Notes from the Farms and Other News!
Our first season has been an amazing success — Anne’s energy is truly making a significant difference in the world! Thirty-three Apprentices have either departed and returned home, or still have a few days left of farm work on their monthlong adventures!
Anne’s passing was a great injustice, but it has led to amazing and life changing experiences for so many individuals including Hattie who spent a month flipping cheese wheels at Stony Pond Farm in Vermont, Julian and Alex who manned the slaughterhouse floor, Gabriella and Margo who learned the art of affinage at two of the best shops on the East Coast, Molly who was introduced to the art of raw milk production, Jacob and Lucas who walked the halls of the nation’s largest cheese caves, Bliss and August who grew food on the roofs and streets of two of our nation’s major cities, Sage who milked pasture raised goats that help make the most delicious caramels, Braden who is mastering the art of raising heritage breed pigs, Sadie and Gabriela who are apprenticing in the art and culture of Alpine style cheeses, and Leilani, Eli, Anvita, and Dianna who built fences and cleaned barns on the farm that will become the center of the Anishinaabe food hub — and still others have just begun their work.
We are happy to report that the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund has now been determined by the IRS to be an organization exempt from federal income tax and we can now accept tax deductible donations in our own name, without the umbrella organization of Slow Food. But we will never forget that we would not be here today, and the Apprentices would not have traveled this year, if not for the efforts and commitment of our friends. Almost 40 years after Carlo Petrini started Slow Food in Italy, when the first McDonalds opened in Rome, his ideas still have room to embrace new groups and projects like ASLF. Thank you to Anna Mulé and the team at Slow Food USA for sheltering our nascent organization and helping our exchange program to launch so quickly.
If you have not already done so, please buy tickets for the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund's First Annual Benefit on September 14th at Chelsea Market, one of the most important food events of the year. It will be important not only because the event bears Anne’s name, but also because of the amazing talent that has rallied behind it, including 60 amazing chefs — all pioneers in the sustainable food movement — our sponsors at Google and Saveur magazine, the incredible team at Jamestown, the supportive food vendors of Chelsea Market, and especially Anna Harrington who is making sure it all comes together. Buying tickets to eat and drink with us on September 14th is the best way to keep our Apprenticeship program going.
Meanwhile our Apprentices have been compiling photography, video, reels, writing, poetry, visual art, and other mixed media documenting their experiences. Maya Netzer, working together with YouTube and Google, will create editorial pieces to display at the event. Below is a sample — a poem from Apprentice Leilani Barnes who spent a month at the Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute.
Sincerely,
Patrick and the ASLF Team
