photo by Ky Anderson

Our geographical area, the Upper Delaware River Valley, is one of beautiful mountains, forests and streams. This watershed region includes Sullivan County, New York and parts of Pike and Wayne Counties, Pennsylvania. Driving down the road into town to run an errand, you are surrounded by rolling hills, corn fields and an abundance of deer and wild turkey. European settlement began in the late 1700s by German, Swiss and Dutch immigrants. After early periods of lumbering and tanning, dairy, eggs and cauliflower became the main farming industries for the surrounding communities. From the 1950s through the 1970s the area was home to thriving Jewish and Italian resorts. Summer vacationers came up from Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Long Island for the appealing cool summer nights. When airline travel and air conditioning became more accessible to the middle class the region faced a steep economic decline. Most resorts are gone, but in the past fifteen years or so, the population has greatly increased as more people are craving a life outside of the city and buying both fulltime residences and country homes here. The local cooking and food traditions: trout fishing, eel smoking, game hunting, maple sugaring, and canning, for example, are a mix of all this history. From the indigenous people, to the immigrants and their descendents, to the creativity of our farmers and chefs, our culinary identity is very rich.

Many of us here have a backyard vegetable garden-- from those who have grown up with generations of farming tradition to the weekenders who are just learning gardening as a hobby. Our goals as a convivium include both expanding the varieties that the old time gardeners might be interested in growing and teaching new gardeners easy ways to keep their gardens healthy and productive throughout the summer. We are very interested in making our community more aware of the biodiversity that surrounds us -- which to us means exposing our friends and neighbors to the myriad vegetable varieties appropriate and available in our locale and the wide range of meat, poultry and dairy that farmers are producing here. Another goal is to bring aspects of the slow food approach to eating, in a practical and realistic way, to people with busy lives. “Garden to table” events and revealing the interconnectedness and richness of our food community will be priorities.

We are extremely lucky to have several fantastic farmers’ markets in our area that run from May to November and are very popular with locals and tourists alike. We are very excited about working with the farmers and managers of our farmers’ markets on future Slow Food Upper Delaware River Valley events and they are very enthusiastic as well. We intend to have four seasonal events as well as smaller monthly potluck dinners/meetings. A ramps festival, a zucchini challenge, a winter feast of preserved food, 30-mile meals, and an openness to learning and responding to the needs of the community are all in our future.

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