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Food for Thought: The Slow Food Orange County Newsletter,
May 2011
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Join the Slow Food Movement!We invite you to join the Slow Food movement! Slow Food Orange County is working hard to preserve and protect local foods and food traditions. Our convivium plans events and programs in places across Orange County-anywhere from community gardens, taste education dinners, and farm tours-join the network and become active in planning and participating in these diverse initiatives. Click here for Benefits of Membership or send us an email if you have questions.
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Letter From the Chair
Dear Slow Food Orange County members and friends,
A big thank-you to everyone who filled out our survey. The results will come into play as we plan our 2011-2012 calendar and choose priorities for our activities. A summary of the survey results will be posted on the website. We also have a winner for the free ticket to the annual barbeque: Jennifer Murphy of Huntington Beach. Congratulations! If you didn't win, tickets for the barbeque are now on sale, see below!
It appears from the survey responses that there is a lot of confusion regarding our relationship with Slow Food USA and what membership entails, so I'd like to clarify a few points. In order to be a "member" of Slow Food, you must pay for an annual membership through the SFUSA website (memberships start at $25). At that time, you are added to a list of new members that is sent to us monthly and we add you to our mailing list. While we encourage you to be part of the national organization, there is no requirement to join unless you are seeking a leadership position in our chapter, and everyone is welcome to join our mailing list and attend any of our events. The membership fee you pay to SFUSA is used for national initiatives and does not come back to us at the chapter level. All of our events are paid for by ticket sales. We endeavor to offer a wide range of events at different price levels, and the profits from most of our higher-cost events are donated to our service partners, such as the Grain Project. I am happy to answer any questions you may have about membership and I can be contacted via email.
Finally, I would like to announce an addition to our Steering Committee, our new Secretary, Ted Wright, and also give many thanks to Steve Widmayer, who served as both Secretary and Treasurer for several years and will now be able to focus solely on his Treasurer duties. We are so happy to include Ted as our leadership team grows stronger each year.
Heather Westenhofer
Chair, Slow Food Orange County
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Third Annual Bommer Canyon Barbeque, Bommer Canyon, Irvine
Sunday, July 10
Slow Food Orange County invites Slow Food members and nonmembers alike to its third annual summer barbeque featuring a barbeque chicken dinner, live music by 5 Star Band, opportunity drawing, and guest speaker A.G. Kawamura, Former Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Bommer Canyon was the cattle camp for the Irvine Ranch and is generally not open to the public at large. This is a special opportunity for all of us to enjoy a quality meal in a beautiful outdoor environment.
Dinner will be prepared by Chef Ryan Adams of Sorrento Grille in Laguna Beach and Slow Food Orange County volunteers.
Schedule of Events:
- 3:00 PM Gate opens
- 3:45-5:00 PM Optional short trail hike led by docent of the Irvine Conservancy
- 5:00 PM Live music by 5 Star Band, wine and finger food served
- 6:00 PM Dinner served
- 6:45 PM Featured speaker A.G. Kawamura
- 7:15 PM Raffle prize drawings
- 8:00 PM Close of event
This event is graciously made possible through the assistance of the City of Irvine and contributing sponsors Sorrento Grille and Chef Ryan Adams, Whole Foods Market, Mary's Free-Range Chicken, Quivira Vineyards and Winery, and Stone Brewing Co. Proceeds from this event will benefit local non-profits committed to the principles of Slow Food, including community gardens, farmers markets, and sustainability.
Purchase Tickets
Tickets must be purchased in advance and there will be no on-site ticket sales.
- Adults: $50
- Children 12 & under: $20
In the spirit of sustainability, we encourage you to bring your own wine glasses and utensils. There will be a prize awarded for best table setting.
Slow Food OC 2011 Barbeque Poster PDF
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Spring Work Day in Jerome Park CommUnity Garden
Volunteers Wanted for Special Work Day With the Grain Project
May 14, 9:30am-1pm
Jerome Park Community Garden
2302 S. Raitt Street, Santa Ana
SFOC is looking for 10-15 volunteers to help build a greenhouse and create garden walks between the raised beds in the Jerome Park CommUnity Garden. Join us in supporting the good work of the Grain Project and enjoy a potluck lunch afterwards. We are looking for bricks to line the pathways and encourage everyone to bring gardening gloves and gardening tools (if you have them) as well as a dish to share.
Come get dirty with us! To volunteer email Outreach Chair Claudia Chapel or call her at
(212) 957-1561.
 
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 Spring Potluck Theme: Chili!
Taste What's in Season with SFOC
Sunday, May 15th at 4 p.m.
Home of Cathy & Lynn Bowser, Costa Mesa
In anticipation of our participation in the Annual Tustin Cook-Off, we are specifically looking for new flavors and recipes for this year's entry! We encourage anyone with a special recipe to bring chili to this upcoming potluck. If you do plan to bring chili, please let our Events Chair Wayan Kaufman know in advance.
As always, we welcome all dishes that celebrate the bounty of the season so please bring whatever you feel inspired to share, chili or otherwise!
In addition to your dish, please a bring beverage to share. Be sure to bring your own place setting including glassware, utensils, plate, napkin and bowl if you would like to sample chili!. To reserve your space for the potluck, please reply to our events team. Address will be provided with reservation confirmation. See you there!
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Partnered with Slow Food Orange County - Don't forget to stop by our booth!
 Thursday, May 19 - "Food, Inc."
This Academy Award Nominee film reveals surprising and shocking truths about what we eat, how it's produced, and who we have become as a nation. The film interviews forward thinkers such as Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) to stimulate a deeper understanding of where we are with our food system and how it impacts us as people. 94 minutes
Meet up with friends and family and join us for a new film series that promises not only thought-provoking entertainment but also an evening of picnicking outdoors. Bring your own picnic dinner or buy something tasty from a gourmet food truck, the newest food experience sweeping the nation. Local food trucks, championing sustainability and fresh food, will be available before the film.
- Picnicking begins at 6:30 p.m., Film at Dusk
- Programs will be held at the Great Park's Farm & Food Lab.
- The films will be held outdoors on the lawn.
- Admission is free.
- Location is near the Sand Canyon exit for the 5 Freeway. For directions or more information please visit www.ocgp.org or call 949-724-7420.
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Tustin Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off!
 This year, Slow Food Orange County will be showing how delicious slow chili can be at the Tustin Chili Cook-Off on June 5. Our cooking team of Steering Committee members Roger McErlane, Linda Elbert, and Kim Allen and chili expert Brian Seveland is busy putting together a spectacular dish based on the principles of good, clean and fair food. While we hope to take home an award, our foremost goal is to share the spirit of slow food with the judges and tasters. If you'd like to come cheer us on, the event takes place at El Camino Real and Main St. in Tustin from 11am-5:30pm and admission is free. Be sure to arrive early before the chili is gone!
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SFOC Introduction to Permaculture, April 2011:
A Day in the Life of the Humus-sphere at Sprout Acres
The time breezed by in this food forest jungle as the slow food warriors ventured into gardens, orchard trees, and herb patches, smelling, tasting and picking our lunch as we took a walking tour with Dr. Bill Roley. His 40-year-old permculture experiments at his field station began as a vacant lot and are now a dark cool forest of food in every season. The Permaculture Institute of Southern California has been doing this kind of educational outreach for years and the enthusiasm of the Slow Food group was evident as they dove into the composting bins and collected humus to fertilize the vegetable plot, which was a task after lunch.
They were put into teams to design and plant a new garden. One lady commented that she had never had so many herbs, vegetables, and fruits so close to the kitchen before. This is the magic of permaculture -- to begin an agroforest as close to the kitchen table as you can, an expression of a Garden to Fork mentality.
Another man was peering into the worm bin and noticed so many creatures; it looks like the characters of a science fiction novel, just smaller. Dr. Roley, a tilthmaker, began his compost evangelist rap on the humus-sphere. In a spoonful of soil, there is a condominium high rise of microorganisms thriving. There are billions of bacteria; thousands of fungi and amoebas living together. They are alchemists bringing dead organic matter back to life. Soil life is the basis of fertility. These decomposers are the foundation of all our food webs. After harvesting a hot composting bin and screening a worm tray the group went on to weeding and rebuilding a garden plot. Where to put the vegetables and herbs in relationship to each other? The beans and cucumbers go here, for they climb, and the peppers and squash run on the ground so they go here, one of the garden ladies chimed in. So where do the onions go? Put them near the carrots and radishes, another suggested.
Lunch was shared and everyone began to find out they had been doing permculture activities in some aspect of their lives for years. How do you follow path of the sun and wind in designing your food spaces? What is the soil going to give us? How about water and irrigation, another asked. Pretty soon all were participating in a group fervor of teamwork and laughter. This regenerative spirit of agriculture was contagious. Our culture is the basis of the Slow Food movement, a participant suggested.
A tour of Dr. Roley's rooftop farm gave some of the apartment dwellers hope to bring fresh produce to their dining table. Fava beans and beets followed lettuce, parsley, and garlic as companion plantings. Everyone opened their eyes a little wider to the possibilities of homesite farming at Sprout Acres in Laguna Beach. Everyone left wanting to do more at their own houses and said let's do this again soon. Eight hours breezed by as the sun set on the ocean in this Riviera of the southern coast.
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Facebook Page is Moving
 Our Facebook Page is moving from a Group to a Fan Page due to a Facebook archiving process. They are discontinuing the current Group page we are using and we need to move our members over to our NEW Slow Food Orange County Facebook page.
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