Prepping the tuna for canning

Join Slow Food Seattle and Jeremy Brown, fisherman and fish canner extraordinaire, on Sunday, January 8th to learn how to can your own fish. For a preview of the canning day – check out the Slow Food USA blog for a piece on our event from last year. Jeremy will be coming from Bellingham with everything we need to preserve our own delicious and nutritious, locally caught albacore tuna in canning jars to see us through until the 2012 albacore fishing season.

**The tuna canning will be all day process – it’s your choice to attend in the morning or afternoon but allow yourself at least an hour or two to share in the work of canning the tuna (or stay all day)! We have space for about 40 people over the course of the day to share the labor.**

How much will it cost?
Workshop cost is $10/pp and tuna is $62/flat (12 jars/flat), choose either:
- Class + one flat of canned tuna ($72)
- Class + two flats of canned tuna ($134)
- Class only ($10)
- Kids 12 & under free

Any remaining flats will be sold first come first serve to the folks who attend the canning event.

What will Jeremy bring?

• 1,000 pounds of Albacore tuna that was caught of the Washington coast this fall
  

  Tuna in jars - next step, olive oil and the "secret ingredient"

• A pallet canning jars
• Olive oil & sea salt
• A secret yet everyday ingredient that makes this the best tuna ever
• Pressure canners
• Propane cookers to heat the pressure cookers
• The know-how to pull this all off!

What do you need to bring?

• Yourself
• An apron if you wear one
• Sharp knife
• Plastic cutting board (a wood board might come away tuna scented!)
• Whatever you need to stay hydrated…maybe a snack if you’ll be hungry

What should I expect?

• To make it easy, Jeremy will pre-cut the albacore in to steaks.
• Rinse the tuna steaks
• Trim skin & cut the tuna into jars size pieces
• Stuff tuna into the half pint jars
• Add oil and a pinch of salt
• Wipe the jar rims and top with lids
• Pressurize the finished jars under Jeremy’s expert and safe supervision
• Take home jars and eat tuna with the pride of knowing you supported a local fisherman

PNW Albacore - all ready to be processed in the pressure cookers

Be sure to let us know if you need to cancel your reservation to take part in the event so someone “can” come!

Wild Pacific Albacore has been in the news for all the right reasons – topping the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Super Green List and on National Public Radio in a feature on the growth of micro-canneries in the Pacific Northwest. You can look for canned albacore tuna at your favorite food co-op or fish market or join us at Gourmondo‘s catering kitchen to can your own albacore to stock your pantry.

Special thanks to Gourmondo Catering for hosting Slow Food Seattle at their catering kitchen (309 South Cloverdale Street, Suite B-24, Seattle).

All photos: Jennifer Johnson

Join Slow Food Seattle for My fish has issues; it’s complicated – Sustainable Seafood in a Multimedia World, a conversation with Chefs Barton Seaver and Becky Selengut at the Broadway Performance Hall on Monday October 17th from 6:30pm to 8pm. A cookbook signing and reception featuring Snoqualmie Vineyards, The Pike Brewing Company, and an oyster bar from Taylor Shellfish will follow from 8pm to 8:45pm. Tickets available now through Brown Paper Tickets, $12/pp.

It’s time to cut through the fog of confusion that surrounds choosing and eating seafood. Sustainable seafood can be enjoyed in such a way that our personal health and the health of the oceans are of equal consideration. There are lots of sustainable seafood options to be had but how do we identify them?

Becky Selengut and Barton Seaver

East coast meets West coast for this fun and informative sustainable seafood presentation with Becky Selengut, our own local fish whisperer, and Barton Seaver, who’s visiting from D.C. While cooking is a hands on activity that engages all your senses, these two chefs have also engaged their minds and ethics in the process without finger pointing at those of us who are still learning about sustainable seafood. We can benefit from their research and hours in the kitchen by reading the sustainable seafood cookbooks each chef released in Spring of 2011

The evening’s conversation will appeal to folks who receive their information in many different ways, from slow as the printed word to speedy as devices can deliver. As part of the presentation our chefs, led by edibleSEATTLE editor Jill Lightner, will talk about how technology allows them to engage with eaters who may be new to seafood and not necessarily cookbook readers who specifically sought out a sustainable seafood book. Love your smartphone? Smart and sassy blog and Facebook posts, Tweets, websites and YouTube videos by Becky and Barton are just a click away.

Or perhaps you would rather meander printed pages that are glossy with images of seafood briny and sweet from the ocean? A person can pick up either chefs’ cookbook and get the full story – recipes with a dash of science sprinkled in as seasoning. Pick up your copy of For Cod & Country, Barton’s cookbook or Good Fish, Becky’s cookbook after the presentation.

What might you learn from our chefs? Both Becky and Barton encourage us to eat a variety of fish besides the perennial favorites of shrimp, salmon and tuna.

Eating a variety of seafood protects the health of humans and fish populations. Creating a marketplace demand for many types of fish eases the pressure on the whole ocean food web by spreading harvest efforts over many species and not over fishing a one popular fish.

An example? Small silver fish – once popular, then over fished due to market demand but on the rise again – just might make it back to everyone’s dinner plate as Barton and Becky’s followers learn from reading a computer screen or a cookbook page about recipes that balance the fishes intense flavor so the rich, nutritional qualities of these environmentally friendly fish are enjoyed.

And in or out of a tin, we need to get over our national suspicion of small silver fish; they are delicious, not scary! Join us on Monday October 17th and we’ll talk about it.

Speakers:

• Barton Seaver, chef, National Geographic Fellow and author of For Cod & Country
• Becky Selengut, chef, instructor and author of Good Fish
• Jill Lightner, Editor of edibleSEATTLE

Thanks to our event sponsor, Seafood Producers Cooperative for their generous support and also to our presenting partners: Readers to Eaters, Snoqualmie Vineyards, Pike Brewing Company, Taylor Shellfish, and edibleSeattle.

Slow Food is working to add more voices to our powerful network of changemakers demanding a just and healthy food system. From now through September 30, 2011, your donation in any amount this month makes you a member of Slow Food USA.

Membership donations are critical to this movement – 75% of the operating budget of Slow Food USA comes from charitable contributions from individuals just like you and me. These donations help the organization reach and educate new people, support local chapters in their outreach and projects, and lead national campaigns to improve food and farming for everyone.

Though there are a variety of membership benefits, the best part is knowing your contribution plays a critical role in bringing people together to plant gardens and share food, to support farmers and local food traditions, to teach the next generation about good food, and ultimately to transform food and farming in the U.S.

ENGAGE

• Help shape the direction of the slow food movement.
• Receive invitations to attend local, national and international events and enjoy discounts where available.
• Learn about opportunities to volunteer on local and national projects.
• Your contribution – in any amount during September – makes you a member of Slow Food USA.
• Your contribution of $60 or more also includes regular discounts on books, publications, and other products.

GET INFORMED

• Learn about important national and international food issues.
• Access exclusive online and offline content, including opportunities to communicate with leaders in the food movement.
• Get tips on cooking, gardening, and “going slow”
• Stay up-to-date on the latest food news.

CONNECT

• Become a part of our active online community. 
Connect with people who care about slow food locally.
• Join your local Slow Food USA chapter (that’s us, Slow Food Seattle!).
• Get an exclusive Slow Food USA member card (with a donation of $25 or more).
• Support a movement that is local, national, and global.

By Amy Grondin

September 2011 will mark the 4th year that Slow Food Seattle and Trout Unlimited will partner to raise awareness of Bristol Bay, Alaska, its pristine environment, hardworking people and wild salmon. In celebration of Bristol Bay’s salmon fisheries, 17 Seattle-area restaurants will proudly serve wild Bristol Bay salmon from September 5th – 9th. Dining out at one of the supporting restaurants is a delicious and easy way to say the future of Bristol Bay matters. Directly invest your food dollars in Bristol Bay’s sustainable salmon fishery by ordering a meal featuring wild salmon and show that it’s a wild food source that you value. Join us in the fight to save our nation’s last great salmon fishery. See below for the list of restaurants.

Were you a Slow Food Seattle member four years ago when we first decided to partner with Trout Unlimited in their Savor Bristol Bay campaign? Then you are familiar with the background details of the Pebble Mine issue and we thank you for being a part of the on going efforts to protect Bristol Bay.

If you are a new Slow Food Seattle member you may be asking, “Why do we need to save Bristol Bay and from what?” A quick primer on the issues follows but this link will satisfy those of you who want more: www.savebristolbay.org/about-the-bay/about-pebble-mine.

Multinational foreign mining companies are proposing one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines (known as the “Pebble Mine”) in the headwaters of Bristol Bay’s salmon-producing watershed. This is a wilderness gem that that contains some of the most productive wild salmon rivers left in the world. Thankfully the mine permitting process is years long and it has allowed for time for Trout Unlimited to inform the public on the issues.

If the Pebble Mine were to be permitted and allowed to open, the Bristol Bay watershed would be exposed to the persistent chemicals used to extract gold and copper from the mine site. These chemicals once used would be left behind as toxic liquid waste after the mine’s productive days are over, roughly in 50 years. Ten square miles of liquid waste in the resulting containment pond would be separated from Bristol Bay’s interconnected freshwater systems by earthen dams. A spill of the toxic waste or seepage from the containment ponds would irreparably harm the freshwater food web. Since everything returns to the ocean, the marine food web of Bristol Bay would suffer the same fate. Wild salmon play a central role as a keystone species that ties these two food webs together. There isn’t another fish to play this role if salmon don’t survive the good intentions of the Pebble Partnership.

Based on what we’re learned with recent environmental disasters, accidents are often not a matter of if, but instead when. Pick your disaster –a flood, maybe an earthquake? Both are a possibility in Alaska. Our best attempts to engineer our way around Mother Nature’s forces have not proven to be as successful as we had hoped in other parts of our nation. By the way, formal surveys show that 80% of the local population of Bristol Bay does NOT want the Pebble Mine for reasons such as these.

The loss of Bristol Bay’s sockeye would be truly disastrous for the dozens of Alaska Native communities that have caught wild salmon as part of a subsistence lifestyle in Bristol Bay for thousands of years. Bristol Bay Sockeye disappearing would also leave over 12,000 commercial fishermen and processors without work. The loss of Bristol Bay’s salmon fishery would also create ripples in the seafood marketplace as it is the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, contributing 40% of the world’s sockeye salmon supply. But there is still time to protect Bristol Bay before mining permits are issued.

This is where Slow Food Seattle members can help! It may seem insignificant to simply make a menu choice to battle a multinational corporation but trust me. It works. In the late 80’s tuna became “Dolphin Safe” because we didn’t eat tuna from un-dolphin friendly companies. Remember the Give Swordfish a Break campaign from the 90’s in which consumers successfully told the market place to change the way they sourced these mighty yet vulnerable fish? With your help in this new decade Trout Unlimited can do the same for the wild salmon of Bristol Bay.

So get out there next week and Vote with your Fork for Bristol Bay – smile and raise your glass to the table next to you that is eating wild salmon, too!

Seattle-Area Restaurants: September 5-9

• 5th Avenue Corner Cafe – 1900 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, (206) 728-1000
• Andaluca Restaurant – 407 Olive Way, Seattle, (206) 382-6999
• Art of the Table – 1054 N. 39th Street, Seattle, (206) 282-0942
• Bennett’s Pure Food Bistro – 700 Broadway East, Seattle, (206) 325-2211
• Blueacre Seafood – 1700 7th Avenue, Seattle, (206) 659-0737
• Coldwater Bar and Grill – 1900 5th Avenue, Seattle, (206) 728-1000
• Flying Fish – 300 West Lake Avenue N, Seattle, (206) 728-8595
• Hitchcock Restaurant – 133 Winslow Way E #100, Bainbridge Island, (206) 201-3789
• Lola – 2000 4th Ave, Seattle, (206) 441-1430
• Nell Thorn Restaurant & Pub – 205 Washington St, La Conner, (360) 466-4261
• Olivar Restaurant – 806 E. Roy, Seattle, (206) 322-0409
• Pike Brewing Company – 1415 1st Avenue, Seattle, (206) 622-6044
• Roy Street Coffee – 700 Broadway East, Seattle, (206) 325-2211
• Steelhead Diner – 95 Pine Street, Seattle, WA 98101, (206) 625-0129
• Sushi Kappo Tamura – 2968 Eastlake Avenue East, Seattle, (206) 547-0937
• Taste Restaurant – 1300 1st Avenue, Seattle, (206) 903-5291
• Tilikum Place Cafe – 407 Cedar Street, Seattle, (206) 282-4830

Please scroll to the bottom of the page in order to RSVP online for this event.

Location
The Q Café
3223 15th Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98119

Directions
Call the Q Cafe at 206.352.2525 for directions. Parking is available in the lot on the north side of the cafe. Additional parking is available in the Quest Church lot, north of the cafe. This lot is accessible from the drive that connects to W. Bertona St.

You are welcome to bring along friends or family! Contact Food & Water Watch organizer Marie Logan at mlogan@fwwatch.org or 415.293.9919 with any questions.

Use this flyer to spread the word about this event!

Co-sponsored by:

• Food & Water Watch
• Community Alliance for Global Justice
• The Northwest Farm Bill Action Group
• Seattle Tilth
• Slow Food Seattle

Our September book club selection is Food for All: Fixing School Food in America by Janet Poppendieck.

We’ll be meeting from 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 8th. Roy Street Coffee and Tea is located at 700 Broadway East. Limited free parking is available in the lot below. This will be an active, open conversation and all are welcome – please come even if you haven’t had a chance to finish the book!

How did our children end up eating nachos, pizza, and tater tots for lunch? Taking us on an eye-opening journey into the nation’s school kitchens, this superbly researched book is the first to provide a comprehensive assessment of school food in the United States. Janet Poppendieck explores the deep politics of food provision from multiple perspectives–history, policy, nutrition, environmental sustainability, taste, and more.

Drawing from extensive interviews with officials, workers, students, and activists, she discusses the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs and turns a critical eye on the “competitive foods” sold in cafeterias. How did we get into the absurd situation in which nutritionally regulated meals compete with fast food items and snack foods loaded with sugar, salt, and fat? What is the nutritional profile of the federal meals? How well are they reaching students who need them?

Opening a window onto our culture as a whole, Poppendieck reveals the forces–the financial troubles of schools, the commercialization of childhood, the reliance on market models–that are determining how lunch is served. She concludes with a sweeping vision for change: fresh, healthy food for all children as a regular part of their school day.

Janet Poppendieck

Janet Poppendieck is Professor of Sociology at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is the author of Free for All: Fixing School Food in America; (University of California Press, 2010); Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement (Penguin, 1999); and Breadlines Knee Deep in Wheat: Food Assistance in the Great Depression (Rutgers University Press, 1985).

“In her extraordinarily well-thought-out, beautifully written, sympathetic, and compelling book, Jan Poppendieck makes clear that Free for All has two meanings: how pressures to reduce the cost of school meals put our children’s health at risk, and how best to solve this problem–universal school meals. Anyone who reads this book will find the present school lunch situation beyond unacceptable. Free for All is a call for action on behalf of America’s school kids, one that we all need to join. I will be using this book in all my classes.”–Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics

THE CHALLENGE

WHY: Because slow food shouldn’t have to cost more than fast food. If you know how to cook, then teach others. If you want to learn, this is your chance. Together, we’re sending a message that too many people live in communities where it’s harder to buy fruit than Froot Loops. Everybody should be able to eat fresh, healthy food every day.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED: Take the pledge to share a meal with family and friends, find a local meal or host your own. If the date doesn’t work, you can still take the pledge to show your support – and Slow Food USA will send you $5 cooking tips and updates on the campaign.

For more background on the day and the campaign, read the frequently asked questions. For $5 cooking tips and other resources, click here.

Get together for a slow food meal that costs less than $5/person & take back the value meal!

On Twitter? Join in the conversation by following/posting using #5challenge.

• Cheap Recipes for Slow Food USA’s $5 Challenge, EatingWell Magazine
• ‘How Low Can You Go’ Family Supper Challenge, NPR
• Your Best Dirt Cheap Dinner Contest, Food52
• Get Cooking! presents dinners for $5 and under, Slow Food San Francisco

Background On The Issue:

• How I Beat KFC’s Family Meal Challenge, Kurt Friese, Grist
• $20 Food Showdown: Fast Food vs. Healthy Food, Stepfanie Romine, DailySpark
• Is Local Food More Expensive?, Rich Pirog and Nick McCann, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
• The Farmer’s Market Myth, Barry Estabrook, The Atlantic

Hank Shaw, author of "Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast"

The Pacific Northwest has a rich bounty of flora and fauna to offer from land, sky, and sea. Foraging, gleaning, hunting, fishing, crabbing, clamming… not just for the hardcore outdoorsy-crowd anymore. Join us on Thursday, July 28th at 6pm, for an evening with Hank Shaw, author of Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast. Hank will share his adventures in the field and in the kitchen with a talk on wild foods and book signing. Special guest, Chef Robin Leventhal (formerly of Crave & Top Chef), will also be on hand, serving up some delicious appetizers inspired by Hunt, Gather, Cook. Kevin Cedergreen of Cedergreen Cellars, Cole Sisson of Hestia Cellars, Melissa Peterman of Elsom Cellars, and the fine folks from McCrea Cellars will be pouring some fantastic Washington wines.

When: Thursday, July 28th at 6pm

Where: Wine World, 400 NE 45th St. Seattle, 98105

Tickets: $15/person (includes wild foods talk by Hank Shaw, wine tasting, and appetizers).

Readers to Eaters will have Hunt, Gather, Cook available for purchase and Hank will be signing copies at the event.

Co-sponsored by: Slow Food Seattle, Readers to Eaters, and Wine World.

For a review of Hunt, Gather, Cook by Seattle Weekly’s Voracious contributor, Sonja Groset, check here.

For Hank’s perspective on the book, check out this post.

About Hank Shaw:
Hank Shaw is a New Jersey native who worked as a political reporter for various newspapers for 18 years until becoming a full-time food writer, outdoorsman and cook in 2010. A forager and angler since he could walk, Hank began hunting in 2002 and has never looked back. He hunts or fishes for all the meat he eats at home, and foraged foods form a daily part of his diet. Hank runs the wild foods blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, which has twice been nominated for a James Beard Award. He won the International Association of Culinary Professionals award for Best Blog in 2010 and 2011, and his magazine writing has appeared in Food & Wine, Organic Gardening, Field & Stream, as well as many other publications.

About Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast:
If there is a frontier beyond organic, local, and seasonal, beyond farmers’ markets and sustainably
raised meat, it surely includes hunting, fishing, and foraging your own food. A lifelong angler and forager who became a hunter late in life, Hank Shaw has chronicled his passion for hunting and gathering in his widely read blog, Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, which has developed an avid following among outdoor people and foodies alike. Hank is dedicated to finding a place on the table for the myriad overlooked and underutilized wild foods that are there for the taking if you know how to get them.

In Hunt, Gather, Cook, he shares his experiences both in the field and the kitchen, as well as his extensive knowledge of North America’s edible flora and fauna. With the fresh, clever prose that brings so many readers to his blog, Hank provides a user-friendly, food-oriented introduction to tracking down everything from sassafras to striped bass to snowshoe hares. He then provides innovative ways to prepare wild foods that go far beyond typical campfire cuisine: homemade root beer, cured wild boar loin, boneless tempura shad, Sardinian hare stew, even pasta made with handmade acorn flour.

Thanks to our co-sponsors:

Special thanks to our wine sponsors:

Angelo Pellegrini: Slow Food, before Slow Food existed

Join us for our next book club selection on Thursday, July 14th, the classic - The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts on Food and the Good Life by Seattle’s own Angelo Pellegrini.

Join us! This will be an active, open conversation and all are welcome – please come even if you haven’t had a chance to finish the book! We’ll be meeting from 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 14th. Roy Street Coffee and Tea is located at 700 Broadway East. Limited free parking is available in the lot below. 

From the publisher:
“First issued in 1948, when soulless minute steaks and quick casseroles were becoming the norm, The Unprejudiced Palate inspired a seismic culinary shift in how America eats. Written by a food-loving immigrant from Tuscany, this memoir-cum-cookbook articulates the Italian American vision of the good life: a backyard garden, a well-cooked meal shared with family and friends, and a passion for ingredients and cooking that nourish the body and the soul.”

“I have always thought that Angelo Pellegrini misnamed his charming but opinionated book. It should have been called the Prejudiced Palate, because he is so absolutely sure and unwavering in his vision of how to live a beautiful and delicious life. And I think he’s right.”
–Alice Waters, Owner, Chez Panisse

“Like great dishes, great writing remains in our memory forever. Angelo Pellegrini’s THE UNPREJUDICED PALATE is a lesson in how to enjoy life in an elegant and highly civilized way.”
– Jacques Pépin

“THE UNPREJUDICED PALATE is a forgotten gem from what might be remembered as the Golden Age of American food writing. This Italian born, beloved Seattle professor, friend and colleague of MFK Fisher, wrote with charm, wit, and a rare intelligence about food.”
–Mark Kurlansky, author of Salt, Cod, 1968

Resources:

• http://blogs.seattleweekly​.com/voracious/2009/03/who​s_angelo_pellegrini_draft_​p.php
• http://www.seattleweekly.c​om/2010-04-14/food/ruth-re​ichl-on-angelo-pellegrini-​a-slow-food-voice-in-a-fas​t-food-nation
• http://www.powells.com/bib​lio/1-9780812971552-0
• http://seattlebonvivant.ty​pepad.com/seattle_bon_viva​nt/2005/08/on_angelo_pelle​.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wi​ki/Angelo_Pellegrini
• http://www.westcoastcookin​g.com/content/view/186/27

Q&A to follow the film with local beekeepers and supporters (including Corky Luster of Ballard Bee Company; Sarah Bergmann, founder of The Pollinator Pathway; and Rob Stevens of Fairview Farm Apiary), moderated by Buzz Hofford of Bon Appétit.

FREE event - RSVP to http://conta.cc/beemovie by Monday, July 18th to ensure a seat.

Spread the word, here’s a vanishing bees poster to share with friends, colleagues, and your community.

Learn more about CCD and sign the Slow Food USA petition to the EPA here.

Questions? Contact Buzz Hofford or Vera Chang.

From the film’s website: