Spring is here and planting season has begun!  Now you can purchase seeds at special discounts reserved for Slow Food!

Seed Savers

15% off
Ark of Taste seed packets
Use code slowfood3
seedsavers.org

Rolling Hills Herbs
15% off
Ark of Taste starter plants
Use code SLOWFOOD
rollinghillsherbs.com

Uprising Organics

10% off
entire seed catalog
Use code SLOW
uprisingorganics.com

Join us at a Utah Farm-Chef-Fork farmer or chef/owner training and learn benefits as well as ways to overcome common barriers with sourcing locally, and develop a local-sourcing game plan to help your business. Receive Utah State University accredited Utah Farm-Chef-Fork certification for your completed efforts.

For more details and to register, see below and visit our website at: https://extension.usu.edu/sustainability/htm/programs

Zagat’s 7 Cities list for 2013, Salt Lake City slide

A recent Zagat blog post lists Salt Lake City as one of 7 up and coming food cities (click through the slide show for the cities; Salt Lake is slide 2). Slow Foodies have known this for some time, but it is satisfying to get a shout-out from a national food publication. Other than Boulder, CO, the others are all in the southeast region, such as Athens, GA and Charleston, SC. Utah restauranteurs like Scott Evans of Pago and Viet Pham of Forage, along with their many local food suppliers, are exciting the taste buds and building a reputation beyond our valley. As Zagat notes, “While many regard this Western town more for its skiing or religious ties, the burgeoning culinary scene is undeniably exciting, especially when it comes to the number of restaurants cooking local, with an emphasis on foraging. …”

Now, 33 years later, the Utah Cultural Celebration Center is revisiting this collection
with Utah’s Beehive, an exhibit showcasing many of the original items in the show,
with additions by contemporary Utah artists. The re-creation of the exhibit will also
feature modern interpretations of the beehive, by contemporary artists.\\

Feel free to Join in at the opening reception and make sure you take time to wander through the exhibit.

Exhibit:

March 7 – April 24, 2013
Mon – Thurs, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. and by arrangement

Opening Reception:

March 7, 6 – 8 p.m.

WHERE:

Utah Cultural Celebration Center

1355 West 3100 South
WVC, UT 84119

For more information on this exhibit or other events at the Cultural Center, please
call 801-965-5100 or visit www.culturalcelebration.org

At the swap, Slow Food Utah will once again offer select Ark of Taste heirloom vegetable seed varieties in sampler packages for any interested gardeners to take home and try growing out. “The US Ark of Taste is a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates.” (Slow Food USA Ark of Taste). Foods on the Ark of Taste are nominated by members and must be outstanding in terms of taste or culinary tradition, culturally linked to a region, at risk or in limited production, and sustainably produced. This program helps preserve agricultural biodiversity and traditional food sources in the face of ongoing erosion by industrial agriculture. Backyard growers can serve as crucial stewards of our food heritage.

We have selected several Ark varieties that do well in our climate for the swap. These include Red Fig and Chalk’s Early Jewel tomatoes, Sheepnose Pimento and Wenk’s Yellow Hot peppers, Tennis Ball lettuce and Sibley squash. Once again this year, all seeds we’ll be giving away come from Seed Savers Exchange, and most are certified organic. All varieties are open-pollinated heirlooms, so please consider not only growing them but saving the seeds yourself to replant next season. Maybe you’ll even save enough to offer back to others at future seed swaps.

BROOKLYN, NY (January 8, 2013) – Slow Food USA announced today that Richard McCarthy will join the organization as Executive Director. McCarthy has been a Slow Food USA member since 2001 and brings 17 years of executive leadership experience in the non-profit sector. He will begin on January 22, 2013.

“Richard’s deep understanding of both food producers and consumers and his proven success in creating more joy and justice in communities around the US and the world is a perfect fit for Slow Food,” said Katherine Deumling, Board Chair of Slow Food USA. “I am thrilled that he’s joining our team and excited to see where his creativity and passion take Slow Food USA in this next chapter.”

“I am humbled to have the opportunity to lead the organization that has inspired me for so many years to grow community through purposeful food programs,” said Richard McCarthy. “In that sweet spot of tradition meeting innovation, Slow Food USA provides us all with the promise of a future where producers and consumers join hands for good, clean and fair food for all.”

McCarthy is currently the Executive Director of Market Umbrella (http://www.marketumbrella.org), an internationally recognized non-profit mentor organization for markets, community building and sustainable economic development.  Since he founded the organization in 1995, it has steadily grown and now serves 1,250 markets around the world. At the core of Market Umbrella is the Crescent City Farmers Market he co-founded in New Orleans. Under his leadership, it became one of the first farmers markets in the Deep South to accept public assistance benefit cards, resulting in a 400% increase in the use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) at the market.

“I am most delighted Richard will serve Slow Food USA as executive director,” said Carlo Petrini, founder and president of Slow Food International. “He possesses a deep commitment to protecting our universal right to food and pleasure and is a proven advocate for the people who grow and prepare our food. The United States has a tremendous role – and responsibility – to play in leading the fight for good, clean and fair food, and we must continue to build momentum to realize the world we believe in.”

“Richard McCarthy is nationally known and respected for his pragmatic, data-based and highly successful approach to making good food available to all through his work in farmers markets,” said Ricardo Salvador, Director and Senior Scientist of Food and the Environment at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a member of the Slow Food USA committee that led the executive search. “His skills as a patient, visionary organizer and respectful leader will serve Slow Food USA well.”

McCarthy earned his master’s degree at the London School of Economics and is a graduate of The American University of London.

From now through Feb. 1, 2013 Slow Food Utah is accepting applications for microgrants for projects that strengthen our local food community. This program was created in order to fill gaps that we see in traditional funding sources for local food-related projects, especially for small-scale food growers and producers, community innovators, and educators. In the past we have funded school gardens, the building of a goat barn, purchase of a tractor, seeds and greenhouse supplies, new baby piglets, and much more. All this is possible with help from our donors and our annual fundraising event, the Feast of Five Senses. Click here for the application and guidelines.