First 'SlowFest' block party promotes locally prepared food

Slow Food Bloomington hosted SlowFest, an outdoor block party, to celebrate the local fall harvest yesterday, with several local restaurants serving foods with local flavor — literally. All the ingredients in foods present were grown by local farmers, and were the tastes of community traditions, organizers said. \nThe event paired local producers such as the Boos Farm, Butler Winery and Musgrave Orchards, with local businesses and restaurants such as Limestone Grill, Bloomington Bagel Company and Tortilla Flat. To top off the community spirit, local musicians provided live music.\nDespite the list of upscale restaurants participating in the event, prices ranged from $5 for an entrée and side item to $9 for an entrée, side item, dessert and a drink. \n"The idea of Slow Food is to fight back against the 'McDonaldization' of America with enjoyment," said event coordinator, IU professor of political science and Herald Times food columnist Christine Barbour.\nShe said the goal of the event was "to make people aware of Slow Food Bloomington, and to see how great (locally grown food) tastes." Because this was the first annual SlowFest, the staff was unsure of how the community would respond. Traci Nagle, a volunteer, said before the event, she didn't know what to expect. \nThe line for food wrapped all the way around the tent, however, without enough tables to hold all the hungry people. Despite the wait -- "It's not fast food," Barbour quipped -- recipients appeared happy with the food they bought. \nAnd the taste difference between locally grown and commercial foods was obvious, as far as Jan and Angela Berzins were concerned. \n"We make an effort to go to the local markets and buy organic when we can," Berzins said.\nThe local growers who provided the food for the festival were represented by the Local Growers Guild, an organization that seeks to educate and support local growers and to create relationships between growers and consumers, especially restaurants. \n"Our purpose here is to raise awareness that we're building these connections. It's one thing to say we want to incorporate local growers into our restaurants but it's another to actually make it happen," said Art Sherwood, a representative of the Local Growers Guild.\nOne of the restaurants participating in SlowFest was Restaurant Tallent. David Tallent said he and his wife discovered the Slow Food movement while attending the Culinary Institute of America in New York City. "We decided this is the way it should be ... We get to meet all these farmers and help them support themselves, and the food's better," Tallent said.\nBarbour claims the difference is in how the food is grown and bred. She said that commercial food is bred to last on a truck, not necessarily to taste good. \n"Take a tomato," she said. "A commercial tomato isn't ripened on the vine. It's ripened by gas on the (delivery) trucks. That's why a tomato from your garden tastes so much better." \nIU graduate student Christopher Hemmerich agrees, saying he came after attending a dinner Slow Food used as a fund-raiser. "I like local restaurants; I'm anti-chain restaurants." \nIn fact, that is what seems to bind Slow Food advocates together, Nagle said. \n"Most of us are into cooking, sharing food, and sharing meals with people," Nagle said.\nThat mission is shared by 80,000 members in more than 100 countries, according to Slow Food's Web site, www.slowfood.com. These members are dedicated not only to buying from local growers and eating seasonally, but to preserving foods that don't get attention and are likely to go extinct. The Web site includes a list of foods the members believe are endangered, according to region. Each of the endangered foods have a page devoted to their history, and members can nominate endangered foods from their region to go on the ark.\nNot everyone came to the event out of an association with Slow Food or its cause. IU Alumna Sarah Hodgdon said she was just in town for a wedding and came out of curiosity. "I didn't know that much about Slow Food, so I thought I'd find out more about it," Hodgdon said.\nHer friend Jessica Williams agrees. \n"It's just great local food."\n-- Contact staff writer Janice Neaveill at jneaveil@indiana.edu.