Slow Food to feature local fare

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

RAMAH — While there’s no end to fast food joints in Gallup, Grants, and surrounding reservation communities, leave it to the folks along N.M. Highway 53 in the Zuni Mountains to introduce the Slow Food Movement to the region.

Jonathan “Jon” and Pam Pickens, along with their son, Walker, will host the first Slow Food Evening at their business, Inscription Rock Trading & Coffee Co., on Saturday.

Pam Pickens said the event was the idea of Jackie Rossignol of the Ramah Farmers’ Market. Featuring a menu built around locally grown food, the dinner will include a winter garden salad courtesy of the farmers’ market; hors d’oeuvres and a gourmet dessert by Feather Lewis and Alander Seoutewa’s Set to Perfection, their catering service based in Zuni Pueblo; soup and a bread bowl by the Pickens family and Set to Perfection; and Riesling wine from Antonio and Lucinda Trujillo’s Guadalupe Vineyards of San Fidel.

According to information provided by Rossignol, the Slow Food Movement began in Italy in 1986 as a protest against encroaching fast food businesses in Europe. The idea spread quickly around the world and became part of a larger international movement to push back against the chaotic pace of modern society. And although it has grown to encompass many contemporary issues, the idea of Slow Food remains at the heart of the movement: “Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food” (Slow Food Manifesto, Nov. 9, 1989).

Both Arizona and New Mexico have a few Slow Food chapters, or convivia, and there are many movement Web sites on the Internet. With its emphasis on living — and eating — in an unhurried manner, the movement’s logo is a snail.

“It’s our first attempt at this,” Pam Pickens said of Saturday’s event. “It’s a celebration of local harvest and local talent.”

First attempt or not, the event sold out immediately.
“We sold 50 tickets right away,” she said. At $20 per person, the evening will also feature live music under the stars — and full moon — by Jonathan Pickens and Friends.

The couple just built a new patio, complete with a coyote fence made of natural oak posts, and are finishing the patio’s outdoor stage this week. Jon Pickens, who said he was a songwriter in Nashville for 16 years before moving to New Mexico, has a newly formed band, Moon Pi — its name a cross between the old southern treat, Moon Pies, and the mathematical symbol.

“We changed it to accommodate the scientific minds in the band,” he said. Band members include Walker Pickens on drums, Don Grieser on mandolin, guitar, and mandola, and Jon Pickens on guitar and vocals. Other vocalists sometimes include Cindi Andersen, Mike Francis, and Genevieve Humenary.

Jon and Pam Pickens said they plan to stage more musical events next summer, and they hope to host more Slow Food dining events. For Jon Pickens, the fledgling Slow Food Movement in Ramah is all about supporting local growers, serving healthy food, and community building.

Inscription Rock Trading & Coffee Co. sits just below Beacon Rock on Bond Mesa, about one mile east of El Morro National Monument on N.M. 53.