The monumental Slow Food Nation affair is finally here! Time may have felt like it slowed down since you first heard that the largest Slow Food event in America was coming to San Francisco for Labor Day weekend, but with all the events quickly selling out it’s time to pick up the pace and make plans.  You can slow down again once you get there. Here are our picks for the best of show.


photo by John Olmstead

1. Urban farm excursion
Do you know there is a four-acre organic fruit and vegetable farm located right here in San Francisco?  Meet at 11:30 a.m. on August 30 at Alemany Farm for a one hour guided tour (for more info about what the farm is all about, click here to read our story from the August issue!) You’re advised to wear comfy shoes, layered clothes and bring a hat and water bottle.  There will be a potluck picnic lunch following the tour so bring something to share. 



2. Life in a Tuscan town
Feel like life is moving too fast? Slow down the tempo with a visit to Douglas Gayeton’s photo exhibit, "Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town" at the Museo ItaloAmericano.  You can feast your eyes on photos of Italy’s slow living culture for free between August 27 and September 10. 



3. A Foreign tongue
Foreign Cinema’s got the covered outdoor cinema courtyard; Marin Organics is supplying the appropriate film. In a slow food team up, the 28-minute documentary, Hidden Bounty of Marin: Farm Families in Transition will screen at 5:30 p.m. and prelude a local and organic dinner.  Call Foreign Cinema to reserve a seat for the $100 (wine included) elegant, sit-down supper. 

4. Learn to speak French (laundry) at the green kitchen
A green kitchen is all about using simple ingredients and basic tools to bring a tasteful, sustainable meal to the table.  On Sunday, August 31, at 5 p.m., join French Laundry chefs Corey Lee and Peter Jacobsen of French Laundry, who will be demonstrating their skills in the green kitchen at the Taste Pavilion. 



5. Just eat it
More than 250 young farmers, cooks, food artisans and activists will gather on September 1 for a potluck feast in Dolores Park. Outstanding in the Field, known for hosting al fresco dinners in unusual spaces, will set up a communal table for an all-day youth celebration to support a new sustainable food system.  Although there aren’t any seats left at the banquet table, the venue presents the perfect opportunity to have your own potluck picnic in the park.

6. Let the music play on
With all the events to check out this weekend, don’t forget to take some time out to soak it all in. We plan to be at Civic Center Plaza on Saturday, August 30, to listen to the Old Time Trio playing Bluegrass while enjoying some food from Slow on the Go.

7. Best foot forward
What better way to spend the last day of Slow Food Nation (and Labor Day) then with a long hike to Sausalito via the Marin Headlands, followed by a ferry ride back to the Embarcadero? To join this view-filled 12-mile guided hike, congregate at Justin Herman Plaza (by the Hyatt Regency) at 10 a.m. on September 1. Best of all, it’s free!