Slow Food and its accompanying gustatory pleasures finds a natural home with the agricultural traditions of Eastern Long Island

Slow Food, Sag Harbor Style

I attended a farmers’ symposium and dinner last week, hosted by the by the Long Island Convivium of Slow Food U.S.A. The slow food movement, which started in Italy, now has 77,000 members in 48 countries, with various national offices in Europe and North America. There are about 340 chapters, including one here on the East End.

Slow Food is a not-for-profit educational group that, as the name implies, opposes fast food and the way of life exemplified by fast food. Their logo, as well as the name of their magazine, is the snail. All very interesting, you might be saying, but why is a wine correspondent writing about slow foods?

The answer, I am happy to report, is that along with sustainability and biodiversity, pleasure plays a central role. The emphasis is on quality and enjoyment, and good wines accompanying good food seem most natural in this context. Consuming locally grown and locally produced foods are among the core values of the group, and viticulture and wine are accorded important places in this lifestyle celebration. There is even a page for wines on their international website.

This may give you one clue about the nature of the organization, and certainly of this chapter, or convivium, as they prefer to be known. It is not, as you might have expected, granola crunchy. I’ve heard it referred to as well-heeled foodies. I’d peg it as stylishly healthy. The group has sincere goals but does not take itself too seriously. Their international manifesto speaks of “a firm defense of quiet material pleasure” and “suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure.” This, I might point out, goes right to a wine writer’s heart.

In keeping with these aims, the event was held in the genteel, dignified dining rooms of the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, where Ted Conklin, the proprietor, is an organizer of this region’s convivium. One goal is to develop taste rather than demean it, and the dinner, prepared by the chefs of the American Hotel from local ingredients, was superb. Among the many passed hors d’oeuvres were fried Peconic Bay clam fritters, small local potatoes with herb crème fraiche, and local cow and goat raw milk cheeses. The main course was a chicken stew—from Iacono chickens, of course. Dessert was a corn bread with Hamptons honey.

We drank only local wines. Wolffer and Channing Daughters represented the South Fork. The wines of Lenz, Raphael, Paumonok, and Bedell Cellars, all from the North Fork, were poured as well. I have always thrilled to food and wines—the earth’s bounty—coming from common soil and being served on the same table. It’s something I first found traveling in Europe many years ago. It’s as simple as enjoying regional wine and cuisine together. But that is increasingly rare in a complex and global society with industrialized agriculture. This evening may have been the ultimate expression of the old-fashioned enjoyment for me.

During the discussion, we heard from a number of local farmers, including Kate Plumb from EECO Farm, on Long Lane in East Hampton, and Paulette Satur, who with her husband, the noted chef Eberhard Mueller, runs Satur Farms in Cutchogue. The symposium was in keeping with the mission statement, which sets goals that include stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production.

Besides encouraging organic agriculture, the statement speaks of “the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community,” of regional and seasonal culinary traditions, and of a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life. It’s hard to imagine anyone who would not agree. Personally, I might expand it a bit, adding that drinking wine, correctly, moderately, and on a regular basis with suitable foods, can be one of life’s great pleasures.

Vineyards have helped to preserve our farmland here on eastern Long Island. Since the wineries tend to be small, producing handcrafted wines, they are also helping to save our agricultural and ecological heritage and create a cultural identity. And, still in keeping with the mission of Slow Food, their wines help us to slow down, relax, and savor the beautiful and healthful environment around us on the East End. Note: Statistics are from 2003, when this article was written.