SFKT hosts series of delicious fundraising dinners; continues work with schools

Slow Food Katy Trail and Broadway Brewery helped local-food lovers celebrate the season with a Local Spring Food and Beer Dinner at the brewery on April 18.

Walker Claridge and his crew cooked up an incredible meal for 60 guests. A fabulous tribute to local food, the event showcased the bounty of edibles available to mid-Missourians in early spring. Guests also got a tour of the brewery and learned how beer is made "down under" Broadway.

Part of the proceeds from the dinner went to help fund our Slow Food-in-Schools efforts.

Stay tuned for details about an Italian-themed fundraiser/dinner to help send local food-community delegates to the international Terra Madre conference in Italy in October. A casual pasta-and-wine supper is scheduled for June 13 and a vegetarian feast is slated for July 24. Both are at the Wine Cellar and Bistro.

Slow Food Katy Trail will wrap up the second year of its Harvest-of-the-Month program with Lee School third graders in May. A field trip and lunch is scheduled for the children at Pierpont Farms.

We also provided seven days of delicious organic snacks to West Boulevard Elementary School students during MAP testing in April. Volunteers prepared and bagged 900 individual snacks. For less than 34 cents per child per day, children enjoyed freshly peeled carrot sticks, peanut butter and whole-wheat crackers, almonds, fig newtons, bananas, brown-rice cakes, and sunflower-seeds and raisins.

Last chance for spring dinner and beer-tasting tickets

Only five tickets remain for our spring dinner and beer tasting at Broadway Brewery on Sunday, April 18. Please see information below.

Celebrate Spring Food at April 18 Dinner

Slow Food Katy Trail

and Broadway Brewery present

An Early-Spring Dinner and Beer Tasting

Four courses and five beers to celebrate local spring foods

and to benefit Slow Food-in-Schools projects

April 18 at 5 p.m., Broadway Brewery

Festive group tables and camaraderie * brewery tour

THE MENU

Spring sextet charcuterie platter

Walker's handcrafted coppa, soppressata, pâté

and vegetarian appetizers begin the festivities

Uprise bread accompanies

A trio of beautiful babies

Three baby-lettuce heads (one freckled, one red and one green) lightly dipped in different dressings and each crowned with its own blend of delicate vegetables, cheese and/or nuts

A delectable duo of meats

A sorghum-glazed baked leg-quarter of chicken shares the plate with herb-encrusted dry-aged beef

First-of-the-season asparagus and local grains accompany

The dessert quartet

Chocolate ganache bites

First-of-the-season strawberry shortcake

Blueberry compote with fresh cream

Mint sorbet

A variety of Broadway Brewery beers accompany the courses

(Wine available for purchase for non-beer drinkers)

Cost per person is $45 and only 60 tickets are available

Slow Food members received the first opportunity to purchase tickets during the first five days of sales. On April 8, ticket sales are open to the public. Sales will be made only through the Brown Paper Tickets site: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/107131

All proceeds will benefit Slow Food Katy Trail's Slow Food-in-Schools projects. Even though we don't tout these important projects nearly often enough (we're too busy actually getting them done!), we do want you to know the great things we are doing with schoolchildren to raise their local-food awareness. Please see our blog (http://slowfoodkatytrail.blogspot.com/2009/05/sfkt-connects-local-children-with-local.html) to get a taste of all we've accomplished during the last year with Lee Elementary School third graders. We are continuing the program this year, as well as providing snacks to all the children at West Boulevard Elementary during MAP testing for seven days in April.