I was the moderator for a seminar on, surprise, Heirloom Beans at the IACP conference in Denver last week. Along with me were Judy Witts (Divina Cucina) and Ruth Alegria (Mexico Soul and Essence) and the three of us told our stories about heirloom beans. I really loved meeting all the food professionals and showing them the thrill of the bean.
(Hamming it up with Peter Perez (left) and David Hawk (right), both from the PR department of Chronicle Books, publishers of my Heirloom Beans: Great Recipes from Rancho Gordo
book.)
I was able to eat at a few local restaurants including one with the revolutionary idea of using local ingredients like chickens from Petaluma, Calfornia. What, there are no chickens in Colorado? I did eat local lamb and bison and they were very good.
My panelist Judy Witts has published her first cookbook, Secrets of My Tuscan Kitchen and I couldn't be more proud of her. There are lots of simple, intelligent recipes and many of them feature beans, naturally. Firenze is known as the land of the bean eaters! Viva Florence, says I. You can order Judy's book now and she'll send you an autographed copy.
(Judy chats with Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks, far left, and friend.)
Denver seemed nice but I didn't really have a chance to explore. I left Napa in shorts and a t-shirt and arrived to a blizzard in Denver. In the morning everything was dusted in snow. It was pretty wild.
Isn’t that Luisa Weiss from the Wednesday Chef?
Oops, that’s a link to Ruth.
For all those who were not there (although it was a BIG crowd) — it was a really great panel. Lots of history, information, and tastes of Christmas limas and another that they ran out of before I got some.
Great I could be a part of it–and wonderful to meet you!
Too bad this activity has closed 🙁
RanchGordo, I can not find a way to contact you, so I’m writing here :
I am Ahmet Korkmaz, co-owner of the website http://www.agricultureguide.org and a green enthusiast.
We are trying to spread organic farming / gardening in order to create a more self-sufficient world by writing guides about these issues.
Our point is not to be as academic as possible, our belief is that too much information only scares the aspiring gardeners so we try to remain understandable while being accurate.
As of now, our website is really new but we’re trying to upload content as much as we can, this is usually an article of about 400 words every 24 hours because of our situation as students.
I only as that you visit and take a look, tell us how to improve ourselves and perhaps if you’re willing; give a link to us or review our website, so we can get some recognition. Granted, we’ll probably never be able to become as popular as some other websites on this subject, but I think we deserve a bit more traffic with the work we’re putting into this.
I am looking forward to hearing your advice and impression for our humble beginning. I’m sure you won’t miss the opportunity to help youngsters out.
I wish to be answered via email that i put the info box here.
Warmly
Yep, that’s me next to Heidi! Steve, your seminar was the highlight of IACP for me.