Slow Food CNY » articles

Local school serves Real Food

Dawn_W — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:29:24 +0000

Channel 3 had a great story (text, video) about a school in Hannibal, NY dedicated to serving healthy and homemade food in its cafeterias. If you were at our Eat In in September, you know that Congress is planning on reviewing the standards for the Child Nutrition Act in the next year and Slow Food is asking that Congress provide $1 more per meal to help schools serve Real Food, allocate money to teach children healthy habits and give schools incentives to buy food from local farms. Hannibal Central School is already working towards some of those goals on a limited budget and is an inspiration to schools everywhere.

Monsanto can’t feed the world

Lonnie — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:43:36 +0000

Dear Slow Food Friends,

In a promising move, the G8 — a group of the world’s eight wealthiest nations — has just announced a shift away from providing direct food aid to developing countries and towards helping farmers abroad produce and distribute their own food.

That’s a laudable goal. But the Obama administration along with members of the U.S. Congress are using this singular moment to move their own agenda: propping up U.S. biotechnology companies like Monsanto. They hope to accomplish this by promoting genetically modified seeds and chemical inputs as tools to fight hunger, despite research that shows that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have little impact on crop yield and do not fare well in drought-prone regions that need the most help.

I just took action and signed a petition asking my senators to oppose the Casey-Lugar bill that would push GMOs on the world. I hope you will, too.

Please CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION.

Thanks!

Lonnie Chu

First potluck a delicious success

Lonnie — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:06:21 +0000

On Friday, March 13, we hosted our first community potluck at the Westcott Community Center and it was a blast! Over 50 people attended including CSA Farmers, representatives from a variety of local organizations, and of course community members!

Thanks to everyone for your mouth watering dishes. The community contributed toward a great menu of food including:

Spicy Velvet Beets, Red Cabbage Kraut, Five Bean Bacon Bake, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Cinnamon-Peanut Granola, Chili (with local beef), Organic Fruit Salad, Goat Cheese Salad, Lasagna, Zuppa Tuscana, Asian Coleslaw, Honey Wheat Bread with Sunflower Seeds and Honey Butter…and lots more!!

One of the evening’s highlights was the presentation of the Snail of Approval Award to the Syracuse Real Food Coop, in recognition of all their effort and dedication to connect the CNY community with the highest quality locally grown and produced food.

Thanks again too all who organized and participated at this very fun and delicious community event. We hope to see you (and your dishes) at the next one!

Check out the fun below:

Mill Creek Farm Presentation

Lonnie — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:04:47 +0000

… cordially invites you to the

Mill Creek Farm Presentation

MISSION STATEMENT:
The Mill Creek Farm is a collectively run urban education farm that utilizes vacant land to improve local access to nutritious foods and to promote sustainable resource use by growing and distributing produce and by demonstrating ecological methods of living.

Come and learn how Mill Creek Farm developed an urban farm in the middle of Philadelphia.

Why would an urban farm be beneficial in our community?

Urban agriculture makes fresh, locally grown food available.
Reduces the need for shipping and preservatives.
Urban farms build local economies.
Saves energy resources.
Provide a range of products.
Help ensure long-term food security for the community.
Improves city environments.
Reconnects urban populations.
Promotes biodiversity within cityscapes.

Dates and times that the presentation will be available:
Tuesday March 17, 2009
Time: 12:00-1:30

Wednesday March 18, 2009
Time: 5:30-7:00

Metro Center (The Atrium)
2 Clinton Square, Syracuse

Reserve your space:

Contact at Sheena Solomon at 474-2489 ext. 16 or e-mail at ssolomon@giffordfd.org by Monday, March 16, 2009.
Space is limited.

Fasting

psm — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:00:00 +0000

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

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

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

policy change advocacy

psm — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:38:00 +0000

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

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

Lets keep the discussion going on this, now is an awesome time to make change.

Phenology

psm — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:51:00 +0000

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

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

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

Holidays

psm — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:17:00 +0000

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

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

Secretary of Food

psm — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:12:00 +0000

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

Learning to Learn Together

psm — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:33:00 +0000

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

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

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

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