Past Events: 2006 Events: Another Busy Year!

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By Kimberly Wright

01/02/2007

A quick rundown of Slow Food Monterey Bay Events from the past year--

In January, we gathered for an old-fashioned winter farm dinner featuring pork raised by Thomas Farms. To start, we will offer winter squash soup to warm you. To accompany the pork, we hope that some of you will bring vegetable side dishes of root vegetables or winter greens. For dessert, we invite others of you to bring an old-fashioned pie of winter fruits or nuts.

Our February event was a benefit for a film-in-progress, "Food For Thought" (now retitled "Eat Industry"). This event was held at the home of Cynthia Jordan in Santa Cruz. Filmaker Lilach Dekel showed us scenes that had been roughly edited, and led a discussion about what she and her family had learned about food production in their journey around the U.S. For a current update, see the website at www.transformationfilms.com. Thanks to all of you who helped out with our wonderful spread of Slow hors d'oeuvres.

In March, member Greg Muck suggested that we stage a replay of the historic 1976 blind tasting of California vs. French wines in which the Califorians won. On two successive nights we gathered in smaller groups for blind tastings of wine accompanied by fabulous potluck feasts.

Our April gathering was a Spring Dinner of locally caught fish; members contributed spring vegetables and desserts.

We had a bonus gathering in April: at the invitation of Don Monkerud & Carol Hamilton, a group of us joined them for a private tasting and tour of Roudon Smith Winery. We followed this up with a potluck picnic.

We planned a Japanese-American picnic at the historic Redman House for May, but unfortunately this event was rained out. We'll try again next year. Our event schedule was already full for 2006.

June saw us gathering for our annual Freedom School Garden Dinner. Salmon season was disrupted this year, but we were fortunate in that we were able to purchase a locally-caught salmon off the boat for this event. To supplement crops grown in the school garden, produce for the event was donated by Live Earth Farm and Mariquita Farm. We raised $700 for the project at this event!

In July, we held a fundraiser at the Triple M to help send our Terra Madre delegates, Rebecca Thistlethwaite & Jim Dunlop of TLC Ranch, to Italy. Becky & Jim have been raising pastured poultry (with organic supplemental feed) for a couple of years now, and this year have graduated from Cornish cross chickens (the fast-growing breed that one usually finds) to slower growing birds with more flavor. They have also branched out into pigs, raised on organic pasture, organic feed, and raw milk. Chef Justin Severino prepared the meal featuring TLC-grown chicken & pork, and produce grown on the Triple M ranch by ALBA farmers. Organic wines were served to complement the meal. This event also benefited our host, ALBA.

In August we held a farm dinner at High Ground Organics which was also a benefit for the Open Space Alliance of Santa Cruz County. This dinner featured strawberry gazpacho, barbecued chickens from TLC Ranch and salads made from produce from High Ground. Dessert was a classic summer berry pudding.

In September we gathered at the home of Lauri & Craig Evans to explore the food of Turkey. Our goal was to explore a different cuisine, and to see how our locally-grown produce was much the same as that used in Turkey. Members brought an array of small dishes to start the meal, and we moved on to more vegetable dishes and a range of kebabs, followed by sweets. We sampled an amazing range of foods, both familiar and unfamiliar.

In October we joined with the Santa Cruz Convivium and the Dante Alighieri Society. We gathered at the sustainable farm of Convivium members Jean & Jerry Thomas, where we shared a potluck of delicious homemade foods and live Italian music, followed by an Italian sing-along.

In November we pit-roasted pork (the fresh ham and shoulder) from our TLC Ranch Berkshire pig. Members contributed side dishes and desserts made using local seasonal ingredients. Jim & Becky reported their experiences at Terra Madre.

December saw us gathering for our annual Dungeness Crab Dinner. This year we enjoyed Crab Cioppino, a local dish developed by Italian fishermen in the San Francisco area. Members were invited to bring California-Italian style antipasti or cookies from their family holiday traditions. California-grown Italian varietal wines were served.