Slow Living in the Heartland

[Devotay]

Hello, eGullet in the Hearland!

I am conducting research for a new book, Sow Living in the Heartland: A Cook's Tour of the Serene Life, to be published by UI Press in 2005. I am looking for stories of people (whether food professionals or not) who are living the ideals of the Slow Food movement. Not sure what that is? Go to SlowFoodUSA.org

For the purposes of my book, the "Heartland" is defined as a 12-state region stretching from Ohio to Oklahoma to North Dakota. If you know of anyone (including yourself) who should be included in this book, please reply here. They needn't be Slow Food members to be considered.

Please post suggestions here, witha brief description of what qualifies them. Don't post contact stuff, I'll PM you to get that so we don't violate anyone's privacy.

I believe that in addition to being a tremendous help for my research, this will also make an interesting topic of discussion here at eGullet. I'm happy to have found the forum, and thank you in advance for your help!

Peace,

Devotay

[Vital Information]

Hello, eGullet in the Hearland!

I am conducting research for a new book, Sow Living in the Heartland: A Cook's Tour of the Serene Life, to be published by UI Press in 2005. I am looking for stories of people (whether food professionals or not) who are living the ideals of the Slow Food movement. Not sure what that is? Go to SlowFoodUSA.org

I suppose you do not mean, living like a pig?

Are you affiliated with Slow Food?

www.vitalinformation.blogspot.com

[Devotay]

Well, maybe in a way, pigs lead very happy lives if they're raised sustainably. But what I really mean is people who have shunned the fast-paced, indutrialized, drive-thru world in favor of a life where the kitchen and the table are the centers of culture, community and family life.

As for my affiliation, yes I am involved with Slow Food, but this project is not an official Slow Food publication. In that way it will be more like Corby Kummer's The Pleasures of Slow Food than the Slow Food Guide to New York

[sumac]

I could help with contacts in the Twin Cities. My husband and I attended the first fundraiser here at Vincent; it was a great turnout and we are friends with a couple of the organizers. PM me.

[Devotay]

Yes, Sumac, I've known Ron for a few years. He does good work up there.

Please send your suggestions to me via "PM" I look forward to hearing from you!

[docsconz]

I would imagine that you have already been in contact with Winona LeDuke, one of this years finalists for the Slow Food award? She is in Minnesota and affiliated with The White Earth Land Reclamation Project. She is a very interesting and well-spoken individual.

[Devotay]

She is on the list! Right now I am merely compiling. The travels and interviews begin in the spring.

Do you have any other suggestions? All are welcome!

[FlourPower]

Please PM me for Omaha suggestions.

[Devotay]

Hello again all. I am just posting to renew this thread. I have 4 months in which to complete my research. Remember that, for the purposes of this book, the Midwest is defined as a 13 state region from Ohio to Oaklahoma to North Dakota.

Suggestions are welome from anywhere in those states, but I especially need help with the states along the northern missouri river (Nebraska and the Dakotas)

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[Neal J. Brown]

Hello again all.  I am just posting to renew this thread.  I have 4 months in which to complete my research.  Remember that, for the purposes of this book, the Midwest is defined as a 13 state region from Ohio to Oaklahoma to North Dakota.

Suggestions are welome from anywhere in those states, but I especially need help with the states along the northern missouri river (Nebraska and the Dakotas)

Looking forward to hearing from you.

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Hello, my name is Neal Brown and I am a chef in Indianapolis. I follow very closely the Slow Food Movement and used to be affiliated with the only restaurant in Indiana to be a member of the Chefs Collaborative. I teach, cook, and eat slow food princliples when I can. Unfortunately, my limited time only allows for so much involvment. I think it is a very important movement that needs all of the help it can get. I would love to help in any way I can. Regards

[Peter]

Hey, sounds interesting good luck!

I am/was a food marketing guy...more and more obsessed with good food and good food product. My summers were consumed with farmers markets...only grocery stores when we had too!

When I found out my favotire fruit guys were retiring, I...um, quit my job and bought the orchard!

So, now, I grow and sell fruit. How's that!

[fou de Bassan]

I have a few suggestions for eastern Wisconsin. PM me and I can give you the contact information.

Good Luck.

Fou

[ronnie_suburban]

I have a few suggestions for eastern Wisconsin.  PM me and I can give you the contact information. 

Good Luck.

Fou

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Please share if it's okay with those whose information you're passing on. I'm sure many of our members -- myself included -- would be very interested.

=R=

[kuan]

Kurt, if you're ever around Tomah, you need to eat the pie at Burnstad's.

[jsolomon]

Not being someone who follows the "Slow Food" movement, I can't characterize it well. Could you explain it for me slightly?

However, I did speak to my mother this weekend while I was back in central Nebraska and she, her sister, and possibly her mother would be good people to interview. I assume all four of us, me, mother, aunt, grandmother all have things inadvertantly in the slow food concept, we've just never thought of ourselves as activists in that realm--that's simply from the name "slow food", though.

[Devotay]

I'd be happy to explain, but there's really two things going on here.

First of all there's the formal, worldwide movement. Recognizing that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the pursuit of happiness, Slow Food U.S.A. is an educational organization dedicated to promoting stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production; reviving the kitchen and the table as the centers of pleasure, culture, and community; invigorating and proliferating regional, seasonal culinary traditions; creating a collaborative, ecologically-oriented, and virtuous globalization; and living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.

You can learn a lot more about the movement at places like

www.slowfoodusa.org

www.slowfoodforum.org

www.terramadre2004.org

www.unisg.it/eng/index.htm

But really, the idea is far simpler than that.

Slow Food is about linking pleasure and food with awareness and responsibility. To figure out whether what you are eating is slow food, just consider this:

If it is raised with care, prepared with passion and served with love, then it is slow food.

[fou de Bassan]

Johnson's Organics just outside of Green Bay and Cattleana Ranch in Omro, Wi. are two that I would Highly recommend. The folks at Cattleana esp. represent the ethos of the Slow Food movement. They raise grass-fed beef and free-range chickens and have started a CSA.

Both worked in the world of finance and decided to return to their farming roots. He is a Certified Master Gardener and dedicated to local foodstuffs. They live very closely with their livestock and the CSA is a part of their home.

Really, I think highly of their dedication to what they believe is a sustainable agriculture. Not to mention their beef, chicken and produce.

[jenifresh]

I have contacts in Ohio. From tiny dairies and dairy processors to all kinds of growers and chefs - I'm active in Innovative Farmers of Ohio and Chef's Collabrative...I make ice creams based on the principles of the Slow Food Movement, and am active in our public/farmer's market in Columbus. Let me know if I can help.

[Devotay]

Jeni,

I had your ice cream at North Market when I was researching there last July. Womderful stuff! What a wild array of flavors!

I'll be back in Ohio this summer for research and to visit friends & family (small world - I grew up in Columbus!)

Please PM me at your earliest convenience, I'd like to include you in my book.

[jsolomon]

Forgive me for being confused, but are you looking for people in slow food for commerce, or people who cook slow food for their enjoyment?

For instance, when the chokecherries don't get the blossoms don't get frosted off, my family typically picks enough for a few years' worth of chokecherry jam/jelly/syrup. Likewise with a few wild plum bushes we know of and a sour cherry tree or two. I think there are also some wild grapes I get. It's not all fruits, though. I havea couple out-of-the-way places I go for morel sponges, too.

But to sell? Hell no. And for the purposes of being gourmands? No, as well. It's simply tradition and we like it. I don't know about crave, but they are soul-satisfying foods... comfort foods for us, not gourmet foods to be sought.

My family isn't really slow-food people. We're just farm/ranch people who make a living with and watching the land, so we know where many of the treats are.

[Devotay]

I'm looking for both! I need people who are living the ideals - members or not, making a living that way or not.

The movement is about seeing to it that it remains possible for people to enjoy the wide variety, the bounty of foods that nature provides, rather than the standardized flavors being foisted on us by corporate agribusiness and Madison Ave.

The book is about the people who see some logic to that and the other ideas the movement puts forth. Very few if any people actually live fanatically by each and every tenet of Slow Food, but my book will tell the stories of those who are doing it to some degree.

[bbqboy]

Don't know whether you have heard of or already talked to this lady, but a friend has had her hot dogs and loves them. A neat story.

She's not far from the Nebraska border, so within a hop, skip, and jump of your travel route. http://www.herskansas.com/stories/062004/n...overstory.shtml

[jsolomon]

It doesn't quite fit the Slow Food concept, but there is a sheep dairy local to where I grew up that makes soap by hand from their excess sheep's milk...

Shepherds Dairy

Edited March 23, 2005 by jsolomon (log)

[Devotay]

That reminds me, there is also a Shepherd's Way Dairy in Minnesota that suffered a devastaing fire (arson). Read about how to help here.

[Chef Jack]

That reminds me, there is also a Shepherd's Way Dairy in Minnesota that suffered a devastaing fire (arson).  Read about how to help here.

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Hello,

Some one just emailed me this thread. I'm very new to egullet. I'm the co-leader for slow food wisconsin southeast and a chef. It looks like your getting some good ideas. If you need some more from Wisconsin or surounding states I or the leader could help.

Go Slow!

Chef Jack

PS Thats Sarah for passing this on!