Slow Times
Slow Food Piedmont Triad News
August 2007
Slow Food Piedmont Triad Events
  Saturday, August 11, 2007
Slow Food Potluck and Heritage Cooking at Old Salem
Winston-Salem, NC
Cooking Classes begin at 10 a.m. (Reservation required)
Garden Tours 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Potluck 11:30 a.m. -1 p.m.
Single Brothers Workshop, Old Salem
Old Salem and Slow Food Piedmont Triad welcome you to spend a day exploring the rich food heritage of the Moravian settlers at the Single Brothers Workshop in Old Salem. Garden tours will be available at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and Slow Food will sponsor a splendid late-summer potluck from 11:30 – 1:00. Suggested donation to Slow Food for the potluck is $5 per person or $10 per family.
As an added feature, a limited number of Slow Food members will be able to spend a morning in the kitchen preparing a traditional recipe with heirloom ingredients to enjoy with lunch! Two cooking class sessions will be scheduled at 10-10:45 a.m. and 11:00-11:45 a.m.; cost for the class $10. You must reserve your space in the class. Call the Group Sales Office at 1-800-441-5305 to reserve your space in the kitchen!
Here is a link for directions: http://www.oldsalem.org/index.php?id=91.
Once at Old Salem, the best place to park is on the street around the square or along Main St. (near Main St. and Academy). The Single Brothers' Workshop is the building directly behind the Single Brothers' House (the timber-frame building facing Main St., at the corner of Main and Academy). The entrance is from a ramp on the south side of the building.
 Movie and Market Events
"Black Gold: Wake Up and Smell The Coffee"
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Movie - Black Gold: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
The Green Bean
341 South Elm St., Greensboro, NC
8 p.m., free admission
If you missed the showings of this documentary about Fair Trade certification in the spring, here's your chance to see it again. What's the real cost of coffee? Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil. But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields. Follow one Ethiopian farmer’s journey as he travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price. For more information, contact Shawn Wozniak, A&T Aggies for Fair Trade, at woznia17@riseup.net.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Watermelon Day
Piedmont Triad Farmers' Market
Off Interstate 40, Exit #208 at Sandy Ridge Road
11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Free samples of farm fresh North Carolina Watermelon for everyone.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Watermelon Day
Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market, corner of Yanceyville and Lindsay Sts., Greensboro
6 a.m. - noon
Enjoy free tastings of different types of melons. Everyone who comes to the Curb Market will have a chance to win a free watermelon.
 Recipes from the Market
Slow Food Piedmont Triad sponsored, and co-hosted with partner Deep Roots Market, two tasting booths at the Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market this summer. On June 23, Chef Bryan Dahlstrom introduced many market customers to the creamy goodness of grits from the Old Mill of Guilford. Many expressed surprise at how delicious the grit cakes were, topped with ratatouille made with donations from farmers at the market. This was an easy and flexible way to use the summer bounty from your garden, your local farmers, and your CSA bags!
Chef Bryan's Grit Cakes
Start by following the package direction for grits. (The Old Mill of Guilford grits instruction was 3 parts water (salted) and 1 part grits.)
When the grits are cooked, add 1 part cream and 1 part softened butter. Adjust seasoning to taste. (It’s important to salt your water because it’s absorbed in to the grain for a fuller flavor. The end adjustment takes in account whether you’re using salted or unsalted butter.)
Pour the grits into a pan that has been lined with plastic or parchment paper, then lightly oiled or buttered.
Chill in refrigerator until set, preferably over night. Cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter or knife. Pan-fry in skillet or on griddle.
You can also bread the grit cakes with just flour or a breading of seasoned flour, egg wash, and breadcrumbs. When they’re breaded like this, the cake can also be deep-fried.
Note from Laurie: I tried this with cheese grits, adding extra-sharp cheddar cheese instead of the cream and butter. Served with ratatouille or leftover pasta sauce (I used marinara meat sauce with hamburger from Rocking F Farm), it is an interesting and easy change from pasta and rice.
Ratatouille, aka Vegetable Ragout
This is an approximate copy of the ratatouille/vegetable ragout that Chef Bryan and Laurie served at the market. This makes a large batch, so that you can freeze some for later.
4 Tbsp butter
2 small onions, diced (1 1/2 cups)
4 cloves garlic, minced
rosemary, minced fine, about 1-2 Tbsp.
several sprigs of lemon thyme
2 medium long eggplants, diced (or 4 cups)
2 medium zucchini, diced (2 cups)
2 medium yellow squash, diced (2 cups)
8-10 plum tomatoes (egg-sized), chopped
big handful of basil leaves, shredded (about 1/2-3/4 cup)
parsley, chopped (about 1/4-1/2 cup)
salt and black pepper
Melt butter in a large skillet or dutch oven. Add garlic, lemon thyme, and rosemary for a minute. Add onions for another few minutes. Add the following in this order and stir: eggplant, tomatoes (with any juices), zucchini and squash, then basil and parsley and seasonings. The vegetables might seem dry at first but they will give off juices.
Cook until all vegetables are tender. A nice extra was a garnish of cheese from the Goat Lady Dairy.
Smoothie Recipes with Deep Roots Market
Volunteers from Slow Food and Deep Roots Market co-hosted the tasting booth July 28, where we played with fruit and blenders for about three hours! Deep Roots Market is Greensboro's only community-owned grocery, and they stock food items from many local farmers, as well as other organic and sustainably grown products.
The recipes from our handout are provided at our Slow Food blog: slowfoodpiedmont.wordpress.org.
Volunteer Opportunities
Please let Laurie know if you can commit to helping with the following events:
Slow Food Piedmont Triad often needs volunteers to help with staffing information tables and helping with events such as the Open House at Goat Lady Dairy. If you're interested in becoming more involved with Slow Food Piedmont Triad events, please contact lponeill@slowfoodpiedmont.org and she'll put your name in the pool of those willing to help out.
More Events for 2007
We keep an updated list of events on our events page, but you can get the latest announcements delivered to you by email if you join our listserv. Our listserv is a free way that we can communicate with our members and other interested members of the community. It is secure and we don't share your email with anyone! (We don't like that, either.) You can join by emailing us at info@slowfoodpiedmont.org and entering "subscribe" on the subject line.
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