Savoring Slow Food at Terra Madre

The fried calamari, the honey, the chocolate, the raw milk, the beers, the preserved fruits and olives and bread dipped in olive oil. The gelato! The canollis:

It was intense, this huge amount of food and people. We were very grateful that first day at the Salon de Gusto, having not slept the night before (well, me) in anticipation of a 4:30a.m. wake up call to make our flight to Turin from Brussels, and having dragged our luggage around for hours, to find these clever chairs, made from rolled up old newspapers.A few days later we would discover the most important section of the food booths - the "presidio", a large area set aside for rare, sustainably produced foods. These foods had to pass a rigorous set of guidelines in order to receive the presidio label. Each of these booths had a banner (one in English next to the one in Italian) describing the area where it was produced and giving detailed information about its production. There were amazing foods - like the raspberry sized strawberries that are only ripe for ten days a year. After being given a shot of the grappa , La Grappa di Susanna, produced with these strawberries, we couldn't resist buying a small bottle to share with family at Christmas.

Another fascinating food was a sweetener that grows in vine-like tenticles from an Italian tree. I wish that I had more information about these icycle-like, good for diabetics sugar, but the smiling Italian men who harvested it didn't speak any English. We brought home a bag of these, as well as a jar of dark, small, intensely sweet plums, Cannelloni beans, Quinoa from Peru, dried olives, an African cereal grain, and Sicilian honey. We also brought back beautiful fava beans and a strong, pink colored garlic - to plant.

Some of our treasures:And some North American Slow Food Presidia information.

I wished we could have brought back the seeds of these Italian tomatoes. They are cultivated in volcanic rich soil, which we will never come close to recreating, and they hang in kitchens (which are much less humid than ours in the south) where the tomatoes stay good for weeks!We ate a lot of cheese samples. This is a Parmigiano that we saw in the Salon de Gusto food fair:

Hanging Buffalo Mozzarellas:I discovered a new favorite - Pecorino Cheese.
The part of Italy where we were is part of the Piedmont Region. They are known for their meats. There were hundreds of cured meats. I think we may have sampled them all.

Salmon:

This was an entire room of hanging proscuitto at the Salon de Gusto.
And then, at night, we were all treated to a four course meal at all of our hotels or bed and breakfasts or hosts' homes. I don't know about everybody's situation, but our hotel dinner was accompanied by as many bottles of red wine as we wanted. These were slooow meals with great conversation with fellow farmers, and a ridiculously generous and jovial hotel staff looking after us, in a village called Benne Vagienna. But that is for another post. I need to go drink some water after thinking about all that meat.

Terra Madre

The week before last, Nicolas and I spent four days and nights in Turin, Italy as slow food delegates at the biannual Terra Madre event, what they call a "convivium". Terra Madre brings together over six thousand slow food producers, chefs and educators (primarily farmers) from over 140 countries, in order to share ideas about sustainability, about saving traditional food culture and even about saving the actual foods themselves that are close to becoming extinct. This year was apparently much more political than other years, the financial crisis highlighting how important small, diverse food producers and sustainable practices have become.

It was much more massive, moving and inspiring than I'd expected. Below is the front of the building that housed the "earth workshops" that we attended every day, as well as several hundred "presidio" food booths that sold and gave information about rare, sustainably produced foods from all over the world. Near to this building was another massive arena that housed the biannual Salon de Gusto, the world's largest food fair.

The food. Oh. my. The food. The food really needs its own post.
So, in this one I will stick to the non-edible. Terra Madre, for me, was about hope for the future. There were so many young, intelligent farmers who are energetically committed to this movement. It was also amazing to be surrounded by so many farmers from all parts of the world.

Below are examples of some of them.


These pictures were taken by Slow Food photographers other years and were shown on giant screens, along with many other pictures, during this year's opening and closing ceremonies.


















So many noble, proud, strong farmers - mostly young and mostly women.

Here were some of the first we saw upon arriving.
The opening ceremony was olympian in grandeur. One of the speakers called it the "olympics of food". There was a parade of flag holders, representing the 160 (?) countries who were present. These delegates, most dressed in their country's traditional costume, then sat on the stage for the rest of the proceedings. The African women, that night and throughout the week, were particularly majestic. There was lots of fantastic multi-cultural music, mostly performed by farmers, who also just happened to be musicians.

Then, there were the speakers. The founder of Slow Food, Carlo Patrini, was wise and paternal. With that Italian accent it wouldn't have mattered if he were talking about plumbing, I still would have been on the edge of my dizzyingly high seat. If you click on his name you can see him in action. The translation allowed us to hear how impassioned he is in his commitment to fighting world hunger and industrial/big business fraud. He talked about the irresponsible speculation that has led to even more world wide hunger and about the wall we have hit. We will now have to move towards a more rural economy. He believes that consumers are getting ready for the big choices and are looking for healthy, local, seasonal food. He talked about the delegates representing the farmers and villagers of the whole world and about how farmers would be the "main protagonists of the third industrial revolution." He is quite a leader.
One inspiring speaker was Alice Waters, the famous chef of Chez Panisse and a vice president of Slow Food International. She spoke of a need from the new U.S. President for "stewardship and nourishment." She proposed an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn that is gardened by children. Another powerful woman, Vandana Shiva, also a Vice President of Slow Food International, spoke passionately about the Mansonto-GMO-seed issue that is crippling Indian farmers. You can see a short video of her detailing this atrocity here.

I got this picture of Carlo Petrini in the building where the workshops were held. He stepped away from his closely protective entourage in order to speak to an African farmer who was selling products he'd brought from his home (as were hundreds of other farmers) on the arena floor. Buying from these farmers allowed us an opportunity to meet them.

These African men behind me at the closing ceremony carried themselves like chiefs. The whole six thousand plus of us managed to do the wave during the closing ceremony. In this section, an Aussie farmer was seated next to a Mexican who was next to a Native American in full regalia. The Earth workshops were interesting, though not very revelatory. Most people that I talked to agreed that the best part of the four days was spent talking to fellow farmers while being served four course meals at our hotels, or making our way through the Salon de Gusto or on the floor of the building where so many farmers were selling their seeds, hand made crafts and textiles.

One of the workshops, about the bee crisis, stood out for me. Bee keeper after bee keeper, from Brazil, France, New Zealand, Mexico, England, Spain, and many places in between, stood up and expressed their horror about what has been happening to their hives over the past several years. The colony collapse disorder just keeps getting worse and they don't feel that the scientists are listening to what they are saying. They blame the newest pesticides, the loss of biodiversity and the gmos. Someone ought to write a book. ; )

Next installments - staying in a village called Benne Vagienna; and of course, the food.

Back online, and home

We got home from Europe last night. Other than being able to answer a few e-mails one day, I had no internet access there for two weeks, so I couldn't blog about the Terra Madre-Slow Food event in Italy or about visiting Nicolas' father and step-mother in Holland and Belgium. The back-log of pictures and revelations is immense. I will post about all of it when I wake up at five again, tomorrow morning, with jet lag. This morning we all ate duck eggs and toast with rhubarb jelly that Nicolas' father had made with rhubarb grown in his back yard. I like that early morning jet lag.

Having been surrounded for two weeks by Europeans who are all eager for an Obama victory, it was strange to be in line today to vote. I am part of several communities - the unschooling community and the international slow food community, to name a few. But standing in our small southern town's community center today, listening to the conversations between the locals, all of whom seemed to know one another, I was very much aware of being an outsider in the physical community in which we live. The talk was of church socials, of "the terrible twos, threes and fours", and of whose parents are in which nursing homes. There are McCain billboards in most of the yards of our town. I am pretty sure that I was the only one there giving Obama my vote.

Here's a visual of how I'm feeling right now, having been immersed in a very different place for a while and not yet completely landed here.
Jesse threw himself into the task of washing and polishing his Belgian coastal treasures.

Gillen put on his baseball shirt, boots and cowboy hat in order to play soccer in the back yard.They are back in the U.S.A. and glad to be here.

I am thankful to Tuki the dog, Fracas the cat, my mother-in-law (who had a table and dinner ready for us when we come home) and especially, the trees, for their warm welcome.I do love this country. I do love that there are so many different points of view allowed and espoused here. I do (usually) appreciate our young, enthusiastic, bumbling ways. But it was good to get away and see it all from a distance and to discover other places we could easily also call home.

Thirteen Years

I convinced Nicolas to go into a photo booth with me last night at our local movie theater. He probably thought I had something really fun in mind. No, I just wanted shots of us on our thirteenth anniversary. That's crazy, out of the norm behavior enough for me!

We're looking ok for having just ingested bar food, coca-cola, popcorn, snowcaps and gummie bears (it was our anniversary - we went all out. Ohdear, my naturopath MIL is reading this...) Plus, we had just seen yet another very stressful thriller about the CIA and the war - "Body of Lies", which had me squinting so hard in distress that I am surprised I could then stretch my face back out into a smile so quickly.

It's been fifteen years since we met, waiting tables at a vegetarian restaurant in Little Five Points in Atlanta. I was directing at my brother's theater and Nicolas was just starting his farm. I was planning a move to Seattle, to go to grad. school for theater and hopefully reunite with my ex-boyfriend.

Thankfully, fate intervened. He brought me on my first camping trip, ever! His mother healed my chronic fatigue. He was the most authentic, down to earth guy I'd ever met (I'd only ever dated actors or musicians). He said "funerable" rather than "vulnerable" - this really got me. He spoke French. He had lost most of his hair when he was eighteen. He has beautiful blue eyes and the best smile, ever.

I remember the moment when I made the decision to think about us as more than just friends who go out for a beer after every Wed. night shift. It was a Thursday. Nicolas was working. I was not. I lived in Little 5 Points and was on my way to get myself dinner. I stood at a cross-roads. If I walked to the right, I would be going to the health food store, Sevenanda, to get myself a hummus sandwich. If I walked straight forward, I would be going to Eat Your Vegetables, our restaurant, to order an EYV salad and then hang around with the serious European waiter while it was being put together. I knew that he would know that I had chosen to go there to see him. This was a big move. It was easily made.

The profoundness of my having shown up may have been - ok, was absolutely - lost on Nicolas, the Belgian. He is straightforward and, after all, he is male. But that was the moment I think about every year at this time and I feel so grateful that I chose the salad.

Look Who Came to Visit!

Kelli and her girls:And look at the look on Kyra's discerning face. ; )
Kyra left with an injury again. : ( This time, she twisted her ankle while running in our bumpy back yard in the dark with Jesse. But other than that, it was a great day. Next visit, I'm wrapping her with bubble wrap before she enters our danger zone home.

Out of Limbo

I hinted at a possible move that we were considering, a month ago. Here is the scoop - 32 acres on a lake with an almost finished house and a helicopter hanger that could have been a barn. The best part was that it was being financed by a very wealthy man who believes in Nicolas and was willing to let us pay him back. It was his idea.

Gillen was ecstatic about the possibilities. He was ready to design all of the landscaping, to farm much more, to build a raft and to hunt and ride an atv (eventually) right outside the back door. Jesse hated the house, with a passion, from the beginning. I had thought that he was afraid of change but he convinced me that it really was about that house.

We finally stopped deliberating yesterday and got to put this decision to rest. Due to the cost, we are not moving. Now, I can enthusiastically make our old house even more of a home and feel more secure, knowing that we are still going to have a low overhead. There will still be lots of travel in our future.

We have also crossed that important crossroad of hearing a baby's heartbeat for the first time.

Did I scare you?! No, it didn't belong to my fetus. It belonged to the baby of my sister! I can finally publicly rejoice about my little sister's first pregnancy! She is due in April and we are so happy for her.

There have been so many sleepless nights this past month. I don't do limbo very well.

Some Really Good Things

-It rained last week, all day and night. It gave me that first-snow-of the-season-in-the north-when-you-don't-own-a-car-or-a-driveway feeling. I was so happy. It had been a really long time.-I went to Goodwill today to get some clothes for our trip next week to Europe and I scored! There were a few mothers there who were lacking in good will towards their children (not abusive, but disrespectful) and that was not a good thing at all. But that's for a different post and mood.

-Pulling myself away from laundering and admiring my new shirts and sweaters to scrounge up some dinner for my family, I entered the kitchen to this sight :Nicolas and Gillen decided to make some pesto with the last of Gillen's backyard farm basil. I was told to go walk Tuki. They had dinner all taken care of. Pretty good, huh?

- After restarting fifteen times (I'm not exaggerating) I taught myself to knit socks this week (well, with the help of three library books, a library dvd and an online tutorial). So far, I have knitted the ten inches that go on the leg, and haven't yet conquered the heel or toe, but I am so proud of myself. I'm talking several needles pointing in many directions. I didn't grow up with this stuff.-I seem to be able to eat wheat again, for the first time in eight years. I tested it out with a hamburger bun last week and when I didn't get a rash, I made chocolate chip cookies, with white flour and ate lots of the dough and cookies. This means I can eat pasta at the Slow Food Convivium in Italy. That is an unbelievably good thing.

I hope there is much good in your life.

Friday Farm Photos

I'm feeling especially grateful for the farm right now. Plus, the autumn light, not to mention the autumn vegetables, demanded more than one post this week.

Red Meat Radishes:Biking farmer, with a carrot:
Arugula:
Acorn Squash:
Mexican Sage:

Monday Farm Photos

I no longer get to savor the deep reds of a New England fall, but I do love the colors of our farm's fall lettuces:
I have no idea what that odd, non-lettuce plant is. Probably a weed, yes, but I just wasn't sure enough to pull it. I see everything through a fairy tale lens and so that plant is a possible ugly duckling. Sad, I know. ; )

Over the past week, Gillen collected lots of Sawtooth Oak nuts from the school yard down the street. He also brought a few visiting unschooled city friends to the school to skateboard over the weekend:I had Alice Cooper and other old rockers' tunes about school going through my head as I watched them skateboarding on school property:But back to planting trees for the future...
Today he collected lots of pots in which to plant those Oak nuts. His long term plan is to transplant them into the back fields to attract more deer. He tells me that they won't be attracting deer for 5-7 more years. I am impressed by his patience.

I wish he only wanted to attract the deer so that I could name them and take pictures of them, but he is growing up in a rural southern town and has different influences than I did in Boston, and his own dreams. I'm keeping my mouth shut, and putting away my ignorant city girl ideas about hunting.
While he waits to be old enough to get his hunting certificate and big enough to ride the huge ATV that he wants to buy, I appreciate this moment - nurturing these seeds that will one day be Oaks.

Games

Despite having discovered the really cool graphics and challenges of on-line gaming (in Runescape and World Of Warcraft) the guys surprised me by taking out several board games this week and Jesse created a new WOW-inspired outdoors game.

We played Imaginiff with Logan. In this game you imagine how the people playing, as well as people whom you all know, would answer several questions. I love that they included "Daddy" for Logan's father and "Papa" for Nicolas.


We have three Monopoly games - the original one, which we turned into a bird/dinosaur monopoly game years ago, the Here and Now American version and the Here and Now Australian version. The other day, Gillen's friend Aaron skipped school in honor of his birthday and we played the Australian version with him for hours.We also played it with other friends another day this week:

Jesse usually goes alone to "training" for his imaginary WOW raids, when Logan is not around. But this time, I followed. Tuki always tags along. See her? The small red, ecstatic motion in the middle of the field?

And I've been getting in shape dancing with Jesse in the wii dance dance revolution game and reliving songs that I danced to in the eighties. Scary.