Slow Food’s Ark of Taste

I came across this list a few months ago and kept it close to me when I was ordering seeds this year.  The premise behind the Slow Food movement, to grossly oversimplify it,  is that eating, and cooking, deserve not to be rushed; that we, as a culture, lost something vital when we turned to the concept of fast food.  Michael Pollan, author of
“The Omnivore’s Dilemna” and many other books about sustainable food, says that ‘culture is everyone’s grandmother’.    It’s not just art and music and theatre, vital though those are.  It’s pierogies, or cassoulet,  or spicy cooked collard greens, or a tomato sauce that’s so sensuous the scent of it transports you to Tuscany. The Slow Food Movement began in Europe and now has chapters worldwide, including an active group in our area.  You can read more about the local chapter at their website:

http://www.slowfoodcentralpa.com/

Judi and I will be growing a number of varieties that are listed on Slow Food’s “Ark of Taste”, a collection of their favorite heirloom varieties.  Not all of them will grow well in our region, so we aren’t considering trying to grow all of them.  But part of your Cool Beans CSA adventure will be the chance to try Jimmy Nardello sweet frying peppers, Amish Paste tomatoes, Cherokee Trail of Tears beans, Moon and Stars watermelon, and many,  many more varieties from their list.

I’ve been asked how we make decisions about what we’ll grow at Cool Beans.  It’s not a quick process.  First we need to make sure that a variety will thrive here in the midAtlantic – pretty much anything other than tropical fruits will do well here, but often we need to choose a variety that matures quickly, since we have only so many frost free days.

Next, it has to taste amazing.  Period.

Third – and this one’s even harder to define – it must pass the coolness test.  Rainbow chard?  Oh, yeah.  Green beans with purple zig-zag stripes?  Absolutely.  Tomatoes with swirls of pink, yellow and orange in each slice, with an overtone of citrus?  Indeed.

Eating isn’t supposed to be a chore.  It should be a celebration – even if you’re eating alone, even if you do need a quick recipe on a busy night.  And you can’t prepare a tray of raw carrots and not celebrate when the carrots are red, purple, orange, and yellow.  You can’t maintain a bad mood when you’re snacking on tiny yellow sweet Yummy peppers.  There’s something incredibly sensual about a basket of lavender and white striped eggplant, or bi-color Zephyr summer squash.  And you’ll just feel so darned well-read when you’re eating a Marina de Chioggia winter squash and thinking about the chapter in Barbara Kingsolver’s book touting its merits.

We’ll have all the basics covered, of course.  But you’ll see red and white striped beets and golden ones in addition to the rich deep red kind.  We’re growing yard-long beans in two colors (but are, so far, clueless as to how to transport them in one piece).  You’ll be amazed at the range of colors and leaf shapes in your bags of lettuce and salad greens.  We’ll tell you the story behind Mortgage Lifter Tomato and give you a recipe for a killer soup made from Galeux d’Eysines pumpkins.

I’ll write more in the next two weeks about specific vegetables we’re growing – because part of the adventure is the anticipation.  In the meantime, shares are selling, and there are only a few quarter shares still available.  If you haven’t done so already, please check out the contract, which you’ll find by clicking on a link at the top of the page, and send us your deposit to reserve your space.  Come celebrate food with us!

katie