American Traditions Picnics

In 2007, the RAFT Alliance piloted five American Traditions Picnics in Vermont, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Washington and Texas.  Since then, Slow Food USA, Chefs Collaborative and American Livestock Breeds Conservancy members in communities around the country have been organizing lunches, dinners and other tasting events to highlight our country’s culinary heritage.

The RAFT Alliance envisions a future where rare and endangered foods are back in use – locally grown by farmers, sold by grocers, prepared by cooks, and eaten by all. Help make this future a reality by organizing an American Traditions Picnic in your area to celebrate the unique foods of your region!

• Why produce an American Traditions Picnic?
• What is a picnic, anyway?
• How do you plan an American Traditions Picnic?
• Additional Picnic Planning Resources

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Why produce an American Traditions Picnic?

[These peoples of America are] much inclined to cultivate the earth and steward the same. They harvest beans, corn, and squashes, melons and rich sloes of Castile, and grapes in quantity throughout their landscape….They harvest the red wheat and garden fare such as lettuce and cabbage, green beans and peas, cilantro, carrots, turnips, garlic, onions, artichokes, radishes and cucumbers. They have pleasing herds of turkeys in abundance and fowl of castile, too, beside sheep and cattle and goats.  -- Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá, 1598

Where have all these heirloom vegetables and heritage breeds gone? When Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá, colonizer of New Mexico, wrote about its Pueblos, diversity on the farm and on the table was the norm—not the exception—across most of North America. Today, roughly four hundred years later, two-thirds of the distinctive seeds and breeds, which then fed America, have vanished.

Ninety-three percent of American food product diversity has been lost since 1900. These declines in diversity bring losses in traditional ecological and culinary knowledge as well. Consequently, we’ve suffered declines in the food rituals which otherwise link communities to place and cultural heritage. What better way to bring these rituals and foods back than through a picnic? People of all ages and backgrounds love picnics – it’s an excuse to spend an afternoon in the park, eat outdoors, throw a frisbee around, stare at the sky, take a nap.  A picnic is also a very slow form of eating – you step off the path, onto the grass, lay out a blanket, carefully unwrap delicious packages of homemade food...

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What is a picnic, anyway?

The word picnic was borrowed from French piquenique, a word that seems to have originated around the end of the 17th century. It’s unclear where the word came from, but one theory is that it was based on the verb piquer `pick; peck’ (source of English pick), with the rhyming nique perhaps added in half reminiscence of the obsolete nique `trifle.’  

A piquenique once denoted a sort of party to which everyone brought along some food. The notion of an outdoor meal did not emerge until the 19th century in England and in North America. Today, American picnics are linked to landscape. Whether served in the open, on a blanket in the grass, or with seating under an open-air pavilion, picnics tie our food to our land. They are perfect vehicles for celebrations of a region’s place-based culinary heritage. 

Picnic menus are as diverse as the local food community. They often reflect the region by featuring cuisines of all cultures. But whether the chicken is fried according to a traditional southern recipe or prepared Tandoori style, at an American Traditions Picnic the bird itself would be a Buckeye or a Holland or a Java—all breeds considered “Critical” by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.  The potato salad, however dressed, would likewise be composed of old heirloom varieties, such as the “Irish Cobbler” “Makah Ozette” or the “Purple Cow Horn.” And desserts would include pies made with heirloom American baking apples—in season of course—and fresh fruit, such as the “Moon and Stars” watermelon.

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How do you plan an American Traditions Picnic?

Producing a meal or dish with endangered ingredients has great rewards—the ingredients are extraordinary in flavor, color, smell, feel and taste. Before the fork hits the plate though, many things must happen—farmers need to be consulted, the rare fruit or vegetable may need to be planted, and orders for rare, regional beef, pork, or poultry need to be placed. There (usually) isn’t a one-stop shopping destination for endangered foods. So just how do you produce an event with endangered foods?

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Preliminary Planning

• Research the unique foods of your region. The RAFT resources page and Slow Food’s Ark of Taste are great guides.
• Time your event according to seasonality to maximize available fresh Ark and RAFT-listed produce.

Sourcing Food

• Use the LocalHarvest directory to find Ark of Taste products in your area.
• If you can’t locate the items you want fresh, you may find and store them in another form, like a frozen puree, smoked filet or chutney.
• Some hand-processed foods have very limited production. Find out when they’re harvested and order the amount you need before supplies run too low.
• If it is difficult to find foods locally, think about finding nonperishable endangered foods from farther away to supplement local fresh ingredients.
• Ask local farmers to grow Ark and RAFT listed fruits and vegetables, and poultry producers to grow heritage breeds.

Planning Beyond Food

• Keep the price of the event reasonable to encourage people to come and taste the food.
• Informal locations such as picnic grounds, botanical gardens, parks, and halls-for-hire work well for events, with the meal served family style.
• Cooking with others builds community, and simple recipes help event participants imagine using Ark foods in their own kitchens.

Presentation

• Weave wonderful tales around the menu. People are very inspired by the stories of these foods and the efforts needed to produce them.
• Create and display regional food and food traditions storyboards, like those created by the Vermont Fresh Network for a 2007 American Traditions Picnic at Shelburne Farms.
• Highlight local heroes. Consider featuring their photos on “table talkers” or explanatory cards for buffets or tables.
• Purchase a bit of surplus and have a table of products for sale. This makes it easy for attendees to try them on their own.
• Have evaluation cards handy to get feedback on the newly encountered tastes and textures from participants

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Additional Picnic Planning Resources

Elissa Rubin-Mahon, maker of heirloom fruit preserves and member of Slow Food’s Ark Committee, has organized many Ark of Taste events as a member of Slow Food Sonoma County. Read her in-depth tips for how to produce a meal with endangered foods.

The RAFT partners are resources as you develop educational material, opening remarks, or prepare a dish. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy can help you find endangered livestock and poultry breeds that are adapted to various regions of the country. Chefs Collaborative can help you develop recipes and applications for rare foods and connect farmers with chefs. The Cultural Conservancy can provide information about conducting oral histories and guides to interviewing food producers. You can purchase Native American seeds, foods and utensils from Native Seeds/SEARCH and obtain information about Native American foods. You can purchase heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange and obtain information on regional (and often endangered) foods. Through Slow Food USA, you can review the Ark of Taste catalogue of endangered foods and their producers, obtain information on all RAFT Alliance initiaites and find a local Slow Food chapter in your region.

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Each American Traditions Picnic is unique, reflecting the identity of the locale and the picnic planners. It can be helpful to learn from other picnics previously organized but don’t be afraid to try something new!

By producing an American Traditions Picnic in your community, you are joining with others to:

• Capture every step from farm to table, literally,
• Identify and celebrate local bounties,
• Strengthen community relationships between farmers, chefs and consumers,
• Share stories about a few of the 4,000 native US fruits, vegetables, and livestock and poultry breeds adapted to various regions of the country that have fallen into disuse,
• Promote eater-based agricultural conservation,
• Create recipes and culinary applications for America’s endangered regional foods,
• Share your work and knowledge with RAFT partner organizations, and
• Eat good food with neighbors!

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