The Slow Food Portland April Potluck will be held at Maple’s, not Rosemont Market and Bakery as originally planned.

Updated information is listed below:

DATE: Wednesday, 9 April

TIME: 7-9 pm

LOCATION: Maple’s Gelateria 

                       151 Middle Street                  

                       Portland, ME

Presenter:  Kristie Green of Maple’s

Come savor the tastes of Puglia with us!

Slow Food Portland, Aurora Provisions, Caiola’s Restaurant, Rabelais Books and Vias Ltd. invite you to join Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Maine’s expert on all things Italian, and Paolo Cantele of Cantele Vineyards in Salento, Italy, for an extraordinary culinary experience in two parts.

At 4:30 Aurora Provisions and Rabelais Books will host an informal wine tasting and book signing with Nancy and Paolo.  This will take place at Aurora Provisions and is free and open to the public.  64 Pine street,  871 9060.

At 6:30 we host our Terra Madre dinner at Caiola’s to raise funds to send two Maine delegates to Slow Food’s world wide food conference in October.  Terra Madre is a biennial gathering of food producers from around the globe, sponsored by Slow Food in Turin, Italy.  This is your opportunity to help us raise awareness of Maine’s heritage foodways and expand our representation on the world stage. 

Nancy Harmon Jenkins and Paolo Cantele will share this meal with us and lead us through the delicious culinary experience of Southern Italian food and wine.   Chef Abby Harmon will interpret the flavors of Puglia paired with the wines of Cantele for a memorable meal.

The price is $125 all inclusive, which after food/wine costs goes entirely towards airfare for Slow Food Portland’s two delegates.  Please join us to both indulge in some great food and wine and support a good cause.  Seating is limited to 35 so please call Caiola’s at 207 772 1110 soon to secure a place at this table.

In October Slow Food International will host Terra Madre, the 3rd biennial gathering of world food producers, academics and chefs. Slow Food Portland is pleased this year to offer sponsorship to cover the airfare to Turin, Italy for 2 Maine delegates.

Many thanks to Caiola’s Restaurant, Rabelais Books, Aurora Provisions, and Vias Wines, and to Nancy Harmon Jenkins and Paolo Cantele, for their generosity in hosting a fundraiser to cover these costs. More details will follow, but please save the date: April 22, 6:30 pm at Caiola’s in Portland. 

Slow Food International handles all logistics for feeding and lodging the 5000+ Terra Madre delegates (and pays airfare for those coming from third world countries). In 2006 Slow Food Portland sponsored a delegation from MOFGA (Russell Libby and John Bunker), and two chefs, Sam Hayward and Lee Skawinski. But because we didn’t have a convivium selection process in place and the nominations happened quickly, each paid their own airfare.

If you are interested in applying, or would like to nominate someone, please email us at this address: info@slowfoodportland.org. Participants must either represent a food community or work as a chef or in a related academic field. Maine has to date defined and sent delegates from 3 communities: Aroostook County Grain Growers, Maine Organic Potato Farmers, and MOFGA. This time around we can either nominate someone from one of these groups, or identify others that should have representation. Please let us know very briefly who you are and what you represent, and we’ll follow up to discuss selection criteria. We’ll ask that our 2 representatives share their experiences in some way with the convivium when they return, probably through helping to organize an event or talk.

More information about Terra Madre is available at this website: http://www.terramadre.info/

We can sponsor 1 chef and up to three participants from any one food community, but there are no limits to the numbers of food communities that can apply. So if you aren’t selected as one of our 2 delegates receiving airfare, we can still sponsor your application (you would be responsible for purchasing plane tickets, but if accepted your housing and meals will be covered either way by Slow Food International).

Looking forward to hearing from you!