Thank You for Slowing Down at Lighthouse

When we slow down, it's amazing what can be accomplished. Thank you to all who came out last week to raise awareness of the effects that our food choices have on the world around us. We celebrated our 2019 Snailblazer Naama Tamir of Lighthouse and raised funds for our community farm resource in East New York.

Since opening Lighthouse in 2011 with her brother and partner Assaf Tamir, their Lighthouse team has blazed a path for sustainable restaurant practices throughout the city. In 2016, they opened a second location named Lighthouse Outpost in SoHo and remain committed to embodying community, honesty, and warmth through food that is locally sourced from farmers and growers they love. We encourage you to stop by soon for a meal!

The celebration included lively music from The Mints and delicious slow-minded bites. All of the money we raised will directly fund Slow Food NYC's Urban Harvest food education programs that demonstrate the importance of local, seasonal, and quality food to human and environmental health for more than 2,000 New York City children.

Special thanks to this year's fiscal sponsors King Arthur Flour and Hayden5. We encourage you to visit their websites to learn more about their work! 

The evening also wouldn't have been possible without our in-kind contributors and friends including Bread Alone, Bowery Farming, AeroFarms, New York Distilling Company, Hella Cocktail Co., Rind Snacks, The Real McCoy Rum, Yolélé Foods, Campo dei Lupi, Italia I Love You, Chef Paola Aranci, Burlap & Barrel, Ends Meat, Greene Grape, Cabot, Australis Barramundi, VinePair, Tarongino, Chambers Street Wines, In a Half Shell, Toast Ale, Mook Sea Farm, Consider Bardwell, Our Harvest, Harlem Eat Up!, Foundation for New York's Strongest, Clay Williams Photo, Eating Matters with Jenna Liut, the entire Lighthouse team, James Geoghegan for shucking oysters, Madeline Wachtel of Billion Oyster Project, eat2explore, Jonathan Blumberg for providing fresh mint, and more.

Past Snailblazer honorees include Chef Michael Anthony, Jessamyn Rodriquez, Chef Bill Telepan, Mary Cleaver, Peter Hoffman, June Russell, and Andrew Tarlow.

For those who couldn’t attend, you can still support Slow Food NYC's good, clean, and fair programs by making a donation or volunteering: http://www.slowfoodnyc.org/getinvolved 

All photos by Clay Williams Photo

Words by Alexander Craig, SFNYC Board Member

Celebrating World Food Day

The theme of this year’s World Food Day is focused on bringing access to nourishing, healthy, and safe food to the world’s population—in essence, good, clean, and fair food for all. There’s a reason that these three words resonate so deeply in the Slow Food community. They capture in the simplest terms a set of values centered around human health, ecological stewardship, and social equity. They rally a movement of individuals and communities spread out across over 160 nations to act thoughtfully and gather intentionally around the table.

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals call for a transformation of the rural economy, encouraging the adoption of sustainable agriculture methods to strengthen the resilience of the world’s smallholder farmers. It’s a lofty and ambitious charge that puts forth a vision for a bright food future, but the question remains—what steps do we take to get there?

The challenges—and thus, opportunities—of today’s global food economy are not isolated to the world’s rural communities, but belong to us collectively. Together, we have the opportunity to create, reimagine, and celebrate a new food culture—one that marries tradition with innovation, community with individuality, and mindfulness with joyful play.  

In Slow Food lexicon, we use the terms producer and co-producers. The producers encompass our farmers, fisherfolk, brewers, gardeners, cheesemakers, etc.—the artisans who grow the food that fuels us. A co-producer is a consumer who values and partakes in the creation of a good, clean, and fair food economy, actively supporting the world’s food producers.

As co-producers, we are all protagonists in our shared food story. Each of us has the opportunity to vote with our fork, eat consciously with a sense of joy, and transform the kitchen table.

Here in New York City, all of the work we do directly supports our good, clean, and fair food initiatives including our seasonal urban farm in East New York and educational nutrition programs for young students throughout the city. We strive to support local, eat in season, and minimize waste through all of our community endeavors.

Will you join us as co-producers in this food revolution?

Take the Food for Change challenge and pledge to work together towards a delicious solution to climate change!

Happy World Food Day from our table to yours!

Kelly & the Slow Food NYC Team

Celebrating the Autumnal Equinox with Kimchi

City dwellers and farmers alike are welcoming the end of summer and the start of all that comes with autumn—the equinox is upon us, at last! While harvesting the bounty of our latest season at Ujima, Slow Food NYC’s community farm resource in Brooklyn, we found ourselves with an abundance of cabbage. Of course, we knew we’d put our plenty to good use with nothing going to waste.

What is one to do? Enter: kimchi, a fermented classic hailing from Korean cuisine. With wheelbarrows of freshly plucked cabbages waiting for their moment, we asked our urban farmer Jonathan Blumberg for his method that celebrates preservation and traditions of the table.

Photo Credit: Alexander Craig

See below for Jonathan’s go-to recipe that our visiting students have been enjoying. To note, Napa cabbage, specifically, is best for this purpose. If you have cabbages in your kitchen that are not of the Napa variety (like those pictured above from our farm), ferment away towards the sauerkraut recipe of your choosing instead.

Share your own creation on Instagram and don’t forget to tag us for a chance to be featured.

Autumnal Equinox Kimchi

Ingredients

1 Napa cabbage, cut into 2-inch strips (try a nearby farmer’s market)

1/4-1/2 cup kosher salt

2 tablespoons garlic, minced

2 tablespoons ginger, minced

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup of fish sauce (we like using Red Boat)

3 tablespoons water

4 tablespoons red pepper flakes

1 large daikon radish, peeled and cut into 1-inch matchsticks

2 bunches green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces

Preparation

1.   Put Napa cabbage in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Mix thoroughly using gloves, if preferred. Place a heavy pot or pan on top with weights and allow cabbage to sit for 1-2 hours until wilted and water has been released.

2.   Discard water after 1-2 hours. Rinse the cabbage 2-3 times in the sink until salt is removed and allow to drain in a colander for another 15-20 minutes.

3.   Combine Napa cabbage with remaining ingredients (through water) and mix. Using gloves, add the red pepper flakes and begin mixing and rubbing flakes into the mixture.

4.   Once combined, place mixture in a jar pressing down and packing tightly so that the mixture is submerged in its own liquid. Place top on jar and allow to sit at room temperature for 2-5 days. Place jar on a plate since the mixture may bubble over while fermenting.

5.   Each day of fermentation, remove the lid to release gases and press down on the mixture to keep it submerged. You can taste a sample each day to decide if the level of fermentation is to your liking.

6.   After 2-5 days of fermentation, store kimchi in refrigerator.

7.   Enjoy! We eat our kimchi straight out of the jar and incorporated into meals for a healthy dose of gut-healthy probiotics.

Recipe adapted from this original source.

Photo Credit: Alexander Craig

Keen to learn more about our educational initiatives across New York City? Click here for more information about our Urban Harvest program or subscribe to our newsletter. Follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to stay updated on slow happenings near you!

Words by Alexander Craig, Slow Food NYC Board Member

Join the Campaign for Good Food Education

Dear Slow Food NYC Supporters,

Here at Slow Food NYC, we offer a variety of programs to allow people to experience what we mean by Good, Clean, and Fair Food for All. Through Slow U we offer annual and other special fun and educational events, like Duck Off! An all local duck cook-off, and the SFNYC Food Almanac, our annual food and farm policy review. Snail of Approval provides a chance for restauranteurs, food and beverage artisans, markets, and caterers   to also get involved and align their values with Slow Food's. 

Ultimately, all of the time and energy put into these events goes to fuel Urban Harvest, including our program of  hands-on experience at our educational urban farm that provides young people in East New York a bit of time getting their hands dirty and learning about the joy of food directly from farm to plate. Our tuition free program operates through the summer months, allowing students to participate in summer programs and taste the bounty of food grown in their very own neighborhood. 

Photo Credit: Alexander Craig

Ujima is at the very heart of SFNYC, but it takes many hands and quite a bit of time and money to prep the land and programming for excited young students in the summer. With the help of our farmers and an education and outreach team, we'll be starting our 8th year of good food education at Ujima this summer. We hope to continue this program many years into the future, but we can't do it without the support of all of you. In order to continue the work that we've done through Urban Harvest, we ask that you donate any dollar amount to our Good Food Education in East New York campaign.

Please click the link to find out more about our program at Ujima and check out the video to see just how impactful the farm is to the students that take part. Thank you for your generosity and dedication to the cause. ‎

Slowly, 

Slow Food NYC

Slow Food NYC Recruiting New Board Members for 2017

Slow Food NYC is looking for a few great men and women! We're wrapping up another great year and are now seeking passionate, talented, energetic Slow Food supporters who will join our Board to serve a three-year term and help us continue our work toward a good, clean and fair food system in New York City.

Eligible nominees must be current members of Slow Food USA. If you are interested in running for a board slot, nominations are due by 6:00 pm on Sunday, December 4. You may make multiple nominations, and you may self-nominate. In each case, please provide a few sentences in support of the candidate's qualifications.

Submit nominations here: https://slowfoodnyc.wufoo.com/forms/slow-food-nyc-2017-board-elections/

Our Elections Committee will review your nominations and select a slate of nominees. Voting by the current membership is scheduled to take place in early January 2017. If you have any questions, please contact the Elections Committee at info@slowfoodnyc.org.

Photo Credit: Alexander Craig