I read in the Poughkeepsie Journal today that The Wallkill Valley Land Trust is celebrating having saved the Jewett and Huguenot Street farms in New Paltz from development, and it reminded me of onions, Ferrán Adrià (see my Gerbil Meatballs post) and something that happened last fall when I was in Italy.
Lani Raider, who co-leads Slow Food Hudson Valley with me, is a CIA professor who was invited to speak at Slow Food's international conference, Terre Madre, in Turin, Italy last fall. Before an audience of hundreds of the world's top chefs and food producers, she described how she brings her students to area farms so they can make that connection to the folks who grow the food. She hopes her students will develop a respect for farmers and strengthen the farm-food ties when they become chefs. During her talk, she showed a Powerpoint of some of her students planting onions at Huguenot Street Farm in New Paltz.
She had set up her Powerpoint ahead of time, and while everyone was waiting for the talk to start, star chefs Alain Ducasse and Ferrán Adrià came on stage to say hello to Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini. My companion took a photo of the three men together -- a gathering of three of the most important people in the food world today. And displayed on the screen over their heads? The Powerpoint of onion planting at Huguenot Street Farm!
(Which also reminds me that we have the onion chopping demo at the HVC magazine web site. Life is just so connected.)
From left, that's Petrini, Adrià and Ducasse. Photo copyright 2006 by Joe Bostian, used with permission.
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