Slow Food truly is hitting its stride in Reno. About 100 people showed up to the group’s fifth potluck meeting at Patagonia on Nov. 2. The number and quality of people was extremely encouraging and inspiring. What a wonderful showing! And what an incredible spread of food!
Savory highlights included roasted winter squash with caramelized onions and fennel, vegan carrot ginger soup, Texas chili with organic beef, sauerkraut bake, tomato-chard coconut curry, quinoa salad with ginger and mint, tabouli salad with feta and bulgur wheat, pate with all the fixings, and so much more. There were many impressive choices for dessert, too, including the tasty and unusual goat cheese and walnut ice cream and avocado cheesecake. At the end of the evening, most people carried away empty containers, picked clean by participants. Delicious (mostly organic) wine, beer, and coffee complemented the offerings.
The large, open employee lunchroom at Patagonia was a great space for the group. Farmers, restaurateurs, and food enthusiasts from all walks of life shared round tables that were perfect for robust conversations that turned mostly to food, of course.
Slow Food Reno has come a long way from its humble beginnings earlier this year. The first meeting in March at Dish Café included about 20 people. Steadily, group meetings have grown as they’ve moved to other locales around town (such as 4th Street Bistro, Nothing to it, and Cheeseboard). Pretty soon we’ll have to rent out Lawlor or the Downtown Events Center for our meetings!
During the presentation portion of the meeting, several members offered interesting and helpful information. For one, Mackenzie Banta let people know about the Wild and Scenic Film Festival on Nov. 4. The event, which sold out, featured several environmental films, two of which were food-related. Next, Shelley Brandt offered information about local turkeys. She said the good and bad news is, for the first time, all four local resources were sold out of turkeys. Those desiring a local bird next year need to contact one of the sources in June to have their bird ready by Thanksgiving. In addition, Shelly mentioned that the Great Basin Food Co-op is offering all of the fixings for Thanksgiving. Next up was our fearless leader Joe Horn, of Dish Café. He let members know that Slow Food Reno is working with Slow Food Tahoe on a turkey tasting at Baxter’s at Northstar, prepared by Mark Estee. The turkeys (5 different breeds) are coming from the Shaw Family Farm in Truckee. Participants will taste and rate the different birds. The event is a Slow Food fundraiser. The date for the event has yet to be announced.
The premier presentation at the meeting came from Whole Foods Reno’s Catherine who is the assistant manager at the meat counter, along with Heidi Draper, public relations representative, who presented a slide show. Catherine talked about Whole Foods’ natural meats. For instance, she said their beef is grass fed and certified as such for at least six years. Their animals aren’t given any chemicals, pesticides, animal byproducts, hormones, or growth steroids.
In addition, Whole Foods offers natural and organic turkeys from Diestel. The store also carries all-natural pork sausage (from pigs that were not pen-raised), which is made at Whole Foods. The store uses American Homestead pork, which is extremely lean and comes from Iowa. In addition, the shop does not use any synthetic (plastic) casings in the process.
Catherine also explained that Whole Foods sells natural, free-range, grass-fed lamb from New Zealand and Sonoma. The lamb that is labeled “local” is from Sonoma, she explained. Finally, Whole Foods’ chicken comes from Petaluma Poultry and it’s air-chilled. The chicken has no hormones or any other “crap” and it’s free-range. She explained that rather than water-chilling the chicken after butchering, which is what Tyson and Foster Farms does, Petaluma does an air-chilled process. This means the chicken is not full of water when the consumer gets it, and the meat is tastier.
Whole Foods’ meat presentation was extremely informative. Slow Food Reno participants were impressed that store representatives made the trip out to Patagonia to join our meeting.
The next Slow Food Reno meeting will be in January at Buckbean Brewery. The date will be posted soon.
