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

FDN – Fresh Pasta Primavera!

At our Family Dinner Night this week we will be making fresh pasta from scratch and serving it with a primavera made from all of the best veggies at the market this week. Don’t miss it!

When?

Monday, June 1, 2009
Cooking begins at 5:00
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.

SLOW FOOD UW MEMBERS CAN STILL BUY A SUMMER COOP MEMBERSHIP FOR ONLY $30 (45 for non-members).

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

A Taste of Nepal

For the first Slow Food UW Family Dinner Night of the summer, UW student Isha Shrethsa and her parents will be joining us in the kitchen to give a lesson in Nepali cooking.

Homemade momos and more! This one will be a real treat!

When?

Monday, May 18th, 2009
Cooking begins at 5:30
Dinner will be around 7:30

Where?

At the Crossing

1127 University Ave. at Charter St. (Map)

THIS IS THE FIRST WEEK OF THE DINING COOP! SLOW FOOD UW MEMBERS CAN BUY A SUMMER COOP MEMBERSHIP FOR ONLY $30!

Or, for the single dinner, $5 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.

More on the Coop:

As mentioned, this will be the first dinner of our summer dining coop. The coop is going to be great for a lot of reasons:

First, it offers an opportunity to save money. By purchasing all eight dinners for only $30 for Slow Food UW members and $45 for non-members, you are saving $10 or $11. That’s a great deal!

Second, paying in advance will make it easier for us to plan ahead for the dinners, which means we’ll be able to do it better.

And most importantly, you will be supporting the coop and the movement by taking ownership of it! We are a cooperative. Come and be a part of it!

Falafel!

The Last Supper

(well, of this semester anyway)

When?

May 4, 2009

5:30 – 8:30

At the Crossing!

Next CHEW Meeting – Wednesday!

http://www.wisconsincooks.org/chew

Next Meeting
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
7:15 PM

“Hungry for Wisconsin”

Madison journalist Mary Bergin will be the speaker at the May 6th meeting of the Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin (CHEW). She will talk about some of the state’s lesser known culinary gems, which make up a large part of her newest book, Hungry for Wisconsin: A Tasty Guide for Travelers. What everybody in the book has in common is integrity of product. The book subjects are a reminder that when we have our way with food, we are making statements about authenticity: our values, quirks, obsessions, ethnic pride.

“Hungry for Wisconsin” also is an acknowledgement that interest in culinary tourism is gaining momentum. When you are away, you need to eat – and more businesses have figured out that a meal can be an experience as much as it is sustenance.

Mary grew up on a dairy farm and rarely left Wisconsin before entering college. She paid her way through school by waitressing at a Wisconsin summer resort and couldn’t wait to leave her home state.  Now she wouldn’t think of living anyplace else, but that doesn’t mean she stays home much. Mary began writing a weekly and syndicated travel column in 2002.  Sidetracked in Wisconsin: A Guide for Thoughtful Travelers, her first book, went into a second printing shortly after its 2006 introduction.

Her biggest influences as a writer are average people who work hard, live humbly, are satisfied with what they own but strive quietly to become better people. She believes that writers need to make sure these voices and stories are heard.

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

Food Physics

Special Thursday Meeting followed by a Screening of “The Price of Sugar”

Dear elitist food snobs,

Oh, did I get your attention? I know firsthand that each and every one of you are on this mailing list for all the right reasons. However, some seem to doubt your reasons for commitment to a group like Slow Food. Slow Food members have been labeled everything from elitist, to exclusive, to a movement unable to effect real change on the world’s food system.

The graduate students working towards the CHANGE certificates are seeking a more nuanced understanding of the motivations of campus eaters in general… so, at this Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting, we have the distinct pleasure of being joined by CHANGE students who will conduct a focus group discussion on Slow Food members’ eating habits, motivations, taste, future ideas, etc. They need 6-10 of us to tell them why Slow Food is important enough for us to devote massive amounts of time to it.

If you want to get some food issues off of your chest, now is the time to do it!

Plus, the icing on the cake is the presentation (finally!) of “The Price of Sugar,” a documentary film about the sugar industry and labor abuses in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

For more information on the movie, and to see the trailer, go to: http://www.thepriceofsugar.com/

*** Both meeting and movie will be held in Bradley Memorial, 1225 Linden Drive!! (map)

Thursday, April 30th

The meeting will begin at 5:30 in Room 202

The film will begin around 7:30 in Room 125

Free Popcorn!

Please let us know if you can make it!

Food Sovereignty Events

A “GreenHouse” Residential Learning Community for UW?

Organizing meeting: Friday, April 24, 12:00-1:00pm
Gordon Commons, room A-1
Lunch provided! Please join us!

Friends,

We invite interested faculty and graduate students to join us for a discussion of the possible development of the “GreenHouse,” a residential learning community with sustainability as its constitutive theme.

Residential learning communities are residence halls organized around the provision of diverse, integrated, curricular and extracurricular educational opportunities for the students who live there. Six learning communities have been developed at UW-Madison to serve students interested in such areas as entrepreneurship, women in science and engineering, languages, liberal education, and multiculturalism (see http://www.learning.wisc.edu/communities/res.html).

We believe that creation of a residential learning community focused on sustainability would be a timely and pedagogically productive addition to campus life and learning.  What we are provisionally calling the “GreenHouse” would offer undergraduate students the opportunity both to contemplate the meanings of sustainability and to actually enact sustainable practices with the guidance and active participation of faculty, fellow students, staff, and citizen mentors.

UW-Madison is uniquely well positioned to support such an undertaking.  Many faculty and graduate students are deeply involved in research and teaching on sustainability.  Many university programs are committed to finding practical applications of sustainability.  And there are in and around Dane County many advocacy groups working for a healthy environment and social justice.  These resources can be mobilized in the service of educating students from all majors and fields of study.  Especially, the “GreenHouse” could be a vehicle for the recruitment and retention of students from ethnically and socially diverse backgrounds.

See the attached “Proposed Framework for a GreenHouse Residential Learning Community at UW” for our initial vision of how this project might unfold.

Wouldn’t you like to be involved in this enterprise?  Won’t you join us to talk about how we might envision the “GreenHouse” and how we might move it forward?  Won’t you consider giving this project support , advice and energy?

Please meet with us on Friday, April 24, 12:00-1:00pm, in Gordon Commons, room 1-A to discuss this exciting possibility.  If you would like a free lunch, courtesy of L&S Academic Services, please RSVP by Wednesday, April 22 to Cal.Bergman@housing.wisc.edu. Gordon Commons is located between University Square and the SERF.  To get to room 1-A, enter Gordon Commons on the West side of the building that faces Sellery Hall.   We will have a greeter in the lobby to show you the way!  Contact us if you have any questions, or cannot make the meeting but would like to be involved.  We hope to see you!

Jack Kloppenburg, Department of Rural Sociology, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Cal Bergman, Department of Residence Life
Grace Latz, undergraduate International Studies-Global Commons major
Ashley Lee, undergraduate Rural Sociology major

Taste of the First Market Family Dinner Night

Fellow Slow Foodies,

There are many ways to tell that the dark days of winter are truly behind us and that spring has arrived, but some more than others appeal to the inner cook in all of us. For instance, the Dane County Farmers Market has finally coming out of hibernation to return the lifeblood of gastronomic activity to the sleepy capital square.  Hoards of food lovers flocked to the stands this Saturday to buy as many of those short season, wild greens as they could carry, and then they sped home to create their favorite springtime dish.

If you missed the market this week, or overlooked the ramps and sorrel completely while you were there, don’t worry!  Slow Food UW has done the footwork for you, battling the strollers and market fanatics to bring you our latest family dinner night.

A Taste of the Market!

This Monday, April 20th

5:30 pm

In the Crossing Kitchen
(Corner of University and Charter)

We will be making grilled cheese sandwiches made with the sharp granular bite of Hook’s 5yr cheddar and mellowed with creamy Cedar Grove white cheddar and colby cheeses, with pesto made from Harmony Valley ramps, Farmer John’s Parmesan, and Cherokee Bison Farm’s fresh sunflower seed oil.   The sandwiches will be served with pureed sorrel soup, using JenEhr Farm’s sorrel and bacon (in the non-vegetarian variety) from Fountain Prairie Farms.

In general, we at Slow Food were ecstatic about shopping in the fresh air and sunshine to source these menu items. As well, we had the opportunity to talk with the vendors about sourcing food for the Slow Food Café in the future.  It is immediately apparent that we have some real allies willing to do whatever they can to make this project a realistic endeavor (thank you again Fountain Prairie Farms!). This trip to the market was a refreshing reminder of the sense of community and cooperation a local food system could deliver. See you on Monday!