A message from the Convivium Leader:

SFK Member Meeting and Potluck

Sunday, March 13th 6pm-9pm

Garden Club Room,

Knoxville Botanical Gardens

2743 Wimpole Avenue

Knoxville, 37914

We're looking forward to a year of abundance here in the Knoxville area as Winter transitions to Spring. Changes are also afoot for your local Slow Food convivium, as we have started the year out with a great leadership team to guide our accounting, communications and event planning.

We are also creating a membership coordinator position, and hope to increase our membership base this year to strengthen our convivium and increase its ability to actively support the good food movement in our city. While most of our events will still be open to all, we want to cultivate a sense of ownership and action within Slow Food Knoxville by holding regular member meetings, and hope that you will join us!

On that note, I want to invite you to the first Slow Food Knoxville member meeting on March 13th at the Knoxville Botanic Gardens. We will talk about Slow Food USA's current initiatives, as well as goals for our local chapter. This will be a great way to meet everyone and share ideas, and if you are interested in volunteering, a chance to find out how you can help. This meeting will be a potluck, please bring either a dish containing a local ingredient or $5, and your own place-setting.

If your membership is expired or if you have not yet joined Slow Food Knoxville, you may do so at the meeting using check or cash. Or, you can join now at www.slowfoodusa.org. It has never been easier to join the Slow Food movement- the national office has extended the lower price membership fee, so you can still join for only $25 per year. Please consider making this donation in support of the great work that Slow Food USA is doing to promote good, clean, and fair food, and get active with your local Slow Food chapter. We need you!

Wishing you the best,

Sarah

Local Love

Will you be out and about for First Friday? Come get some Local Lovin' in the Old City! Our friends at Aisle Nine and Farm to Feast have organized a fantastic evening to benefit Slow Food Knoxville. Join us at the grocery in the Old City, (112 South Central Avenue) on Friday, February 4th from 6pm until 9pm.

A note from Aisle Nine about the event:

"local love is a seasonal tasting event of all of our local vendors, and then some! featuring food by UT culinary institute, red barn gardens, organicism farms, sweetwater valley farms cheese, everything mushrooms, three bears coffee, king's hydrofarm, yazoo brewery, old city java, vg's bakery, magpies bakery, edible revolution, blue slip winery, blooming earth flowers, and many more!!

we'll be serving local food and drinks, giving away door prizes, and hosting a silent auction, to benefit slow food knoxville. come on down and see us this first friday, and sample some of the season's best offerings!"

Slow Food Knoxville sends out a huge thank-you to Jen Bradley and Julie Lien of Aisle Nine and Farm to Feast, respectively, for their hard work planning the event and also to all of the great local businesses who donated their products in support. We love you (all year, not just the week before Valentine's Day)!!

Artisanal Olive Oil Tasting

Colleen Cruze and Lorenzo Caponetti; photos by Colleen Cruze of Cruze Dairy Farm

Special thanks to The Public House, Avanti Savoia, and UT's Organic Crop Production Program for sponsoring this great event! The olive oil tasting was held on Monday, 1.24.11 in conjunction with artisanal olive oil producer Lorenzo Caponetti's visit to Knoxville. Slow Food Knoxville member Mary Rogers helped with the olive harvest at Casa Caponetti, the family's 125 acre farm and agritourismo destination near Tuscania, Italy, last October after attending Terra Madre. Mary, a research associate for the UT Organic Crop Production Program, arranged for Lorenzo to speak about his farming experiences at UT's Ag campus and Culinary Institute.

The tasting was planned as a casual meet and greet with Lorenzo after his day of lecturing at UT. By pairing two olive oils from local gourmet food importer Avanti Savioa (one of the best-kept secrets in Knoxville) with Lorenzo's own extra virgin organic olive oil, our host Laura Sohn of the Public House and Mockingbird Events orchestrated a complex range of flavors for us to compare. The three oils were served in ramekins with a side of oil cured olives and bread, all on the Public House's signature wooden serving board. Well-selected wine pairings were available from the bar, fueling lively conversation among the attendees- many SFK regulars and also some new faces- all lovers of good food.

Lorenzo explained how to properly sample olive oil. To begin, cup the ramekin of oil in one hand for a while to gently warm it, cover it with your other hand and swirl. Then stick your nose in and explore the aromas. Tasting is the next step, similar to tasting wine. Take a sip and slurp the oil in the back of your throat. Look for subtleties in flavor- is it grassy, floral, spicy, bitter, buttery? Any number of factors can dictate flavor- the varietal of olive, conditions under which they are grown, handling of the olives, ripeness at the time of pressing. One quality that Lorenzo told us to be aware of is a stinging or astringent sensation at the back of the throat. Apparently this is from cancer-busting antioxidants and polyphenols in the oil and you will feel this only if you are tasting very fresh, extra virgin olive oil of high quality. We could sure feel it- so healthy it hurts (just a little)! Unlike other oils which are extracted from the nut or seed of the plant, olive oil is pressed from the flesh of the olive fruit and is really more like a juice, so the fresher it is, the more nutrients and flavor it will retain.

Knoxville was an early stop on Lorenzo's busy tour of the United States. Visiting culinary programs, Slow Food chapters, restaurants and more, his goal is to educate people about the benefits olive oil and the importance of preserving artisanal traditions and sustainable farming practices. He brought tins of his oil of various sizes for purchase and shared with us his vision of creating an internship program in organic farming and small-batch olive oil production at his farm in Italy. We are happy to have a new friend from the birthplace of the Slow Food Movement, and grateful to everyone involved for the fun, informative and delicious evening!

Visit this site to learn about the health benefits of olive oil.

Slow Food Knoxville Celebrates Terra Madre Day

Local Food Potluck and Film Screening

Sunday, December 12th, 6pm until 9pm

Relix Variety Theater

1208 N. Central Street

Join Slow Food Knoxville at Relix Variety Theater for a local food potluck and screening of footage from Terra Madre, a gathering of small food producers held biannually in Turin, Italy. Terra Madre has been described as the United Nations of good, clean and fair food! Mary Rogers of the UT Organic Farm will share her experiences as a delegate to this year's conference. Learn about what Slow Food and the Terra Madre Network are doing to protect and promote small farming traditions worldwide.

Open to everyone!

Please bring a dish containing a local ingredient or $5

BYOB and bring your own place setting,

beer will also be available for purchase at the bar.

Pesto Festo Success!

What a great day it was for Pesto Festo 2010! Saturday, September 18th was a made-to-order day in East TN for food, friends and fun in the sun. Check out this article from the local paper about our event!

Curious what was on the menu? Get ready to get hungry reading this one:

Menu for PESTO FESTO 2010

Local Bread provided by VG’s Bakery

Traditional Basil Pesto provided by The Tomato Head

Spicy Italian Farmhouse Pickled Vegetables,
inspired by seasonings found in the city of Lecce, in southern
Italy's Apulia region. Ingredients sourced from Organicism Farms, Edible Revolution, and canned by Slow Food Knoxville.

Grilled Seasonal Vegetables sourced from Organicism Farms, Colvin Family Farm, Rushy Springs Farm and
Happy Harvest Farm

Savory Table Sauce created with olive oil, balsamic vinegar,
mild anchovies, basil, parsley, oregano and marjoram.
Sourced from Rushy Springs Farm, Edible Revolution and
A Place of the Heart Farm

Traditional Caprese Salad Mix created with Whole Milk
Mozzarella made by hand from Cruze Farm Milk by Slow Food Knoxville, Basil provided by Edible Revolution, and Tomatoes sourced from A Place of the Heart Farm, Happy Harvest Farm, Neubert Springs Farm and Rushy Springs Farm

Mild and Spicy Varieties of Italian Sausage
from Laurel Creek Farms

Three Cheese and Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli
from Green Market Pasta

Coffee provided by Old City Java

Cold Beverages provided by The Parlor

Marshmallow, Chocolate and Graham Cracker S’mores
Marshmallows by Old CityJava, Chocolate by Olive & Sinclair, Nashville, TN and S’mores by bonfire!

~

Sponsors for PESTO FESTO 2010

(in no particular order; we love them all!)

Old City Java

The Parlor

VG's Bakery

Three Rivers Market

Carpe Librum

Tomato Head

Market Square Farmers Market

Edible Revolution

Organicism Farms

Pesto Festo 2010!

Join Slow Food Knoxville and friends for the 3rd Annual PESTO FESTO!

This year we will head south to Organicism Farms in Seymour, TN where Jessica and Ryan have friendly chickens, mountain views, and an abundant garden to share with us.

Arrive early on September 18th, around 4PM, for Farm Tours, Bocce and Bluegrass on the lawn, and to enter the Pesto Contest! Bring your dancing shoes because the Bearded will be our rollickin' entertainment for the evening!

A locally-sourced, Italian-inspired dinner prepared by the UT Culinary Arts Program and Slow Food Volunteers will be served family style at 6:30, with music and a bonfire under the stars to follow . . .

Please bring your own place setting including plate and/or bowl, utensils, and a beverage container, along with adult beverages and a blanket to sit on before the meal begins if you wish; the meal will be served at tablecloth adorned tables with chairs provided.

Contact sarah@slowfoodknoxville.org if you are interested in carpool arrangements.

*Pesto Contest notes: Entries must be submitted by 5pm, categories are Best All Around and Most Creative Ingredients. One entry per person per category; please bring one pint minimum of homemade pesto in a container that you do not need returned. There is no entry fee.

Tickets for this year's event are $15 for each child under 12 years old, and $40 per adult ticket. Bring your ticket to Downtown Wine + Spirits for a 15% discount on your purchase for the event!

Tickets will be sold online here and at the Market Square Farmer's Market on September 4th, 2010 at the Slow Food Knoxville booth.

Do you have time to volunteer for this event? Contact us and we'll be glad to have the help!

This event is generously and fabulously sponsored by (in no particular order!):

Old City Java, The Parlor, VG's Bakery, Three Rivers Market, Carpe Librum, Tomato Head, Edible Revolution, and of course, Organicism Farms.

Mead Tasting

From Shady Grove Meadery:

Please join us for our first seasonal mead pairing at Shady Grove Meadery. The staff will be featuring four styles of mead, paired with a lovely array of hors d'oeuvres and desserts. The Sparkling Apricot, Blackberry Wildflower, Pear, and Musky Mountain Grape are among the honey wines that will be featured. The food pairing will include locally made cheese and jelly, dhal curry, chocolate truffles and seasonal fruit.




Following the courses, Shady Grove owner John Cosgrove, will conduct a tour of the meadery and explain what goes into creating a bottle of the special mead.



Tickets are limited, so get them while they last. The price is $35 per person. Dinner begins at 7:30pm and the tour will end at 9:30pm.



Tickets may be purchased through brown paper tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/117451.

This will be a fabulous event! We hope to see you Saturday, July 24th!





Thank you,

Shady Grove Meadery Staff

Shady Grove Meadery

709 Norris Freeway

Lake City, TN 37769

865-426-4900