Slow Food San Benito Bounty advocates for healthy, local foods
at September event
Nants Foley and her husband Tim want to show locals that they
can cook a healthy meal of locally-grown and raised foods for $5 a
person at the latest Slow Food San Benito Bounty event Sept. 17, at
Quicksilver Farm and School of Husbandry, in Hollister.
Slow Food San Benito Bounty advocates for healthy, local foods at September event
Nants Foley and her husband Tim want to show locals that they can cook a healthy meal of locally-grown and raised foods for $5 a person at the latest Slow Food San Benito Bounty event Sept. 17, at Quicksilver Farm and School of Husbandry, in Hollister.
As part of the Slow Food USA $5 challenge, the pair are inviting locals to join them on Sept. 17 when they will barbecue a lamb as the main course. Guests are asked for a donation of $5 and to bring an inexpensive, hand-prepared side dish to share at the potluck-style meal.
“They chose $5 because if you make a run to McDonald’s, you would lose a $5 spot,” said Foley, of the national organization of which she runs a local chapter.
Slow Food USA has 225 chapters around the nation, including the local San Benito chapter. According to its website, “Through national advocacy, local projects and bringing people together through the common language of food, Slow Food members and supporters are making it easier to access real food that is good for us, good for those who produce it and good for the planet.”
The San Benito event is one of hundreds happening across the nation, and non-members are also welcome to register an event online at the Slow Food website (www.slowfoodusa.org.)
The lamb that the Foleys will serve at the event is raised at their farm. Foley said the breed, Navajo-Churro sheep, is part of Slow Foods “Ark of Taste,” a list of livestock or produce on the decline.
“It was created to call attention to foods that are disappearing such as the Blenheim apricot,” she said. “It doesn’t ship (as a whole fruit) and the dried apricots can’t compete against Turkish imports. Slow Food puts it in the ‘Ark of Taste’ and hopes that small, independent farmers will use the animal or plant to keep it alive, to survive and provide biodiversity.”
Foley said the Navajo-Churro sheep, which were brought to the Southwest by Spaniards and then used by Navajo natives, were thought to be extinct until a pure strain of the animals was found on a remote part of a reservation.
“They are naturally hardy,” she said. “They don’t require much care …The meat is low fat and it’s cheap. The disadvantage is that they are smaller and have less meat. Commercial (producers) want a maximum of meat.”
Foley said they use the sheep for both the wool and the meat, and they have barbecued a whole lamb in the past for large gatherings.
The goal of the local chapter is to educate people about healthy eating, through events at Quicksilver Farm and other programs in the community.
The donations that Foley collects at the event will provide funding for programs. San Benito Bounty coordinates the Harvest of the Month club for several local schools, serving as a delivery point for the Santa Cruz-based program. Foley also coordinated a series of healthy cooking classes with a local chef that was free of charge to residents in Hollister and San Juan Bautista.
Foley said the chapter has four board members, but is looking to recruit more in the coming months. They will then work together to set an agenda for the coming year’s events and a focus.
“We want to do anything to help people see that you can bring food – healthy food – to local denizens,” she said.
This month, Slow Food USA is holding a membership drive. It is normally $25 to join a local chapter, but for the month of September those interested can pay any amount to join.
“They can sign up for what they think its worth,” she said. “You get all kinds of information. It gets you into a circle of people who are interested.”
Foley explained that the membership fees stay at the corporate office, but any donations stay in San Benito County.
She said that she would like to work with chapters in Monterey and Santa Cruz to put on regional events for residents in the future.
“Once you’re a member, you can go to events all over,” she said.
She added that guests to the Sept. 17 event do not have to be a member to participate, but they will have a chance to sign up for membership there if they would like.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” she said. “The last time (we had an event,) 60 people showed up. It’s going to be educational and fun – everything that fast food isn’t.”
Slow Food San Benito Bounty
Sept. 17, at Quicksilver Farm, 141 McMahon Road, in Hollister, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., with the meal to be served at 2 p.m. Admission is a $5 donation, plus an inexpensive, hand-prepared side dish for the potluck-style meal. A main course of barbecued lamb will be served.
To RSVP, call 801-5110 or e-mail
in**@sl*********************.org
.
