Slow Food O'ahu News

Number 2016-1
Mailed January 16, 2016

Table of Contents

Food Justice Summit - January 18 and 20 on O'ahu

Hawaii Shochu Company Tour - January 23 (Slow Food O'ahu event)

Slow Food Farm Tour and Dinner at Kahumana Farms - January 30 (Slow Food O'ahu event)

Chinese New Year's Evening Romp - February 5 (Slow Food O'ahu event)

Public Lecture with Mark Bittman "The Future of Food" - February 18

Public Lecture with Professor Julie Guthman - February 25

Slow Food O'ahu Annual Meeting RECAP

A little bit of this and that ...

Food Justice Summit: Challenging Global Impacts of the Agrochemical Industry
Statewide Speaking Tour January 15 - 18, 2016
O'ahu Monday January 18, 6 - 8 p.m. UH Art 132 Auditorium
O'ahu Wednesday January 20, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the State Capitol

The Hawai'i Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA) and the Hawai'i Pesticide Network are sponsoring the Food Justice Summit this January, 2016. Two events are planned for O'ahu:

* A panel presentation at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa on Monday, January 18, 2016 at the Art 132 Auditorium.

* A convergence at the State Capitol on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 (Opening Day of the Session) for a demonstration and rally.

See the flyer below. For more information, visit http://www.hapahi.org/food-justice-summit where you will be able to view a larger, more readable version of the flyer, obtain information on presentations on other islands, and read the bios of the speakers. You may also call 808-212-9616.

(This is not a Slow Food O'ahu event but may be of interest to our members)

Hawaii Shochu Company Tour - January 23, 2016 - A FEW SLOTS REMAINING
66-542 Haleiwa Rd., Haleiwa 1:00 p.m.

Feasting well is about more than just plates of scrumptious food - it is also about THE DRINK! Slow Food O'ahu would like to invite its members to a real slow drink experience. Hawaiian SHOCHU Company is opening its doors to Slow Food O'ahu members for a rare tour of their facilities in Haleiwa. Ken Hirata is finally distilling his own shochu out of sweet potatoes in Haleiwa. Hawai'i, it turns out, is a great place to make sweet potato shochu, thanks to the temperate weather and abundance of locally grown, starchy, not-too-watery sweet potatoes.

Shochu is not well known outside of Japan, but for about a decade now, shochu consumption there has overtaken sake. Learn how this wonderful spirit is produced right here on our island with locally available ingredients. Speak with the producer, Ken Hirata, and ask all the burning questions you kept in the vault about distillation just for this occasion. We'll have an opportunity to taste the unique qualities of locally made shochu. Bring some fixings to share your favorite cocktail recipes.

For background information on shochu and the company, check out two articles by Martha Cheng in Honolulu Magazine, a 2013 article and 2014 article.

The cost is $15 and includes tastings. The tour is limited to only 8 people. Reserve your place at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hawaiian-shochu-company-tour-tickets-20137170820 (Note: registrations accepted after December 23 at noon)

Slow Food Farm Tour and Dinner at Kahumana Farms - January 30, 4:00 - 8:00 p.m.

86-660 Lualualei Homestead Road, Wai'anae, HI 96792
A FEW SLOTS REMAINING

Kahumana Farm & Cafe and Slow Food Oahu are partnering to provide a farm to table event on Saturday, January 30, 2016. The event will showcase the farm and cafe as an experimental ground for island sustainability and healthy food movement. Kahumana Farm & Café are part of a large 501(c)3 non-profit organization nestled in the back of Lualualei valley in Waianae. Its mission is "to co-create a healthy, inclusive and productive farm-based community with homeless families, people with disabilities and youth."We hope you can join us and help us spread the word about this event to your social networks.

The event will begin with a farm tour that will highlight the aquaponic system, free ranged poultry, permaculture food forest, production fields, and integration of social programs on the farm. Following the 4:00 p.m. tour of the farm, there will be a 5:30 p.m. outdoor meal served on the patio with outdoor lighting and tiki torches.There is an optional covered area in the unlikely event of rain.

All of the vegetables and the poultry (chicken or duck) will be from the farm. It will be accompanied with Kahumana Kooler which is a hibiscus, lemongrass, and other mixed herb cold tea. The multi-course meal will consist of:

1. Kahumana salad with mixed carrots, watermelon radish, green onion, and beet salad with house dressing

2. 'Ulu and kalamungay soup

3. Dill and cilantro hummus

4. Farm Fresh Poultry special

5. Kahumana liliko'i cheese cake.

There is a vegetarian/vegan option. It will be a nut and veggie filled Swiss chard roulade. Please order that option on EventBrite. It will be a BYOB event.

Entertainment will be provided by Lucie Lynch, a singer-songwriter with an angelic voice and wicked sense of humor. Lucie weaves original music with colorful tales from Lucie's road adventures www.lucielynchmusic.com . Help support Kahumana's long term vision and hope is to have the west-side be seen as a place of evolving local sustainability beyond organic farming that integrates the diverse communities that live here. Kahumana community is also taking an active role in this effort with other local organic farms in the region and hopefully 2016 will be a breakthrough year for all of us. Our goal for the evening is not only to share this beautiful organic farm and a wonderful meal but to generate a conversation for sustainability beyond organic farming and with the diverse communities on the west side.

Bring your shopping bags, as the Kahumana Market will be open where you can purchase fresh farm veggies and other value added products such as pesto, hummus, spicy cilantro sauce, dried herbs, and tea blends.

The cost of the experience is $70 for members of Les Dames d'Escoffier or Slow Food Oahu and $85 for non-members. To register, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/slow-food-oahu-kahumana-farm-cafe-farm-to-table-dinner-tickets-20067882577

Chinese New Year's Evening Romp - Friday, February 5
Chinatown 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. FREE - MEMBERS ONLY

Join other Slow Food members for the fun of fireworks and lion dances on the streets of Chinatown, with typical holiday foods available for purchase at the Chinese Cultural Plaza.

On the Friday night before the big weekend street fairs, many businesses are visited by lion dance troupes to bring good luck for the Year of the Monkey. Long strings of firecrackers loudly scare off any evil spirits. A festive spirit makes wandering the area a lot of fun. Entertainment is provided on the stage at the Chinese Cultural Plaza, where vendors also offer traditional foods such as jai (vegetarian monk's food), gin doi (Chinese doughnut) and gau (New Year pudding). Our group will enjoy a casual stroll together thru the action, ending at the Cultural Plaza where participants can choose to purchase their celebratory dinner.

By chance, this year's event will also be First Friday, so the Art Gallery Walk in the area will add to the options for an enjoyable evening in Chinatown.

This event is limited to 8 Slow Food members-only attendees - free event, just for fun. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chinese-new-year-romp-tickets-20676384623

The meeting point will be sent to ticket holders 48 hours in advance.

Public Lecture "The Future of Food" with Mark Bittman - February 18
UH Manoa Architecture Auditorium, 6:00 p.m.

Please join Mark Bittman, NY Times food columnist and one of America's most well-known and widely respected food writers, for an evening to discuss "The Future of Food." Mark will share the reasons why a different kind of relationship with food is both necessary and within reach -- for Hawai'i and beyond.

For more on Mark Bittman and his writing, please see the following URLs:
http://markbittman.com/
http://bittman.blogs.nytimes.com/

The event is co-sponsored by the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and West O'ahu, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, the Hawai'i Center for Food Safety, and the Hawaii Food Policy Council. The event is free and open to the public. There is a $6 parking fee on campus.

(This is not a Slow Food O'ahu event but may be of interest to our members)

Public Lecture with Professor Julie Guthman - February 25
UH Manoa Architecture Auditorium Room 205, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.

The University of Hawai'i at Manoa is pleased to announce The 2016 Geography Distinguished Speaker Series with Professor Julie Guthman of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

She will present a public lecture (title TBA) on Thursday, February 25, from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. at the Architecture Auditorium Room 205, with a reception starting at 5 p.m.

She is the author of award winning books: "Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California." (UC Press, 2004, 2nd edition 2014) and "Weighing in: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism" (UC Press, 2011) and other articles in critical human geography, political ecology and agro-food studies. Her current work is on on soil fumigant, strawberry production and farm worker health - in the face of the phase out of methyl bromide by the Montreal Protocol.
http://www.booksandideas.net/Alternative-Foods-Activism-and-Strawberries-in-California.html

Her faculty profile (with a link to her CV) can be found at:
http://feministstudies.ucsc.edu/faculty/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=jguthman

(This is not a Slow Food O'ahu sponsored event but may be of interest to our members)

Slow Food O'ahu Annual Meeting and Potluck - RE-CAP
T0shirt

The Slow Food O'ahu Annual Meeting brought together approximately 38 folks on January 10, 2016 for a wonderful culinary, learning, and sharing event, led by President Mae Isonaga. We had members and guests visiting from the mainland and as far away as France.

Our Slow Food O'ahu Chapter currently has approximately 120 active members with a mailing list of approximately 700 for our e-newsletter. We are on Facebook with 800+ likes and MeetUp with 300 followers. Our EventBrite list is 289 individiuals. Mahalo to Francine Wai for the newsletter and David Bangert for our Social Media outreach.

Treasurer David Bangert reported that at the beginning of 2015, we had $10,700 in the bank. At the beginning of 2016, we had $15,400 in the bank. Thus, in the past year the funds were increased by $4,700. We expect a large expenditure this year from was due to sending delegates to Terra Madre. At each of the many events we hold, we price to cover our overhead of 17% plus make a small profit due to the large number of hours that volunteers contribute to the function and the hosts who generously allow us to use their homes as venues. We held more than 20 events in the past year. A re-cap of the events included the following:

* Tours: (Kualoa Ranch Oyster Farm, Edible Tour of Foster Botanical Garden, eight Chinatown Food and Culture Tours, and four Foraging Walking Tours);
* Cooking Events: Turkish Dinner, Buddhist Feast, Indian Cooking Class, Pasta Making Class, Gnocchi Class, Lunch in Provence;
* Large Culinary Events: Slow Food Wai'ahole Luau, and The Taste of the Ark Dinner
* A Seed Saving Workshop and Seed Exchange & Gardening Fair
* Three Slow Suppers at Home

Chinatown Coordinator Tom Sheeran noted that our eight Chinatown tours have netted about $1000 for our various activities.

Our Board noted the launch of our Snail of Approval - with seven snails awarded in 2015. Those seven snails are noted on our website under local resources. Nina Bermudez, our Snail of Approval lead board member, was not present.

Slow Food Hawai'i Regional Governor Laurie Carlson noted the the recognition of seven foods on The Ark of Taste of the USA and the upcoming events events of Slow Food USA and Slow Food International, and the region's upcoming support to Terra Madre in Italy in September 2016.

We thank Hunter Heavillin, who spoke on "Permaculture in Hawai'i" (permaculture = permanent + agriculture). And, of course we thank all those who contributed to THE BEST POTLUCK ever.

A little bit of this and that ...

* In support of our community, Slow Food O'ahu volunteers jumped into the kitchen and prepared healthful snacks for the reception following the World Aids Day service at St. Andrews Cathedral. Kokua Market donated an organic turkey, and Slow Food O'ahu went to work preparing organic local veggies and dip, turkey and veggie roll-ups, and other treats for the event. Purchases for the event were carefully made to support local co-producers as much as possible. Our efforts were much appreciated.

* With defer

ence to Slow Food International in Italy, there's another event, a competition, worth noting... The Gelato World Cup. Hawai'i Gelato Maker Dirk Koeppenkastrop will captain Team USA to compete in the Gelato World Cup in Rimini, Italy this month. For more information, have some gelato and go to http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/Biting-Commentary/January-2016/Hawaii-Gelato-Maker-Will-Compete-in-the-Gelato-World-Cup-as-Captain-of-Team-USA/#.VpdX4IR8vdk

* Announcing: A free, six week course "An Introduction to the U.S. Food System: Perspectives from Public Health" offered through Johns Hopkins University in partnership with Coursera. Topics include food security, food animal production, aquaculture, food waste, and the farm bill. The course will be led by a team of faculty and staff from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Guest lecturers will include experts from a variety of disciplines, including public health and agriculture. Verified certificates are available for a fee.

* Mark your calendar ... with more information forthcoming ... The Indigenous Crop Biodiversity Festival (ICBF 2016) is a pre-event to the IUCN World Conservation Congress that will be held in Honolulu next September. The dates are August 24 - 30, 2016. The ICBF aims to celebrate the fabulous diversity of Hawaiian crop cultivars and Maui's collaborative efforts in conservation. For more information go to http://www.icbfmaui.com

Slow Food Leadership

Slow Food O'ahu Officers: Mae Isonaga, Chair; David Bangert, Treasurer; Sharon Odom, Secretary; Francine Wai, Newsletter Editor; Nina Bermudez, Membership and E-mail correspondent; Matthew Lynch, Board Member; Tom Sheeran, Slow Food Chinatown Tour Coordinator.

Slow Food Regional Governor: Laurie Carlson

Facebook manager: David Bangert

Webmaster: Wendy Hee

Slow Food Membership

To join, go to the http://donate.slowfoodusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Member_Benefits

Quick Links

Slow Food O'ahu Convivium website

Slow Food Hawai'i Convivium website

Slow Food Maui Convivium website

Slow Food USA website

Slow Food International website

Contact reservations.sfoahu@yahoo.com for information on our events.
Contact slowfoodoahu@yahoo.com for general information

Slow Food O'ahu on Facebook. Please click here to check us out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slow-Food-Oahu/163195710427565