How wonderful to come from the Piedmont of North Carolina to La Piemonte da Italia!!!

Along with Flo and Portia from Chapel Hill Creamery and Cathy Jones from Perrywinle Farm, we took the time to go to a couple of markets in downtown Torino on Saturday. The main market was huge with beautiful produce arranged at chest level, letting the eye feast on local, regional, and international fruits and vegetables (we missed the indoor meat and fish markets just across the street). A much smaller market only two blocks south included local and only organic producers. We knew we were in the right place when we ran into Charlie and Emily Jackson from Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Program from Asheville in the Mountains of North Carolina. While the producer market only had about 20 vendors who gathered only once a month on the 4th saturday, the quality of the market was exceptional, with a strong community feel evidenced by the farmers & producers snacking together as local young musicians played eclectic music from their brass and percussion instruments. We had a spontaneous picnic that allowed us to sample ‘sur place’ local spinach greens, exceptional cheese, artisanal bread, and freshly roasted hazelnuts. During our picnic we were further entertained by the music from a solo elderly gentleman pluckin his guitar strings on a bench and a group of traditional dancers of all ages in a Torino ‘contra dance’ of sorts. This market was alive with people expressing their energy and spirit while supporting a LOCAL farming community that produces food and animal products grown from a plant-animal-soil system that was fully alive - from the the fungi and microorganisms to the fresh vegetables & greens, to the delicious meats and cheeses.  It all came together that afternoon for us in a Terra Madre miracle.

On Saturady night, Terra Madre put on a big music show for the evening. With 5 bands from all over the world doing a strolling concert around the Piazza San Carlo, entertaining all as they played great music that brought the world together in one place. A enormous Terra Madre video screen shared farmer stories from around the world, the one i saw in full was one from India that addressed farmer suicides related to GMO cotton issues. As i walked back to Porto Nuovo to catch a train, my mind could not avoid considering the juxtaposition of the finest clothes shops and the stark landscape and simple clothes of the indian countryside as a family dealt with their loss.

But opportunities and enthusiasm abound, as i experienced from valuable discussions with folks that represent great innovations like the Famers’ Diner in Vermont, active farm programs in national park areas in the Northeast and Ohio, a producer in Australia producing native limes, or an on-farm meat processing facility in a small town east of Torino. We are grateful for Terra Madre having brought folks from around the world together. Hopefully future events will continue to grow the producer / farmer focus through farm tours and improved farmer to farmer exchange. I would have loved to visit a farm supply store or equipment dealer, given that we were oused in the middle of a farming area in Vicoforte.

Our own Andrea Ruesing, chef at Lantern resaurant in Chapel Hill, was selected to address the full US delegation on Saturday morning. What a great person she is with her endless energy and passion about food, farmers, and community. I am always amazed when i make deliveries to her restaurant - it seems like it is a big family.

We thank Ben’s dad and brother from Atlanta, Georgia whose valuable farm-sitting offer allowed us to come to Torino and participate in Terra Madre. We also thought of our two current foster kids, Chris 10 and Marquez 8, whose love for music and dance brought them to my mind as i heard the cuban and new orleans bands share their rhythms with the crowds in Piazza San Carlo. If they were there, they would have not been able to control their urge to dance and in doing so, their minds would have been changed forever - knowing that music is indeed its own international language.