What is ‘slow food?’ How a Placer County farmer is embracing the movement

The new Terra Madre Americas festival rolls into Sacramento this weekend, combining the region’s “farm-to-fork” mentality with an international push to eating local, clean and traditional.

The slow food movement dates back to the 1980s in Italy, and focuses on promoting cultural and biological diversity, food education and improving access to healthy and resilient food systems.

Slow food is a major component of the international Terra Madre Salone del Gusto festival, and will be in the spotlight in Sacramento with workshops, panel discussions, tastings and more.

One of those presenters is a Placer County grower who has fully embraced the slow food ethos:  Camelia Enriquez, the farmer and owner of Twin Peaks Orchards in Newcastle.

Enriquez says her farm is part of a small Slow Food Farm network in the United States, with just seven across the country and three in California. She spoke with Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about what slow food means to her, and how it can be experienced in schools, farmers markets and beyond.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

How did you get started doing all of this?

I grew up on the farm. I’m fourth-generation, so I was around my grandfather and my parents working together. I definitely decided from a young age that I didn't want to be a farmer, so I moved when I was pretty young to the city. That was my ideal place, to go as far away from a farmer as I could go.

I moved to San Francisco and lived there for a while, met my husband, got married really young, moved around California and really got to see all the different types of agriculture based on where we were living. All those farming roots came back to me.

I started seeking out farmers' markets, and then having kids, just making sure they’re exposed to healthy food. We moved back up to the orchard after my grandfather passed away… became partners, and I took over the orchard in 2020.

What do you grow at Twin Peaks Orchard?

We grow several different types of crops, we’re almost year-round. Throughout the summer we grow stone fruit and row crops like tomatoes, squash, melons, eggplant, things like that. And then we transition into like the shoulder season that we're about to be in right now. We have a specialty crop that dominates all the different things that we're harvesting called the jujube, and then we transition into the fall with citrus and persimmons, some winter squash, those types of crops. That carries us in through mid-winter, and then we have a little bit of breathing room where we're not harvesting… but then we’re in full work mode to get ready for the next season.

What's a jujube? 

There's some debate over this, but it's allegedly known as the world's oldest cultivated fruit. It’s been around for so long, but it’s something that a lot of people here don’t really know what it is. 

Everybody asks me, “what is a jujube like?” It’s a small fruit that tastes a little bit like an apple, a little bit like a pear, a little bit like a date. When it’s dried it’s also known as the Chinese date. It’s used for health properties, for nutrient dense needs. It’s just this beautiful little super fruit that does so many things, and it’s definitely something that is listed on the slow food “Ark of Taste.”

What is the slow food movement? How would you describe it to someone? 

For me it’s a movement, but it’s a lifestyle so it just doesn't encompass how food is grown or how food is processed. It’s so many different things. There’s a lot of social responsibility as part of slow foods. It’s promoting different cultural foods and farming practices.

It’s something that's always been really important to me growing up, and it kind of came back to me as I became a farmer. Just slowing down, having access to really great food that's healthy, that supports biodiversity in the soil, and also is able to reach the food system in our local community.

When did you first start to learn about slow food? Or has it always been part of your life?

About 25 years ago I was at a farmers market in Sebastopol which has a great slow food presence. I got some Gravenstein apples to make applesauce for my kids, and that’s when I started to understand that this was an heirloom variety that was promoted really widely with slow food because it was on the “Ark of Taste.” [That’s] a list of different types of produce and food that is at risk of being extinct because of its heirloom characteristics.

Camelia Enriquez is the farmer and owner of Twin Peaks Orchards in Newcastle. She says the slow food movement is a combination of promoting cultural and healthy foods, social responsibility, biodiversity and sustainable farming.Courtesy of Camelia Enriquez

I really started to find out more about slow food, and then just [realized] that so much of what I saw growing up is part of slow food and [that] ethos. 

Why do you think it's so important to celebrate the slow food process, especially as we're welcoming the new Terra Madre Americas festival?

California's known for its agriculture. I know we have a worldwide reach with our agriculture. Where I come from, Placer County, there’s a deep history of farming. We’ve been there since 1912 and my grandparents were very involved in setting up this system of shipping fruit across the country. Our area… we had access to water. We had perfect climate, perfect soil, and we grew a lot of produce.

I think just being able to talk about that, especially when we are always losing farms to buildings and suburban areas… I think it’s really important for us to continue to promote slow food and farming, and all the things that come along with it.

Are there any downsides to slow food? Are people unaware of what this movement or lifestyle is, or means? 

I don't really see it as a downside, I see it more as an opportunity. It's an opportunity for us to share why it's important not only to our local community or to the economy. I see it as an opportunity to educate. If we could reach somebody that’s just coming in and has no idea about the ethos of slow foods, what it meant, or how important it was to preserve heirloom-quality varieties of fruits and animals and things like that.

How would you recommend people interact with or experience slow food locally?

Go to the farmers market. Start getting to know your farmers. Visit restaurants that support farmers. You’re just aware of it without being aware of it. We have food that’s going into our public schools that was made available through farm-to-school programs. So if you have school-aged children, you might already be involved with a slow food-type of movement.

I think you'll start to notice when you go to the farmers market, you’ll see the name of a farmer and a variety of produce. And then, you’ll go into a restaurant and see that name of the farm, or they’ll highlight that name of the produce. You’re in the best place for it, Sacramento’s the best area for that type of lifestyle.

You can listen to more of Enriquez’s conversation about the slow food movement and her participation in the upcoming Terra Madre Americas festival in Sacramento here.