Slow Food's Phoenix chapter hosted its "Slow Food is Local -- Farm Tour and Harvest Dinner" yesterday, and unfortunately I was out of town. But the next best thing to being there is having a dear friend who's not only obsessed with food but happy to recap the event in glorious detail. I'm a long way from being hungry, but her email made my mouth water. Thought I'd share it with you:
"yesterday at the farm was rocking good....the mcclendons are quite possibly the kindest family i have met in a long long time. bob is grandfatherly and paternal and you just want to give him a hug. i'm in awe of how hard he works. its inspiring to hear him talk about all of the tomatoes he grows and how excited he is about microgreens. i think my best memory of the day is him holding some salad to the light and saying with a huge smile 'just LOOK at that arugula!!'...his wife is a hoot, a steady stream of laughs from her, she made beautiful flower arrangements from calendula and carrots, it was really cool...
and claudio and his sous chef from taggia? super nice!!!!!! i ate burrata all day..i mean GORGED on that shit....i think some people are just born with the 'i need to feed you' gene, and they both have it...they were both into the ingredients as much as bob was...to see bob hand them food and then their delight with the ingredients, it was really cool!!!! i love slow food stuff..its nice to be around alot of people who can wax rhapsodic on the state of blood oranges and the simple beauty and taste of shallot blossoms.....my people :D
and then back to sahuaro ranch for the hoe down....a whole roasted pig, roasted leg of navajo churro lamb, braised lamb, and then a giant table of sides made from fresh local produce...local beer, local root beer....belinda's pickles on each table...awesome coffee, fiji bottled water handed out, and then the most killer desserts... seriously i felt like i needed a wheelchair to get to my car afterwards...i loved every second...."
