Photo credit Scott Chernis

Slow Food is a movement that started in Italy and promotes a return to the way people used to eat. While it's a sentiment most of us can get behind, life is very different in Italy. Perhaps that is part of the reason why Slow Food USA has had a difficult time building massive grassroots support.

Certainly there have been public statements by the founder of Slow Food that have turned off potential local supporters. Many Slow Food programs have also left believers in the cause feeling, as the New York Times put it recently, as if Slow Food was "just one big wine tasting with really hard to find cheeses that you weren’t invited to."

But the Slow Food Nation events in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend are intended to be accessible to everyone. While some of the events are still pricey to attend, the good news is, there are plenty of events that are free. Here's a round up of just a handful of some of the major free events and programs. Head to the Slow Food Nation site for the complete Slow Food Nation schedule.

Slow Arts
Poetry by peach farmer David "Mas" Masumoto, a photography exhibit on the theme of Life in a Tuscan Town and a Bulgarian Honeybee and Harvest dance are just some of the many arts programs that are part of Slow Food Nation. All but the photo exhibit take place at the Victory Garden.

Youth Food Movement programs
Retreats, films and workshops and a culminating "Eat-In" are planned for those in the 16-34 age range.

Marketplace
The Marketplace will take place in the Civic Center Plaza. There will be produce for sale, street food, "soap box" story telling and water stations for everyone.

Food for Thought films
You'll need to RSVP and tickets are limited, but there will be showings of films such as The Future of Food and Our Daily Bread. Films take place at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason.

Whichever events you end up taking part in, here's hoping you have a very slow Labor Day weekend.

This weekend marks the 5th Golden Glass event, Slow Food San Francisco's annual fundraiser. Over 100 sustainable and regional wine producers will be presenting their wines to taste. In addition there will be an exclusive sampling from Bay Area top restaurants and artisanal producers. Sample signature dishes from local restaurants, charcuterie, cheese, olive oil, seasonal fruit, breads, pastries, and gelato. The wines will mostly be Italian but there will also be wines from Australia, Spain, Germany, New Zealand, and Argentina.

I went to this event last year for the first time and was very impressed. Forget the endless variations of tuna tartare or ceviche you find at most events, at the Golden Glass there were unique artisanal ice creams, charcuterie and cheeses. The wines were from a variety of wineries, including some smaller ones that I had never heard of before. I also found it to be less crowded than other similar events. It's easy to understand why this is a favorite wine tasting event in San Francisco.

What: The Golden Glass
When: June 8, 2008 3pm-7pm
Where: Ft. Mason, Festival Pavilion, San Francisco, map
How: Purchase tickets in advance. Tickets are $50.00 if purchased before the event and $60.00 at the door
Why: This is a great chance to try terrific wines from around the world and taste samples of food from favorite local restaurants and purveyors such as Acquerello, Bi-Rite Creamery, Chez Panisse, Delfina, Evvia, Farina, Fatted Calf Salami, Harley Farms Goat Dairy, Kokkari, La Ciccia and Perbacco. Proceeds benefit the new Slow Food SF School Garden Project and Slow Food USA "Ark of Taste."

Why try wines from far away when we have perfectly good wines in our own backyard?
Because short of traveling the world, it's the best way to experience the wines from winemakers who are preserving traditional varietals and methods. Perhaps this quote from the San Francisco Slow Food Manifesto says it best "Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food....That is what real culture is all about: developing taste rather than demeaning it. And what better way to set about this than an international exchange of experiences, knowledge, projects?"

Well. It's been quite a week for the folks that love and hate the Ferry Building Farmers' Market. First, there was the revelation that a new book by Carlo Petrini (the founder of the Slow Food movement) was downright rude about the farmers and their customers, who work, shop, and food-stroll their Bay Area Saturdays away.

Then there was the CUESA follow-up meeting that attempted to get stuff hashed out between the offender and the offended.

This was followed by blog reaction all over the Bay Area and possibly the country. And finally, yesterday came some signs that maybe Alice Waters was Jimmy Cartering her way through the ugly muck and hurt feelings; possibly composting what was said and using it to feed new growth. Mum until just recently, Alice Waters was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday as weighing in with her opinion on the whole nasty mess.

"I don't think he was wrong about his perception that food is more expensive (at Ferry Plaza)," Waters told Scoop on Monday. "But I think he's wrong in his analysis of why it was."

The cost of raising good, fresh food and hauling it to market in the city "is something that's important for all of us to talk about," Waters says. And while she wishes Petrini hadn't written what he did, she supports him 100 percent.

The Chronicle notes that Petrini had apologized in what they term a "politician's type of apology" by saying he was sorry "for any offense caused by this passage." Which, I have to agree with the Chronicle, is sort of like that old wheeze, "I'm sorry you feel that way," which definitely removes the offender from acknowledging any blame whatsoever. As to the poor surfer-farmer that Petrini "outed" as specifically gouging customers just to support his surf habit?

Petrini insists he meant to give a "positive impression." He blamed his writing, and the translation, for distorting his efforts to illustrate the complexities of slow food in a fast world.

So...maybe what Petrini needed was a better editor? Interesting defense.

So far, I haven't subjected anyone to my own opinion about the kerfuffle. For one, there are plenty of opinions to go around and I'd just be adding to the noise, but for another, my opinion isn't really incendiary or original.

I frankly adore the Ferry Building Farmers' Market. Back in Boston, we didn't really have an equal to it. I mean, there was the one in Haymarket, but it smelled so much of rotting fish the one time I passed by that I never really wanted to go back.

However, the FBFM is so...pretty. Even in dank and drizzly weather -- my favorite time to shop there, actually -- it's just painfully beautiful to amble by the delicious, nourishing sculptures gently coaxed out of the simple dirt. The visions of bright tassels of radishes, the soft green piles of lettuces, shiny unblemished peppers, peaches that make you feel warm all over just by touching them. Even if I never pull out any money, I just feel at peace gazing at so much earthly beauty as the water laps the pylons. It's my art museum, and I can't get over it. I hope I never get over it. But maybe I'm naive or satisfied by simple things. After all, I still hunt for four-leaf clovers and hold buttercups under my husband's chin to see if he likes butter. (He does.)

Is the Ferry Building Farmers' Market expensive? Well, yeah, but so are Jimmy Choo shoes and Hummers and diamonds and memberships to Slow Food. It just happens to be where I choose to spend my money. Would it be nice if prices were lowered? Duh. Of course it would, but until I completely understand how much it costs to coax a small, organic farm to produce, transport, and sell the lovelies I put on my plate, I don't feel qualified to complain about it.

In fact, I've always been chuffed by the fact that my knowledgeable mother-in-law -- who can keep a vast number of figures in her head -- looks at the prices at our farmers' market and pronounces them to be competitive with what she pays at her farmers' market in Washington, D.C.

As other people have pointed out, if the Ferry Building Farmers' Market prices are so repugnant to people, there are so many other places to get good produce: Alemany, San Francisco's Civic Center, Marin -- and that's just the few I know about.

It just doesn't seem like the most productive plan of action to attack and tear down farmers and shoppers, call them names, assume motives and wallet size, and backbite.

I know what the real problem is here: we're all just crabby because the summer tomatoes haven't quite come in yet.