Slow food chapter coming

Upper Delaware River Valley Convivium joins growing movement

By FRITZ MAYER

NORTH BRANCH, NY — In Latin, the word convivium means feast or banquet. Since the early 1990s, however, it has also come to define a group of people who come together to celebrate the virtues of slow food, and become officially affiliated with the nonprofit organization Slow Food USA.

The slow food movement started in Italy in 1989 as a backlash against the fast lifestyles, and particularly the fast foods, that have spread seemingly unstoppably around the globe. Slow Food USA, according to its website, “…envisions a future food system that is based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice-in essence, a food system that is good, clean and fair.”

At a working dinner in North Branch on November 1, eight local residents who plan to become founding members of the local convivium, along with a couple of guests, took one of the final steps in the process of establishing a convivium, which was to fill out a questionnaire from Slow Food USA.

After briefly considering the use of Delaware Highlands in the name, the Upper Delaware River Valley was settled on because it would be recognizable to a greater number of people. There was also a discussion of what the focus of the convivium would be, and it was decided that because of all the agriculture in the area, the focus would certainly include the link between gardening or farming and good food.

This being a slow food event, the discussion took place over a five-course meal, which included such delicacies as roasted red Pappardella peppers provided by organic farmer Trina Pilonero, who brought the pepper seeds back from a trip to a slow food convention in Italy last fall.

One of the requirements of maintaining a convivium is that the group must hold at least one event per year that is open to the public. The members of this group have several ideas in mind, but the one they’re moving ahead with most purposefully is a ramp festival.

A ramp is a native North American plant that is a member of the leek and onion family but that usually grows in the wild. In this area, ramps are harvested in April and early May. Historically, ramps have been very popular in Appalachia, but more recently they have become a hit at farmer’s markets in the Northeast.

The group hopes to hold the first annual ramp festival in May 2008, near the Callicoon Farmer’s Market, although details of the event are still being worked out.

If the group is accepted by Slow Food USA-and the odds of that seem likely-it will become the 12th convivium located in New York State. There is one in Andes, NY, and one in the Hudson Valley. There are five in Pennsylvania, the closest is located in New Hope, PA.

Slow Food International has more than 80,000 members in over 130 countries, while Slow Food USA has 15,000 members belonging to 170 convivia.

Visit www.slowfoodusa.org for more information.