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November 5: Slow Food East End’s Annual Public Board Meeting

Oct 27, 2023 | Blog, Events, In The News

Join us for Slow Food East End’s Annual Public Board Meeting

(It’s free and it’s fun!) 

Sunday, November 5, 3:00 – 5:00pm 

at Veteran’s Park Community Center

11280 Peconic Bay Blvd in Mattituck

Slow Food East End’s Annual Public Board Meeting is next on our community agenda. We hope you’ll join for us to for a casual afternoon potluck — Slow Food style!

Everyone is welcome to slow the forks down with us as we share news about our year and elect new members to our board.

Come to taste & share: We will provide Long Island Wine County Wines to pour. Our Board members are already planning the tastings we will bring from our kitchens for nibbling. Our hope is that you’ll also bring a homemade taste to share, ideally made from your favorite locally sourced provisions. But this is not a deal-breaker; even if you don’t cook, please come!

At our open house, we will be showcasing the ways in which we are nourishing our community through our various SFEE programs. This is a great opportunity to learn/share more about our ongoing Feed the Forks initiatives, including…

Flour Power – our home-based community baking program, where YOU can provide freshly baked bread to local food pantries.

Edible School Gardens – for more than 10 years, SFEE has supported one of the most successful school garden programs in the U.S. reconnecting children and their families with real food, and inspiring their local communities to eat well.

Snail of Approval – This award is given to businesses that incorporate the Slow Food ideals of championing virtues of local sources that are good, clean & fair for all. It brings recognition to amazing food businesses that are excelling in sourcing, environmental impact, cultural connection, community involvement, staff support, and/or business values.

We’ve had a busy year and are looking forward to a productive, informative and social 2024.

All welcome; bring a friend.  

RSVP for Annual Public Board Meeting

November 9: Flour Power Baker’s Workshop at CAST

Oct 26, 2023 | Blog, Events

Learn all about Flour Power and how you can feed our community… and no, you do not have to be an experienced baker! Come to our bread demo at CAST… it’s educational and, it’s always fun.

Thursday, November 9, 5:00 – 7:00pm 

at CAST North Fork

53930 Main Road, Southold, NY11971

Flour Power is a Slow Food East End initiative and a way members of the community can provide home-baked loaves of bread to local food pantries. Our goal is to nourish and bring joy to people through a personal touch with hearty home-baked love. These loaves are incredibly appreciated by the recipients, so much so that the need for new bakers keeps growing and growing. The baking cycles take place every 2 weeks and each cycle provides loaves baked by the community.

Since our launch in 2021, we have provided over a 1000+ loaves to 4 food pantries our local the East End area.

Please join us for our workshop demo at CAST! Some of you may already be bakers, and some of you are still waiting for the perfect time to start baking… whichever category you fall into we invite you to come to this event!

Come meet the Slow Food team and learn more about the recipe we specifically created for this program, sample some bread and find out how you can be a volunteer to help provide freshly baked bread for families in need.

These bread demo events are our favorite type of events because we get to meet you, talk to you, and teach you about our bread recipe that we are so passionate about. We’ll go through everything, step by step, you’ll learn all of our tips and tricks, and by the end of the evening, you will completely understand why we do what we do. We will have loaf pans on hand for anyone who signs up to bake but needs pans. We will email you an instructional video that you can easily bake along with.

Some of our experienced bakers will be on hand to chat with you, answer questions, and share everything they know. It’s important to let you know, that while we do bake every two weeks, we will never ask you for a commitment. Just sign up and you’ll receive all of our info, the recipe, and the video. You bake when you can.

Hunger is such a huge problem here on the east end and our community is so happy with these home-baked loaves and we are so happy to have them whenever you can bake.

The event is FREE to attend, limited seating. Please RSVP for help with planning purposes.

This event is a Slow Food East End and CAST Collaboration.

RSVP for Flour Power Baker's Workshop

Did you know, we have a Flour Page on Facebook? It’s a great way for our FP community to stay connected. We invite you all to join, share baking tips and post pics!

SFEE Facebook Group for Bakers

Negroni Week Recap

Oct 6, 2023 | Blog, In The News, Past Events

The week of  September 18-24, people across our East End community enjoyed the iconic Negroni while supporting the Slow Food movement. With shared Italian roots and interest in a fair food and beverage system, Slow Food, Campari, and the Negroni are the perfect pairing.

For the past 10 years, Slow Food, Imbibe Magazine, and Campari have joined forces to increase their collective impact by using donations raised during Negroni Week to provide incubator grants for activities that support and promote good, clean, and fair food and beverage. 

Here on the East End, we were fortunate to receive a grant earlier this year to expand our Flour Power program.  This is a program that provides healthy and nutritious bread to people in need.  The additional funds from the Negroni Week grant will be a significant boost to our efforts.

Thanks to all the restaurants, bars, art museums, liquor stores, and chocolate shops across the Forks that participated.  We had fourteen venues on the East End register, and several of our participants sponsored some specials and fun events during the week.  Pictured here are a few highlights:

  • An evening with our guest leader, Nichole Sinning, enjoying the Negroni variation “Your Momma Don’t Dance” at Townline BBQ
  • Tropical Negroni and snack pairing at Love Lane Kitchen in Mattituck, cocktails crafted by Joe Coleman at Doublespeak Cocktails
  • Dinner at Noah’s with a round of classic Negroni’s enjoyed by guest leader, Becky Chidester and her East Marion friends. 

October 4: Slow Hour at Amber Waves

Oct 1, 2023 | Blog, Past Events

Join us as we celebrate Fall on the Farm with a Slow Hour gathering!

Wednesday, October 4, 4 – 6 pm

at Amber Waves

367 Main St, Amagansett, NY 11930

Slow Hours are designed to be easy! No tickets are needed and it’s free to attend. We just request that you RSVP to help our hosts plan properly.

We enjoy finding noteworthy locations to slow down with our community on the East End. We love bringing our members together to support local businesses and organizations where food and wine are also available to purchase. Best of all, Slow Hour is a chance to meet new friends and local experts who share

passions and knowledge with us.

All welcome, bring a friend.

If you are not yet aware of Amber Waves accomplishments and especially if you already are, October 4 is the perfect time to see and learn more about why Slow Food East End chose to award Amber Waves with our internationally recognized and coveted Snail of Approval Award this year.

We’ll be on site at 4pm but you are welcome to come even earlier, shop the farm stand for delicious homemade provisions and wonderful selection of wines. A bountiful array of goods is available at Amber Waves farm stand which is open until 5pm.

Settle in with a view of the sunset for introductions and a discussion about farming on the East End.

At 5pm our guests are welcome to enjoy a private tour of the farm and ask all the questions you want about Amber Wave farming practices and farming on the East End.

An added treat: Amber Waves is extending on opportunity to enjoy the benefits of one of their most popular membership benefit programs, the Pick-Your-Own Flower program.

Amber Waves created Pick-Your-Own Flower program to open up flower fields to the public for a hands-on farm experience. It is a great way to become more connected to the farm, the land and the community. The flower fields are open from July – October.

Slow Hour guests will be able to choose to become a member for a day for $45 to received a one day pick a flower voucher, or join at one of our other three membership levels for more benefits and more flower vouchers.

Slow Food East End and Amber Waves look forward to celebrating the joys of fall with you! 

Amber Waves is a female-founded and run 30 acre farm and non-profit organization celebrating their 15th season this year! They rely on donations and purchases in their market, kitchen, and from education programs to help support their mission-driven work in the community.

As an educational farm their goal is to provide rich educational opportunities in agriculture to aspiring growers, thoughtful cooks, and eaters of all ages. They do this through their robust children’s education program offering farmer and cooking classes to children on the East End, hosting weekly food and farming skills-based workshops for adults, and offering an 8 month long farming apprenticeship program where they train new and beginning farmers each year. 

They are also committed to serving their community through their food security program where they donate freshly harvested produce each week to 7 different local food pantries across the South Fork, reaching almost 800 families. They also offer an open access space for all to enjoy seven days a week. 

RSVP for Slow Hour
RSVP for Slow Hour

September 18-24: Join us for Negroni Week!

Aug 20, 2023 | Blog, Past Events

Join us for Negroni Week

SFEE is excited to announce that we will be participating in Negroni Week, a global celebration of this classic Italian cocktail, while also supporting the Slow Food Movement. During Negroni Week, which runs from September 18 to September 24th, select bars and restaurants from around the world will participate in Negroni Week in support of the global movement. Many will be featuring a special menu of Negroni variations and donating a portion of the proceeds to Slow Food, supporting our mission to promote sustainable, locally sourced, and traditional food of Slow Food. 

The Negroni, a beloved cocktail made with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, has been enjoyed for over a century. It has become a symbol of the Italian aperitivo culture and is loved by cocktail enthusiasts all around the world. Negroni Week was created to celebrate this iconic drink and raise funds for charitable causes.

For the past 10 years, Slow Food, Imbibe Magazine, and Campari have joined forces to increase their collective impact by using donations raised during Negroni Week to provide incubator grants for activities that support and promote good, clean, and fair food and beverage.  

Our East End chapter just received a sizable grant in support of our Flour Power program – an initiative focused on providing high-quality, nutritious, and flavorful, home-baked bread to food pantries in our community.

Participating in Negroni Week is simple, here’s what you need to do: 

Restaurants/Bars/Liquor Stores

  •       Register your venue by visiting the Negroni Week website.  Registration is open through September 9th. NW Link Donation of $25 or more to support the vital work of Slow Food!
  •       During Negroni Week, celebrate by featuring the classic Negroni or your favorite variation. 

Participants will be featured on the global Negroni Week website and have access to a range of promotional materials.  SFEE will also promote the week by directing members to local participating establishments on the East End.

Individuals

  •       Visit one of the participating locations during the Negroni week of September 18 to September 24th.
  •       Enjoy a delicious Negroni. 

The Slow Food Movement is a global organization that advocates for good, clean, and fair food for all. We believe in preserving traditional food cultures, promoting biodiversity, and supporting small-scale farmers and producers. By participating in Negroni Week, we are not only celebrating a beloved cocktail, and are also doing our part to create a more sustainable and equitable food system.

So mark your calendars and join us for Negroni Week! Come sip on delicious Negronis and support the Slow Food Movement. Together, we can raise a glass for a better future.

REGISTER HERE
PARTNERSHIP
NEGRONI WEEK FUND

Thanks for Coming To Slow F.I.S.H

Aug 16, 2023 | Blog, In The News, Past Events

Seafood was on the menu and everyone’s mind as our Slow Food family and friends at the Suffolk County Marine Environmental Learning Center came together to enjoy a night to celebrate our unique East End Merroir. We tasted oysters from four different local merroirs and incredible fresh local seafood dishes, all paired with local wines while learning so much about sustainable fishing operations in our local waterways. 

Our knowledgeable friends at Cornell Cooperative Extension located along the scenic shores of Cedar Beach in Southold study our local waters looking for solutions to keep them healthy, productive, and sustainable so they remain that way for years to come. Commercial and recreational harvesting of seafood is a way of life on Long Island so preserving the viability of this industry and essential food source is critical for our community and marine resources.  

Presentations by Cornell Fisheries and Aquaculture specialists were informative and engaging.   We learned about Cornell’s “Choose Local F.I.S.H.” (Fresh. Indigenous. Sustainable. Healthy) initiatives to encourage all to discover the variety of local fish choices Long Island has to offer.  

Purchasing local seafood enables consumers to know the direct origin of their food. Increased marketing of local seafood supports the economic viability of our coastal fishing communities and small businesses and boosts the economic value of Long Island’s seafood industry while providing consumers with fresher and higher-quality seafood. When purchasing locally caught fish, you can be sure that fish is sustainably harvested and in compliance with U.S. and state regulations which are some of the strictest in the world.   So do eat more local seafood! 

Guests toured the amazing hatchery, where tens of millions of oyster seeds are hatched, raised, fed, and released each year.  These remarkable shellfish are natural water purifiers, each adult filters about 50 gallons of water a day making oysters among the most sustainable seafoods on earth.   The CCE hatchery has perfected nurturing the minuscule shellfish seeds in containment away from predators to be released when they reach adult size into local creeks and bays to promote wild settlement.   The staff also developed the community SPAT program to enlist community members to learn to grow oysters. Over 1000 locals have taken part in the program so far, many going on to start their own oyster companies.  If you are interested in fostering thousands or so babies, new SPAT memberships are available each year. 

Four oyster companies provided shellfish, shucked to order by hatchery staff, it was wonderful to do side-by-side tastings to easily compare the distinct flavor differences between oysters harvested from farms in different local waterways. Served were:  Davy Jones Shellfish, known for wild-caught and farm-raised oysters; Hampton Oyster Company specializing in deep-water, surface-grown oysters; Montauk Pearls which are seeded in Lake Montauk and followed by deep water finishing in Block Island Sound; and Peconic Gold Oysters which are raised in the beautiful Great Peconic Bay between the North and South forks. 

No food tasting would feel complete without wine to accompany the flavors. From sparkling wine to white varietals, classic roses, and ruby reds everyone got to enjoy comparing a variety of wines donated by Long Island Wine Country wineries.  We encourage all to enjoy the fruits of our local terroirs as LIWC celebrates 50 years of local viniculture this year.

The additional educational components rounded out the night’s festivities:

* We learned to filet a variety of local fish and to shuck like a pro! 

* We were lucky enough to be able to ask the Cornell Marine experts all of our marine and aquaculture questions. 

* We met artists and artisans who are inspired by the waters.  Thank you Lisl Reuschle of Adrift Designs (@adrift_northfork)  who creates art from beach finds, a special favorite was her handcrafted oyster spoons.  Al Goldberg displayed his famous handmade custom fishing rods and discussed what rods were best for different waters and species.  Al has been a member of the Slow Food East End family for years, he has taught so many local fishermen and hobbyists how to fish properly.  Thank you to Rory MacNish, part of the Cornell family and an SFEE friend who donated art and his talents photographing the night. 

Proceeds for this event helped support two amazing not-for-profit organizations, Slow Food East End Feed the Forks initiatives and Choose Local F.I.S.H programming. 

Thank you to the local businesses who made donations to our raffle and auction:

Little Fish 

Love Lane Kitchen

Calamity Janes  

Al Goldberg

Rory MacNish 

Sea Adventures Day Camp

Choose Local FISH  

Stefanie Villani, Author

The CCE SPAT Program

Sea Explorers Marine Camp

We owe a big, delicious thank-you to Lombardi Catering of Love Lane Market. The amazingly beautiful spread they prepared for this event, kept us all happy and satisfied. We really enjoyed savoring the elegantly prepared fresh local fish sliders, salads, and other dishes. Owner Lauren Lombardi is known for her hospitality and delicious locally sourced menus but Lauren has also long been a supporter of Slow Food East End and was previously on the board of Slow Food East End.   

Thank you also to At Your Service Party Tents and Events for donating essential and helpful rentals for our special event.  If you are located on the East End and looking to support a local business that is ready to take care of all your rental needs, give the new owner, Steve Winick a call AYSPR is located in Mattituck.