Slow Food Corvallis Annual General Meeting and Potluck, 2014

23 people gathered at the Chintimini Senior Center in Corvallis on Sunday, March 9th, to enjoy a delicious potluck, hear a brief summary of last year’s accomplishments, and discuss plans for the coming year.

2013 events included:

Vivacity Spirits Tasting: touring and tasting gin, vodka, and coffee liqueur at a new local distillery
Oregon Originals: learning about vegetable and fruit varieties bred in the Willamette Valley
Ecuadorian “food community” dinner: SFC members made a communal dinner featuring Ecuadorian specialties with a visiting group
Binational learning community: Slow Food Corvallis supported and participated in the binational food community group with Oregon State University and Ecuadorian faculty and participants
Give Bees a Chance: we learned about the importance of bees as pollinators and honey producers
“Food Day”: SFC cosponsored this national event with the First Alternative Coop and other community food groups.
Terra Madre Day: the event that wasn’t, due to a snowstorm. Food prepared for this event was donated to Stone Soup.

Programs supported during 2013 by SFC were:

The Starker Arts Garden for Education (SAGE)
Building a Garden at Yenege Tesfa (a children’s home and orphanage in Gondar, Ethiopia)
Purchase of a Cow for Girls’ Home in Uzhgorod, Ukraine.

Participants heard a presentation by Ray William, a representative of the Corvallis-Gondar (Ethiopia) Sister Cities Program about the splendid progress made by Yenege Tesfa, a group of children’s homes led by the dynamic Nigisti Gebreselassie, on developing the home gardens for which Slow Food Corvallis donated $1100 in May of 2013. By October, they had completed one garden and made good progress on a second, and were planning a third–all with the funds we donated to support just one garden! Deanna Lloyd discussed the SAGE garden and the fundraiser to which SFC contributed. Corvallis Environmental Center’s “Edible Corvallis” initiative has benefited from significant support from Slow Food Corvallis since it began in 2008.

Jim Meyer, a plant breeder at Oregon State University who has assisted in several past Slow Food events. spoke about a new initiative called the “Culinary Breeding Network”. Plant breeders are working with chefs in different parts of the country to include aspects of flavor and taste in breeding. Chefs provide input on which varieties work best in their dishes. Jim participated in a conference last year in Tarrytown, New York, at the Stone Barn Center. He proposes to work with Slow Food Corvallis on an event in 2014, highlighting attributes of several varieties of vegetables including peppers, squashes, and winter vegetables.

A number of ideas were proposed for 2014 events, including:

A competition for local professional and/or amateur chefs, to try cooking some of these newly developed vegetables into recipes
Giving out bee-friendly flower seeds
An apple pressing party in the fall
A “Slow Meat” event (or series of events) including showing of the film “Resistance” (on the topic of antibiotic resistance and how it might be related to the use of antibiotics in animal feeds.)
Terra Madre Day: this is already set up for December 7th.
A visit and tour of Fairview Goat Farm and Dairy in Falls City
A visit and tour of the Rogue Hop Farm
A visit and tour of Stahlbush Island Farm.

A slate of new officers was elected during the annual gathering. Linda Ziedrich, Lol Cooper, and Rosemary Magee were unanimously elected to the Board of Directors of Slow Food Corvallis.

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Followup Event Planning by Slow Food Corvallis, as of April, 2014

During Board meetings preceding and following the annual meeting, the Slow Food Corvallis Board of Directors have moved forward on planning of several events: the Fairview Goat Dairy tour in June, the Rogue Hopyard visit in August, the showing of the film “Resistance” in October, a fundraising event in October, and Terra Madre Day in December.

Below are some pictures taken during field trips to plan the Fairview goat dairy and Bread Board tour, and the Rogue Hopyard visit. Be sure to join us for these fun events!