Slow Food Nation approaches

It’s been approaching, slowly.

Kurt Michael Friese, author of A Cook’s Journey: Slow Food In The Heartland, has been riding the train across the Plains and the Rockies, taking a paced route toward San Francisco. The vegetables and herbs in the Victory Garden have been stretching toward the sunlight – when sunlight pierces the fog, that is.

Starting Thursday, Slow Food Nation comes to San Francisco, and I’m ready to savor it.

Tomorrow night, starting at 5 p.m. at the Victory Garden in Civic Center, Slow Food Nation will launch a petition calling for New Vision for a 21st Century Food, Farm & Agriculture Policy. The Vision Statement will be a call to action to frame future food and agricultural policies to benefit all Americans. I can’t make it because of work commitments, but if you go, keep an eye out for The Mint Killer, who has been one of the architects of this statement.

Throughout the weekend, there are workshops, all manner of good food and drink to snack and sip on, Slow Food Rocks (New Pornographers and Ozomatli and Gnarls Barkley in the house on Saturday, folks!) on Saturday and Sunday at The Great Meadow at Fort Mason, and even some Slow Journeys around the region to check out local producers and their environs. Not sure where to start? Chow has paired with Slow Food Nation to develop some terrific itineraries for audiences including oenophiles, couples on a date and the budget-minded.

I’m going to check out the Taste Pavilions, and I’ll be pulling a volunteer shift at the Victory Garden on Sunday morning from 9 to noon, so if you’re in the vicinity, stop by and say hello. I’ll also be attending what might possibly be the most perfect class ever on Sunday afternoon: a tasting session that features heirloom tomatoes paired with local wines. Tomatoes plus wine? I could die and go to heaven, but I’d prefer that happen after Sunday, because it can’t be quite as exciting.

There’s one more reason I’m excited about this weekend, and that’s a new piece of equipment in my own personal arsenal. For awhile now, I’ve been craving a solid DSLR camera, and feeling like I was pushing the limits of what I could do with my trusty Canon PowerShot that has gotten me through more than two years of blogging. Yesterday afternoon, the UPS delivery person dropped off a Canon Rebel XSi, and that’s going to make documenting this event that much more amazing.

Let me stop and think about this for just a minute. Heirloom tomatoes paired with local wines and shot with my new camera? It’s going to be quite a weekend.