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Dinner with the Cows
Sunday, August 22, 2010
5:30pm
Sunnyfield Farm Rt. 136
Peterborough, NH
(603) 924-4436
Join us for a sumptuous family style feast!
This extraordinary event will be held under a tent in one of the farm fields, surrounded by the Sunnyfield Cows.
Menu
A fusion feast:
Monadnock Region meets Near East
Moroccan Grilled Chicken
Grilled Lamb Sausages & Lamb Kabobs
Grilled Vegetable Kabobs
Tabbouleh Salad
Moroccan Cous Cous
There will be selection of vegetarian dishes and scrumptious desserts with fresh from the farm cream.
The meats, veggies, milk, cream, eggs to be served will be Sunnyfield Farm’s own.
Salads made with local greens, potatoes, and vegetables.
Tickets: Adults $50
Ticket price includes a Dinner with the Cows T-shirt
Children under 6 get in free
Children 6 to 12 pay half price
BYOB
Dan and Ruth Holmes will be discussing ”Life on the Farm”
This event will benefit the Slow Food Monadnock Chapter and the effort to keep food good, clean and fair.
Bring your friends and family!
Be well, go slow!
The big and beautiful Red Delicious is the stereotypic but tasteless apple that has come to dominate the supermarket shelf, comprising more than 40 percent of all apples sold in big box chain stores. Add just 10 more varieties that are carried by such stores and that percentage rises to 90. In contrast, it’s not 15, it’s not 150, not 1,500, but something like 15,000 varieties of apple that have been named, grown, and eaten in North America. Clearly, the biodiversity of domestic apples is threatened. Why?
Well, in our 40 years, programs on apples have always been a popular draw at the Harris Center, and that’s no exception in the past few months, when we’ve had visits from Tom Burford (Professor Apple), and Ben Watson, of Renewing America’s Fruit Tradition, an alliance of nonprofits that promote food traditions and biodiversity. Here’s what they explained.
With today’s mass marketing, a relatively few large nurseries control what gets planted in large commercial orchards. These supply the big box stores, which in turn want volumes of big and pretty apples. Trouble is you can’t tell a book or an apple by its cover! What’s needed here is apple counseling and a drink to the past.
Supporting the growing number of small-scale “micro” cider, restoration, and specialty orchards, including CSAs, may be the answer. Specialty growers, including backyard “citizen pomologists,” are relearning the art of grafting and the science of selecting varieties that please the palate and meet objectives – from getting an early-season “apple fix” to growing late-season storage apples, like the new disease-resistant Gold Rush that taste great well into the winter months. The art of grafting is key, since seeds of any apple are all genetically different and grow into trees that only rarely produce apples with the taste of the parent tree. So, both branches that bear the desired varieties of apples and a good virus-free root stock are required for grafting.
As Ben and Professor Apple always say, aim to eat and grow to eat locally. So you need to know your apple bioregion: the varieties that historically fare well where you live. For instance, Professor Apple says that the popular Honeycrisp grows best in the Midwest and Great Lakes Region. The rare Granite Beauty, which Ben and Slow Food Monadnock are working to save, actually originated nearby in Weare, New Hampshire. Yet even Thomas Jefferson kept trying unsuccessfully to grow the classic variety Esopus Spitzenberg, one of his favorites. It’s one that does well in our bioregion but not central Virginia. Jefferson knew, however, that to please the birds at Monticello, he should plant the southern crab (Malus angustifolia), a small-fruited crabapple and one of only three apple species (all crabs) actually native to North America.
Finally, you’ve got to know your “spitters,” the many varieties of apples that don’t taste good (too tart or bitter) but have the specific qualities for making the best apple butter, wine, sauce, or cider. In fact, the cider apple varieties may be the once and future kings of apple culture. Cider (once it’s fermented) stores well and was used extensively for barter and even currency in Colonial days. At the time, there was plenty of demand, since wine grapes were very difficult to grow in Colonial America. Now, with today’s rapidly growing interest in local “micro” cider producers, it seems that hard cider is returning as a sophisticated drink produced by local artisans from local apples.
Reprinted with permission from the “Hearsay”‘ a Harris Center publication.
Join the Harris Center and Slow Food for a special evening event focused on the conservation and celebration of America’s incredibly rich fruit culture.
When: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Harris Center for Conservation Education, 83 King’s Highway, Hancock, NH
Our presenters will include:
Tom Burford from Virginia. Also known as “Professor Apple,” Tom is an orchard consultant, fruit historian, and nurseryman, whose books include “Apples: A Catalog of International Varieties.” Tom’s family has been involved in the Virginia fruit industry for seven generations, since the early 18th century. He serves as a horticultural advisor to Monticello and other historic sites and museums. Twenty years ago, Burford rediscovered the once-famous “Harrison” cider apple, long considered extinct, at a site in New Hampshire. He is truly a national treasure and a walking encyclopedia on fruit growing.
Roger Swain, the former science editor for Horticulture magazine and for 15 years served as host of the PBS show “The Victory Garden.” Like Tom, Roger has forgotten more about plants than most people will ever know. He splits his time between his home in Newton, MA and his family farm in Greenfield, NH, where he leads tours of his amazing ornamental and edible gardens, including an extensive home orchard. Roger is the author of several books, including “The Practical Gardener” and “Field Days,” and he is a founding member of the Slow Food Monadnock chapter. Roger will talk about how the modern half-high blueberry was developed nearby, at Dr. Frederick Coville’s farm in Greenfield, on the flanks of Crotched Mountain.
Ben Watson, co-leader of Slow Food Monadnock and Chairman of Slow Food USA’s Biodiversity Committee, which nominates special and endangered, place-based foods to the international Ark of Taste program. Ben is the longtime Senior Editor for Chelsea Green Publishing and a freelance writer whose books include “Cider,” “Hard and Sweet” and “Taylor’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables.” A former Yankee Books editor, Ben has lived in the Monadnock Region for most of his adult life and continues his garden preservation work, maintaining heirloom bean varieties through Seed Savers Exchange and operating the not-for-profit Monadnock Heritage Nursery, which specializes in growing rare, endangered, and regional fruit varieties for homeowners and small commercial orchards. He is a Director of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, based in Italy, and a consultant for the RAFT Alliance (Renewing America’s Food Traditions), which is actively working on a Heritage Orchard Initiative to identify and conserve historic apples and other American heirloom fruits.
Following the presentations, Tom and Ben will conduct a heritage apple tasting, showcasing a wide variety of amazingly delicious, rare, or just interesting varieties. There will also be a fruit dessert and coffee reception prepared by members of Slow Food Monadnock.
Sponsored by Sponsored by Slow Food Monadnock, admission is free, but donations are encouraged to assist the work of Slow Food Monadnock, which promotes and supports local growers and food producers and mounts educational programs such as this one.
Preregistration is required. Call (603) 525-3394 or email Jacobs@harriscenter.org by November 2.
During September, our national membership drive brought in more than 4,500 new members — more than ten times the number of new members who join in an average month! Thank you for getting the word out.
Because of the overwhelming positive response, the special offer is extended through October 15. For one more week, a gift of any amount will make you a member. And thanks to the generosity of one of our supporters, Mr. Donald Sussman, the offer is even more compelling: Mr. Sussman has offered to match all donations, dollar for dollar, given as part of this extended membership drive.
There is no limit to this match, so every new gift will have double the impact. Please do what you can to continue welcoming people to join Slow Food USA at whatever level they can give.
Our voice will be louder than ever as more people join the cause for good, clean and fair food. Thank you again for everything you are doing to grow the movement.
It’s time to take action to end the factory farm bailout.
If you care about the environment, rural America and family farmers, please forward this notice to a friend.
Factory farms pose a real threat to our communities, our natural resources and the livelihood of hardworking family farmers who dedicate their lives to raising poultry and livestock in ways that safeguard our air, water and public health. With so many farmers struggling in this tough economy, the last thing they need is to have the USDA funneling money to factory farms. We need everyone who supports family farmers and sustainable farming policies to make themselves heard now.
Please take the next step by forwarding the below link to all your friends and family to join the campaign.
Join us in asking Secretary Vilsack to end guaranteed government loans to factory poultry and hog confinements.
Click here to sign now: <http://fdn.actionkit.com/cms/sign/Factory_Farm_Bailout/>
Thanks again for all you do!
This is it – your last chance!
September is nearly over and with it our Membership Drive, where a gift of any amount renews your membership to Slow Food USA.
This month we have waived our traditional $60 membership fee because we want to grow our movement, adding more voices to our powerful network of change makers demanding a just and healthy food system. We want you back!
With your help we can tell our elected officials they have a duty to look out for America’s children, and that right now they’re letting kids down. School lunch programs are so underfunded that most schools can only afford to serve fast food and junk food – setting kids up for a lifetime of bad eating and bad health.
We need a school lunch program that invests in our children’s welfare, protects kids from the foods that make them sick, and links local schools to their local communities and job force.
It’s up to us to give Congress a reality check, and that’s why we need your help. Stand with Slow Food USA – give what you can and renew today!
Ever get the feeling that multinational food corporations are just trying to sell you a bunch of junk in a pretty package? Well, the new Smart Choices® Program proves that hunch to be true.
Recently, an alliance of over a dozen giant food conglomerates and some industry “experts” came up with a new nutrition labeling program meant to help consumers make “smarter food and beverage choices.”1 You might be surprised what they define as a “Smart Choice”: products like Froot Loops®, Keebler Cookie Crunch® and Lucky Charms®.
Are they serious? In an age when childhood obesity and type II diabetes has become an epidemic, labeling sugar cereals as smart choices is unacceptable. Please join us in telling the FDA and USDA to investigate the Smart Choices® Program and put an end to deceptive labeling.
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/39?akid=23.15803.IVSK5L&t=1
The new Smart Choices® label, a large, bright green checkmark, is starting to appear on packages of processed food across the country thanks to the help of major corporations like ConAgra, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Kraft, PepsiCo, Tyson Foods and Unilever.2 For only $100,000, a company can join the Smart Choices® program3 and “recommend” products that contain as much as 44% sugar to your children4
This new label is a sign of everything that is wrong with food industry driven labeling programs.
According to Michael Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the criteria for the new “smarter food” label is so low that: “You could start out with some sawdust, add calcium or Vitamin A and meet the criteria.”5
Jacobson, who was on the original panel of experts that worked to create the nutritional standards for the Smart Choices® program, resigned last September in disgust because the results were so far in favor of the industry.
Thankfully, the FDA and USDA have taken notice. The agencies sent a joint letter saying they would “be concerned if any FOP (front of package) labeling systems…had the effect of encouraging consumers to choose highly processed foods…”6 The letter is a good start, but The FDA and USDA need to do more. The Smart Choices program will encourage bad food choices if it’s allowed to proceed. And the FDA and USDA have the ability to stop it.
Please sign this petition now and tell the FDA and the USDA that Froot Loops® is NOT a Smart Choice for our children.
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/39?akid=23.15803.IVSK5L&t=1
Thanks for all you do,
Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! Team
Title: Outstanding in the Field
Location: Peterbourough, NH
Description: Lisa Beaudoin, farmer, of Herban Living Farm, Temple, NH and Mike Webb, Chef at the Pearl Restaurant, Peterborough are hosting a special fundraising dinner Outstanding in the Field… great food, music and dance. Contact Lisa@herbanliving.org for more information.
Start Time: 15:00
Date: 2009-10-18
End Time: 18:00
The Eat In/Potluck at Kin Schilling’s Cornucopia Garden in Hancock on Labor Day was a fun and well attended event. One of the highlights of the event, besides the great folks, food and music, was watching several children help Kin make pizzas which were baked in Kin’s on site wood-fired bread/pizza oven.
Thanks to Kin for all the work invovled in organizing this event. We gathered lots of signatures for the Slow Food School lunch program and signed up some new members.
~ Aasta
Due to the weather forecast, Dinner with the Cows, scheduled for tonight — Saturday, August 29—at Sunnyfield Farm is canceled. The events committee will meet to plan a substitute event, so we’ll keep you posted.
Sunnyfield Farm really needs a generator. The ice storm situation was an extreme hardship for Dan and Ruth. Not only did they have to milk all the cows by hand, they spent most of those days carrying water to the 40 cows and fowl from quite a distance…..
Please consider making a donation in lieu of your dinner tickets. Checks can be sent to Slow Food Monadnock, 121 East Road, Greenfield, NH made out to Sunnyfield Farm(memo post:generator fund) or be given directly to Dan and Ruth.
If you have any fundraising ideas please share with me!! ~ Aasta
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