SoCap09: About the FOOD!

(Photo: Julie Blaustein)

One of the things I heard so frequently at the conference that I had to write up a post about it: the catering was AMAZING.

And the Flying Goat coffee was lovely, and never ran out!

I spoke with Britt Galler of Acre Gourmet, a "value-driven business" that integrates delicious, healthy food and environmentally friendly practices.  Her focus is on seasonal, local, fresh produce and food cooked from scratch in order to maintain quality, and avoid processed ingredients. Her goal as caterer was to present a diversity of local products with options that were high protein, some dairy-free, some wheat-free. 

Britt loved the energy at SoCap09, and was happy to see so many people eat so well and enjoy it so much! As she said, "It's nice to be a part of something so dynamic!"

Britt says she during catering engagements, she focuses on the quality of flavors and an elegant but not pretentious presentation.  However, Acre Gourmet does a limited number of such engagements and is very selective about the opportunities they choose -- they look to partner with people of similar vision.

Not only for those people involved in fair trade and supply chain sourcing questions, but also simply for those who live in the San Francisco area, or come for extended visits, I did want to get into the details of the food supply chain. 

I asked her about a favorite salad of mine. It turns out that it was based on a quinoa grain product, distributed by Alter Ego Fair Trade, an exhibitor at the conference.

She purchases a lot from the Marin Farmer's Market, with locations throughout Alameda county as well as Marin and San Francisco. The crackers were from the Rustic Bakery in Larkspur, the stuffed flatbreads were from Afghan family company East & West. Bars were from 18 Rabbits

The cheese was, roughly, 80% from California cheesemakers, and meats were from Fra'amani.

Thanks again for a lovely culinary experience amidst so many intellectual ones!

Comments

[Elizabeth Ü]

What about the food finance? Thoroughly energized by the conference overall, I was disappointed that the only session on finance for agriculture / food focused solely on solutions that support farmers in other countries. This seems especially surprising given that there is so much happening in the capital markets for domestic food investing right now, both in terms of interest from individual and institutional investors, and in terms of innovative investment vehicles... would love to chat with those of you interested in this topic! In the meantime, here is a recent post highlighting investment resources in this space from the Reimagine Money blog: http://tr.im/xTn7
Cheers,
Elizabeth Ü
http://www.rsfsocialfinance.org

[catering]

Hmmm.... those foods seems so delicious. Wish I was there to taste all of that. Anyway, the catering set up was nice. Thanks for sharing this post.

-miyaka-

[Jessica]

Elizabeth, thank you for sharing those links! They're very helpful.

Miyaka, I wish you could've been there too! It is always my pleasure to share.