Slow Food Seacoast turns 10

Lifestyle
Upcoming events celebrate a decade of sustainable eating

Good, clean, fair food for all. It’s a simple phrase for such an involved mission. Each word in Slow Food Seacoast’s motto represents a different part of one great challenge: To create a sustainable, agriculturally rich, affordable food system to benefit both the community and Mother Earth.

This summer marks the organization’s 10-year anniversary. Despite all the progress made, there is still much to accomplish. So where do we go from here? Alison Magill said promoting awareness is a great place to start.

“We can’t just talk about the food system, we have to look at where and how this food is produced,” Magill said.

An elementary-school teacher and Slow Food Seacoast member, Magill is interested in the bigger picture. She understands that educating the community about what it means to be sustainable is a slow process, but she believes in the power of Slow Food’s message. She’s watched over the past 10 years as the community has come to learn how and why local food is so important.

“We are so fortunate in this area, because not only do we have a lot of awesome people, but we have a lot of great farms, so we are able to educate a lot of people,” she said. “It’s amazing how many farms are here, considering the short growing season. We’re very lucky.”

Slow Food Seacoast's 25 Mile Thanksgiving event uses food sourced from within 25 miles of the New Hampshire Seacoast.

Locally sourced dishes served up during Slow Food Seacoast’s 25 Mile Thanksgiving event.

Celebrating food
Since it’s inception in 2006, Slow Food Seacoast has made giant leaps in helping the community to better understand sustainable agriculture. The organization’s method for spreading awareness includes events held each year with the spotlight pointed at local, sustainable food.

One such event is the fifth annual “Farm-A-Q,” presented by Slow Food Seacoast and the Heirloom Harvest Project. On June 26, the public is invited to an outdoor gathering at Heron Pond Farm in South Hampton, where a group of local chefs cook up tasty summer specialties using primarily local ingredients.

“These chefs knock it out of the park,” said Evan Mallett, owner and head chef at Portsmouth’s Black Trumpet Bistro. He said the chefs cooking at Farm-A-Q are under a verbal contract, agreeing to work with farms that are growing and raising ingredients through the Heirloom Harvest Project, a Portsmouth-based community organization that holds an annual gathering of chefs in February. At the gathering, guests learn how to obtain heritage-bred animals, and how to use local ingredients to raise awareness.

Mallett’s journey with Slow Food Seacoast began in 2008.

“I have an obsessive interest in food sourcing and understanding the backstory and its regional significance,” he said.

Mallett said the 10th anniversary of Slow Food Seacoast is an important milestone for him as well, as his restaurant opened not long after the organization began.

“The direction of Slow Food Seacoast and the direction of the Black Trumpet have become sort of inter-dependable,” he said.

In celebrating 10 years, Slow Food Seacoast is adding to its summer event schedule with Food Stories, a potluck meal, garden tour, and story-sharing experience held at the Strawbery Banke Visitor Center in Portsmouth on July 31. Magill said the event will reflect how the local food scene has evolved over the past 10 years, with six or seven speakers giving “mini, TED talk-style” presentations.

“From gastronomical to eco-gastronomical, sustainable farming practices have become a very important part of the mission,” said Magill. “Supporting small, local farms is really important to this area.”

Magill hopes events like Food Stories will help the community see the bigger picture of how our food arrives on our plates. She said these events are also meant to stress the accessibility of local food.

Slow Food Seacoast's Farm-a-Q event in Rollinsford, NH, in 2013.

Slow Food Seacoast’s booth at the 2013 Farm-a-Q at Brandmoore Farm in Rollinsford.

Future eating
Slow Food Seacoast is the local branch of the international Slow Food organization. For its inauguration in 2006, a luncheon was held at the University of New Hampshire, where Slow Food leaders from around New England gathered to meet and honor the founder of Slow Food International, Carlo Petrini. According to Slow Food Seacoast’s website, Petrini called the lunch the best meal he had ever eaten in America.

On Friday, May 20, leaders of Slow Food Seacoast will recreate that luncheon as a dinner in a more intimate setting at Acorn Kitchen in Kittery, Maine. Only 20 tickets are available to the public for purchase, but despite the limited access, it will be a monumental celebration of the past 10 years, stimulating conversation for the future of the organization.

Magill said issues such as land preservation and increasing education for all ages are important to think about.

“We’ve reached a plateau but we cannot stop,” she said. “We have to keep on pushing for more sustainable development and more sustainable lifestyles for everyone.”

Mallett said there should be more conversation around farmers markets and local farm stores. He said farmers markets have been geared primarily toward the privileged, but that needs to change.

“The evolution of farmers markets has led to a way of life,” Mallett said. “We need to have the same good, clean, and fair food made accessible to everyone.”

Both Mallett and Magill see the benefit of creating a broader movement around these and other topics. They want more of the community to get involved, and they want people to get loud.

“We’ve seen the choir sing but have not seen them expand,” Mallett said. “We need to start singing loud enough to get other people in the choir.”