Thursday, April 7, 2011

Rec'd reading: Chasing Chiles


The book Chasing Chiles is not merely a tome dedicated to exploring climate change and it’s impacts on agriculture, though it does this well, it is a celebration of life.  By focusing in on the stories of one food, chile peppers, the three authors were able to dig deeply into the complex ways in which all food touches our lives, providing readers (well this reader at least) with enough sustenance to care deeply about the fate of chiles specifically and food, land, and culture, in general through learning about the fragility and import of biodiversity in our food system. I find myself left with not just a taste for more chile peppers, but with a sense of concern, and conversely, a hope for their future.

Written by three active figures in the good food movement—chef and Slow Food USA board member Kurt Michael Friese; author, conservationist, ethnobotanist, father of Renewing America’s Food Traditions Alliance, and local food hero Gary Paul Nabhan; and my friend and fellow Slow Food Biodiversity committee member the agroecologist Kraig Kraft—this work brings together the insights of their varied expertise to explore the vast ramifications of climate change on food.

The three gastronauts take us from Sonora and its Chiltepines, to Florida and its Datils, to the Yucatan and its Habaneros, to the Gulf Coast and its Tabascos, to New Mexico and its diverse Native Chiles, to Maryland and the history of Fish peppers, and to Wisconsin and Southern Illinois and Beaver Dams, telling the stories of peppers and the amazing people dedicated to keeping them available. They weave in language, history, music, art, politics, tragedies, and recipes along the way. 

Threats to biodiversity are in the multitude.  Loss of small farms, farmers, and farmland, environmental degradation, industrialization of agriculture and our food system, and the decreasing understanding humans have of how land, food, culture, and health are tied together have been major players in loss of biodiversity for decades, but climate change may be throwing a whole host of new threats into play.  In Chasing Chiles we learn about how temperature changes, floods, drought, storm damage, pestilence from shifting weather patterns seem to be increasing perils.  While each locale will respond differently to climate change, Friese, Nahban, and Kraft remind us that to create resilience in our food system (i.e. to ensure food remains available to make it onto our plates) we must increase biodiversity among all food crops to provide a buffer. As all locales will respond differently to shifting weather patterns, so too will each varietal respond differently to these shifts.

I would be remiss in not mentioning certain personal and professional affinities for this subject matter.  For I found it deeply gratifying to experience the synchronicity of burning my tongue on a soup flavored with Chiltepines found on a recent trip to Tucson and visit to Native Seeds as I sat down to begin reading and then to finish the book as I awaited the appearance of dozens of Beaver Dam pepper seedling I started to grow out here in the state they’ve been home to for nearly a hundred years.  And as a dietitian, I must note the clear connection between biodiversity and health: as we’ve moved away from diverse diets towards increasingly refined, industrialized, mono-crop diets our health has suffered. By restoring biodiversity to our gardens, fields, and wild places we can restore our health.  This book ends hopefully with some meaningful principles to eat and grow food to counter climate change.

Chasing Chiles is one hot, wild ride. And one worth taking.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Grow Endangered Fruits & Vegetables

Being a champion for food biodiversity is something people can participate wherever their locale....the following is adapted from a message to Slow Food WiSE members and friends in the Milwaukee area.

Slow Food Wisconsin Southeast is encouraging folks in our region to join us in the effort to restore some special foods at risk of being lost. "Eat It to Save It" is the basic idea.... 


By growing endangered foods in your own backyard and by supporting farmers that do, you can help save these foods from extinction.


Recover Forgotten Fruit
The Milwaukee Apple—just one of hundreds of endangered fruits that have disappeared from our plates and has been replaced by fewer than a dozen commercial varieties.  

Last year, our Slow Food WiSE chapter planted the Milwaukee Apple bench grafted trees (along with the varietals Pewaukee, Oneida, Ashmead’s Kernel, Autmun Beauty and one we’ve named the  Stahl-Conrad  Apple after the last tree standing on the original orchard site) in the spring of 2010 at the Historic Stahl Conrad Homestead in Hale’s Corners.  This year, we will be planting more and are especially excited about sharing a couple of trees with Walnut Way!  Join Slow Food WiSE in bringing back the Milwaukee Apple by planting your own bench grafted trees—Tony from Maple Valley Orchards said he will continue taking orders throughout the month of April.  
Description of the Milwaukee Apple: This seedling apple was found under a Duchess tree and then developed by George Jeffrey of Milwaukee, WI.  It appeared in commerce around 1899.  It’s tough but thin skin is greenish yellow and marbled, dotted or blotched with reds. Its yellowish white flesh is tender and juicy, with a pleasant acid flavor good for most uses except as a fresh dessert apple.
                  –Renewing America’s Food Traditions Alliance, Forgotten Fruits of the Great Lakes Region Project

To learn more about Endangered Food of South Eastern Wisconsin, check out Food Biodiversity.

Grow Endangered Vegetables
“300,000 vegetable varieties have become extinct over the last century”
 – Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity (from FAO reports on Agricultural Biodiversity)

“The US Ark of Taste is a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates.”    For more info: www.slowfoodusa.org   

Consider these Ark of Taste heirlooms for your garden:

Ark of Taste Vegetables that have ties to Wisconsin:
Beaver Dam pepper * seeds recently spotted at Outpost’s Capital Drive location
Amish Paste Tomato
Sheboygan Tomato

Additional Ark of Taste Vegetables that may be well suited for growing in Wisconsin:
Amish Deer Tongue lettuce
Grandpa Admire's lettuce
Speckled lettuce
Tennis Ball lettuce (black seeded)
Early Blood Turnip-rooted beet
Bull Nose Large Bell pepper
Fish pepper
Hinkelhatz Hot pepper
Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Frying pepper
Sheepnose pimiento
German Pink Tomato
Red Fig Tomato
Aunt Molly’s Husk Tomato (ground Cherry)
Valencia Tomato
Lina Cisco’s Bird Egg Bean
True Red Cranberry bean
Hidatsa Shield Figure bean
Yellow Indian Woman Bean
Hutterite Soup bean
Mayflower Bean
Turkey’ Hard Red Winter Wheat
Roy’s Calais flint corn
***Most of these seeds may be sourced through Seed Savers Exchange.***


Be a Biodiversity Champion--Volunteer!
Slow Food WiSE notes an array of opportunities for you to get invloved in restoring our region's food traditions--planting antique apple trees, tabling at events, building a simple website for local farmers (such as local producers of Sorghum Syrup on the Ark of Taste), starting seeds, researching heritage breeds …and so much more!  Please do et us know if you are growing any of these foods or find others that are....contact me at Jcasey@slowfoodwise.org to get involved.