Slow Food Columbia Celebrates Thanksgiving Early with Potluck

Our November meeting was a potluck and we had a great turn out. Look at those "purple haze" carrots from City Roots! Not to mention the delicious local shrimp, sausage, beans, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and basil members brought (plus much more).



Thanks, Slow Foodies, for a the good food and conversation. Keep your eyes peeled for an email update.

Call to Action from a Local Organic Farmer

We recently got wind of a terrific letter -- a call to action, really -- written by one of our most active Slow Food Columbia members, Ben Dubard. He sent it out this week to the CSA he runs with his wife Kristen at their organic farm in Cedar Creek, SC, Five Leaves Farm, and we wanted to put it out there should some budding Slow Food enthusiasts come across it and feel inspired.

Here's an excerpt (we've added some headers in bold and a few  links out to thought-provoking sites, blogs, etc. for you multi-taskers out there):

Why Vote Organic with Your Grocery Dollar?

How is it that the food I grow can cost more? Well, there are a myriad of answers to that question, and whole books have been written on the subject.

The Problem with Those Cheaper, Conventionally Farmed Meats and Veggies

In brief, the cheap way to grow food is to spray toxic chemicals, pollute the soil and the water, employ illegal immigrants and abuse them, and ruthlessly seek to eliminate competition. While I generally don't talk like this to avoid making people uncomfortable (who wants to walk around all day feeling guilty for what they have eaten?), it needs to be discussed.

Our Opportunity

Restoring the health of the planet through farming is possibly the greatest environmental opportunity out there. Even as corporations steal the good name that organic farmers have labored to make, the urgency of restorative agriculture has taken precedence.

Concrete Goals: Build Topsoil, Eschew Agricultural Chemicals

It is no longer enough merely to do no harm; it is time to fix the problems at the root. I see our job as growing food AND building topsoil. By building topsoil we sequester CO2. By building topsoil we assist the land in producing clean water. By refraining from using agricultural chemicals, the amphibians and fish in our waters thrive. Birds come in profusion to our farm to eat the insects that are kept in balance by not poisoning the fields.

I could go on at length, but I hope that you get the idea.

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Hey Slow Food Columbia! See you at our All-Local Potluck this Monday, Nov. 16! 6:30pm, 2404 Park; bring your favorite autumn dish made with all local ingredients, and consider bringing $5 or more for our farmer friends in Georgia. The September rains left many farms ruined. You can read more about these farms on the Slow Food Atlanta website and watch relevant video. Please help us support our fellow members to build their farms back!

Heard of the Southern Foodways Alliance?

Any of you Slow Food Columbians familiar with the Southern Foodways Alliance?

(Slow Food Columbia members Emile deFelice of Caw Caw Creek Pastured Pork and Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills have -- they are SFA Hall of Fame inductees!)

At the most recent monthly Slow Food Columbia meeting, we were discussing the fact that we'd like to know even more about like-minded* organizations, websites, and blogs throughout South Carolina and the greater Southeast United States.

The Southern Foodways Alliance has just won a 2009 Travel + Leisure Global Vision Award, given for "the latest and best efforts at cultural preservation, environmental conservation, and community-building through tourism." They provide a great model for outreach, publishing, and promotion. See below!

*Hey, Slow Food Columbia! Do you know of other local, regional, and national blogs, websites, or organizations from whom we might take further inspiration in our mission to promote "good, clean and fair" food in South Carolina and beyond? Comment below! 

From page two of the Travel + Leisure article:

Culinary Heritage: Southern Foodways Alliance, Oxford, Mississippi
"An exuberant champion of Southern food culture—from its barbecue pit masters and bourbon distilleries to its butterscotch-pie breakfasts and deviled-eggs competitions—the Southern Foodways Alliance celebrates and records the region’s diverse gastronomic landscape through documentary films, books, and not-for-the-calorie-shy field trips and events. The Alliance’s food-trails program, which has mapped a Tamale Trail through the Mississippi Delta, a Barbecue Trail in the Southeast, and Boudin and Gumbo Trails across Louisiana, introduces travelers to the small-scale producers and off-the-beaten path restaurants that are the soul of Southern cuisine."

The Southern Foodways Alliance is an institution of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Their blog is here: http://southernfoodways.blogspot.com/
 
Thanks to Slow Food Columbia member (and recent State Art Collection inductee!) Anna Redwine for reminding us about this engaging resource!

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Photo reprinted, some rights reserved, from the Southern Foodways Alliance Flickr page.
Post author Tracie Broom is a freelance writer/editor and South Carolina native, back in Columbia after 10 years as Food Editor at San Francisco, CA city guide SF Station. She publishes a foodie blog called The Yum Diary and is thrilled to rejoin the Midlands' flourishing progressive community.

Latest Issue of The Snail, Slow Food USA's Member Magazine

View the latest issue of the Slow Food member magazine, The Snail, online! Now with a new digital format, Slow Food USA's quarterly magazine is in its tenth issue, Fall 2009.

In this issue: Julie Shaffer, Slow Food governor for the southeast region, and Judith Winfrey, chapter leader for Slow Food Atlanta, discuss the four community gardens the chapter has chosen to support for one year.

You can check it out here!

Eat Local Mov't Hits S.C. State Fair!

Despite the regular sea of fried dough and mystery meat-on-a-stick vendors, the Slow Food movement is actually in effect at the South Carolina State Fair!

Blanche Weathers, wife of South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA) Commissioner Hugh Weathers, gave a great "eat local" cooking demo in the Cantey Building on Friday.

Showing Love to the CSA Box
She focused on describing how she uses the produce in her Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) box from Pinckney's Produce.

(You know, the weekly farmshare box you see at Rosewood Market. Kudos to Pinckney's; like Five Leaves Farm [which is organic -- even bigger kudos!], they're sold out for their Fall 2009 CSA season!)

Weathers had a nice little audience gathered to try her local shrimp and pasta salad. (Tasty!) Nice to see fellow South Carolinians interested in the provenance of what goes into their bellies, no?

What are your favorite "eat local" restaurants, merchants, chefs, farms, etc.? 

Use the comment form below to jot down your short list of Slow Food-ish businesses. We want to hear from you!

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Post author Tracie Broom is a freelance writer/editor and South Carolina native, back in Columbia after 10 years as Food Editor at San Francisco, CA city guide SF Station. She publishes a foodie blog called The Yum Diary and is thrilled to rejoin the Midlands' flourishing progressive community.
(Photos by author.)

Urban Farm Crops up at Owens Field!

Been wondering* about that snazzy new urban farm next to Owens Field?

Here's the story! Architect Robbie McClam's exciting new venture, City Roots, as covered by The State newspaper writer Jeff Wilkinson:

"Part of Green Movement, Farm Sprouts in City"

A pond to raise tilapia, that most sustainable and eco-friendly of farmed fish? Excellent. Recycling the nitrate-rich pond water through troughs of micro-greens hanging above the fish pond? Brilliant!

*Want to share this story on Facebook or Twitter with others in Columbia, South Carolina and beyond? Click the "SHARE" box at the very top of this web page. Good news likes to get around!

photo from original article by TIM DOMINICK/tdominick@thestate.com
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Post author Tracie Broom is a freelance writer/editor and South Carolina native, back in Columbia after 10 years as Food Editor at San Francisco, CA city guide SF Station. She publishes a foodie blog called The Yum Diary and is thrilled to rejoin the Midlands' flourishing progressive community.

Organic, Macrobiotic Chef Lecture next Thursday, Oct. 22

A good referral is gold. If I need a doctor, lawyer, physical therapist or HVAC specialist, I want a proven all-star. Here's one for the books: a chef, author and nutrition coach who takes Slow Food principles to the next level.

How My Cousin Kicked Cancer without Pain

My elder cousin not only beat breast cancer last year after being referred to nutritional consultant Roxanne Koteles-Smith of Asheville, below -- she also went through chemo with zero pain. That's right. No pain. No nausea. Apparently, that's totally unheard of. All of her doctors and nurses were shocked.

Garden to Table: A Carolina Tradition

Although our family comes from long line of Kershaw County folk who, like many Carolinians, are well accustomed to eating local from the family garden plot or farmer's market, it's also totally unheard of to eliminate staples like gluten, sugar, and dairy, much less to incorporate "hippie food" like seaweed and umeboshi plum-flaxseed oil vinaigrette into one's diet. (No offense to hippies! We love hippies.)

A Very Strategic -- and Delicious -- Macrobiotic Diet
However, because my cousin took the Roxanne plunge and converted to a protein-rich, exclusively organic and local diet (with lots of macrobiotic bells and whistles), she accomplished what Western medicine couldn't. And deliciously! Roxanne's C.V. includes stints at The Breakers in Palm Beach and the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco.

Get Schooled

Roxanne's giving a presentation next Thursday at a colleague's office space in Northeast Columbia, and starting the following Thursday, October 29, she's running a series of 6 weekly cooking classes in a private home, this time focused on achieving weight loss.

Although she does business through Greenlife Grocery in Asheville; Healthwise Foods in Montgomery, AL; The Village Cup in Laurens, SC; and The Pickwick Pharmacy in Greenville, SC, Roxanne hasn't really expanded into the Columbia market -- until now.

This is a great opportunity for Columbians to get up on some of Roxanne's food wisdom. See you there!

FOOD WISDOM with ROXANNE KOTELES-SMITH

Author, The Cancer Cookbook 
FOOD COACH and MACROBIOTIC SPECIALIST

Lecture and Cooking Series Preview

(menu samples will be served)

When: Thursday, October 22, 2009 from 6:30 – 8:00 pm

Where: Business Office Location, 110 Wildewood Park Dr, Columbia, SC 29223 (just off 77)

Price: Free
Advance registration by 5pm Monday, Oct. 19 is necessary, as space is limited. 
RSVP to 866-407-8031 or email: Roxanne@RoxannesRemedies.com

About Roxanne, from http://www.cancercookbook.com/:

Roxanne Koteles-Smith is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont and is a certified Macrobiotic Guide from the Kushi Institute of Becket, MA.  Roxanne's cooking experience includes the Breakers in Palm Beach and Ritz-Carlton Corporation in San Francisco. Her recipes combine fresh, simple foods with a Japanese influence for superior nutrition and taste...they contain no sugar, no dairy, minimal wheat choices, high protein and gluten-free solutions. [She uses] only certified organic products with the assistance of local organic farmers.

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Not a Slow Food member yet?

A gift of ANY size gets you a membership through Oct. 15!

Normally $60 and up. A fabulous opportunity!


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Post author Tracie Broom is a freelance writer/editor and South Carolina native, back in Columbia after 10 years as Food Editor at San Francisco, CA city guide SF Station. She publishes a foodie blog called The Yum Diary and is thrilled to rejoin the Midlands' flourishing progressive community.