Written by Cortney Ahern, Slow Food Chicago
It's the time of year when people are gathering together, celebrating what they're thankful for, sharing a meal with friends and family, and cooking dishes that remind them of family and tradition. Oh, you thought I was talking about Christmas, didn't you? Even before Santa Claus comes to town, there is another holiday in December focused on all these things - Terra Madre Day. On December 10th, people around the world will get together to celebrate local food - and we hope that our friends and supporters at the Chicago Oxfam Action Corps will join us!
It's the time of year when people are gathering together, celebrating what they're thankful for, sharing a meal with friends and family, and cooking dishes that remind them of family and tradition. Oh, you thought I was talking about Christmas, didn't you? Even before Santa Claus comes to town, there is another holiday in December focused on all these things - Terra Madre Day. On December 10th, people around the world will get together to celebrate local food - and we hope that our friends and supporters at the Chicago Oxfam Action Corps will join us!
This year for Terra Madre Day, Slow Food is focusing on cooking endangered foods that are listed on the Ark of Taste (AofT) and asking people to purchase and cook with these ingredients throughout the year. The Ark of Taste connects to many of Oxfam's GROW principals - especially the principles of Supporting Farmers and Shopping Seasonally. Slow Food created the Ark of Taste, an international living catalog of delicious and distinctive foods facing extinction, to identify endangered foods and encourage people to act to preserve them. The catalog contains 1,100 products from over 50 countries. US foods on the Ark number over 200 including the Pawpaw* (Asimina triloba), grown locally and elsewhere.
To celebrate Terra Madre this year, Slow Food Chicago is doing something a little different to honor the day. We're inviting everyone to create a citywide celebration by gathering people in your home sometime during that week to share a homemade meal, and to tell us and the Slow Food community about it.
Click here to RSVP to our Virtual Terra Madre Day, and by doing so pledge to share a meal in your home during the week of December 10th. Make whatever you like, invite 1 or 20 people - whatever you do, you'll be celebrating one of Slow Food's most treasured values, sharing food with others.
As Slow Food Chicago's emeritus board president Eve Bills Lacivita says, "We’re
emphasizing community and togetherness--the very guts of Slow Food.
It’s not about how fancy the meal is or even how purely Good, Clean and
Fair it is--as awesome as that would be. It’s about gathering around
the table to share food with others--whether that’s one other person or
20 doesn’t matter.”
Share pictures and stories of your meal on Slow Food Chicago's Facebook page, and we'll feature them in future newsletters and on our website.
*Learn more about the Pawpaw by watching this brief video interview with Chicago-based producer, Oriana Kruszewski. Oriana runs Oriana's Orchard and Nursery in Winslow, Illinois where she grows our featured fruit, among others. Spence Farm in Fairbury, Illinois and Integration Acres in Albany, Ohio also grow the Pawpaw. (Jeanne
Calabrese, former board member of Slow Food Chicago, initiated this
video project for our newsletter as well as directed it. The editor was
her daughter Gillian Dwyer and Peter Perich was the videographer.
Thanks to them and Oriana for participating.)
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