St. Louis’ food future beckons with delicious variety because of investments being made this year in Missouri and Illinois.
Slow Food St. Louis will award more than $6,000 to farmers and gardeners throughout the region who were selected for their projects preserving and expanding tasty heirloom plant and heritage animal varieties. Heirloom varieties are defined as a horticultural variety that has survived for several generations and is not used in large-scale agriculture. Heritage breeds are livestock animals that are likewise no longer found in large-scale agriculture.
This year, 11 producers will receive Small Farm Biodiversity Microgrants for a wide range of projects including heirloom fruits, native nut trees, nearly-lost sweet potato varieties, heritage breed poultry, rabbits, goats, and specialty vegetables and fruits. The grants are possible because of generous support from Slow Food St. Louis sponsors Niche and Perennial Artisan Ales and Slow Food’s members.
“Diversification is crucial to the future of farming and our future,” said grant recipient Paul Schjetnan of Root 66 Farm in Jefferson County. “Thank you to Slow Food for helping folks of all backgrounds pursue their agricultural ambitions.”
The 2015 Small Farm Biodiversity Microgrant recipients include:
• Route 66 Farm, Festus, MO – Perennial Orchard/Fruit & Nut Savanna
• Grubville Farm, Luebbering, MO – Introduction of the Kiwano Melon
• Chopping Block Farm, DeSoto, MO – Meeting Market Demand for Tasty Rabbits
• East Central MO Poultry Alliance, Silex, MO – Growing Classic Layer Breeds
• Sunflower Savannah, Beaufort, MO – Heirloom Fruit Permaculture
• Daniel Hayden, St. Louis, MO – Russian Bees
• New Abundance Farm, St. Louis, MO – Japanese Heirloom Kamo Eggplant
• Kathryn Hacker, Belleville, IL – Ark of Taste Sweet Potatoes and Ark of Taste Potato
• Mustard Seed Sowers Urban Farm, Carbondale, IL – Heirloom Greens
• Suzy Moore Family Farm, Troy, MO – Spanish Goats, an Ark of Taste Heritage Breed
• Green Finned Hippy Farm, Pocahontas, IL – Heirloom Orchard with 10 Ark of Taste Varieties
Fourteen of this year’s Microgrant varieties are listed in the Slow Food USA Ark of Taste, a listing of foods that are increasingly rare and in danger of disappearing altogether unless they are nurtured by small growers. One of the varieties, the Black Republican Cherry, was introduced in the 1860’s by Seth Lewelling, an Oregon horticulturalist, Quaker and Abolitionist who named it after the Republican Party reportedly because of the party’s anti-slavery position. (Lewelling also developed the Bing cherry). Reports from the 1870’s indicate that the Black Republican cherry was fetching the best prices of cherries selling into eastern markets. The parent of the Bing cherry, the Black Republican’s flavor is beloved, but its seed is large and so it has fallen out of favor with commercial growers.
Slow Food St. Louis is a local Chapter of Slow Food USA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to gastronomic deliciousness that’s good for people and the planet.
The Ark of Taste listing and the Biodiversity Microgrants are a response to the loss of biodiversity in the food system. In past 70 years food production has moved from small, diverse farms growing local specialties, to large, chemical-intensive, globally-distributed operations growing only a single variety. More than 90 percent of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields; half of the breeds of many domestic animals have been lost. This loss creates vulnerabilities in the food system, results in limited flavors, threatens some varieties survival, and impacts local ecosystems.
Since 2009, Slow Food St. Louis has awarded more than $67,000 to over 50 farmers supporting the cultivation of over hundreds different heirloom varieties and heritage breeds.
