Archive for 2011
Events, Global, Political Action
JOEL SALATIN “The Most Influential Farmer in America” IS COMING TO TOWN
Calgary, AB – December 19, 2011 ~ Joel Salatin, the man that TIME magazine called ”the world’s most innovative farmer” is coming to Calgary and the Kingsland Farmers’ Market on March 21 & 22, 2012. Salatin is known and respected worldwide for his family’s innovative and effective farming techniques that allow them to produce ‘beyond organic’ produce effectively, in a way which regenerates their farmland while making them a profitable livelihood.
On Wednesday, March 21, 2012, Kingsland Farmers’ Market is hosting Joel Salatin’s workshop on how to make your small farm more ethical, profitable, and deeply integrated with your local community. This workshop is an important one for anyone involved in local food, sustainability or agriculture to attend. A second, shorter workshop will be offered the following day.
Joel Salatin is a third generation organic farmer and author whose family owns and operates Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The farm produces what Joel calls ‘salad bar beef’, ‘pigaerator pork’, pastured poultry and forage-based rabbits. The Polyface farm operated by the Salatin family direct markets to 4,000 families, 40 restaurants, and 10 retail outlets.
A prolific author, Salatin’s eight books to date include both how-to and big picture themes. The farm features prominently in Michael Pollan’s New York Times best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the award-winning documentary Food, Inc.
Tickets for these events go on sale January 14, 2012 and are available by calling 403-255-3276 or @: www.kingslandfarmersmarket.com
Community, Local, Slow Food Calgary
The Pleasure and Politics of Food – A Potluck-fueled Community Conversation
Calgary, Alberta, Canada celebrates Terra Madre Day.
December 10th, 2011
On December 10th, 2011, about 75 citizens came together at Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Centre in Calgary to celebrate Terra Madre Day by sharing fantastic food they had prepared using local ingredients, to engage in vital conversations about our local food system and to enjoy a glass or two of delicious local beer, provided by Brew Brothers. Slow Food Calgary partnered with Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association in hosting this great event. Proceeds from the sale of the great beer and donations made by those present amounted to $250.00, which was donated to the Calgary Food Bank in order to help them with their efforts at alleviating the food distress experienced by too many local families.
This being Canada in the winter, root vegetables abounded, and the conversations around the tables tried to get to the root of both the difficulties and the great and as of yet not fully realized potential of our local food system. Local meat- bison, beef, turkey, pork, chicken and goat were also well represented on the heavily laden tables, and the feeling of many of those present was that the meat of the matter, when it came to discussing food systems, was that the fostering of dynamic, positive relationships of producers and co-producers comprising the food system was the key to creating a resilient and healthy local food system.
A passionate presentation was given by Darl Hobsbawn, a graduate of the Culinary Arts program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, introducing the nascent Slow Food Youth movement in Calgary and inviting all youths to join with him and others in building a vibrant and active youth contingent affiliated with Slow Food Calgary.
Participants were asked to engage in conversation springing from 10 questions about the local food system and to give us written feedback on these 10 questions. The ideas and inspirations offered in this feedback will be used to give both Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association and Slow Food Calgary a better understanding of how their two organizations can better serve the community in helping to promote and build a better local food system.
The most frequently offered comment received by the organizers of the event was that there was need to have such events not only on an annual basis, but more often, perhaps even on a monthly basis, with the serious issues and questions pertaining to our local food system being discussed in a more focused and systematic fashion.
Slow Food Calgary
Register for the local Terra Madre Day Potluck before December 10th!
Slow Food Calgary (SFC )and Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association (HSCA) are sponsoring partners in this event. All interested members of the public are welcome to participate and there is no cost to attend. Attendees are asked to bring prepared food, using as much local content as possible, sufficient to feed themselves plus one. Registration is encouraged, as there is limited space in the venue. Only those who register will be guaranteed a seat at a table. We are inviting cash donations at this event and all funds collected will be used to support the Calgary Food Bank. Suggested donation is $10 per person.
The Brew Brothers will be providing local beer at a nominal cost!
Register for the Terra Madre Day Potluck (event details found at this link).
Learn more about Terra Madre Day
Community, Global, Local, Slow Food Calgary
The fastest, most condensed elucidation of Slow Food you’ll ever get…
Calgary Arts Development hosted a Pecha Kucha night on November 23rd and invited Slow Food Calgary to participate.
What’s Pecha Kucha? [from Wikipedia: Pecha Kucha (Japanese for chit chat) events consist of around a dozen presentations, each presenter having 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds on a timer. Thus, each presenter has just 6 minutes and 40 seconds to explain their ideas before the next takes the stage. Conceived as a venue through which young designers could meet, show their work, exchange ideas, and network, the format keeps presentations concise and fast-paced. ]
Slow Food Calgary President Kris Vester stepped up to the plate to speak for Slow Food.
He swung hard – and fast.
See video of Kris’ presentation - Slow Food, Pecha Kucha style!
Community, Events, Global, Local, Political Action, Slow Food Calgary
Slow Food Calgary and Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association invite YOU to Celebrate Terra Madre Day on December 10th
What: “The Pleasure and Politics of Food”. – a potluck-fueled evening of good, clean and fair local food and dialogue to mark international Terre Madre day and to engage the public on matters of local food systems…
When: Saturday, December 10th. 5:00 – 9:00 PM. (dinner at 6:00)
Where: The Hearthroom at Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Centre, 1320, 5th Ave. N.W.
Why: To eat and discuss in solidarity with thousands of other eaters and producers around the world who are holding similar events on international Terre Madre Day. To further the cause of good, clean and fair food within the local context by engaging in facilitated discussions on the subject of food in general.
Who: Slow Food Calgary (SFC )and Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association (HSCA) are sponsoring partners in this event. All interested members of the public are welcome to participate and there is no cost to attend. Attendees are asked to bring prepared food, using as much local content as possible, sufficient to feed themselves plus one. Registration is encouraged, as there is limited space in the venue. Only those who register will be guaranteed a seat at a table. We are inviting cash donations at this event and all funds collected will be used to support the Calgary Food Bank. Suggested donation is $10 per person.
Community, Local, Slow Food Calgary
Slow Food Calgary refines its Mandate
We’ve been thinking about the best way to spend our time, energy and very slim financial resources to help to cultivate a thriving local food community in support of good, clean and fair food.
Our planning committee met on November 19th to exchange these thoughts and to develop an action plan for 2012.
The content of the plan will appear as we post news of upcoming events and projects in the coming weeks and months.
Here is our mandate. It is not so much new as it is refined and newly explicit:
• Making local connections between consumers, chefs, producers and processors of good, clean, fair food.
• Building public awareness of agricultural systems.
• Promoting the concepts of equality and responsibility for our food system.
Join us on this road less travelled!
Community, Slow Food Calgary
Slow Food Calgary Planning Committee seeking Slow Ideas, Fast
On Saturday November 19th, the Slow Food Calgary planning committee will convene in order to live up to its name.
ATTENTION: The committee welcomes event and project ideas from the Slow Food community at-large.
SEND YOUR BRILLIANT IDEAS DIRECTLY TO
SLOW FOOD CALGARY’S LEAD SNAIL:
Kris Vester / vesterkh@yahoo.ca
May the slow ideas flow…
Community, Events, Global, Local, Slow Food Calgary
December 10th is Terra Madre Day…How will you celebrate?
Local food is our future, and celebrating these foods and their producers – in daily life and through special events – is the best way to protect them.
This is the spirit in which the global Slow Food network approaches Terra Madre Day on December 10 each year – a day to promote food that is good, clean and fair and to acknowledge the importance of the regions, cultures and communities working to protect and promote such food.
Everyone is invited – Slow Food convivia, the Terra Madre network and supporting organizations and friends – to celebrate with an event in your community. If you can, please also use this day to raise support for Slow Food’s biggest project in 2011, A Thousand Gardens in Africa .
Last year Terra Madre Day traveled across 120 countries, from a wild food festival in the green forests of Java, Indonesia to traditional cooking workshops in Palestinian villages, to a solar-cooker banquet in central Costa Rica and an Eat-In at Kings Cross, London. But the best place to be on December 10 will be with your own community, participating in an event as simple or complex, as big or small as you wish.
To help cook up your own fun celebration, visit the Terra Madre Day website and download the Information for Organizers guide. Remember to check the online Organizers’ Kit where you will find the logo and other graphics that you can use in your local promotions. Register your event on the Slow Food International website prior to November 10 and we will send you a Terra Madre Day flag.
Community, Local, Political Action, Slow Food Calgary
30 or under? Get into some local dirt…join the Slow Food Youth Movement
If you are 30 or younger and have a desire to change the world one bite at a time, join Slow Food Calgary’s Youth Movement.
Email Stephanie Kolk and ask how you can help to change the food culture of your generation.
stephanie@kayben.com
Learn how Stephanie has cultivated a love for food and farming which has so far lead to the creation of JoJo’s Café on Kayben Farms in Okotoks and the will to lead a youth arm of Slow Food Calgary: Click here
Read about the Slow Food Movement at large and the work of the young, not-so-young and old the world over who share a love of the planet and a keen appetite for good food. Slow Food International
Community, Events, Local, Slow Food Calgary
Slow Food Calgary is proud to support “harvest of the hills dinner” organized by Slow Food Southern Alberta
”harvest of the hills dinner”
a convivial evening shared in the spirit of slow food
WHEN: Saturday October 22nd, 2011
Cocktails: 5:30 pm Dinner to follow
WHERE:: Taste of Heaven Café, Claresholm
148 – 49th Avenue West
Come experience and savour the “terroir” of the hills in a five-course meal created and presented by a “heavenly” gang.
Toast the harvest season with three complementary wine tastings from Birds & Bees Organic Winery in Brosseau, AB.
COST: $39.95 per person
TICKETS: Available at Taste of Heaven Café
403-625-5488
For further information call Jackie @ 403-625 -5270