Archive for the ‘Slow Food Calgary’ Category

Slow Food Calgary

Backyard Benefit for Slow Food Calgary at Vinestone Wine Co. in Cochrane

LAST CHANCE TO GET TICKETS!!!

Vinestone Wine Co. on behalf of Slow Food Calgary presents…

GRAZIN’ THE BACKYARD
a celebration of wine, food & music

Saturday July 17, 2010
6:30 to 10 pm

Vinestone Wine Co. – 608, 2nd St. West, Cochrane
www.vinestonewine.co

Featuring…

The Ethical, Delectable Offerings of Forage Foods
The Swinging, Smooth Melodies of Spiral Groove &
The Adaptable, Intriguing Wines of Vinestone!

$85 per person
Proceeds go to Slow Food Calgary

Call 403-981-9463 for tickets and info.

Slow Food Calgary

Preserving the Season – Your Guide to Local “Canning Bees” this summer

By Karen Anderson

“Never Can Alone” is the motto Barbara Kingsolver expressed in her ode to living seasonally and locally, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle- a year of food life (Harper-Collins, 2007).  If you have ever attempted preserving or canning and faced a mountain of tomatoes, pickling cukes or a garden over run with zucchini you’ll remember a certain sagging of the spirit if you were facing them alone.  This sagging feeling can become even more overwhelming if you are attempting the whole process without ever having received any mentoring.
I grew up helping my parents make jams and pickles.  I loved the steamy kitchen and sense of camaraderie that came from working long and hard to “put-up” those little jars of jewels from the garden.  I especially loved opening those jars all winter in the small remote town where we lived because the amount of fresh produce at the market was reduced to apples, oranges and a few root vegetables.  My parents didn’t can because it was fashionable, they canned because it added variety and enjoyment to our diet through the long, cold Canadian winter.

Continue reading this article …

Community, Events, Local, Slow Food Calgary

Backyard Benefit for Slow Food Calgary at Vinestone Wine Co. in Cochrane

Vinestone Wine Co. on behalf of Slow Food Calgary presents…

GRAZIN’ THE BACKYARD
a celebration of wine, food & music

Saturday July 17, 2010
6:30 to 10 pm

@ Vinestone Wine Co. – 608, 2nd St. West, Cochrane
www.vinestonewine.co

Featuring…

The Ethical, Delectable Offerings of Forage Foods
The Swinging, Smooth Melodies of Spiral Groove &
The Adaptable, Intriguing Wines of Vinestone!

$85 per person
Proceeds go to Slow Food Calgary

Call 403-981-9463 for tickets and info.

Community, Events, Local, Slow Food Calgary

Slow Food Calgary’s 9th Annual Feast of Fields

June 15, 2010 (Calgary) – Join Slow Food Calgary for a food-fuelled afternoon in the garden. Enjoy plenty of local fare to eat and drink, meet the people who grow your food and the chefs who create delicious dishes with our wonderful Alberta
harvest. Last year we debuted our “The Alberta Snail Trail”, our guide to
local products and this year we’ve expanded it to include 78 local food
producers who meet our good, clean and fair criteria.  Come and connect with
all things local.

Slow Food Calgary’s 9th Annual Feast of Fields
Sunday, September 12, 2010: 1 – 4 pm

Rouge Restaurant, 1240 – 8 Ave SE, in the garden. Rain or Shine.

FURTHER EVENT DETAILS COMING SOON!

Slow Food Calgary

Farm family opens Okotoks’ newest, freshest Café

Grand opening celebration June 5th.
Kayben Farms, a local family owned garden centre, u-pick operation and family destination near Okotoks, AB will unveil their new JoJo’s café on Saturday June 5th from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.  The celebrations will include fresh food, an artist painting water colors, live music, and a chance to enter a grand prize draw for a weekend getaway at one of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Resort properties. The farm is located just north of the town of Okotoks.

Continue reading this article …

Slow Food Calgary

Announcing…SLOW FOOD CALGARY TERRA MADRE 2010 NOMINEES

6 Chefs:

o   Shelley Robinson, Baker Creek Bistro, Castle Junction, AB

o   Andrew Bujak, Boxwood & River Café

o   Cam Dobranksi, Muse/AKA/Wine Bar Kensington

o   Genevieve Wakeham, Infuse Catering & Forage

o   Adrienne Penney & Darren Nixon, Divine, Okotoks, AB

1 Instructor:

o   Andrew Hewson, SAIT

3 SAIT Culinary Student/Youth nominees:

o   Stephanie Kolk, PCK professional cook in training

o   Kate Campbell, PCK professional cook in training

o   Darl Hobsbawn, 2nd year cook’s apprentice

5 Producers:

o   Elizabeth, Xina & Tonya Chrapko, En Santé Organic Winery & Meadery, Brosseau, AB

o   Tom Olson, Olson’s High Country Buffalo

o   Mark & Tamara Taylor, Ravenwood Farm Fresh Meat, Caroline, AB

o   New Oxley Garlic, Naturally, Jackie Chalmers, Millarville, AB

o   Carman & Ian Murray, Shoestring Ranch, Acme, AB

Global, Slow Food Calgary

Lindsay Anderson writes from UNSIG

dispatch #2

Buon giorno from Parma! More specifically, Colorno, where our University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG) campus is located.  The school is housed in the Reggia di Colorno, a grand, buttery-yellow former palace built as a fortress in the 13th century.  As a later Baroque palace, it was home to Napoleon’s second wife, and has since been occupied by a number of institutions, including – fun fact – an insane asylum.  Now it is home to a variety of organizations including UNISG and ALMA, an international Italian culinary school.  Our classroom runs the length of the palace’s gardens, which I must say provides the loveliest views I’ve ever had from a desk.

Our class is made up of twenty-five students, and each of us are proud to belong to the most diverse group UNISG has ever seen.  We represent sixteen different countries, a privilege which has already enlivened classroom discussions and offered promises of a ‘Korean’ or ‘Greek’ or ‘Japanese’ night, to name a few.  I am already pondering what on earth I will make on July 1st.

Ultimately, we share several things in common.  Firstly, there is our love of food in cooking, eating, and discussing the issues surrounding it.  Secondly, many of us have encountered the same dilemma: describing to people that we wish to work ‘in food,’ but then explaining that no, this does not mean we want to be chefs or food critics.  This leads to the task of figuring out what our non-chef/non-critic niche is in the food world, with desires to extend ourselves beyond just trendy restaurants, glossy photos of styled food, and the Food Network.

Don’t get me wrong – I love eating out, reading food magazines, and I’ve learned most of what I know about cooking from people like Christine Cushing.  It’s just that there are an indescribable number of things that food affects that aren’t always focused on, broadly including the environment, economics, politics, psychology, and anthropology.  Within these many disciplines, there is all sorts of work to be done which relates to food, and amongst these lesser-known avenues are where many of us hope to find some understanding through this program.

We have been in school less than a week, but so far we have been lectured on molecular science, with a professor so understanding of her students that she made frequent analogies to butter and compared micelle cells to Ferrero Roche.  With another prof, we have begun the long and perhaps impossible process of defining the word ‘gastronomy.’   Several days ago, we learned about the science of taste and smell, then were tested with scents to determine the winner of the ‘Gold,’ ‘Silver,’ ‘Bronze,’ and ‘Stone’ Noses (I did not win but thankfully wasn’t declared ‘Stone’).

We met and were lectured by Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food.  Through an interpreter, we listened to this very intense and passionate man talk about the need for gastronomy to be understood as a science, rather than the ‘art of eating delicately’ or ‘food pornography’ (a term quite frequently used in school thus far).  He discussed the current food system, the notion of consumption, people’s right to pleasure, and issues surrounding Slow Food and elitism.  Ultimately, he told us that the one thing we can be sure of after this program is that we will be confused.  Even more-so than when we began it.

Judging by my experiences so far, I am willing to whole-heartedly embrace this confusion and ready to muddle-up-my-mind even further.  And with you I shall share the chaos.

Two new things I learned in Italy today?  That there are five, not four bakeries on my block, and that I have some incredibly poetic classmates.

Until next time!

Global, Slow Food Calgary

Dispatches from the University of Gastronomic Sciences

Lindsay Anderson, former Slow Food Calgary Planning Committee member, is enrolled in the University of Gastronomic Sciences. She sends us dispatches from  the Piedmont region campus where she is immersed in Slow Food theory and practice…

dispatch #1

Ciao!  My name is Lindsay Anderson, and I recently began the Master in Food Culture and Communications program at the University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNSIG, a.k.a. the Slow Food University). This twelve-month program is based in Parma, Italy, and is made up of twenty-five international students. Rather than a culinary school, it is a place to academically study the many inter-connected roles that food play in the world, as well as develop skills in food journalism and photography. It is the program I have envisioned for years, perhaps since first realizing as a child that food meant more to me than just fuel. I discovered UNISG several years ago, could barely believe my luck that such a program existed, and at once began my pursuit of it.

A native of Prince George, BC, I graduated two years ago from the University of Victoria with a degree in Art History.  I have spent the last two years happily vagabonding around this and other continents, working in various food-related jobs.

The wonderful folks at Slow Food Calgary, whom I had the opportunity to learn from for six months while living there, have been kind enough to allow me to share my adventures with you over the next year. I’ll be writing updates on my experiences both in and out of the classroom; as part of the program, we’ll be visiting farmers and producers in various regions of Italy to see their work first-hand, as well as attending Slow Food events such as Terra Madre in Torino. Additional trips to Greece, Belgium and Spain will round out our education at various times throughout the year. I have no doubt that these experiences will yield more than one interesting story, and I look forward to sharing them with you.

One new thing I learned in Italy today?  Football (soccer) fans are louder than those of hockey, if you can believe it.  Until next time….

Feel free to write me with any questions or comments you have at lindsaylaurenanderson@gmail.com

Slow Food Calgary

Words from Slow Food Calgary’s new President, Kris Vester – spoken at Local 101 event on Saturday March 13, 2010

Politics, Economics and Local Food Systems

Good afternoon. I would like to begin today with a line from the great German poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,.

“Erst in der Beschraenkung, zeigt sich der Meister.”

“It is only within limitation that a master reveals himself as such.”

Thank you for taking time from your busy lives to assemble here today to learn more about that which is the very foundation of our civilization, which is all too often cheapened, adulterated, contaminated and taken for granted, food. Food is not only that which fuels us but also that which provides the building blocks of life from which we are initially assembled and constantly renewed and, as such, its importance is obvious to any human with even the slightest awareness. As Vandana Shiva has said, there is no such thing as a post-food society. I am here today to impart to you, my fellow citizens, some insight into the bigger picture of local food and local food systems, that you might leave here today a little wiser and much more motivated to do what you can to ensure that we, collectively, pursuit a path of progress in regards to food which will respect and serve both this beautiful earth, which gave rise to us, and ourselves well, now and in the future. Specifically, I wish to give you a deeper understanding of what local food is, to outline briefly the evolving economic paradigm which has resulted in a decidedly non-local approach being applied to our food systems and, finally, to offer my thoughts on how we can and, I would argue, must engage as citizens in our communities and in the democratic process if we wish to create a new economic paradigm which will result in the revitalization of a sustainable and vibrant local food system.

Global, Slow Food Calgary

University of Gastronomic Sciences – Dispatches

Lindsay Anderson, former Slow Food Calgary Planning Committee member, is enrolled in the University of Gastronomic Sciences. She is sending us dispatches from her immersion in Slow Food theory and practice…

dispatch #1

Ciao!  My name is Lindsay Anderson, and I recently began the Master in Food Culture and Communications program at the University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNSIG, a.k.a. the Slow Food University). This twelve-month program is based in Parma, Italy, and is made up of twenty-five international students. Rather than a culinary school, it is a place to academically study the many inter-connected roles that food play in the world, as well as develop skills in food journalism and photography. It is the program I have envisioned for years, perhaps since first realizing as a child that food meant more to me than just fuel. I discovered UNISG several years ago, could barely believe my luck that such a program existed, and at once began my pursuit of it.

A native of Prince George, BC, I graduated two years ago from the University of Victoria with a degree in Art History.  I have spent the last two years happily vagabonding around this and other continents, working in various food-related jobs.

The wonderful folks at Slow Food Calgary, whom I had the opportunity to learn from for six months while living there, have been kind enough to allow me to share my adventures with you over the next year. I’ll be writing updates on my experiences both in and out of the classroom; as part of the program, we’ll be visiting farmers and producers in various regions of Italy to see their work first-hand, as well as attending Slow Food events such as Terra Madre in Torino. Additional trips to Greece, Belgium and Spain will round out our education at various times throughout the year. I have no doubt that these experiences will yield more than one interesting story, and I look forward to sharing them with you.

One new thing I learned in Italy today?  Football (soccer) fans are louder than those of hockey, if you can believe it.  Until next time….

Feel free to write me with any questions or comments you have at lindsaylaurenanderson@gmail.com


Events

Slow Food Calgary's 9th Annual Feast of Fields
Sep 12, 2010
at Rouge Restaurant, 1240 - 8th Ave. SE, in the garden. Rain or shine.

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Giving that is Good, Clean and Fair: Slow Food Membership Gift Certificates

NOW AVAILABLE…Gift Certificates for Slow Food Calgary Membership. Just fill out the contact form, specifying your request.Instructions regarding payment and receipt of certificate will follow your request.It is simple, sustainable and ethical gift giving at its best. 

Students and Youth: We want to hear from you!

Slow Food Calgary would like to work with students and our youth to spread the Slow Food message. We want to hear from young people who care about a healthy, sustainable and delicious food supply for the future.

We want to talk to you about how Slow Food’s vision for Good, Clean and Fair food for the planet may gain life in the places where young people study, work and play.

Click here to learn more about Slow Food International and its Youth Food Movement.

Get involved in the future of food. Students and Youth, we really do want to hear from you: Contact us at Slow Food Calgary.

Slow Food Calgary Annual Report 2008

Click here to access the report.

Slow Food Network

Discover the international world of Slow Food at www.slowfood.com

Slow Food & the Community

Late Summer Canning
There are moments that are magic, and events that are alchemy. You never know when they will arrive, or with whom. All you can do is raise your face to the sky and say thank-you.

Canning with Penny and Tony Marshall was one of those moments. Learn more »

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