There's still enough light for a farm tour when members of the Slow Westchester convivium (local chapter) gather at Amawalk Farm, Marian and Larry Cross's beautiful new farm on the Katonah-Yorktown line. Larry walks us up to the greens patch and hands around plastic bags and cutting knives so we can take a salad home. Others are heating up casseroles made with Hudson Valley grass-fed meats, arranging dishes of local vegetables, tossing salads of local greens and the last tomatoes, and setting out piles of rolls, made locally at Kneaded Bread in Port Chester. Chef Sterling Smith puts a serving spoon into his kabocha squash trimmed with candied peppers. Jon Zelsman of Community Markets explains his delicate gnudi (giant gnocchi) made with local greens and local sheep cheese. Dr. Susan Rubin, one of the Two Angry Moms documentary film team, which works to improve school food, checks her dish of roasted root vegetables. This harvest dinner both epitomizes and supports the Slow Food movement; we gather to celebrate the diverse traditions and pleasures of food.

Slow Food is an international movement started by Italian intellectual Carlo Petrini in 1989 in reaction to witnessing the opening of a MacDonald's next to the Spanish Steps in Rome three years earlier. He felt it was time to combat fast food with a movement that supported the opposite: "Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasure of Good Food," says the Slow USA subtitle. He wanted to defend the heritage foods and traditions that globalization had begun to homogenize.

The organization now has 80,000 members and runs small and large events all over the world, notably Terra Madre in Turin, Italy, and, in late summer 2008, Slow Food Nation in San Francisco. Slow Food publishes books, an international interdisciplinary journal, and local newsletters and also runs both graduate and undergraduate degree programs at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, located on two campuses in Italy. Slow Food is also involved in efforts to identify and preserve authentic foods and heritage breeds, to improve school food, and to influence farm policy and advocate for biodiversity.

The five of us Slow Westchesterites who have come together to start our convivium have different but overlapping interests in food: food-related activism, farming, and journalism. We felt Slow Food's mission could be our umbrella. So far we have gathered with interested guests for a simple potluck dinner, sponsored a wine tasting of organic and biodynamic wines led by award-winning wine writer Tyler Colman (DrVino.com), at Plates Restaurant in Larchmont, and held the harvest dinner at Amawalk Farm to celebrate seasonal Hudson Valley foods.

Because networking is a powerful payoff for participants, we also highlighted local organizations, chefs, markets, and other small businesses that attended the dinner by giving them the floor for a few minutes before dessert. For our winter event, we plan to host or co-sponsor an author lecture (with Slow refreshments!) and then in the spring, to create some kind of hands-on experience for participants. In both individual and related ways, we want to raise awareness and celebrate real food.

Contact the organization at www.slowfoodusa.org for membership information. You can join a convivium near your home and gain access to other events in the region as a member. I hope to meet you around a Slow table soon.