WE HAVE MOVED TO WORDPRESS!!!!

Hello all!

We have decided to move our blog to wordpress.com. The link so you can follow us for the most recent updates is http://slowfooduri.wordpress.com/!

Many Many LEMON CUCUMBERS!

Hello everyone! August is slowly coming to a close and so is the garden. Cate, Charlotte and I all met up at the garden last week to pick some produce and chat. There were SO MANY lemon cucumbers! We couldn't even pick them all! I went home with a huge bag full... not sure what to do with 20 pounds of cucumbers. Then Charlotte suggested making pickles. If you have ever cut into a lemon cucumber, you would see that it has more seeds than cucumber. So I decided to make and can cucumber salsa instead. This way all of our slow food members would be able to enjoy the vegetables from our garden in September. At the first meeting I plan to crack open a jar of salsa and serve them with chips. :) See recipe and canning instructions below.
Picture of Lemon Cucumbers

Recipe for Cucumber Salsa

Ingredients:
7 quarts cored, chopped tomatoes (you can peel them if you want)
4 seeded, chopped green peppers
5 cups chopped onion
4 cups peeled, seeded, chopped lemon cucumbers (or use regular cucumbers)
1/2 cup finely chopped, seeded, jalapeños (optional)
3 tablespoons oregano leaves*
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro*
2 cups bottled lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon black pepper


Directions:
Combine all ingredients (oregano, and cilantro) in a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring frequently, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
Add spices and simmer for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Ladle hot salsa into pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
Adjust lids and process in a boiling water canner: 15 minutes



See you in September!
-Maria

Garden Update

Hay Hay Hay everyone!

Happy August. Our produce has been pretty much coming to an end here in the SFURI garden, except we do have: tomatoes, hot peppers, squash and pumpkins! I pulled out all the carrots and ate a TON of turnips and radishes. I also ate our heirloom lettuce, green beans, lemon basil, dill, cucumbers, massive zucchini and yellow cucumbers. It has been a great summer in the garden! Today I also went and picked some of the native corn that was growing and I might grill it tonight! See all the photos of our garden and produce below.

Anyways, just wanted to say this is my last blog post for a while since I will be studying abroad in Costa Rica this fall, but I will be back come December and I'll hop right back on the SFURI train. In the meantime, be looking to our fall events (turkey processing, our annual Thanksgiving dinner, maybe a pickling workshop, food day, and maybe some volunteer farm work!)

Adios my friends and see you soon!

-Cate

Our garden!

Heirloom spotted romaine

Zucchini vines and corn.

Carrots and some green beans!

Garden at the URI Watson House

Hurray!!! We finally got a garden at URI! We all rounded up at the Watson House behind the library to get the garden started during exam week which was a great break from the studying. About 10 of us were there to turn the soil, add manure and plant seeds while cracking jokes and enjoying each others company. We planted tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, zucchini, winter squash from seed. While the started cantaloupe, carrots, radishes and heirloom speckled lettuce from the green house were planted right into the ground. A few weeks after planting, Cate and I went back to work on the garden and a few radishes were already ready for picking! Cate was so excited she ripped it out of the ground and sunk her teeth into it(see picture below). I took a few home and put them in a fresh salad. Can't wait for more veggies to come! Check back later for more updates! -Maria

2011 Food and Justice Summit

Hey everyone. Sorry, I know this post is really overdue. Katya, Nona, John, Monica and I ventured to Northeastern University to attend the Northeast Food and Justice Summit February 26&27. We had a ton of fun! It was a really great way to connect with other youth concerned about the same issues as us and to see what other high schools and universities were doing to change the food system on their campuses.

Malcom X Grassroots Movement Soul Food Workshop speaker

There were a bunch of workshops to chose from the first day. I went to one about local food procurement on college campuses, where I learned about what schools in Canada are doing to eat within a 100 mile radius. I then went to a workshop on soul food, and after that I met Hnin at her Eat-In workshop, the youth programs coordinator for SFUSA.

The Clover Foodtruck

Chickpea Fritter from Clover.

We ate amazing meals the whole time, and met lots of awesome people. You can find more photos here.

John: "I want real food because....."

Cate: "I want real food because..."

If you ever want to go, they have one every year! Such an inspiring weekend. Great to know there are others out there that care about the same issues we do.

-Cate

Campus Consciousness Tour

On April 7th 2011, Slow Food Teamed up with The Campus Consciousness Tour. This tour was founded by Reverb, a non profit organization that provides outreach education on sustainability and fair trade. It was founded by environmentalists Lauren Sullivan and her husband Adam Gardner. Along with the Campus Consciousness Tour, Reverb also has other project called the Green Music Tour. Check out their website http://greenmusicgroup.org/ for a short clip on what they are all about.
The Campus Consciousness Tour follows bands and musicians promoting, and educating fans on protecting the environment by making small lifestyle changes. They came to the URI Ryan Center last night touring with Wiz Kalifia and Slow Food URI was lucky enough to volunteer with the tour! We set up shop in the Ben and Jerry's booth which was promoting Fair Trade products. Fair trade means the farmers who harvest the products are paid a fair price, and are treated with respect. Ben and Jerry's is currently working on making all of their products fair trade. Right now they buy Fair Trade vanilla, coffee, chocolate, and a small amount of sugar for their Fair Trade ice cream products. When purchasing Ben and Jerry's ice cream look for these flavors and the Fair Trade stamp on the carton: Vanilla, Chocolate, Chocolate Macadamia, Milk and Cookies, Coffee, and Heath Bar Crunch. Our job at the Ben and Jerry's booth was to educate students on fair trade and let them spin the wheel to win a free pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, some cool sunglasses, hats or a music download card. We had a great time and hope the tour comes to URI next year!
Eat some slow Ben and Jerry's!
-Maria

If You Are What You Eat, Then I Am Not Sad

I USED to be a vegetarian. I put "used" in caps because once you see the following pictures you will be amazed by the transition I have made. I never really had an epiphany. It was more like a gradual realization. Not eating animals isn't going to stop animal cruelty. Some of the animals produced for food are not even treated cruelly. Animal cruelty will stop the day we start supporting small, local farms where the animals are treated with love and care, rather than the large, corporate CAFOS where animals are kept in sickening, appalling conditions that rip your heart right in half. If you don't believe me, research it.

Anyways, here they are. The photos from our November Turkey Processing (better late than never 'eh?)

If you can eat it, then you should be able to understand what it takes to get into your mouth. That's what we are all about here at Slow Food.

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes by Kahlil Gibran:

"When you kill a beast, say to him in your heart: By the same power that slays you, I too am slain, and I too shall be consumed. For the law that delivers you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand. Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven."

Go slow.

-Cate