We have a slight change of plans for the event tomorrow. Instead of returning the the Agricultural Conference Center, we will have the potluck and presentation at the Trade Grist Mill. Please bring your perishables in a cooler. Dishes and silverware will be provided.

We will meet at 2pm at the Agricultural Conference Center before heading to the Ward Brothers Farm. A map to the farm is available. Email slowfoodboone@gmail.com

The next Slow Food Boone event, “Everything But The Oink”, is scheduled for Sunday, July 12th! We’ll make a visit to the Ward Brothers Farm outside of Mountain City, TN. They have a small but diverse operation that includes organically raised hogs. On the way, we’ll stop at the Trade Grist Mill for a short tour and shopping.

Then, we’ll gather for a presentation and potluck at the Agricultural Conference Center in Boone. The presentation, by Ken and Marg McKinney, will focus on their home pork product projects. They’ve found that curing prosciutto, bacon, and guanciale is easier than it sounds, and that homemade sausages can go far beyond what is available commercially.

Please note that we cannot have alcoholic beverages at the Ag Center, so please bring your favorite non-alcoholic drink to share during the potluck, especially if it is home-made and/or local ingredients.

Here’s the schedule for the afternoon:
2pm: meet at Ag Center (leave by 2:15) to leave heat-sensitive food
2:45pm: stop at mill in Trade (leave by 3:30)
4pm: arrive Ward farm (1hr approx length of visit)
6pm: presentation and potluck at the ag center

Email Chelly at slowfoodboone@gmail.com with questions. See you soon!

NC Cooperative Extension is offering a free food preservation workshop on Saturday, July 11, from 1 until 4 p.m. at the Agricultural Conference Center, 252 Poplar Grove Rd. in Boone.

 

A canning demonstration will be presented from 1 until 2:30pm. Then, stations offering tips on making jams and jellies, drying and freezing will be open from 2:30 until 4pm. Educational material will be provided.

 

Register by calling NC Cooperative Extension at (828) 264-3061.

Plant Swap, Herbal Tea with Music and Community Garden Fund Raiser

Saturday, June 6th, 2 – 4 p.m.

Need to thin your garden? Want more plant variety? Make plans to attend a plant swap on Saturday, June 6th at the home of Liz Rose. Liz has a fabulous garden, where she will pick herbs to prepare hot and cold tea for us. She also has recently added an acoustically perfect music room to her home, where we will hear live music.

Bring as many plants as you would like to exchange, or more. Please label them. Matt Cooper will speak about 2 new projects at the community garden. If you are able, a $20.00 donation is requested to benefit the community garden.

Please RSVP to Liz Rose at Rosese@appstate.edu so she will know how many cups to have. If you are able, please bring a snack to go along with the tea. As always, locally grown or produced is always best!

Directions to Liz Rose’s house: Get on 321 South heading from Boone to Blowing Rock. Pass Tweetsie and BP station on your right. Begin to look for Aho Road on your left. Take a left onto Aho Road. Go one mile. See 3 mailboxes on your right. One of them has 1222 on it. Take a right after those mailboxes into our drive. Immediately stay to your left. Go down one-lane drive through a pasture, over a low-water bridge. Curve right – see our house – green with red trim. Call if you get lost, 295 9715.

The Goodnight Family Sustainable Development Program at Appalachian
State University is pleased to announce an upcoming event

An Evening with Joel Salatin

Ballet in the Pasture

March 26, 2009

7 pm

ASU Farthing Auditorium in Boone

Ballet in the Pasture is a theatrical performance mixing humor and
bomb-shell food system analysis.  Joel Salatin passionately defends
small farms, local food systems, and the right to opt out of the
conventional food paradigm.  First rate pictures provide the audience
with a virtual tour of the legendary Polyface Farm.

Joel Salatin is a third generation alternative farmer in Virginia’s
Shenandoah Valley.  His family’s farm achieved iconic status after
being featured in the New York Times bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma
by food guru Michael Pollan.

“An Evening with Joel Salatin” is a FREE event.  Advance registration
is not required.

For more information please visit ASU Sustainable Development Events or
call 828-262-7248.

Please join us for a potluck dinner and a movie on Monday, March 9th, 6pm, at Black Cat Burrito.

Foothills Brewing of Winston-Salem has donated a keg for us to sample as we enjoy our food and watch a food-related movie.

This event is open to everyone! We hope to see you there!

Even in the winter, Boone has a lot going on! Check out the “Community Events” section of this blog for food-related events in the next several months.

Planning meeting!

Friday, February 20th

10 a.m.

Agricultural Conference Center in Boone

To start the year off, we’re planning a planning meeting. If you are able, please join us on Friday, February 20th, at 10 a.m. in the Agricultural Conference Center in Boone for a brainstorming/planning session for 2009 events. If you are unable to attend this session please e-mail any ideas that you have for 2009 to Margie Mansure, margie_mansure@ncsu.edu. Member suggestions are how we function and your input is essential.

Solicitation of interest and volunteers for a Farm-to-School project in Watauga County

A childhood obesity prevention grant is providing funds to raise awareness and create enthusiasm for having locally grown food in our schools in the future.

Some goals of this project include: Serving new or differently prepared fruits and vegetables to children; introducing them to growers and the local farms where the food is are grown; and teaching them to prepare produce.

The project will promote a vegetable of the month and this month, December, is all about kale. Posters of kale will be placed around the school, emphasizing what kale does for the body and who grew it, with a picture of the grower. At two different schools during lunch time, there will be a chef preparing the kale for sampling. Volunteers will dress up in fruit and vegetable costumes to serve the samples to the children.

Volunteers, especially chefs, are still needed to help with this. Possible dates are December 9th and 11th or 16th and 18th. If you or anyone you know are interested in helping with this project in December or would like to serve on the steering committee, please e-mail Margie at margie_mansure@ncsu.edu.

Click here for information from Slow Food about school food projects.

The next steering committee meeting is  Tuesday, January 6th at 9am,
Agricultural Conference Center.

Join Slow Food Boone, High Country for an afternoon of Appalachian culture on Sunday, September 28th. We’ll meet at 1:30 at the Agricultural Conference Center behind the Watauga County Extension offices before heading deep into Ashe County, out to Big Horse Creek road, past Lansing and almost to Virginia, to visit with Ron and Suzanne Joyner of Big Horse Creek Farm. They have around 150 varieties of apples, many of them heritage, and a good selection of fall apples available for everyone to enjoy. They’ll also be selling trees. Ron said we may take all the time we want to walk around, pick apples, check out their alternative power system, chase chickens, etc. “We have long supported the Slow Food movement and will be very pleased to show you and the other visitors what we’re doing on our small Ashe County farm.”

Then, we’ll head to Rose Mountain Farm for our pig pickin’. Ann Rose, who is now growing a pig for this event, will host us. She’ll also have apples available and may demonstrate apple cider making. Ann runs a beautiful and serene 29-acre farm without using fossil fuel, except to travel to the Ashe County Farmers’ Market. She sets an aspiring standard for us all. “All of my food is raised or grown within 50 miles of where I live, with the exception of coffee, sugar, and flour.”  The cost of the pig is $7.00 per person, payable to Slow Food Boone High Country at the event. We are asking each family to bring a side dish, preferably a salad, bread, dessert, or something that doesn’t need to be heated, in a cooler. Also bring a container to take leftover pig home. Cold herbal tea will be provided. Ann said that it’s ok if members want to bring beer or wine, as long as they bring some for her.

Please RSVP to slowfoodboone@gmail.com. Four-wheel drive vehicles are ideal for both farms. Due to parking issues, we’re limiting participants to 30. Let us know if you have a four-wheel drive and how many extra passengers you can accommodate. We’ll send directions to the Joyner’s farm to those who are not meeting at the Agricultural Conference Center in Boone.