PORT TOWNSEND — “Slow food” is bringing Jefferson and Clallam County residents together as they become part of a national educational movement that puts people in touch with their food sources — from the field to farmers market to the convivial tradition of the table.
Slow Food North Olympic Peninsula — founded in 2007 by farmers, cheese makers, educators, restaurateurs, chefs and food lovers — encourages indulgence in fresh, locally produced food.
‘Convivium’
The group — called a “convivium” — is inviting people from throughout the North Olympic Peninsula to enjoy the harvest during a “Festival of the Fields” potluck party at Sweet Laurette’s Cafe and Patisserie, 1029 Lawrence St. in uptown Port Townsend, at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
The movement that started in the living room of Ann Pougiales, a Port Townsend Farmers Market board member, today has about 75 practicing members, who live from Port Townsend to Sequim to Port Angeles.
“We try to educate people about the importance of supporting their local farmers and those who produce food,” Pougiales said.
She has helped throw periodic potlucks with the likes of Nash Huber, who raises organic vegetables of many varieties on his Dungeness Valley farmland, and Frank D’Amore, an artisan baker whose popular Pane D’Amore breads can be found on the shelves of many North Olympic Peninsula markets.
When D’Amore said he needed locally-grown hard red wheat for his breads, Huber tilled to fill the niche.
“Increasingly, we’re finding ways to being farmers and food producers together to make delicious, healthy food,” said Jane Gustafson, a Peninsula Slow Food member.
“That’s the hope, that we can make these kinds of connections.”
Food-lovers’ gatherings
All are welcome to bring a favorite dish for the celebration of food, farms and friendship Sunday, Pougiales and Gustafson said.
Past gatherings have included a cheese tasting, in which area artisan cheese makers talked about their products made from locally-produced dairy milk.
“If we create the environment of a lovely table with good food for people to sit and talk, then maybe something will come out of it,” Pougiales said.
The Peninsula convivium, in its application to Slow Food USA, the movement’s national organization, says that the region has several wineries, creameries, farmers markets, and Native American tribes that help a local seafood industry prosper.
“The North Olympic Peninsula is home to a large shellfish and seafood industry,” the application says.
“We are, of course, part of salmon nation, but our waters are also awash with steelhead, trout, cod, sea urchin, herring, smelt, rockfish, trout, char, sturgeon, Dungeness crab, clams, cockles, shrimp, oysters and geoduck, as well as a vast array of edible seaweeds.”
The group cites forests that produce edible fungi — including chantrelle and morel mushrooms — wild berries, stinging nettles, Oregon grape, miner’s lettuce, Nootka rose hips, fiddlehead fern and watercress.
Founding members
The group of 16 founding members include restaurateurs Laurette McRae of Port Townsend, Neil Conklin of Port Angeles, and Gabrielle and Jessica Schuenemann of Sequim.
Chefs who are members include Jay Payne and Arran Stark, both of Port Townsend.
Huber and his wife, Patty McManus-Huber, are among the farming community members.
Rick Oltman, owner of Cape Cleare Salmon, also is a founding member, along with Will O’Donnell, Port Townsend Farmers Market manager.
Micaela Colley, farmers outreach coordinator for Organic Seed Alliance in Port Townsend, Hope Borsato, former co-owner of Provisions Delicatessen in Port Townsend, and Katherine Baril, county agricultural agent and director at the Washington State University extension in Port Hadlock, are also founding members of Slow Food North Olympic Peninsula.
Founded in Italy
Carlo Petrini, founding father of the Slow Food Movement in 1986 in Italy, felt that the industrialization of food was standardizing taste, and leading to the annihilation of thousands of food varieties, Slow Food USA says in its manifesto on its Web site, www.slowfoodusa.org/.
As a result of Petrini’s vision, the North America movement today has grown to more than 170 chapters, including the Peninsula’s.
“Slow food is working to maintain our cultural heritage,” Gustafson said.
Already, the group is advocating extending the movement in part to local schools.
“We have lots of things we’d like to do to build our organization,” Pougiales said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.