a free watermelon.

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Recipes from the Market

Slow Food Piedmont Triad sponsored, and co-hosted with partner Deep Roots Market, two tasting booths at the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market this summer. On June 23, Chef Bryan Dahlstrom introduced many market customers to the creamy goodness of grits from the Old Mill of Guilford. Many expressed surprise at how delicious the grit cakes were, topped with ratatouille made with donations from farmers at the market. This was an easy and flexible way to use the summer bounty from your garden, your local farmers, and your CSA bags!

Chef Bryan’s Grit Cakes

Start by following the package direction for grits. (The Old Mill of Guilford grits instruction was 3 parts water (salted) and 1 part grits.)

When the grits are cooked, add 1 part cream and 1 part softened butter. Adjust seasoning to taste. (It’s important to salt your water because it’s absorbed in to the grain for a fuller flavor. The end adjustment takes in account whether you’re using salted or unsalted butter.)

Pour the grits into a pan that has been lined with plastic or parchment paper, then lightly oiled or buttered.

Chill in refrigerator until set, preferably over night. Cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter or knife. Pan-fry in skillet or on griddle.

You can also bread the grit cakes with just flour or a breading of seasoned flour, egg wash, and breadcrumbs. When they’re breaded like this, the cake can also be deep-fried.

Note from Laurie: I tried this with cheese grits, adding extra-sharp cheddar cheese instead of the cream and butter. Served with ratatouille or leftover pasta sauce (I used marinara meat sauce with hamburger from Rocking F Farm), it is an interesting and easy change from pasta and rice.

Ratatouille, aka Vegetable Ragout

This is an approximate copy of the ratatouille/vegetable ragout that Chef Bryan and Laurie served at the market. This makes a large batch, so that you can freeze some for later.

4 Tbsp butter
2 small onions, diced (1 1/2 cups)
4 cloves garlic, minced
rosemary, minced fine, about 1-2 Tbsp.
several sprigs of lemon thyme
2 medium long eggplants, diced (or 4 cups)
2 medium zucchini, diced (2 cups)
2 medium yellow squash, diced (2 cups)
8-10 plum tomatoes (egg-sized), chopped
big handful of basil leaves, shredded (about 1/2-3/4 cup)
parsley, chopped (about 1/4-1/2 cup)
salt and black pepper

Melt butter in a large skillet or dutch oven. Add garlic, lemon thyme, and rosemary for a minute. Add onions for another few minutes. Add the following in this order and stir: eggplant, tomatoes (with any juices), zucchini and squash, then basil and parsley and seasonings. The vegetables might seem dry at first but they will give off juices.

Cook until all vegetables are tender. A nice extra was a garnish of cheese from the Goat Lady Dairy.

Smoothie Recipes with Deep Roots Market

Volunteers from Slow Food and Deep Roots Market co-hosted the tasting booth July 28, where we played with fruit and blenders for about three hours! Deep Roots Market is Greensboro’s only community-owned grocery, and they stock food items from many local farmers, as well as other organic and sustainably grown products.

The recipes from our handout are provided at our Slow Food blog: slowfoodpiedmont.wordpress.org.

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Volunteer Opportunities

Please let Laurie know if you can commit to helping with the following events:

• Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market Farmer’s Appreciation Day, September 8
• Open House and Local Meat Day at Goat Lady Dairy, October 7

Slow Food Piedmont Triad often needs volunteers to help with staffing information tables and helping with events such as the Open House at Goat Lady Dairy. If you’re interested in becoming more involved with Slow Food Piedmont Triad events, please contact lponeill@slowfoodpiedmont.org and she’ll put your name in the pool of those willing to help out.

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More Events for 2007

We keep an updated list of events on our events page, but you can get the latest announcements delivered to you by email if you join our listserv. Our listserv is a free way that we can communicate with our members and other interested members of the community. It is secure and we don’t share your email with anyone! (We don’t like that, either.) You can join by emailing us at info@slowfoodpiedmont.org and entering “subscribe” on the subject line.

Smoothies and Cool Summer Beverages

Slow Food Piedmont Triad and Deep Roots Market co-hosted the Chef’s Showcase at Greensboro Farmer’s Curb Market this morning. Volunteers played with fruit and blenders and served up tasting samples to market customers and vendors.

Here are some smoothie combos that we gleaned from cookbooks and all over the web – sorry that I don’t have sources but these are pretty basic. Do a search (use Goodsearch and put in Slow Food USA as the beneficiary please) for “smoothie” and whatever fruits you have on hand. You’ll find lots of ideas!

If you don’t like what you get, play with adding different ingredients or more sweetener. Bananas are often good choices, and strawberries are great, but they’re not in season at this time.

Cantaloupe Smoothies:

Peel, seed, and cube all fruits as necessary. Blend ingredients until smooth. Chill if you don’t use ice or frozen fruit. Makes about four cups.

6 lemongrass, green, or mint tea ice cubes
1/2 cantaloupe
honey (or sweeten tea with honey)
fresh mint leaves

Note: Emily played around with this one to get a very light refreshing drink. We’re not sure what she did exactly, BUT she did use green tea ice cubes.

1/2 cantaloupe
1 cup milk
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup crushed ice
2 Tbsp honey

Note: Mixed reviews on this one!

1/2 cantaloupe
1/2 cup orange juice
honey
1/2 cup ice

1/2 cantaloupe
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 cup blueberries
3 Tbsp honey

1/4 cantaloupe
1/4 honeydew melon
1 lime, juiced
1 Tbsp sugar

We played around a lot with the cantaloupes and made many adjustments and experiments.

Other Smoothies and Beverages:

Peel, seed, and cube all fruits as necessary. Blend ingredients until smooth. Chill if you don’t use ice or frozen fruit.

CHAI SMOOTHIE
1 c soy, whole, or rice milk
1 banana
1/2 t cinnamon
1/8 t cardamom
1/8 t ground coriander
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t black pepper
1 Tbsp honey
6 ice cubes or 6 frozen chai tea cubes

Note: Emily made the spice mixture in bulk ahead of time, and used rice milk and plain ice cubes. This was a nice surprise to those who weren’t so sure, like me!

WATERMELON YOGURT MINT SMOOTHIE
1-2 cups seeded watermelon chunks
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp fresh mint leaves
1 cup yogurt
Dash cinnamon

Note: Everyone thought that this one hit the spot on a hot muggy morning. The recipe called for lemon yogurt, which we didn’t have. I think that someone added a bit of lime juice.

BANANA BERRY APPLE SMOOTHIE
2 bananas
1 cup blueberries
1 apple
1 1/4 cup apple juice
1 tsp vanilla
3 ice cubes

Note: A colorful hit with the kids!

PEACH SMOOTHIE
4 peaches
8 oz. plain yogurt
2 Tbsp. honey
1/3 cup apple juice

Note: If you like peach yogurt, this is a drinkable version.

SOURCES:
Bananas, limes, green tea, spices, rice milk, apple juice, orange juice, yogurt: Deep Roots Market
Cantaloupes: Fawcett Farm, Gann Farm
Blueberries, watermelon, and cantaloupe: Gann Farm
Peaches, apples: Dodge Lodge Farm
Peaches: Kalawi Farm
Honey: Quaker Acres Apiaries
Mint: Slow Turn Farm

~ Laurie O’Neill

Fabian’s Local Foods Dinner

I’m sorry that I’ve taken so long to write about the Local Foods Dinner at Fabian’s that Slow Food Piedmont Triad members enjoyed on July 16.   The fact is, I just don’t feel like I can do it justice in writing.  It was an incredible meal in a warm, intimate setting.  Many of my photos did not come out well, but I posted the photos that did on the Slow Food Piedmont Triad Flickr group website.

Slow Food Piedmont Triad and the foodies of Winston Salem are thrilled that Fabian’s has reopened! Thank you, Fabian, for a fabulous food experience.

Here are some of the local farmers who contributed to the meal:

Goat Lady Dairy
Hank Lane (chantrelle mushrooms!)
Hilltop Ostrich Farm
J & S Farm (rabbit)
Minglewood Farms

~ Laurie O’Neill

Sanders Ridge Farm Potluck

The Slow Food potluck at Sanders Ridge Farm near Boonville was well attended, considering that it was a holiday weekend of sorts. Or would that be next weekend? Or would you split the difference? Anyway, we estimated that there were about 30 adults total and 6-7 children, who were entranced with collecting eggs from the chicken tractor.

What’s nice about a Slow Food potluck is that people are proud of the ingredients. When the produce is good, it’s enough to slice it up and eat it just as it is. Cindy, Sanders Ridge organic farmer, sliced up lemon cucumbers and Green Zebra tomatoes, among other delicious varieties. She told me that Green Zebra was Alice Waters’ favorite tomato. I can see why – it might have to be my next heirloom tomato try in the Back Forty.

Jim included homemade mozzarella in his homegrown green bean dish, which he was inspired to make after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I was tempted to do it too, and after tasting Jim’s and hearing first hand how easy it was (“I laughed it was so easy!”) I think that I’ll have to try it before One Local Summer is over.

There was pickled okra too. Pasta with lots o’garlic. Mac and cheese. Bread from Ollie’s Bakery. Homemade herb yogurt cheese with homegrown veggies to dip it up with. Amish butter. Mint and cucumber salad. Oatmeal cookies and cakes from a farmer’s market baker. Organic dates. Foggy Ridge hard cider. Pink lemonade with strawberries. Yum.

Update: Michael Hastings reports on the event in the Winston Salem Journal.

Laurie O’Neill