Slow Food Nation! by Dawn

Here are some thoughts about the first few days here at Slow Food Nation:

Thursday night- invite only “Come to the Table” sit down dinner for about 500 people in the Civic Center Plaza was amazing! It was a beautiful night here in SF, a wonderful addition to an already well thought out evening. We were greeted by volunteers at the entrance who directed us to sparkling wine and oyster appetizers. There were bowls of sweet cherry tomatoes, roasted almonds, salami, and olives waiting for us on the tables… tables that were lining the lush Victory Garden. People were happy and chatty and eating for hours (the beginning of lots of eating this weekend!). I showed up with my friend Jennifer Biesty from Top Chef, she is still quite the celebrity in the food world! We were stopped every few feet, people wanted to take pictures with her and talk about the show. It was a great way for me to be introduced to some important food people here in SF. It was a sit-down dinner with Alice Waters and others addressing the crowd. Dinner was chicken, potato salad and greens – all from local sustainable farms, and prepared right there in the plaza. A wonderful start to the weekend.

Friday morning- the Marketplace was open to the public. In the same space where the night before our sit down dinner was set up, now was full of people in line (oh! We are in California where people are “in” line not “on” line, like in NY) to buy yummy sustainable prepared food. Iced coffee, Popsicles, and lots of different sandwiches. Food was also available in the Farmers Market, just on the other side of the Victory Garden. It was a full market with every kind of in-season produce imaginable. My favorite were these amazing mushrooms. We ran into Michel Nischan (Chef & Cookbook Author) and Patrick Martins (Heritage Foods). Michel had just finished a panel he was speaking on, and Patrick was making sandwiches for a long line of hungry people. Later in the weekend he told us that he had made about 6000 sandwiches! Just at the end of the Marketplace was the beautiful water station, set up and run by Food & Water Watch. Noelle Ferdon, from F&WW, was talking non-stop to people full of questions about SF water. Everyone was able to fill up their own water bottles, or if you needed a cup, compostable ones were provided. And speaking of compostables, all of the serving utensils, plates, bowls, etc were composted. In fact they were even showing people how to create their own compost- and letting the “black gold” bricks go home with SFN attendees at the end of the week.

All of this Farmers Market fun was happening right around the Victory Garden, the garden that was planted by Slow Food Nation volunteers planted in July (or was it earlier?). The garden is right in front of City Hall- and the center piece for all the Slow Food Nation events happening at the Civic Center Plaza this weekend. Right in the Victory Garden was the "Soap Box" where many speakers spoke to the crowds through out the weekend.

Please check out our flickr account for photos of all of these beautiful areas!

Article Tag(s): slow food nation, sfn08

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