Archive for October, 2009
The Alberta Snail Trail Passport
Down on the “Poplar Bluff Organic Farm”
Dee and Rosemary Wotske, owner of Poplar Bluff Organic Farm. Rosemary grows heirloom potatoes, beets and carrots organically, on her farm, south of Strathmore.
Slow Food Calgary, The Alberta Snail Trail Passport
Lovely – Cakadu Heritage – Lamb
- Here is dee describing Denis Jabs’s lovely lamb to a group of farm visitors at Cakadu Heritage Lamb, near Innisfail
The Alberta Snail Trail Passport
Down on the “Thompson Small Farm”
Dee with Farmers Jonathan Wright and Andrea Thompson, at Thompson Small Farm near Carbon, Alberta
This is one in a series of images to be posted to the Snail Trail Blog featuring Slow Food Calgary President, dee Hobsbawn-Smith, and some of the Albertan farms, ranches, kitchens and gardens she has visited.
Dee says: “Getting my feet on the farm is a humbling and grounding experience. This collection of pictures show some of the farms and their farmers, whom I am happy to call friends. They feed us. Visiting the land they are stewards of is good for the soul.”
Jonathan and Andrea, of Thompson Small Farm, have been feeding dee and her family for the past two years with the produce they raise on their CSA farm. The farm’s seasonal produce is delivered weekly to subscribers in Calgary. Visit: Thompson Small Farm
The Alberta Snail Trail Passport
Karen Anderson and Tilley Sanchez
Karen Anderson and Tilley Sanchez visited farmer John Mills at The Bowden SunMaze and Eagle Creek Farm. John was a 2008 Terra Madre nominee in the Youth Farmer category. He grows flowers, garlic and heritage varieties of potatoes. This is a fun place to take the family.
Slow Food Calgary
Slow in the Bow: Heritage Pork from Gate to Plate
Friday October 16, 2009 – 7:00 pm
Site: The Bison Restaurant & Lounge, #213, 211 Bear Street, Banff
Details: Take a road trip to the beautiful Bow Valley for an insight into the whole pig and nothing but the pig. The Bison Restaurant & Lounge in Banff welcomes Slow Food Calgary for an evening of house-made charcuterie, pork from tail to nose, featuring Berkshire pork from Broek Pork Acres in southern Alberta. From gate to plate: pork producer Allen Vanden Broek will be in attendance to share what it takes to raise pastured heritage pork in Alberta; chef Grant Parry will share how he and his team convert pork into the edible pleasure of charcuterie.
Tickets: members, $75; not-yet-members, $90Call the Cookbook Co. Cooks for tickets: 403-265-6066
Smokin’ Meet the Master Maker: Walter von Rotz
Saturday October 17, 2009 – 11:00 am
Hosted by Valbella Gourmet Meats, 104B Elk Run Blvd. CanmoreThis tour of Valbella Gourmet Meats in Canmore, conducted by master butcher and sausage hound, Walter von Rotz, is bound to fill promptly. Valbella Meats is western Canada’s award-winning leader in artisanal charcuterie and smokehouse specialties. Von Rotz chanced through Canmore in 1978 and was struck by the town’s similarity – in elevation and dry climate – to his hometown near the St. Moritz highlands. The result is a highly regarded shop that makes and sells world-class sausages, smoked meats, pates and other delicacies in traditional Old World low-tech style melded with sate-of-the-art European equipment, and a commitment to no MSG or additives.
Tickets: No-charge admission to Slow in the Bow registrants; pre-registration required.
Stay overnight in the beautiful Bow Valley…
Event partner Banff Boutique Inn Pension Tannenhof offers a terrific ‘SNAIL’ package for the weekend’s Slow Food “all-pork all the time” Bow Valley event attendees.
To book: www.banffboutiqueinn.com or phone 403-762-4636Slow Food Calgary advocates the responsible use of alcohol.
Slow Food Calgary
Alberta Bound: An Alberta Food Road Trip
This article, written by Slow Food Calgary President dee Hobsbawn-Smith, appeared in the September 2009 issue of Westworld:
The Alberta summer road trip tends to be all about speed. Cruise control on the steaming highway. Burgers from a fast-food chain wolfed down in the car. Languid holidayers on a beeline to their destination give little thought to what lies down those dusty rural side roads. But in autumn things change. The pace of life slows. Leaves brighten and tumble. Harvests begin just as the kids head back to school. It’s the ideal time to turn off the highway for an unhurried rural wander in search of the finest grown-in-Alberta fare.
I’m on one such narrow stretch of gravel 10 km south of Turner Valley. Dust gathers and hangs in the road’s hollow behind me. Straight ahead, the Cornflower Ranch fence weaves wire and light together, backdropped by the dull umber of the foothills. The blue-black face of the Rockies looms to the west. I park the car and step onto soil etched by the passage of bison, cattle, horses and time.
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Community, Global
PRESS RELEASE
SUBJECT: Cowichan Bay becomes the First Cittaslow Member in North America
Cowichan Bay, August 6, 2009. Cowichan Bay, a small seaside village locatedone hour north of Victoria, British Columbia, will be the first Cittaslow member in North America. Cittaslow is an International network of towns committed to putting quality of life first. Cowichan Bay, a village of less than 3,000 inhabitants is rich with small and medium scale agricultural operations, wineries, a charactaristic waterfront center, acres of green space, traditional First Nations land. Visitors and residents alike are attracted to the area because it has managed to resist fast food and big-box retailers.
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