Via the Simply Good Food Blog:
An unlikely hero, Joel Salatin is a rural Virginia farmer who has come to symbolize slow food, local food, practical organic farming methods, and no-nonsense ruckus-making. Read about a new Earth Eats interview and videos on the Simply Good Food Blog.
It’s less than 2 months until the the first Seacoast Growers Association summer farmers’ market opens in Portsmouth, and the winter farmers’ markets in Newburyport, MA, and Northwood, NH, have finished for the season. But thanks to the efforts of local consumers, craftspeople, food producers—bakers, beekeepers, farmers, ranchers, vintners, and more—and the fabulous local organizations that bring us all together, we in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire are fortunate to have several more winter markets to get us there.
Come check out what the vendors have to offer at the last indoor markets of the season.
The first summer farmers’ markets of the season usually feature early spring greens and locally grown plants to decorate your flower beds, create a vegetable garden, and add color to your life after a long winter. Other food and nonfood products will be available, too. Come see what they have to offer.
Want to know which vendors are scheduled to be at the market, check a venue address, or get directions? Go straight to the source!
Follow Slow Food Seacoast on Twitter
An interview with Gary Paul Nabhan (text, interspersed with short videos) from Indiana Public Radio’s EarthEats contains many great definitions for terms that mean a lot to people who care about good, clean, fair food: GMOs, monoculture, “local eating”, and heirloom seeds. This particular video is about Slow Food and eating locally; read the entire interview and see other videos at Questions for Gary Paul Nabhan “Father of the Local Food Movement”.
(Nabhan has been called a “bio-terroir”-ist. Love that!)
This BBC report features a Virginia farmer who is “feeding the community one stop at a time” as he takes his wares on the road—literally! His “Farm to Family” bus brings fresh food (vegetables, fruit, dairy, eggs, fresh meat, and bacon) to food deserts in Richmond, VA. And he uses Facebook to get the word out to customers! How cool is that?
The video also features commentary from Slow Food USA president Josh Viertel.
Didn’t get to meet Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, at Slow Food Seacoast’s 50-Mile Thanksgiving last November? This 13-minute video from CHOW.com is a wonderful introduction to her unique approach to urban farming in West Oakland, California—from interplanting Swiss chard in raised beds in an abandoned lot to milking goats on her porch and slaughtering rabbits in the backyard.
What’s the easiest, quickest way to learn how to peel and clean your fresh NH shrimp? Watch this great, 4-minute video by Padi Anderson of the F/V Rimrack. Nothing to it - pretty soon you’ll “pull, pinch, and flip” your way to your next shrimp dinner. Or buy plenty of extra shrimp, clean as shown, and freeze for later - they defrost in a flash!
Cooking Up a Story has a 6-min video interview with Dan Imhoff (who wrote Food Fight, a book Slow Food USA is promoting around this issue) outlining the important connections between the modern Farm Bill and our food system at large.
The more we understand the Farm Bill, the better we’ll be able to write to our senators and congressmen and let them know what we think. More info from Slow Food USA.
Sara Zoe sends word of an interesting web movie: “This short non-narrative video tracks the day in a life of a fish as it travels from sea to stomach. Starting at the Portland Fish Exchange, fish are unloaded from the fisherman’s boat and then sold at auction to the highest bidding “Fish Pimp”. They are then transported from the Exchange to processing plants, restaurants, and retail markets all over the world. A salmon is filleted and sold at a local fish market. At the end of the day, the salmon is cooked on a grill and made into a nice meal”
"In the last hundred years, 300,000 plant varieties have vanished from the earth ... and today fewer than 30 plants nourish 95 percent of the world population."
—Carlo Petrini, Slow Food founder and president
