Hello food lovers,

You’ve heard me talk about it before.  The time has finally come for the Kickapoo Country Fair!  This is one of the most fun events we take part in, and last year people had so much fun, some called it one of the best experiences of their lives!  This year is bound to be even more exciting, as we are more involved in the programming of the festival, and hope to bring an even bigger group.

Here’s a chance for you to help out at a really fun food/entertainment festival in July. Slow Food UW will be co-managing the two food-related tents at the Kickapoo Country Fair on Saturday July 25 – Sunday July 26. This means we have a lot of great (and easy) work to do and opportunities
for you to volunteer for a good cause.

We are seeking volunteers for both days to help with various tasks around the two food event tents. Besides being a fun event, you get many freebies and meet awesome people.  And to make it even better, for each hour your volunteer, Organic Valley will donate $7 to Slow Food UW, and we’ll be that much closer to being able to open our cafe!  All of the details and sign-up forms are here: http://kickapoo.slowfooduw.org/

The fair is in La Farge, WI – about a 2 hour drive from Madison – located at the edge of the Kickapoo Reserve in one of the state’s most beautiful river valleys.  Volunteers also have the opportunity to camp on-site at the fair with us (if you sign up early!). Again, see all the details at the website above.

We are also arranging ride-sharing for volunteers and others looking to attend the fair.  We hope to have carpools going out to the Festival on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings, and returning to Madison on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

To sign-up to drive or get a ride go to: http://kickapoo.slowfooduw.org/

For any questions or to just let us know you’re interested via email, please email kickapoo@slowfooduw.org.

Thanks and we hope to see you there!

More info about the Kickapoo Country Fair:
http://www.organicvalley.coop/kickapoo/

Highlights include: Demos with Sandor Katz (Wild Fermentation), Brett Dennen, Nanda, farm tours, and much more.

At our next Slow Food UW Family Dinner Night, special guest Quincy Tanner, who is visiting from Stanford for the summer, will show us how to make his favorite Thai dishes.  Pad thai, curry, galangal soup, spring rolls – it’s going to be delicious.  Don’t miss it!

When?

Monday, July 13, 2009

Dinner is served ~7:30.

Come at 6:00 if you want to help cook.

Where?

In the kitchen at the Crossing (in the basement).

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.

Join Just Coffee for a Presentation & Discussion of our recent Just Coffee Delegation to La FEM, all-women’s cooperative, in Nicaragua!

Monday July 6th, 2009
7-9PM

Java Cat
3918 Monona Drive
Madison, WI
http://www.javacatmadison.com

Presenters will include:
Colleen Coy – Just Coffee Delegation Coordinator  & Producer Relations
Susan Bacher – Just Coffee Group Sales Coordinator
Brenda McKee – Nicaragua Delegation Alumni
Mark Dohm – Nicaragua & Guatemala Delegation Alumni

This event will feature delicious coffee gelato made by Java Cat with coffee from La FEM that was roasted by Just Coffee!

$5 suggested donation.
Money raised will go to a fund to build farmer to farmer connections between La FEM & another Just Coffee producer group.

This is a co-presentation of Just Coffee and Java Cat. Call Just Coffee at 608-204-9011 or Java Cat at 608-223-5553

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.

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.

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)

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.

(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.