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Foodies

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer sends us a Summer Poem

The 31st annual Telluride Mountainfilm Moving Mountains Symposium is on the subject of food: the pending crisis and fruitful options. In their third year as organic fruit growers, longtime Telluride region locals Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and husband Eric are part of the solution.

010 It was not their dream. One day, they just did it. Their 70-acre orchard, New Leaf Fruit, located on the Gunnison River north of Delta, produces peaches, pears, apricots, cherries, nectarines and apples. They have two children together, five-year-old Finn and 10-month-old Vivian, who was born at the orchard last apricot harvest. Eric's other daughter, Shawnee, worked at the orchard three years ago and loved it so much she is now in graduate school in international development, focusing on sustainable agriculture in Latin America. Rosemerry's most recent poetry collection, Holding Three Things at Once (Turkey Buzzard Press, 2008), is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award and explores the world of mothering, orcharding and communicating with each other and our environment.
19 May, 2009 /

[Click the "Play" button to hear Gene Baur]

Editor's note: Animal activist/author Gene Baur is coming to Telluride for Mountainfilm's Moving Mountains Symposium about food.  Listen to his podcast to learn more about his Farm Sanctuary and how the one-time McDonald's talking head wound up rescuing and providing refuge for farm animals.

Gene-1 Fido au gratin? Perish the thought. For activist/author Gene Baur of the Farm Sanctuary, dining on Babe is no different.

The cover of his best-seller, "Farm Sanctuary, Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food" says it all: there's Babe, alive and well. On the back cover, you will find an image of The Man cuddling up to a Holstein. The endorsement by Dr. Jane Goodall (the gorilla lady) is the final nail in the coffin: "Filled with hope, this book is written for all who strive for a more compassionate world. I highly recommend it." Who doesn't want to be considered compassionate, especially when it comes to our four-legged friends? The package is enough to make a person swear off bacon cheeseburgers forever.  And that's Gene's point.

19 May, 2009 /

[Editor's note: Click the "play" button to listen to Telluride Mountainfilm guest Chef Ann Cooper talk about why she thinks the National School Lunch Program needs major tweaking and what she and others are doing to address the challenge.]

Chef_ann_aboutphoto What's wrong with this picture?

While legions of parents are obsessing about whether their offspring are getting enough vitamins or consuming too much sugar and salt, as they are trying in growing numbers to encourage healthy eating habits, at school millions of kids are consuming French fries, processed chicken nuggets and syrupy fruit salad, standard fare on the average commodity-driven lunch menu.

According to Chef Ann Cooper, aka  "Renegade Lunch Lady," the National School Lunch Program is an antique – it was launched in 1946 as a public safety net – in dire need of recycling. She contends  we won't have much hope for future generations of healthy kids unless we begin teaching them what good food really is.

16 May, 2009 /

Listing41 As anxious as we were to get home to Telluride, we dawdled leaving the Hastings' home in Indianapolis. It was just too pleasant to rush out. So we had a short drive on Saturday and decided to stop for the night in Kansas City. We often do not make hard plans in our travels, and, true to form, we had no reservations when we arrived. That flexibility has occasionally meant we had to accept less than we had hoped, but not this time.

We found the Q Hotel and Spa, which bills itself "Kansas City's 'Green Hotel'" and found ourselves surrounded with quiet luxury and a staff who, to a person, could not do enough for us. Susan spent quite a while with the reception folks, and came up with what turned out to be a great dinner reservation.

11 May, 2009 /

[Press the "Play" button to hear Telluride's ChefBud ]

ChefBud's new program, Books and Cooks, premieres at Wilkinson Public Library at noon, Tuesday, May 5.

IMG_5521smaller You won't find Telluride's Bud Thomas stranded on some high horse when it comes to preparing food. The talented young chef believes in keeping it fresh and keeping it simple.

5-5 BooksCooksPoster A McKinsey study of the last recession (1990-1991) found companies that remained market leaders or became serious contenders were the ones that invested in R & D and stayed in the public eye. ChefBud's response to the current downturn was to turn up the heat on a new venture. He teamed up with web wonk Dennis Lankes of TellurideWorldWide.Com to market himself and his business by creating a live cooking show, chefbud.com, now with viewers from London to the Far East.

Programs for chefbud.com are shot Wednesday at 2 p.m. at venues around town. In March, Bud and his wife Jenna, a talented amateur chef, were cooking up peanut butter and jelly crepes for a rapt group of local first-graders in the kid's section of the Wilkinson Public Library, when program director Scott Doser approached with another one of his great ideas.

03 May, 2009 /

Sicily5 by Dr. Susanna Hoffman

SPRING LAMB STEW WITH ARTICHOKES, DILL, AND A MYSTERY INGREDIENT

The arrival of spring is signaled by the corresponding arrival of a divine culinary treasure, lamb.  The meadows in which the lambs graze also offer up the first herb of the year, delicate, feathery dill as gardens nearby produce their first baby artichoke globes on bladed plants. Combined together the three make an exhilarating stew, in which tender bites of young lamb seem to frolic in the broth made impudent with the artichokes and dill. Such young ingredients can sometimes result in a thinish stew, but a fourth mystery ingredient solves the problem by adding a robust, but hidden richness: anchovies. The anchovies completely dissolve in the cooking, no sign of them appears to put off any anchovy naysayer, yet their hidden presence deepens the stew until guests will ask how you came up with such a sumptuous concoction. It’s up to you whether you reveal the secret or not. The same idea works for a poultry stew as well.  A toss of olives in the mix provides an extra salty sparkle. 

05 April, 2009 /

[Click the "play" button to learn more from Barclay Daranyi about Indian Ridge Farm & Bakery and other CSA farms]

IndianRidgeFarm_15 (On March 29, the Telluride Film Festival's Erika Gordon has arranged a screening of "The Real Dirt on Farmer John,"  with special guest Kris Holstrom of The New Community Coalition, to discuss the importance of CSA farms.)

Wright's Mesa in Norwood is home to Tony and Barclay Daranyi's Indian Ridge Farm & Bakery, where the rites of Spring have just begun to bear fruits and vegetables, and their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is gearing up to serve their 60 shareholders, farmers, volunteers and visitors.


25 March, 2009 /

Steve's 2009 Publicity Shots 022 What has TV celebrity Steve Spitz cooked up for the Telluride AIDS Benefit? 

TV lifestyle celebrity Steve Spitz describes his upcoming new program, "Live with Steve Spitz" this way: "People don't need to find another lifestyle show. They need to find style in their own lives. My program helps them to do just that: find it, nurture it, get their freak on and party with it like Paris Hilton before celebrity rehab."

For a sneak peek at the party Steve has planned for the Telluride AIDS Benefit on Tuesday, February 24, 6 p.m. at a private home in town, check out the mouthwatering menu, then call 970-728-0869.



23 February, 2009 /

[Click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Steve Spitz]

Steve Spitz  cooking up something special for Telluride

Steve's 2009 Publicity Shots 027 In the Obama age, when the issue on the table is HIV/AIDS, prevention education should be back on the agenda, trumping the Bushies' abstinence only stance that has been proven not to work, especially with young people.

But forget abstinence altogether when lifestyle TV personality Steve Spitz returns to Telluride for the fourth year in a row. On Tuesday, February 24, 6 p.m., in support of the Telluride AIDS Benefit's big week, Steve is once again producing a not-to-be-missed wine and tapas pairing at a private home in town.

Steve was drawn to TAB's cause because of an altogether different kind of pairing: HIV and kids; six or seven years ago, AIDS killed a first cousin. Also several friends in the gay community were lost to the pandemic. A chance meeting years ago with former TAB director Betsy Adler at the Santa Fe Wine and Chili Fiesta convinced Steve to throw his considerable weight and imagination behind the nonprofit.

17 February, 2009 /