We all have a haven. A place you can call your own. This digital island has been mine for years and I welcome you to it. I'm a highly driven crazy soul. I like to create, solve problems, and stay as effective as I can. Explore and enjoy all that is me.
This week I’ve had a need for a spagetti bake. Who knows why—comfort, memory, noodle casserole desire. I just wanted one.
I let some intuition do the driving here as I wasn’t quite sure what I was up to but had a good inkling of where it was going to head. This is not a quick recipe but it is rewarding and can feed up to 8 or give you leftovers galore. You can cut corners and I’ll let you figure that out. For me we have a huge supply of heritage tomatoes (tear drop, zebra, polish) I wanted to assimilate.
Add chicken stock, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and bay leaves
Raise to a boil and simmer covered for 30m
Sautee Time
Take your soporessata sauté/fry to a light/medium crisp, remove & set aside
Chop mushrooms, add butter—sauté through sweating, add 1tsp salt & some pepper continue cooking to your liking
Once first 30m is done with sauce add these to it for another 10-15m uncovered
Casserole Assembly
Preheat oven to 350’
Prepare spagetti according to package/your taste
Take 1 cup pasta water, add to sauce
It’s about layers; add sauce to baking dish, add noodles, add cheese
Top layer should just be sauce
Bake for 30m
Grate/add parma to top, return to oven at broil for 5m
Remove from the oven and let it sit 5-10m. During which time you can make some garlic bread, tasty salad, or a side of choice. Cut into portion squares and enjoy!
We got a healthy dinner, packaged 2 sizable portions, and are freezing a few portions for a quick meal in the future.
I’ve been jumping (skydiving) now for 4 years. I am not as far in disciplines (roughly 160 jumps) due to the upheaval financially we’ve all experienced one way or another over the course but I still manage to learn and have fun. I fly with some great people at Skydive Carolina and when Lee and I decided to go up he took his new camera with him and we recorded it.
Here we are leaving at a little over 13,000ft to just have a fun sit-fly. I get to geek out and fail at some neat tricks but all in all it was a blast and I look forward to our next jump together.
It’s a time of year when families draw near and if yours goes beyond the grabbing, ripping, digesting of the season you might get a tale or two from your peers and elders. If not this is for you to work on that.
Is Your Family History Fading?
Here in America I feel we are so quick to move forward we never take a moment to look back. We may know the big picture but do we know the tapestry threads that binds it all together? You may know how your great grandparents made it to this country but what of the shared memory of their lives, and their parents lives, and that of their countries. To many of us it may already be too late to recover much of this.
Remember Storytelling
While we may have lost some of our oral tradition it’s never too late to start telling tales of what you do know and what your parents may have known. The point is to talk, to spin a tale, to encourage a connection to your lineage. Beyond giving the storyteller a moment to enjoy their own past they can hook a younger generation into the tale and give them something to think on as they mature.
Through the Senses
How many of us have family dishes that have been passed down over the years. We can divine a lot of culture from food. The missing ingredient a lot of the time is how the dish came to be. Whose great-great grandmother cooked this and the family so loved they kept it. Or what meager meal got a family through tough times and thus became a cornerstone of the families recipes throughout the years. Many times we are able to enjoy these meals without their connected meaning but how much richer would we be to know it and to pass that knowledge along.
Next time you’re at a family meal and there is something from the past on the table ask about it, inquire to it’s history and meaning to the family.
It’s All About Context
In my own eyes I have a not too distant connection to relatives that extend from America, to Puerto Rico, to Spain, but I know so little beyond the gestalt. Some of my families stories were written down but they stop only a few generations ago. The greater context of our family and our culture is a mystery to me.
If you have a family dish to an heirloom that is being passed on make sure you tell the context that goes with it. Who made it, how many hands has it passed through, do you know their stories? While you may know the context your children do not.
Dying Libraries
Over the last five years I have heard in many different forms how our elders are passing on but their knowledge is not. For every elder that passes we lose a library. Think of your own wealth of knowledge that is in your head and ponder how much you share of it. When you are gone how much goes with you and how much will be here for others to share and pass along?
Take a moment and look for the precious moments that you don’t want to lose and begin putting pen to paper or telling stories at your next gathering. Think about the stories you were told growing up and do your children know them?
Our lives are very brief in the way the universe works and it’s a shame how much experience and hard earned wisdom is lost from generation to generation. It’s one reason I started blogging so many years ago. I wanted to make a record of moments, of a person, of a family, that can be shared and looked through to understand who I was and what I was a part of.
I write this because I lost both of my grandparents in 2008 and when I reflect upon their photo albums, letters, and memorabilia I realize I only knew a fraction of what I would have loved to know. Now it is lost within fragments of my parents and extended family but the easiest connection to it is gone forever.
New Holiday Meaning
So this holiday season, this new year, take it upon yourself to rekindle your families stories and culture. Let it be alive once again and writ or told to others so that it maybe kept alive and fresh. Revel in who you all are, where you came from, and the connection from here to there.
It’s a slow day at the markets today. Thought I might pen a quick post during the idle time.
We start the morning at 5:30a. Many farmers we know start even earlier. It can be quite a trial getting up and out the door. Not to mention finding the energy to greet and explain your products to the consumer.
This time of year is a beautiful time though. It can get hot, but there is a good amount of crop diversity of fruits and veggies. It keeps my belly happy!
There are more markets in our region than there have been in a long long time. Part economy, part food security, were just happy to see everyone out. The discussions you can hear out here range from the classic coffeeshop to deep agriculture/agrarian principles. Great way to make new friends.
No matter where you are you can probably find a market. Get out and support them when you can. Every dollar spent is said to be 7 for the local economy. Enjoy the seasonality of your region as it passes too quickly.
With great fanfare and after a lot of fundraising Slow Food Charlotte accomplished the huge task of sending over 14 people to Turin Italy for Terra Madre 2008. As a part of the observer arm of the delegation we were there to experience something special and unique. Which if you are in to food, culture, and a wider world view should be experienced.
The real question upon return is how to best speak of the event. How to best capture, seal, and use as a foundation for our local conversations and action. I’ve found it difficult. Speaking with many of the delegates there are similarities of not having just one thing but a peppering of tens if not hundreds of little moments that remain indelible.
Picking up our passes and checking in with the US liaisons we were able to meet some of the other US delegation and see a plentiful and diverse group of peoples. The opening ceremonies was long yet brilliant.
Beginning with a procession of Sardinians showing off one of their rituals (impressive, daunting, and powerful) to follow was the marching of the flags. Many countries of the world were represented and as we later found out from Winona laDuke a hope that indegenious cultures will be able to fly their flags next session.
Passionate Speakers, We Listened in Awe
Speakers included those in Slow Food and beyond, Alice Waters introduced a video of Prince Charles, UN Asst. Secretary General Carlos Lopes spoke on behalf of Ban Ki-Moon, Vandana Shiva was passionate and fiery in her remarks, a student Sam Levin blew us away with his youth, determination, vibrance and step-taking, Carlo Petrini brought it all home in the poignant thoughts of our development and rich diversities.
We were awash in the power of the people.
I had chills so many times I thought my brain was going to fry out. I’m not sure everyones world view is ready to accept what is going on. The world is being dominated by those with power and we are constantly seeing large companies leverage that power into poor decisions; squeezing the bottom of the chain, selling consumers marketing and bad health, while replacing nature with man management which is leading us down a very bad road.
United States Delegation, 800+
America will always amaze me. We are a super culture, a mixing pot of everyone. Including the great diversification of the indigenous countries within our country. How often we forget our own brief history.
The meeting of the US delegation was huge and very long. I understand why Slow Food Nation was conceived. We have a lot to talk about. With over 300 million in our borders we have a lot of work to do to corral this great nation.
We heard from many great regional speakers (session notes from Robin):
Josh Viertel, President of SF USA
We cannot take out without putting back in. Our priorities: #1 The Youth, #2 Social Justice. We are a movement, not an organization.
Farmer Dominic
We feed the community, and the community feeds us.
The importance of teaching.
Green Mountain College Farm and Food Project
Initiated under three goals: #1 Food, #2 Minds, #3 Ideas
Community supported agriculture (CSA) in the classroom to the kitchen and dining.
Common goals with continued partnership and community building.
White Earth Land Recovery Project Winona laDuke, protecting our sacred wild rices, listening and talking to our relatives (the vegetation), cultural diversity is as important as bio-diversity, remember where we came from and how we got here, honor the history of food, and that we all have the right to own and eat food.
Kellen Vaughn Shelendewa, the crops are your children, learn from your elders, the ancestors are with us and watch us, the earth has been entrusted to us.
Brett Ramie, community inclusion cannot be done without elders, our world cycle is a non-linear progress and we must apply the knowledge of our elders before it is lost to us.
Ian Marvy, creating future eaters and teaching young people to farm.
Peace and refuge exists in the garden.
From seed to sale, helping the youth see potential in alternative markets.
Embrace the joy, understand the anger, and transform one to the other.
Chef Tony Miller, cook to farmer collaboration.
Let the food be the food, the star of the plate. Finish strong, show the youth what we need to continue. Keep the dollar in your yard, source locally whenever possible.
What Novice Farmers Need to Succeed
Access: land, info, market, cultural institutions, encouragement.
Land, liberty, sunshine, stamina. serveyourcountryfood.net
Inter-generational collaboration in activism Coalition of Immokalee workers, a 32 pound bucket of tomatoes gets $.45, the same as in 1978. Equating to $8-10,000 a year. 7 cases of slavery in the last decade. They have fought and won cases against large companies to pay more for their produce. Big companies can not keep applying this financial pressure downwards.
Strengthening Food Communities,Will & Erika Allen
Engage and inspire the community. The need to break down the social constructs that are oppressing people. Food justice, generations of justice. Look for the small projects to produce tremendous results, “Below the Grass”. Rich food for all folks.
Overcoming Cultural Divides with Smiles
Robin and I wanted to break through the cultural divides and meet people. We built a photo book, packing it with pictures of who we are and where we are from. Upon meeting someone new usually it involved the act of smiling and gesturing for a photograph.
I would take their picture and then we would approach showing them their picture. This then turned into an often funny trial and error of english, italian, french, hand signs, and laughter.
What really helped was showing our pictures.
Showing our city at night, Robin and her classroom, our farmers and local agriculture, our family.
Through this exchange we would learn who they were, where they were from, what they brought with them, and with many contact information for penning them later. Our parting gift to those we met was a simple photograph of Robin and myself surrounded by some of the pictures they had seen with a set of email and snail mail addresses so that we might keep in touch. We hope they do.
Classes, Lectures, the Public Speaks
There were so many things to learn and not enough time to learn them all. Between Salone de Gusto’s formidable tasting, pairing, and food explorations you had multiple tracks that you could run on in the Terra Madre sector. Climate change, soil protection, fair trade, bee colonies, getting to market, how to market, activist luncheons, youth meetups, and so much more.
We attended many which I’ll go in to in individual postings later, but would have loved to entertain more. Watching and being a participant with all these groups of people, each having a headset and a translator was just brilliant in being able to communicate across the gulf of language.
Do You Value Yourself? Do You Value the World?
In the end we all share this world and many of us are experiencing the same problems. How we face those problems, find solutions that are good, clean, and fair, will be a monumental challenge. If we don’t face it head on though it will get no easier later and if the damage is irreprable, then what.
I’ve said it before, I got into this movement for a hunt for quality. I fell in love with the chain of agriculture and now am in it for my future family. If we can adopt a greater outlook for ourselves and for those in our charge maybe there is hope yet.
Continued Thought, an Evolving Experience
More to come. We thank all of those who helped us achieve our goal and look forward to building further essays and pictorials that give light to what we learned. I end with a musical slideshow that encompasses some of the sights and similar musics heard during our time abroad.
Casserole Assembly
Remove from the oven and let it sit 5-10m. During which time you can make some garlic bread, tasty salad, or a side of choice. Cut into portion squares and enjoy!
