“Food Fight” Screening in Westwood
Posted on | March 12, 2010 | No Comments
Chris Taylor has alerted us that his documentary, Food Fight, will be screened as part of the “Something to Talk About” documentary film series, a unique independent series of films that are meant to provoke conversation about positive change in American society. The films will screen monthly at the Crest Theater in Westwood.
For those who haven’t already heard about or seen Food Fight, it’s an award-winning film about about how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement rebelled against big agribusiness to launch the local organic food movement. The film stars many supporters and friends of the Slow Food movement: Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, Suzanne Goin, Marion Nestle, Wolfgang Puck, MacArthur Genius Grant Winner (and urban farmer) Will Allen, and 20 other key figures in the progressive food movement. Unique among food films currently in release, Food Fight is a positive celebration of the relationship of farmers, chefs, consumers, and activists to the economics of how our food is grown.
A panel discussion after the screening will include Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times and Evan Kleiman of KCRW’s “Good Food.”
When: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 7:30pm
Where The Crest Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles
Cost: $13.00 per person. A portion of the ticket price goes to Global Green, Food Fight’s social action partner.
Tickets can be purchased in advance via www.indiedocs.net.
In the meantime, enjoy the film’s trailer:
Tags: evan kleiman > Food Fight > food on film > russ parsons > to watch
Los Angeles Mycological Society presents “All Things Truffle”
Posted on | March 10, 2010 | No Comments
David Kahn of the Los Angeles Mycological Society has extended an invitation to Slow Food Los Angeles members and friends to attend the next LAMS meeting featuring Robert Chang, Managing Director of the American Truffle Company, who will be speaking on “All Things Truffle.”
When: Monday, March 15, 2010 at 7:30pm
Where: The Times-Mirror Meeting Room at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles. Visit the LAMS website for directions.
Cost: Free
Mr. Chang’s presentation will start with a brief discussion of the truffle’s natural habitats and the state of the truffle supply/demand worldwide, and will proceed to cooking with truffles and the reality behind truffle oils. The bulk of the talk will be on the science of truffle cultivation, with focus on important factors that determine cultivation success.
Mr. Chang will also touch upon the unique ways American Truffle Company has been able to gather, analyze and mine its substantial amount of field data, which forms the basis of ATC’s
ever-improving scientific methodologies and best practices, in addition to continued ongoing research in the laboratory.
Based in San Francisco, Robert Chang loves to cook, especially with all kinds of mushrooms. Prior to founding ATC, he held a number of management roles in product development, sales and
marketing in high tech.
Visitors are encouraged to bring in any mushrooms they may find for identification and display.
Emily in Italy: Market Education
Posted on | March 10, 2010 | No Comments
Sunday, March 7, 2010
We have now almost been here for a week. It is a Sunday, which seems like an especially relaxing day of the week here in Italy – almost nothing is open and very few people are out. None of the markets are open, so it is important to shop on Saturday to have food to cook for Sunday.
Yesterday morning we went out and joined the rest of Parma in shopping. There was a huge outdoor market of clothes and house wares that went on for blocks in the centro storico (historic center) and a few stands selling fruits and vegetables and cheese. We are still figuring out if there is a bigger weekly outdoor market for food. I asked a few older women about this in the morning while we were having our cappuccinos at a local bar and they said that there wasn’t much out yesterday, likely because it was cold and drizzling outside. Here is a picture of one of the few produce stands we found, where we bought some beautiful eggplants.
We already have a few favorite spots for buying food. One is a salumeria where they also sell wonderful homemade pasta. Last Wednesday we shopped there for the first dinner we made at our new place and we tried some of the tortellini di zucca (pumpkin) e di erbetta (swiss chard). Both were excellent and I would like to learn how to make them myself from scratch. We also found some beautiful artichokes at a nearby produce market which we cooked according to the directions of the woman selling them and they were delicious. The lettuce and radicchio are fabulous and abundant as well and there are types that I have never seen before. Wanting to learn new recipes, I have been asking everyone about how they prepare things and also I found a few cookbooks at the library about the foods of Emilia-Romagna. We made a recipe for lentils with pancetta (Italian bacon) that turned out great, and gives a nice little twist to how I would normally make lentils. Now we are eating almost exclusively at home (except for some snacks) and trying to prepare as much as we can using ingredients and preparation techniques from the region. I can’t wait to cook with some new Italian friends though, as there is so much I want to learn firsthand.
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TOMATOMANIA! 2010
Posted on | March 7, 2010 | Comments Off
The dates for the 20th TOMATOMANIA! sales in California have been announced. These are perennial favorites for Slow Food Los Angeles members and friends, and a consistently great source for a stunning array of tomato varieties:
++ March 20 and 21, 2010, from 9:00am until 5:00pm
San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas
++ March 26, 27, and 28, 2010, 9:00am until 5:00pm–almost 300 varieties of seedlings
The Tapia Brothers’ Farm Stand
5251 Hayvenhurst Avenue in Encino
Wearing your TOMATOMANIA! t-shirt will get you a 10% discount off your purchase!
++ April 9 and 10, 2010, 9:00am until 5:00pm
Otto and Sons Nursery in Fillmore
++ April 17 and 18, 2010
Cornerstone Place in Sonoma
++ April 30, May 1 and 2, 2010
Los Angeles Garden Show at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Garden
301 Baldwin Avenue in Arcadia
Emily in Italy: Arrival!
Posted on | March 7, 2010 | 2 Comments
March 1, 2010, part 1
It’s now just 2 hours until we arrive in Milan. Local time is 6:30am. As we are now so close, I can’t sleep anymore – I am so ready to have a cappuccino and see what this next phase of our lives will be like….
The trip has been good but surreal — we are exhausted, dazed, and a little worried, but overall completely happy. These last 48 hours have got me thinking about a few themes that I think will be important for these next nine months. In addition to studying the Slow Food movement, I hope to learn how to slow down in general. Evidenced by the way I worked up to less than two days before moving overseas, I have become so used to having way more going on at any given moment than is realistic. It seems like I’ve been going on a near steady rush of adrenaline for years. I love being busy and getting involved in things I am care about, but this type of schedule really has to stop.
Packed and ready!
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What it means to live in a food desert
Posted on | March 5, 2010 | No Comments
Katharine Alexander, who worked with Slow Food Los Angeles and is now affiliated with Slow Food Urban San Diego, accompanied Monnai, a Los Angeles teen, on a tour through her neighborhood to understand her food choices–or rather, the lack of choices. Kat documented their time together, and her video–and Monnai’s words–offer an unvarnished look at the conditions the Obama administration is working to eliminate in cities across the country.
Kat’s notes to the video remind us that South Los Angeles has the highest rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes in Los Angeles County. Just as Slow Food supports meaningful changes to the National School Lunch Program via its Time For Lunch campaign related to the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, it also supports the Obama administration’s program to eliminate food deserts such as the one in Kat’s video via the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI).
Community Gardening: From Garden to Plate
Posted on | March 5, 2010 | 2 Comments
Al Renner, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Community Garden Council and Garden Master of Lavender Hill Farm, invites Slow Food Los Angeles members and friends to two events focusing on Garden to Plate, a multi-pronged effort to promote fresh food grown locally.
When: Friday, March 19, 2010 beginning at 7:30pm
Where: The G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice
What: A presentation and open discussion about Garden to Plate with Al Renner and his friends and colleagues. Al Renner’s experiences growing up on an Illinois farm and his deep involvement in the community gardening movement in Los Angeles provide him with a unique perspective on the evolution of attitudes toward food security, community building, healthy foods and nutrition over time; the issues and opportunities the movement faces today; and new strategies for cultivation and community building that may lead us into the future.
When: Sunday, March 21, 2010 from 8:30am until noon
Where: Lavender Hill Farm, 525 Solano Avenue, Los Angeles
What: An open house at Lavender Hill Farm! The public is invited to visit this four-acre site comprised of vegetable beds, permaculture terraces, and a fruit tree orchard nestled on the hillside above Solano Canyon Community Garden. Mark Donofrio of Larchmont Grill, Michael Duddie of Mirabelle Restaurant, and farm manager Charles Lee will join Al Renner to answer questions about the restaurant-supported agriculture program initiated in 2009.
Tags: al renner > community gardens > garden-to-plate > lavender hill farm > Los Angeles Community Garden Council
Street Closures and the Hollywood Farmers’ Market
Posted on | March 5, 2010 | Comments Off
We’ve received several inquiries about this Sunday’s Hollywood Farmers’ Market, specifically whether the planned street closures in connection with the Academy Awards® ceremony at Hollywood and Highland would close the market.
Our understanding is that the market will be open for business as usual. However, depending on the route you take to the market, you may have to detour around streets that will be closed in preparation for the event.
The map below (in larger form with list of the street closures by day) is available on the Oscars® website:
Organic Garden Project
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | No Comments
Organic Garden Project is a young but growing website dedicated to chronicling the development of organic gardens in a variety of settings. As noted on their site:
Organic Garden Project exists to bring the community of local sustainable food producers together. OGP is a hub of information regarding urban farms and gardens that are already in existence as well as ideas for the future of local sustainable food production.OGP will work daily to compile inspiring and informative articles, interviews, videos and photos about local sustainable food production. We also post the occasional “random dose of inspiration” which is not specific to food production but always promises to inspire.
OGP invites urban farmers, community gardeners, city planners, designers, architects and others who have an interest in the sustainable production of local food to discuss ideas and share resources. Our hope is that through this exchange those that are interested in starting farms or gardens in their own community will gain the insight and inspiration to launch a project and find a community of support on OGP that will help them to succeed. By bringing the design community together with the farming and gardening community we can create new and innovative ways to bring affordable healthy food to all communities.
With the growing interest in school gardens, urban farming, and community gardens, Organic Garden Projects is a site worth visiting frequently to learn about and find inspiration in a range of projects not limited to southern California.
Currently on the site, visitors can learn about a “farm bus” in Richmond, Virginia that brings organic produce to communities that don’t have ready access; the healthy food project of Carpinteria High School in Santa Barbara county; hydroponic window farms; and the LA Sprouts program at the Milagro Allegro Community Garden.
Organic Garden Project can also be found on Twitter under the handle @cityfarms.
Tags: community gardens > organic garden project > to read
Getting ready for the journey
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | No Comments
Emily has penned the following entry as she prepares to travel from Los Angeles to Italy for a fellowship at the University of Gastronomic Sciences:
Here it goes…this is my first blog post!
It is now a few days until we leave and last Friday was the first in a series of many good-byes. I went to a party for the LA Sprouts program that we recently started at the Milagro Allegro garden. LA Sprouts is an after-school program we designed for 4th and 5th graders in Highland Park that is focused around cooking and gardening in order to prevent obesity. This project, which we launched about a month ago, has been an inspiring example of community collaboration – we have volunteers from USC’s Childhood Obesity Research Center (CORC) where I work, Milagro Allegro Garden itself, Homegirl Cafe, and the Master Gardeners, as well as support from many organizations including Slow Food LA, Anolon Cookware, and Whole Foods.
I can’t express how much I love working with the kids at the garden. I am not so sure about being referred to as Dr. V (for Ventura), which is how the kids call me, but am loving seeing how much more receptive they are to trying new vegetables at the garden compared to the students I have taught in a classroom. One of my favorite moments at LA Sprouts was when I asked the kids how they would rate (on a scale of 1-10) the salad we made out of kale, radishes, oranges, and feta (not a typical kid-friendly combo). The lowest answer was 9, and my favorite response was “20, because WE made it!” This whole experience is bringing me back to working at the Edible Schoolyard as an intern back in ’98, which was a major turning point for me. That same sense of magic is coming back 12 years later, and it seems appropriate that I am getting back to what initially inspired me in this field after 6 intense years of working at USC and doing my MPH and PhD in Preventive Medicine.
So tonight, Nicole, aka Dr. G, the garden director and one of the co-leaders of the project, invited us all over to her house, which is across from the garden. She made an amazing tortilla soup, a salad from the garden, and two cakes – lemon olive oil and flourless chocolate. Jaimie, aka Dr. D, who is leading the LA Sprouts effort, gave a goodbye toast that expressed just what I was thinking: We are finally doing what we have been wanting to do here in LA for so long. It is tough to be leaving LA when I feel like I am just starting in on a project that I love so much, getting even more involved in Slow Food LA, and finally feeling rooted in the community. Am I really leaving now? But as I drove away tonight, I was content.
One thing that is encouraging me the most is that one of my first nutrition students, Tatiana, who has since become a friend, came with me to the garden today and will be volunteering in my place each week while I am gone. And as Lisa, a mentor and friend from Slow Food LA reminded me, I am not really leaving, just taking a little 9-month sabbatical of sorts. I will definitely be in touch, and am looking forward to bringing what I learn back to LA. For example, Nicole just heard that she is receiving a donation of a custom-built pizza oven for the garden, so part of my mission will be to do some R&D for pizza recipes while Paul and I are in Italy. That is definitely a mission that I will happily accomplish. After all, how can I be feeling sad? We are moving to Italy of all places!!!
Now, I guess it is time to think about packing!
Buona fortuna, Emily!
Posted on | February 21, 2010 | 2 Comments
Many Slow Food Los Angeles members and friends first heard of Emily Ventura, the chairperson of our Social Action committee, in connection with our chapter’s participation in Slow Food USA’s Time For Lunch campaign. Emily not only managed volunteer organizers at all six of the Los Angeles-area Eat-Ins but also took the lead role in coordinating the largest of them, held at the Milagro Allegro Community Garden in Highland Park. Emily efficiently, tirelessly, and pleasantly worked with the board and volunteers of the Milagro Allegro Community Garden, Homegirl Cafe, her colleagues at the USC Childhood Obesity Research Center, management and staff at Whole Foods Arroyo Parkway, and Slow Food Los Angeles volunteers.
Others have read of Emily’s efforts to bring nutrition education to working families though the Los Angeles Times’ “Pantry Raid” feature (see here and here and here) and of her role in developing the L.A. Sprouts program for 4th- and 5th-grade students at the Loreto Elementary School.
So it is with pride and affection that we share the news that Emily is about to embark on an exciting journey that will take her away from Slow Food Los Angeles, at least for the remainder of 2010. For the rest of the year, as a Fulbright fellow, Emily will be engaged in a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. Co-founded by Slow Food International, the UNISG brings together undergraduate and graduate students from around the world to study academic and practical issues related to the business and culture of food. Although we will miss Emily, we’re already looking forward to her return to Los Angeles with a wealth of information and experience.
To shrink the distance between Los Angeles and the UNISG campus, and to let us learn vicariously, Emily has graciously agreed to share stories from her travels with us. We’ll post her updates and photos, and invite you to share your questions with her via the comments section on her posts.
Buona fortuna e buono viaggio, Emily!
News from the LA Sprouts Program
Posted on | February 20, 2010 | No Comments
The L.A. Sprouts after-school program at the Milagro Allegro Community Garden is in full swing. Reports thus far are that the 4th- and 5th-grade students from the Loreto Elementary School are quite the team of enthusiastic young gardeners and cooks!
To improve the quality of their lessons, the Milagro Allegro Community Garden is using a pair of mobile kitchen islands designed by Gideon Kleinman of Art Center’s College of Design in Pasadena. The islands serve as both storage and workspaces, and in tandem with the garden’s grill allow instructors to expand the variety of meals prepared. For more information about Gideon’s contribution, please see the announcement on the Milagro Allegro website.
We’re also delighted that through a partnership program with Slow Food USA, several sets of cookware and utensils for the program have been provided by Anolon. Anolon’s “Creating a Delicious Future” program benefits many nonprofits and educational organizations through donations of its cookware, utensils, tools, and other kitchen supplies. For L.A. Sprouts, Anolon’s assistance has meant that every student can participate in hands-on lessons, in this and future sessions of the program.
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