Farmer's Market Tour with Ed Kenney

We had the great opportunity to tour around the Farmer's Market with Slow Food advocate Ed Kenney, Chef/Owner of Town and Downtown. We visited with the gang at Ma'o Organic Farm, Greg Yee at Blue Lotus Farm, Jenny at Big Wave Tomato and Isaac Gillette with Keopu Coffee. Ed shared his insight about the Slow Food movement and creating a relationship with those that grow our food.   - more to come.

First Meeting of the Semester

Today we thanked our outgoing board members: Sean Congdon - President, Niayana Scott - Secretary and Marcus Asahina - Treasurer for their service last year. We are looking for a volunteer to fill our Treasurer spot on the Board. We reviewed our calendar of proposed events for the semester; starting with this Saturday's Tour of the Farmer's Market Hosted my Ed Kenney chef/owner from the local Slow Food restaurants Town and Downtown. San Shoppell gave an interesting and insightful presentation about her Slow Food summer and Fall. She talked about her summer cooking job on Naushon Island in Massachusetts, attending Slow Food Martha Vineyard's potluck fundraiser that 500 people participated including Michael Pollan, the guest speaker. She also reviewed the events of Slow Food Nation in San Francisco, CA and her internship at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in NY. What an adventure. We shared fresh squeezed citrus-aid and freshly made salsa and corn chips. Yum!

             

              

 

Healthy Food Demonstration at The Farmer's Market

Fresh Cucumber and Roasted Corn Salsa with FRESH Corn Tortillas! We had a crew of helpful volunteers this Saturday. Thanks to Aloun Farms for generously donating the sweet corn and cilantro used for this demo. Lets not forget the USDA grant that helps to underwrite these demonstration. You can find the recipes below in the comments section. 

     

Slow Food Oahu Pot Luck

Slow Food KCC members were invited to attend a potluck hosted by Slow Food Oahu last Sunday afternoon. Slow Food members and native Italians, Giampiero and Ezio, were responsible for the focus dish of the potluck, 20 lbs of fresh ahi tuna. The market fresh tuna was slowly braised in olive oil and made into a variety of simple but delicious dishes, including a creamy savory mousse and a bright and comforting tuna pasta with fresh tomato and basil. All the attendees contributed to the feast with tasty, seasonal offerings including Slow Food KCC's contributions of Hearts of Palm Salad, Babaganoush and a Korean steamed chicken and rice dish. We were asked to bring our own plates and utensils, this is a simple way to make a party a little greener and minimize clean up! The Slow Food Oahu group are a great bunch of folks and we look forward to future collaborations!

Letter from the new president - Gida Snyder

Happy New Year! I want to introduce myself as the new President of the KCC Slow Food Club. Many thanks go out to our former president Sean Congdon who has served our club well. Congrats Sean on graduating! We wish you good luck in your next endeavor.

San Shoppell (Vice Pres) and I have been working on a plan to create an exciting schedule for the upcoming semester. We would love to hear any ideas you may have for helping this club be a standout example of Slow Food in the school and in the community. Please feel free to suggest demo recipes, guest speakers, outings or any other activities you might have in mind that we as a club can experience together. We would like to finish the schedule before the first meeting, so send us your thoughts today.

I look forward to meeting everyone and having a great time with the club!

Aloha,

Gida Snyder
President Slow Food KCC

Another Educational and Inspirational Meeting

Dec 11, 2008 Meeting
Summer Shimabukuro and Manny Miles, from Ma’o Farms, gave a wonderfully informative presentation about their attendance to Terra Madres 2008 in Torino Italy. Their presentation addressed four lessons learned from their experiences: Shared Humane Experience, Conviviality and the Sacredness of Food, Critical Times and The Power of Youth. But before they began, they asked all in attendances to speak briefly of about their personal development or awareness of their passion for food. I noted that most everyone commented on the food and the connection to family experiences.

Shared Humane Experience: The Food Movement is BIG! There were approximately 6,000 participants from over 153 countries: farmers, seed protectors, cheese makers, mothers, teacher, and activists. Conviviality and the Sacredness of Food: Passion about and around Food. “Life is sacred. We need food to live. Thus food is sacred.” – Satish Kumar. Satish Kumar related the story of Shiva being a farmer and that the every day acts of growing and eating food are seen as divine. Critical Times: “The modern world has had two major revolutions. The first was the invention of the steam engine. The second was the introduction of electricity. The third will be the Green Revolution.” – Carlo Pettrini.
The Power of Youth: Summer shared the story of Sam Levin, the 15 year old keynote speaker, and how he started a garden at his high school and how “Project Sprout” is spreading worldwide.

In closing they encouraged us all to be thoughtful about your passion for food.

We were also extremely fortunate to have Daniel Anthony speak on kalo (taro) and demonstrate traditional poi pounding. Tasting freshly pounded kalo – pa’i ‘ai - was a revelation and first time experience for some attendees. This was a special opportunity. We hope to have Daniel return for another workshop in the future.

Healthy Food Demonstration at The Farmer's Market

The KCC Slow Food volunteers presented another food demonstration at the Farmer's Market. This week we created our own version of Dolma, a traditional stuffed grape leaves recipe. President Sean Congdon and member Saeed Samad please the crowd with their tasting creation. Mahalo to Ma'o  Organic Farms for generously donating the beets. Thanks also to Big Wave Flavor Tomatoes for supplying the Surfing Goat Dairy goat cheese. Let us not forget about the USDA grant that helps to underwrite these demonstrations. You can find the recipe attached in the "comments" section below. Good Eating.