Slow Food Memo: Slow Food Nation Gearing-Up For its Late Summer Extravaganza in San Francisco August 29 to September 1

The slow food movement's big "Slow Food Nation '08: Come to the Table" four day food, wine and sustainable living extravaganza set for August 29 -to- September 1 in San Francisco, California is progressing along solidly, as the group continues to add artisan food producers, farmers and others to its list of exhibitors and participants.

Slow Food Nation also is announcing Saveur magazine, a food and wine publication and the event's lead media sponsor, will be running monthly full-page advertisements in the publication leading up to the celebration.

Additionally, Edible Communities, publisher of 50 magazines in the U.S. and Canada, will run advertisements in 30 of its summer issues.

Edible Communities is a publishing and information services company that publishes numerous community-based, local-foods publications in distinct culinary regions throughout the United States and Canada. Through their publications, supporting websites, and events, they connect consumers with family farmers, growers, chefs and food artisans.

Lastly, Meatpaper magazine, a new quarterly print journal focused on art and ideas about meat, is running a backpage ad featuring Slow Food Nation in its summer issue. Inspired by the current “Fleischgeist” that is sweeping the country, Meatpaper publishes lush visuals and articles about everything meat.

Slow Food Nation's August 29 -to- September 1 event will take place at two primary venues in San Francisco, the Civic Center Plaza, which is downtown and surrounding the city's classic city hall, and at Fort Mason, a historic facility overlooking San Francisco Bay.

The slow food group also plans to publish a book called "Come to the Table," in advance of the late August -to- Sept 1 celebration of the slow food lifestyle in San Francisco.

Below is an update on some of the group's plans for "Slow Food Nation '08: Come to the Table" in San Francisco:

Farmers, Artisans and Activists Come to the Table
Seventy farmers and artisans have confirmed for the 'Slow Food Nation Marketplace' at Civic Center Plaza, according to event planners. Hundreds of the country’s top artisanal cheeses, chocolate, ice cream, preserves and more have been chosen and crafted for the Taste pavilion at Fort Mason.

Additionally, a slate of speakers has been booked to share their vision of a Slow Food Nation during the "Food for Thought" panel series and "Changemakers Day" panels, which are being programmed based on the nominations the group received from members of the non-profit community. For more information: slowfoodnation.org.

Watch Our Garden Grow
On Labor Day Weekend San Francisco’s downtown will be engulfed in farm stalls—complete with Elephant Heart plums, Gravenstein apples, dry farmed tomatoes and heirloom melon.

The Slow Food Nation 'Victory Garden' in the Civic Center Plaza is already being seeded at City Slickers Farms and Ploughshares Nursery, two San Francisco sustainable growers, and will be planted on-site outside City Hall on Saturday, July 12, according to the event's organizers. Alice Waters and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will be on hand to break the ground, and an expected additional 300 volunteers will be their to get their hands dirty. For more information contact: lael@sfvictorygardens.org.

New Web Site and Ticketing
The event's first day of ticket sales is Wednesday, June 4, when a completely updated Slow Food Nation web site goes live.

While most of Slow Food Nation '08 will be free and open to the public, the food in the 'Taste Pavilion' (at Civic Center Plaza) and the "Food for Thought" speakers' series featuring Michael Pollan, Carlo Petrini (the founder of the international Slow Food movement) and others, will be ticketed on a first come, first served basis, event planners say.

Upcoming Events
As Slow Food Nation grows over the summer, the group plans to participate in a number of events around San Francisco and the Bay Area.

For example, next week is the “Slow Down on the Delta” event on May 31, a four-course farm dinner and tour organized by local Slow Food chapters to benefit Slow Food Nation, followed by a June 2nd forum at the S.F. Public Library with Alice Waters and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom entitled: “A Vision for Good, Sustainable, Fair Food." For more information email: CitySpeaks@sfgov.org by May 29).

Lastly, at Slow Food San Francisco’s annual Golden Glass event on June 8, visitors will be able to buy tickets and get more information about Slow Food Nation, in addition to tasting some delicious wines. For more information: www.thegoldenglass.com/.

Slow Foods' Memo: Plans for Huge 'Slow Food Nation' Festival in San Francisco Starting to Take Shape

The artisanal and sustainable-food organization Slow Food USA plans in the next few months to transform (with the mayor's permission) San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza into a 15,000 square foot vegetable garden, as the group begins preparing for this summer's huge Slow Foods Nation food festival in the city by the bay.

The four-day festival featuring artisanal, specialty, natural and organic food producers--along with cheesemakers, farmers, vintners and others--is scheduled for Labor Day weekend in San Francisco. It will be held August 29 -to- September 1, 2008.

At a planning session last Friday, the Slow Food group said the festival will be held at two venues in the city: the Civic Center, which is home to San Francisco's Beaux-Arts style city hall and the large Civic Center Plaza and a park; and Fort Mason, a large mixed-use facility on the edge of the city with views of the bay and Golden Gate Bridge.

The Civic Center venue will be devoted primarily to the farming aspects of the festival, with the 15,000 square foot garden and a farmer's market featuring nearly 100 vendors on each of the four days of the festival. In addition, "Slow on the Go" food stands will sell a variety of "slow food" ready-to-eat items like tacos made with grass-fed beef and homemade organic tortillas, grass-fed beef hamburgers, slices of pizza with tomato sauce made from organically-grown heirloom tomatoes and locally-produced artisanal cheeses, and other similar delights.

Speakers at the Civic Center space will discuss food issues of various types, and food activist groups will meet to devise ways the make the U.S. food system more sustainable.

The focus at Fort Mason will be primarily on food and eating; and enjoying it the "slow food" way. Hundreds of American artisanal, specialty, natural and organic food purveyors will set up booths and offer tastes of their products. The various foods at the venue will be organized by category by a local Bay Area specialist. For example, the group says Steve Sullivan of the famous Berkeley, California Acme Bread company will organize the bakers, and Tom Worthington of Berkeley's innovative Monterey Fish Market will be in charge of the seafood offerings.

The Slow Food Nation festival's most vocal--and perhaps most popular in food circles--spokesperson is Alice Waters, the founder and owner of the world-famous Chez Panisse restaurant in nearby Berkeley, cookbook author, specialty foods' producer, food educator, home garden promoter, and advisor on food issues to former President Bill Clinton and other U.S. policy makers.

Water's says part of her goal for the four-day Slow Food Nation festival, which the organizers' expect to draw tens of thousands of participants to, is to "make an impression on the next president of the United States."

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom also is a big proponent of the festival and has thrown the city's resources behind it. Before being elected as the city's Mayor, Newsom was the owner of a high-end chain of restaurants in the Bay Area, as well as owning two premium wineries, and creating and marketing the Plumjack brand of premium wines.

Newsom says San Francisco is the logical place to hold the four-day Slow Food festival because of the city's (and nearby Bay Area region's) status as the sustainable and artisanal food movement capital of the U.S.

According to Anya Fernald, Slow Food Nation executive director, the organizing committee has raised 40% of its $2 million budget for the festival thus far. Those interested in making a donation can go to the Slow Food Nation website for information on how to do so.