Spring arrives in the Hudson Valley as a series of edible signals: ramps pushing through damp soil, fiddleheads coiled like green question marks, nettles demanding gloves and respect. “Wild Hudson Valley,” a spring benefit for Slow Food Hudson Valley on April 26 at Liberty Farms in Ghent, builds an afternoon around those fleeting ingredients—less a tasting menu than a snapshot of the landscape in its brief moment of abundance.
The event marks a reintroduction of sorts for Slow Food Hudson Valley, a volunteer-run chapter of the international movement devoted to “good, clean, and fair food for all.” For co-chair Mona Talbott, the gathering is both celebration and statement. “It’s our first spring fundraiser,” she says, “and the purpose is to bring awareness to the organization, to the Hudson Valley, and to come together to celebrate the first food of spring, which is the wild forage food.”
That celebration takes a distinctly Hudson Valley form: a roster of chefs deeply embedded in the region’s farm network—David Israelow (Four Corners), Gaetano Arnone (Via Cassia), Hannah Black (chef and consultant), Colby Miller (Hotel Tivoli/The Corner), Lauren Stanek (Dove’s Diner), Pierre Friedrichs and Phil Hayes (Overlook Farm and Sky High Farm), and Kate Arding and Hadley Kreitz (Talbott & Arding)—cooking from what’s available now, not what’s been flown in or stored. Expect ramps, wild mushrooms, and early herbs alongside handmade pastas, local meats, and cheeses that speak to the region’s dairy tradition.
Talbott, whose résumé runs from Chez Panisse to the Rome Sustainable Food Project, frames the event as part of a broader effort to reconnect people with food as a shared, participatory act. “We want to bring people back to their senses and back to their roots,” she says. “Knowing your farmer, knowing where your food comes from, how it’s grown, how to prepare it—that’s how you build community.”
That idea—food as a connective tissue rather than a commodity—runs through the Slow Food ethos. Talbott points to a concept articulated by founder Carlo Petrini: turning consumers into “co-producers.” The distinction is subtle but consequential. “The process is as nourishing as the food,” she says. Whether it’s tending a garden, cooking a meal, or simply setting the table, participation replaces passivity.
For co-chair Pierre Friedrichs, a farmer and chef who helped revitalize the Hudson Valley chapter after years of dormancy, the region is uniquely suited to that mission. “There are so many farmers here,” he says. “People are more aware now—they’re curious about where their food comes from, how it’s raised.” That curiosity has fueled a broader cultural shift: what once needed labeling as “farm-to-table” has, in many cases, become baseline expectation.
Still, Friedrichs is quick to note that awareness doesn’t equal understanding. There remains, he says, “a lot of education to be done”—about everything from the difference between supermarket eggs and those laid by pasture-raised chickens to the economic realities facing small farms. The work of Slow Food Hudson Valley, then, is as much about teaching as it is about tasting.
Proceeds from “Wild Hudson Valley” will support that work, including initiatives addressing food insecurity and the development of school gardens—projects Friedrichs has championed for years. Teaching children how food is grown, he argues, is both practical and transformative: a way to cultivate healthier eaters and more engaged citizens.
The event will also honor Kathleen Finlay, president of Glynwood, as its first “Snailblazer” award recipient—a nod to Slow Food’s emblem and a recognition of her leadership in advancing regenerative agriculture and regional food systems. For Friedrichs, the alignment is clear. Glynwood’s work, he says, reflects the same goal: “connecting farmers, land, and the community together so we all can thrive.”
If the mission has a throughline, it’s this: a farmer can feed a community, but a community must sustain the farmer. Events like “Wild Hudson Valley” make that relationship visible—and edible. Add live music, local beverages, and a silent auction drawn from the region’s food economy, and the afternoon takes on the feel of a gathering rather than a gala. Which is, in the end, the point. Not spectacle, but connection—built, as ever, around a table.
“Wild Hudson Valley” will take place on Sunday, April 26 from 2-5pm. Tickets are $100.
