This year’s Grown on Long Island Day will include a chef ‘”Seafood Throw-down’” and a farm food challenge.

The second annual countywide farmers market, Grown on Long Island Day, will be held at the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center at 350 Yaphank Avenue in Yaphank from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm on Friday, August 17th.

Admission to the event is free. Fresh local produce, including seafood, vegetables & fruits, wine, local artisan cheeses and jams, and Long Island grown perennials will be available for purchase from local farmers. Come and enjoy games and activities for kids as well as $2 wagon rides. Explore the century-old working farm, visit our animals and learn about historic and modern agriculture. Visit www.grownonlongisland.com for more information.

As part of the day, New York Sea Grant is hosting a Chef Seafood Throwdown. Two well-known local chefs will prepare a dish using local seafood and ingredients from the market. The dishes will then be judged by a panel of guest judges! The Throwdown begins at 11:00 am and judging will be held at 12:30 pm.

A Kids Sandwich Food Challenge for ages 9 and over will be held at 11:00 am. Come with your favorite bread and we will provide the rest! Participants will “shop” at select vendors to make their sandwich creation. $5 entry fee. (Register in advance at 631-852-4602.)

Thursday, Aug. 16
Time TBD
Ross School, East Hampton

August 19th  5-7:30pm

Celebration, featuring a buffet of traditonal Indian foods prepared by local chefs, complimented by local wines.

Tickets:  $125 pp.  includes a one year membership to the Museum; contributions welcome.

For reservations:  IndianMuseum@optonline.net, (631) 988-9345. For further information:  Joe Townsend, Trustee and Event Committee Chair 631.988.9345, jtownsend2@aol.com.

A new effort to revitalize an important cultural center here, the Southold Indian Museum on its 50th anniversary. The museum – home of the Long Island Chapter of the New York Archeological Association, est. 1925 — houses one of New York’s most significant collections of Long Island aboriginal atitifacts, with over 100,000, many collected by local amateur archeologists, and one of the largest collections of Algonquin ceramic pottery, an impressive collection of Projectile points and clovis points, dating back to 8,000 B.C.

Southold Indian Museum, 1080 Main Bayview Rd, Southold. Open Saturdays & Sundays 1:30-4:30pm

A Field to Plate Dinner to benefit the new North Fork Education Initiative will be held at the Golden Earthworm Organic Farm in Jamesport on Saturday, August 12, from 4:00 – 7:00 pm. Top local chefs will share their favorite dishes featuring the bounty of the season. Live music, dinner, a silent auction and farm tour will make this a very special evening on the North Fork. The North Fork Education Invitiative

The North Fork Education Initiative (NFEI) is a new nonprofit on the East End whose mission is to create educational programs and opportunities with a focus on arts, environment and community.

Information:  www.northforked.org.

The Northeast Organic Farming Association’s (NOFA) Summer Conference with Northeast Animal-Power Field Days will be held August 10-12 at UMass Amherst. 

Check their website for all the details including 225+ workshops on organic farming, gardening and land care, homesteading, sustainability, nutrition, food politics, activism, and much, much more. Special workshops designed for kids and teens. An educational, fun opportunity for your children to bond with others from the Northeast while you attend workshops and events.

Entertainment for the whole family: Music and dance, an old-fashioned Country Fair, farmer’s market, games and fun. Modest registration, inexpensive dorm rooms, camping and delicious, wholesome organic meals.

 The Leaders of Slow Food East End (also known as the Board) met on July 12 to make plans for the summer and fall, including the annual meeting in late September and the election of new leaders. Mary Morgan and Linda Slezak are now heading the Events Committee and they looking for new members for this important committee. If you are interested in joining a committee (Education/Edible School Garden Group; Communications; or Events) or becoming a Slow Food East End leader, please contact Mary at mcfm.morgan@gmail.com or Tullia Limarzi at tullialimarzi@gmail.com.

The Board is delighted with the strong partnership between the Josh Levine Memorial Foundation and the Edible School Gardens group (Slow Food East End’s Education Committee). The Josh Levine Memorial Foundation has recently donated an additional $5,000 to be used for grants for our East End school gardens, and the board voted to contribute an additional $2,000 to this fund. Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz is working on the application forms that schools will need to complete to apply for grants. We will publicize this shortly.

Slow Food East End has 221 active members (that means members who have joined Slow Food USA and whose membership is up-to-date). We have over 600 people who “Like” SFEE on Facebook!

This annual dinner, a fundraiser for the Hayground School in Bridgehampton, is scheduled for Saturday, July 28, at the school in Bridgehampton.

A cocktail party, from  5:30 to 7:30 p.m, will feature hors d’oeuvres made with local ingredients, and a silent art auction. The VIP dinner,  four-courses with wine pairings from 8:00 to 10:30 p.m., will be prepared by participating chefs and Aldo Sohm, chef sommelier of Le Bernardin.  A live auction will follow the dinner.

A portion of the produce used for the dinner will be sourced from Hayground School’s Greenhouse, whose construction was partially funded by Slow Food East End. The Greenhouse functions as the heart of Hayground School’s Edible School Garden program, affiliated with Slow Food East End.

Tickets for the cocktail party only are $150 per person.  Tickets for the dinner and the cocktail party are $750.  Tickets for children will be available for $35, which includes kids dinner and creative childcare by Hayground Camp counselors.

The Chefs Dinner series is the primary fundraiser for Bridgehampton’s Hayground School and a tribute to the late Jeff Salaway, a widely respected and beloved restaurateur and one of the school’s co-founders.  Since its inception, this event has raised more than $1 million for Jeff’s Kitchen and the Jeff Salaway Scholarship Fund.

For tickets go to www.greatchefsdinner.com. For more information phone Samantha Dettmer at 631-537-7068 x113 or e-mail info@greatchefsdinner.org.”

Are you interested in becoming a part of the Slow Food leadership?

We are looking for candidates to run in our election as leaders. Because of its origins in Italy, sometimes Slow Food uses nominclature that is odd to U.S. ears. A “leader” is what other groups might call a board member.

We are a  volunteer organization and the health and success of our chapter depends on members like you offering your talents and time to serve on committees and on the board. Please contact Mary Morgan mcfm.morgan@gmail.com if you are interested. It’s a wonderful way to get to know people within the food community on the East End and to help educate the public about good, clean, fair food.

 The drama – will it rain, will it not rain? One date cancelled, the next date iffy.

Our luck held out when  it didn’t rain on Saturday afternoon, June 9, and the picnic did take place in a field with rolled bales of hay, alfalfa, sweet grass and grazing cows.

 A long communal table was set with red and white checked table cloths, milk bottles filled with beautiful local flowers and happy people of all ages diving into the delicious pot luck dishes.

Afterward, Art Ludlow, owner of the Mecox Dairy Farm, brought our group to the barns where the new calfs were in their stalls. Chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese all roamed free

Art talked about his Jersey cows as we watched them being milked. He capped off the afternoon with a tasting of the excellent aged cheeses his makes. 

Our thanks to Art Ludlow of Mecox Bay Dairy, Pierre Friedrichs of Block House Farms, and Linda Slezak for organizing this wonderful afternoon.

Dear Slow Foodies,

Our East End Chapter has been focusing on our educational goals this year. We are helping 16 schools on the North and South Forks establish edible school gardens. And thanks to funds raised with the Joshua Levine Memorial Foundation, we’ve been able to hire 3 master gardeners to help the schools.

Our chapter has been approached by several farms, restaurants and caterers to host several Slow Food events this summer and fall. There are some fabulous films we want to showcase to the public, wonderful people who want to host SNAIL potluck suppers, and the possibility of another Slow Food  Crawl. And, we’ve been invited to participate in the GREAT NY LOCAVORE CHALLENGE this September, with the goal of signing up 5,000 people to become locavores for the month! All great fun and great food events, helping to spread the word about the many benefits of eating locally, seasonally and sustainably, and raise some more funds to support our education programs.

Our Events Committee, which oversees these activities, has not met in quite a while, so we are announcing a new committee meeting.

What:  Slow Food East End Events Committee Meeting
When:  Thursday, July 12, 2012
Time:  4:00 – 6:00 pm
Where:  Lenz Winery, Peconic

Linda Slezak and I are co-chairing the Events Committee. We’d love you to join us with your ideas and energy. Interested? Questions? Call or email us today!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Mary Morgan
631-323-2320, mcfm.morgan@gmail.com

Linda Slezak
631-722-3695,  lindaslezak@hotmail.com