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Tomorrow, World Fair Trade Day 2008 is being celebrated in over 70 countries, with free food, lectures, concerts, fashion shows and art exhibits. Surrounding WFT Day is the first-annual Fair Trade Fortnight, which is running through May 18. For this inaugural Fortnight, the theme is environmental justice.

For example, Trade Aid New Zealand is going all-out with their “Junk 2 Green Funk” contest, in which participants re-fashion trash into art. The aim is to to heighten awareness of conservation and the role of the artisan in fair-trade craftsmanship.

So what do you get out of World Fair Trade Day?
Retailers all over the country are going to be handing out free fair trade coffee, chocolate and other samples. And we’re not talking just any caffeinated swill here — this is quality stuff. Great art and film events abound, too.

What do the fair-trade craftsmen and farmers get out of it?
Where to start? Living wages; safe working environments; ecologically sound production methods; long-term working relationships between producers and retailers.

Of course, just because Mother’s Day comes only once a year (you didn’t forget, did you?), doesn’t mean you should ignore your mom for the other 364 days. So it goes without saying that it’s important to support fair-trade producers whenever you can. At zipiZape Artisans, we celebrate Fair Trade Day every day, offering handmade crafts from artisans from all over the world — Mexico, Nepal, South Africa and Peru, to name just a few of the countries our producers hail from, as well as Navajo and Zuni art from right here in the US.

Back to WFT Day: There are fair-trade throwdowns going on all over the country this weekend. These 6 listings should give you a little taste of what’s going on in our neck of the woods (New England), including trunk shows, free coffee and chocolate, film screenings and wine samplings:

Worlds Biggest Coffee Break
Saturday, May 10 | 3pm-4pm

Description: “Aiming to set a world record for the biggest ever coffee break, Amherst Fair Trade Partnership (AFTP) will stage a ‘Fair Trade Coffee Break’ on May 10, World Fair Trade Day. It will be one of hundred’s of Fair Trade coffee breaks held simultaneously around the world, and will focus on the benefits of Fair Trade for farmers, consumers, and the environment. AFTP will distribute Free Fair Trade coffee, chocolate and flowers at various businesses throughout Amherst at 3pm. Live music will be at some locations. AFTP will also distribute a guide to all the places that carry Fair Trade products in town. In order to set the world record, the events will have to draw over 5,000 people throughout the U.S. participating at the same time.”

Participating venues: Black Sheep Deli/Cafe, Loose Goose Deli, Henions Bakery, Wheatberry Bakery, Bart’s Ice Cream, Collective Copies, Tabella Restaurant

[Amherst, MA (downtown). 413.687.1434. amherstfairtrade@earthlink.net]

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Fair Trade Film Screening: “Chocolate Country”
Saturday, May 10 | 2pm

Description: “This 30 minute film won Best Short Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival and is an exciting, positive story set to local Dominican folk music. It will take you into another world and culture and show you where chocolate comes from, how it’s grown and prepared, and how you can support a better life for the farmers who grow it. You can read about it and see the trailer at ChocolateCountryFilm.com. The director, Robin Blotnick, and the producers, Northampton locals Jill Higgins and Joe Blotnick, will be there to present and discuss the film. Chocolate Country came into being while Jill and Joe were Peace Corps volunteers in the Dominican Republic working with the cacao farmers’ cooperative and their film maker son came to visit.” Admission is $3, and apparently comes with free Pierce Brothers coffee and Divine chocolate.

View trailer (click here if you’re having trouble viewing the embedded video below):

[Amherst Cinema, Amherst Cinema Arts Center, 28 Amity St., Amherst, MA. 413.687.1434. $3. amherstcinema.org, chocolatecountryfilm.com. amherstfairtrade@earthlink.net]

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^{[Didi Emmons is way excited to share her slaw -- which is good, 'cuz it rocks]}

As you may recall, I promised you all D:2:E recipes … and I’m not one to make idle threats. So here it is: a semi-sprawling gastronomic crawl through D:2:E, Boston’s latest symposium on sustainable living. Two of these recipes (the Broiled Channel-farmed Catfish with Red Curry Sauce and the Haley House Ginger Slaw) actually got live demos at D:2:E; the rest I scooped up from exhibitors‘ booths or their websites.

What’s so sustainable about these dishes? Emphasis on local (and seasonal) produce, fair-trade ingredients, and responsibly fished seafood. Of course, when you’re talking about sustainability, the prevalence of brand names can be a little off-putting. So I tried to choose recipes that lend themselves to more, um, open-source culinary solutions, or transcend brands entirely. (Bonus: They’re all extremely easy to make.)

OK, enough philosophizing — let’s get to the vittles!

APPETIZERS/SIDES
Spring Leek and Asparagus Tart with Goat Cheese
Braised Spinach with Thai Flavors
Roasted Sweet Potato with Rosemary
Heirloom Tomato Slaw
Haley House Ginger Slaw

ENTREES
Some Enchanted Pizza
Baked Macaroni & Cheese
Collard, Pear and Caramelized Onion Casserole
Broiled Salmon with Dijon Sauce
Broiled Channel-farmed Catfish with Red Curry Sauce

DESSERTS
Hazelnut Coffee Brownies
Honey and Lemon Tea Cakes
Peach Crisp
Butterscotch Bananas Foster
Chocolate Hazelnut Empanadas

DRINKS
Frozen Chocolate Moo
Thomas’s Thai Iced Coffee
Green Princess

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^{[photo courtesy megpi -- note the digits on the crust!]}

Yes, today is 3.14 … which means it’s time for math-flavored absurdity and geeky carbohydrates!

Historical food blogger The Old Foodie has decided to downplay the numbers to put together five neat posts examining the history of “pi(e)” itself. (Though she does note that, all punning aside, pi and pie are inextricably linked by their geometrical associations.)

Her first installment rounds up a strange bestiary of extinct, exotic or long-forgotten pies, including eel pie (1861), bride pie (1660) and pies with live birds and frogs (1665).

And if all this gastronomic archaeology really lights your fire, I should point out that The Old Foodie’s forthcoming book, “The Pie, a Celebratory History,” will (hopefully) be available in late 2008.

Charcuterie connoisseurs, rejoice: Spain’s famed jamón ibérico, a luxury cured ham, has arrived in the States. Up until this point, the USDA has shunned this product on account of being skeeved out by its curing methods, as making it basically involves hanging hunks of raw salted pork out to dry for anywhere from 9 months to 2 years or more.

However, due to the efforts of Don and Ruth Harris (co-owners of online Spanish gourmet store La Tienda), a family business in western Spain has tweaked its facilities and curing process to meet the USDA’s standards. The first jamón ibérico hit US stores in December 2007, while the prized bellota variety is scheduled to make its stateside debut in July 2008.

The bellota ham is to Spain roughly what Kobe beef is to Japan. It’s made from pigs who spend their pampered — albeit short — lives wandering around “specially maintained oak forests,” gorging themselves on acorns. Here’s a particularly vivid description of the setup, from this WSJ article:

Jamon Iberico “bellota,” which La Tienda also will be importing, can be thought of as the holy grail with a halo. It comes from Iberian pigs that toward the end of their free-range lives eat up to 20 pounds of acorns (bellotas) a day. Noting the premise that calm pigs have the best meat, Harris describes how, on their last day, these pigs “have Mozart played to them and are given hot showers,” then are gently euthanized (”sacrificed” is the Spaniards’ term) with carbon monoxide.

Wow. Of course, salivating gourmands can always turn to La Tienda as a source for this porcine ambrosia. But if any of you Boston-area foodies need a jamón fix immediately, the kind folks at Formaggio Kitchen will gladly help you out.

Really, the lifting of this restriction really couldn’t have come at a better time — after all, Hardee’s was dangerously close to running out of sodium-larded meat products to cram into its burgers. (Then again, with this pork fetching $100 a pound, you’re probably not going find it under your Monster Thickburger bun anytime soon.)

[Thanks to Apartment Therapy; photo courtesy Flickr user su-lin]

OK, let’s explore a hypothetical situation here: Valentine’s Day is just mere hours away, and you’re totally stumped about what to do for your significant other. With restaurants booked to the seams, your options now are rapidly dwindling to raiding the much-picked-over cards and dubious chocolates and ragged bouquets at Shaw’s (or, worse, CVS). And let’s face it, even if you did manage to snag a last-minute reservation at some fancy little boîte, you’re most likely getting jacked for exorbitant prix-fixes and harried service.

Wait, this isn’t so hypothetical, is it?

Fear not, friend — it’s not too late to surprise your special woogums with a totally handmade, heartfelt, delicious meal. With our special V-Day tapas menu, all you need is a working oven, a few groceries, and a few spare hours. (Oh, and some tiny plates wouldn’t hurt, either.)

We decided to go with tapas (basically, classy finger foods traditionally served in Spanish bars) for reasons of variety and efficiency: These recipes allows you to showcase a lot of nice little dishes to dazzle your date; meanwhile, there’s a lot of overlap between recipe ingredients, so you won’t have to worry about making room in your fridge.

MENU

• crusty bread with olive oil
• cheese with quince paste (queso con membrillo)
• marinated olives (aceitunas marinadas)
• roasted peppers (pimientos)
• white bean salad (ensalada de judías blancas)
• pear turnovers (hojaldres de pera)
• Spanish omelette (tortilla española)

Now, this might look like a lot of work, but the nice part is that you can prepare the most labor-intensive dishes in advance: the pimientos keep for days, and the tortilla espanola and white bean salad actually taste better when they’ve spent a few days chilling in the fridge. The rest is basically a cinch to throw together (take it from a kitchen novice). For such minimal efforts, the results are pretty impressive. (Note: Unless your date’s a linebacker with a glandular problem, you’re probably going to have leftovers if you follow these recipes to the letter. In fact, this same menu makes for a great party spread, too — perfect for any cheerfully bitter anti-V-Day celebrations.)

Read on for recipes and more pictures.

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