Slow Food O'ahu News

Number 2016-2
Mailed February 6, 2016

Table of Contents

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

Public Lecture with Professor Julie Guthman - February 25

Slow Food Winter Foraging- February 27 (Slow Food O'ahu event)

Beyond Chardonnay - Wine Tasting - February 28 (Slow Food O'ahu event)

Mahi'ai Match-Up Agricultural Business Plan Contest - Deadline February 29

Local Foods, Local Places Initiative in Honolulu

A little bit of this and that ...

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 phaseout 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 Winter Foraging Tour - Saturday, February 27
Makiki 2:00 p.m.

Join us for one of our favorite regularly scheduled tours led by Dr. Nat Bletter of Madre Chocolate. Nat will take you on a foraging adventure in Makiki, where you will make amazing discoveries about wild edible plants you may have been snubbing as weeds, some of which may be in your own backyard. Learn about the incredible plant life in Makiki, and taste a variety of plants, and flowers, fruit and seeds. As we learned from Sunny Savage, author of Wild Food Plants of Hawaii, expanding your diet by including wild plants helps add to your gut's biodiversity! AND you may kokua and eradicate invasives by gathering and eating them!

At the end of the tour, Nat will put together a lovely wild plant salad to be enjoyed by all. Bring a fork and plate, and plastic bags for what you gather.

Be sure to wear sun, and/or rain protection and bring water.

See you in Makiki! Go just beyond the Hawaii Nature Center (2131 Makiki Hts. Rd.). We'll meet at the lower gate.

The cost is $15 for members; $20 for non-members. To register, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/slow-food-oahu-urban-foraging-tickets-21406502425

Beyond Chardonnay, Exploring the Wines of the Loire Valley - Sunday, February 28
Private home in Maunawili, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Slow Food 'Oah

u invites you to an informal tasting of wines from the Loire Valley and pupu potluck. From Muscadet on the Atlantic to Sancerre and Pouilly-sur-Loire in north central France, this cool-climate region produces a variety of food-friendly wines characterized by their minerality, freshness, zesty acidity, and good value. Leading our tasting will be Barbara Chu, former owner and wine director of Indigo Restaurant. During her years as a wine buyer and creator of the wine list, she favored responsibly farmed, food-friendly wines produced by small, family owned wineries that expressed the unique terroir of a region. She encourages people to go beyond the mass produced, big name wines, and instead to explore lesser known regions and varietals. For this tasting she will be selecting 5 wines from the Loire's main grape varieties-- Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, and Melon de Bourgogne.

Guests should bring a tasty pupu that complements the wine.

The cost for the event is $15 for members and $20 for non Slow Food members. Sign up early, as the event will be limited to 10 people. The location in Maunawili will be announced to participants 48 hours prior to the tasting.

To register go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-chardonnay-exploring-the-wines-of-the-loire-valley-tickets-21232009512

Mahi'ai Match-Up 2016 Agricultural Business Plan Contest
Deadline February 29, 2016

Kamehameha Schools is partnering with the community to work toward a sustainable Hawaiʻi by supporting the local farm industry and increasing food production here on our islands. They are proud to once again team up with Pauahi Foundation to present the Mahi'ai Match-Up 2-16 Agricultural Business Plan Contest.

Submit your agricultural business plan by February 29, 2016 for a chance to win an agricultural lease from Kamehameha Schools and start-up money from the Pauahi Foundation. Land will be made available

with free ground lease rent up to five years, but contestants must pay Real Property Tax for that time. After year five, contingent on the winner successfully implementing their plan per milestones to be mutually agreed upon by lessee and KS, the land will be leased for a longer term at normal KS agricultural lease rates.First place winner receives $20,000 and second place prize is $15,000. The competition is open to farmers, aspiring farmers and other agricultural producers including ranching, fishery and nursery proprietors. Also participating is the Ulupono Initiative.

To apply or for more information, visit http://www.pauahi.org/mahiaimatchup/index.html.

Local Foods, Local Places Initiative in Honolulu

Hawaii Community Development Authority (HCDA), the state agency guiding redevelopment in Kaka'ako, is preparing a new initiative to enhance the production, distribution, consumption, and reuse of local food in the area with the assistance of the federal government. HCDA was selected last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as one of 27 entities to participate in the second year of their national program called Local Foods, Local Places.

Local Foods, Loc

al Places helps people create walkable, healthy, economically vibrant neighborhoods through the development of local food systems. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), and the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), with support from the White House Rural Council.

Local Foods, Local Places aims to boost economic opportunities for local farmers and businesses, improve access to healthy local food, and promote childhood wellness.

Through Local Foods, Local Places, partner communities have worked on projects such as:

Opening year-round, downtown markets featuring foods from local farmers.
Planning cooperative grocery stores to help revitalize small-town main streets.
Creating centrally located community kitchens or food hubs to aggregate and market local foods.
Starting business incubators to help entrepreneurs launch food-related businesses on main streets.
Making it easier for people to walk or bicycle to farmers markets and local restaurants.
Helping schoolchildren to grow their own food, and making healthy local food accessible to families, including via SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits.
Developing community gardens in walkable, transit-accessible places.

In selecting Local Foods, Local Places partner communities, special consideration is given to communities in the early stages of developing local food enterprises and creating economically vibrant communities.

A kickoff meeting was held on February 5, 2016. To find out more information contact Daniel Simonich at HCDA at Daniel.p.simonich@hawaii.gov

A little bit of this and that ...

* Ken and Yumiko Hirata graciously welcomed Slow Food members to their Hawaiian Shochu Company in Haleiwa last month. They distill their Nami Hana shochu from locally grown Okinawan sweet potatoes, using traditional methods, and ceramic vats that are a hundred years old. Slow Food members sampled the legendary drink made from sweet potatoes grown nearby, and shared numerous pupus prepared by members to enjoy with the delightful shochu. The popular spirit from the batch sampled had already sold out; attendees are anxiously awaiting the next batch to purchase the coveted Nami Hana Shochu! Mahalo Ken and Yumiko.

* A small group of Slow Food members enjoyed a romp through Chinatown on Friday evening, February 5, 2016. The streets were jammed with crowds watching lion dancers perform while dodging deafening fireworks to welcome the Year of the Monkey. After meeting at Madre Chocolate (loyal

Slow Food supporters), we followed the action on King St. where banks and other businesses hosted the lion dance troupes to bring good luck for the coming year. The crowds made it hard to stay together, but that didn't dampen the fun, as there was always another loud spectacle nearby to enjoy. Eventually we made our way to the Chinese Cultural Plaza to take in the entertainment on the main stage and sample traditional foods such as gau, jai, and gin dui offered by the many vendors. Kung Hee Fat Choy.

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

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