Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin (CHEW)

Next Meeting

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
7:15 PM

“The Flavor of Wisconsin:

History and Culture Through Recipes”

Culinary historian Barbara Haber has written that if we really want to understand our past, we’ve got to “follow the food.” That’s particularly true in Wisconsin, whose food traditions reflect the richness of an ethnically and agriculturally diverse region. In this CHEW presentation on July 1st at 7:15PM, Terese Allen draws from her newly published second edition of The Flavor of Wisconsin, a food history with 460 recipes originally penned by Harva Hachten. Terese tracks the magnificent cornucopia of what Wisconsinites have gathered, grown, produced, cooked, and eaten—from cranberries to specialty cheese, Cornish pasties to Hmong egg rolls, fish boil to a double with the works. She reveals the stories that recipes tell and the dimensions of meaning and consequence in regional food history. The evening includes food samples and a book signing.

Terese Allen has written several books on Wisconsin’s food traditions, including Wisconsin’s Hometown Flavors, Fresh Market Wisconsin, Cafe Wisconsin Cookbook, and The Ovens of Brittany Cookbook. A food columnist for Madison’s Isthmus newspaper, Terese is food editor for Organic Valley, the country’s largest organic farmers’ cooperative. She chairs southern Wisconsin’s REAP Food Group and is a founding member and past-president of the Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin (CHEW).  Her website is at www.tereseallen.com.

Meeting Venue:
Goodman Atwood Community Center

Bolz Room A;

149 Waubesa Street,

Madison 53704; 608-241-1574.

Grilled Pizzas and a Picnic in the Parking Lot

At our next family dinner night, guest chef Jonny Hunter from Underground Food Collective will show us how to grill pizzas!

For this occasion we will be setting up a picnic in the parking lot.  Come enjoy the summer weather and the long days.

Pizzas will be loaded with all the best from the market!

When?

Monday, June 29, 2009

Cooking begins at 6:00

Dinner will be around 7:30

Come whenever you can!

Where?

At the Crossing

1127 University Ave. at Charter St. (Map)

In the parking lot behind the building

$5 for members or $7 for non-members will cover the cost of ingredients and supplies.

PLEASE RSVP by email (slowfooduw@gmail.com), or on our facebook event page.

Can You Help Drumlin Community Gardens This Week?

Hi Slow Food UW,

I am trying to reach everyone who cares about Drumlin Community Garden and urban agriculture with this update together of what is happening with Drumlin Community Garden. Fitchburg Mayor Jay Allen let us know today that he will be visiting Drumlin at 2 pm this Saturday.

Please come and help us explain to him why this place is different.  Why 20 years of organic has made a difference and why this land to be preserved and not made into a parking lot for the Novation office park.  Please come to Drumlin to support the land, bring food, drinks, but most importantly your support and your stories.

There is talk of giving the neighborhood the old Badger School, once the asbestos is removed, as a community center instead of Drumlin, because the county can’t sell it.  Now there is some magic plan that all the asbestos can be removed for $30,000.  Please help City Officials and all the organizations in this deal understand that no matter what else is preserved in this neighborhood, Drumlin Garden is some of the most pristine and best of this area and has been organically farmed for two decades already.  This is the dirt we want kids playing in and growing their food.

Please do one or more of these things:

* Come to the farm at 2 pm on Saturday to Drumlin Community Garden 2849 Oregon Road, help us show the Mayor that people care about urban agriculture in South Madison/North Fitchburg.

* Go to the City of Fitchburg website and fill out the survey on parks, recreation and gardens

http://www.city.fitchburg.wi.us/parks_forestry/documents/BackgroundInfoforSurveyandCommentForm.pdf

Let them know that the people of the north Fitchburg/town of Madison need parks and gardens and community centers, all those things, not to pick one over the other.  This must be done by next Tuesday, June 30.

* Reply to Kate Moran (katemmoran@yahoo.com) so that Friends of Drumlin Community Garden can start a notification list to let you know what is happening.

* Write to the editor of the Fitchburg Star, Kurt Gutknecht, (fitchburgstar@wcinet.com) about saving Drumlin Community Garden.

* Contact the Mayor, Fitchburg Alders and members of the plan commission. Their names and contact info are at the end of this list.

* Send this email on to a friend or listserve you are on

* Copy of our attached new petition and help us get signatures

Thanks for whatever you can do, if even just to send us a good thought now and then.

Mayor
jay.allen@city.fitchburg.wi.us

Common Council
District 1
andrew.potts@city.fitchburg.wi.us
carol.poole@city.fitchburg.wi.us

District 2
swami.swaminathan@city.fitchburg.wi.us
darren.stucker@city.fitchburg.wi.us

District 3
richard.bloomquist@city.fitchburg.wi.us
bill.horns@city.fitchburg.wi.us

District 4, Drumlin Garden’s district
steve.arnold@city.fitchburg.wi.us
shawn.pfaff@city.fitchburg.wi.us

Plan Commission
Alder William Horns, 276-8594,  bill.horns@city.fitchburg.wi.us
Dist 1, Ron Johnson, 274-6745, no email available
Dist 2, Mark McNally, 274-2322, mcnallymadison@aol.com
Dist 3, James Anderson, 271-5462, janderson@designstructures.com
Dist 4, Urban Service Area, John Freiburger, 835-0001, frei@chorus.net
Dist 4, Urban Service Area, Ed Kinney, 271-0497, ekinney@anchorbank.com
Staff Contact, Tom Hovel, 270-4255, thomas.hovel@city.fitchburg.wi.us

(Drumlin Petition)

Taste of Brazil

Slow Food UW student Paty Mo and her mother will be our guest chefs for the next Slow Food UW Family Dinner Night, leading us through a taste of Brazil!

The menu includes Feijoada, a Brazilian national dish, with the traditional side dishes, including snacks and dessert.  As always, a vegetarian option will be available!

When?

Monday, June 15, 2009

Cooking begins at 6:00

Dinner will be around 7:30

Come whenever you can!

Where?

At the Crossing

1127 University Ave. at Charter St. (Map)

$5 for members or $7 for non-members will cover the cost of ingredients and supplies.

PLEASE RSVP by email (slowfooduw@gmail.com), or on our facebook event page.

June CHEW Meeting

(CHEW)

http://www.wisconsincooks.org/chew

Next Meeting

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

7:15 PM

“Why We Dine as We Do:

The History of the Dining Table”

The history of the dining table has all the elements of great drama—intrigue, passion, desire, and innovation. Since the symposiums of Ancient Greece, the dining table has been at the epicenter of Western culture. Indeed, considerable history has been written over the course of a meal. Dining and the rituals associated with have strengthened family ties, forged new political alliances, cemented business relationships, and sparked intelligent debates.

Our June speaker is Swedish-born Eva Eliscu, a Chicago-based food and travel writer, restaurateur, world traveler, culinary consultant, and lecturer on the history and customs of the dining table. She was raised to observe and value the formalities of the dining table, and honed her interest in fine dining and table customs through global travels and personal research. Eva will tell us why the dining table—or some form of it—is arguably the most important conduit by which humanity has passed down its values throughout time.

Meeting Venue:
Goodman Atwood Community Center, Bolz Room A; 149 Waubesa Street, Madison 53704; 608-241-1574.

Drumlin Farm – IMPORTANT Plan Commission Meeting TONIGHT!

For those of you interested in Drumlin Community Farm and the effort to secure land for urban agriculture on the South Side – please come to the Fitchburg Plan Commission meeting tonight!

The meeting is at:

Fitchburg City Hall, 5520 Lacy Road

7:00 pm

At the meeting you will have the opportunity to register your support for a new neighborhood plan that lists Drumlin Farm’s land OUT of the commercial zoning district and IN and area designated “for further study.”  This is a very important if not critical meeting for Drumlin Farm.  Even if you can only come for five minutes, you would still have a chance to register your opinion.

I’ve forwarded an email with more details from Alder Steve Arnold and also attached tonight’s meeting Agenda.

_______________________

Please let people know about this, especially those who live in Fitchburg.

TONIGHT is when Steve Arnold says we need to have a presence at the Plan
Commission meeting.

Scroll down to see how he thinks we can support the neighborhood plan.

Thistle

_________________

> thistle wrote:

I was just reading your email in the drumlin yahoo account and was wondering what we should be doing in the next few weeks to help you and Jay out as far as getting citizen’s to support your efforts. Should we get a bunch of ppl from the southdale neighborhood out to the next plan commission meeting? Let me know and THANK YOU for everything you have done to help save Drumlin.”

Those who support community and urban agriculture in Southdale should appear at the public hearing on the Southdale neighborhood plan on June 2 and register or speak in support of adopting the plan, as amended by the Resource Conservation Commission (to remove the Drumlin parcel from the “commercial” district and designate it “for further study” until an adequate, permanent space for organic agriculture in the neighborhood is designated.

I believe a few articulate, coordinated, well-prepared speakers and a lot of registrants would better than a lot of speakers.  It would be ideal if neighbors made statements in support of other plan features, indicating they have evaluated and support the plan for a number of issues and that it just needs the additional tweak proposed by the RCC to be a really good plan.  Plan Commissioners and Alders are much more interested in broad based support than solving a problem for a single-issue advocacy group.

Note that action will not be taken until the June 16 meeting.  Observers and perhaps a petition in support could be sent to that meeting. Extensive public input will not be taken.

The Council will take final action on a date at least 30 days after June 16.  There will be a public hearing at that time, and the same suggestions apply to that meeting as to the Plan meeting tomorrow. While the modified plan may need to go back to the Town of Madison Board for approval, that should not be much of an issue since the parcel involved is completely in Fitchburg.

Neighbors should still be prepared to support the plan for the long haul, providing input and assistance in implementing the plan’s components and getting the Drumlin parcel “further study” done.

I hope this is useful!

Regards,

Steve Arnold, Fitchburg Alder, District 4, Seat 7
2530 Targhee Street, Fitchburg, Wisconsin  53711-5491
Telephone +1 608 278 7700 · Facsimile +1 608 278 7701
Steve.Arnold@Fitchburg.WI.US · http://Arnold.US