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REAP Reporter
  ~ nourishing the links between land and table ~    

Newsletter of Research, Education, Action, and Policy on Food Group
July,  2004

Topics in this Newsletter:

What’s in a Name?

REAP Annual Celebration Potluck is July 28th.

Recipe Contest Underway!

Food for Thought Festival 2004: Sept 17-18. 

Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch Project Funded for Two More Years.

CFSC Conference in Milwaukee

Support your Local Farmers’ Markets

Summer Seasonal Recipe

What’s in a Name?  
As you may have noticed the name of this newsletter has been changed.  “Broadcaster” is out and “REAP Reporter” is in.  Gives us a stronger identity and tells it like it is.  

We’re REAP and we’re reporting.  Can’t get more straight-forward than that.

Thanks for all the great feedback and suggestions for the name.  (You’ll have to corner me sometime and ask about some of the more outrageous suggestions.  My favorite was:  “Eat This! - Miriam)  

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REAP Annual Celebration Potluck is July 28th
Everyone is invited to catch up on (or learn about) REAP's exciting activities over the last year, share some great local food, enjoy conversation with the REAP Board and others in our community working to create a more sustainable food system.

Bring a dish to pass. Beverages will be provided. 
(To cut down on disposables, please bring plates and utensils if you're able.)

When?  Wednesday, July 28th at 6:00 pm.
Where?  Tenney Park Shelter

Hope to see many of you there!

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Recipe Contest Underway!
The Food for Thought Recipe Contest is officially on.  Look for entry information on-line at www.reapfoodgroup.org/FFTF2004/recipe.htm. 

The Grand Prize is a membership to Slow Food plus a $500 Gift Certificate from the Washington Hotel and Cooking School on Door County’s Washington Island which can be used for lodging, cooking classes or gourmet meals.   Other prizes include gift certificates from Lombardino's, Concourse Hotel, Kessenich's, Nadia's Restaurant, Tuscany Mediterranean Grill, Arbor House Inn, Elegant Foods, Harvest Restaurant, Orange Tree Imports, Wisconsinmade.com, and All Through the House.

Here’s your chance to show off your culinary skills using our amazing local products.  (Sorry but REAP board members and people serving on a Festival planning committee are ineligible.) 

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Food for Thought Festival 2004: Sept 17-18.

This year’s Food for Thought Festival, titled “Daily Special: Real Meals from Local Fields” is shaping up to be special indeed!  

Eliot Coleman will be our key-noter for this year’s Friday night Forum.  Eliot, a leader in American organic vegetable production and market grower for over 35 years, has been “the model” to many organic market growers in Wisconsin and around the country.  Moderating a panel discussion at the Forum will be Madison's own Larry Meiller of Wisconsin Pulbic Radio.  Joining Eliot on the Forum panel will be Tod Murphy, entrepreneur founder of The Farmers Diner and Barbara Damrosch, food writer and co-owner (with Eliot Coleman) of Four Season Farm.   Eliot and Tod will address the Festival crowd again on Saturday morning and Barbara will perform a cooking demonstration. 

We thought it would be crazy to have Eliot here and not offer a growers’ workshop, so one has been scheduled for Saturday afternoon after the festival.  This will be designed for area farmers interested in learning more about extending the growing season in cold weather climates.  (This workshop will require pre-registration.  Click on GROWERS' WORKSHOP for registration information.)

As if these three guests weren’t special enough, the line-up of events and exhibitors at the festival is growing daily.  There will be demos, kid’s activities, music, a raffle, contests, animals, and booths representing the gamut of sustainable food concerns in the region.  And lots of great FOOD!!  Keep checking the website for updates! (FESTIVAL 2004)

Of course, no newsletter would be complete without the request for volunteers.  You’re really what makes the Festival soar!  Let me know if you’d like to help out in any planning activities or on festival day.  I’ll be sending out a sign-up list toward the end of August.  

We’d like to thank our financial sponsors of the Food for Thought Festival:  Whole Foods Market,  Natural Ovens Bakery, Organic Valley Family of Farms, Willy St Co-op, Divine Chocolates, Johnson Block and Co.,and MATC Culinary Arts Dept.  Also our University of WI supporting departments for hosting the University Lecture Series.

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Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch Project is Funded for Two More Years.
The Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch project (our farm-to-school project in partnership with UW-CIAS) is pleased to have received a renewal grant from USDA-SARE. 

The next two years of this funding will help us break down some of the barriers identified in the first phase of WHL.  Specifically, we will begin to look at the possibilities for minimal processing (cleaning, chopping, bagging) of  local produce.  This is a critical step in meeting the requirements of the Madison Metropolitan School District.  We expect that the capacity to supply minimally processed local produce  could open up many other large markets for local growers as well—(hospitals, restaurants, correctional facilities, etc.)  

Meanwhile the school system food service continues to work with us to look for opportunities to bring more whole, fresh, local foods into their program.

For the 2004-2005 school year, we will also be continuing educational work in our three elementary pilot schools, Lincoln, Shorewood Hill, and Chavez.  These schools just completed an excellent year which included classroom planting activities, heirloom tomato tastings, special harvest meals, visits by farmers to the classrooms, picnics and field trips to farms.  (SEE END OF YEAR NEWSLETTER HERE.)

Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch is excited to be expanding our scope next year into our first Middle School.  In a collaborative project with our colleagues at Friends of Troy Gardens, MACSAC, UW Extension Nutrition Education, the Madison School’s Food Service and the City of Madison Health Department we will be developing a program at a north side Middle School that will bring a community approach to nutrition and food system education. (A huge thanks to the Bradshaw-Knight Foundation and the Madison Community Foundation for making this expansion possible.)

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Community Food Security Coalition Annual Conference
The 8th Annual CFSC Conference will be held in Milwaukee this year on Oct. 16-19th.  Registrations are now being accepted for this truly important annual food system event.  The range of topics that will be addressed is quite impressive—hunger prevention, farm-to-school programs, organization capacity building, the obesity epidemic, food policy, grassroots organizing and so much more.  

More information and registration materials can be found at: http://www.foodsecurity.org/events.html.  REAP members will be conducting several sessions at the conference on our programs. 

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Support your Local Farmers’ Markets!
Did you know that there are over 25 farmers’ markets in south central Wisconsin?  And there’s at least one market every day of the week?  There’s no better way to support local sustainable agriculture than to buy your food directly from the grower at a market, farm stand, or through a CSA. 

Look for a market in your neighborhood!  See the list of area markets in the Farm Fresh Atlas or at www.reapfoodgroup.org/atlas/farmers_markets.htm.

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Summer Seasonal Recipe By Terese Allen.  
From the new, exciting third edition of From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce. The cookbook has 320 new recipes (420 total) and a beautiful new look, plus revised resource sections.  In all it's a fantastic guide to cooking locally and seasonally. It will be out this fall.  (If anybody wants to be the first on the block to get a copy, they can pre-order by contacting MACSAC, 226-0300 or see www.macsac.org.)

Summer Bread Salad with Zucchini, Tomatoes, and Feta Cheese

1 1/2 - 2 cups chopped baby zucchini
1 - 1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup chopped sweet or green onion
1/4 cup chopped imported olives (black or green)
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons wine vinegar
2 teaspoons minced garlic
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
5-6 cups firm-textured bread cubes (sourdough, pita, etc.), dried or toasted

Toss all ingredients except bread in large bowl; let stand at room temperature to develop flavor, tossing occasionally, 1/2 to 1 hour. Toss in bread just before serving. Makes 4-6 servings.

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If you have any questions about any of REAP’s programs
or want to learn more about how to help, contact REAP’s Executive Director, Miriam Grunes. (miriamg@reapfoodgroup.org)



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