Rooted: A Living Atlas of the Tri-Cities Foodshed
Northeast Tennessee has always known how to feed itself.
Northeast Tennessee has always known how to feed itself. The hollows, the hill farms, the family gardens, the smokehouse out back. This region holds a food heritage that no grocery store can replicate and no algorithm can preserve.
Rooted is our effort to document it before and connect you to it so it never disappears. An interactive digital atlas of the Tri-Cities foodshed, Rooted maps the farmers, growers, artisans, and food traditions that make this place taste like itself with the stories behind them woven in. It's a practical tool and a living record, built by and for our community.
Help us build it.
On-Farm Cooking Demos & Community Potlucks
Some of the most important food knowledge in this region lives in someone's hands, in the way they fold a dumpling, fire a cast iron skillet, or know without measuring how much salt a pot of beans needs. We're bringing that knowledge out of the kitchen and onto the farm.
SFTC's on-farm cooking demonstrations and community potlucks are seasonal gatherings held at working farms and large gardens across the Tri-Cities foodshed. Each event pairs a local or Indigenous food tradition with the land it came from, a demonstration by a farmer, chef, or community cook, followed by a shared meal where everyone contributes something to the table.
These are more than just cooking classes. They're conversations. Between neighbors, between traditions, between the people who grow food and the people who love to eat it.
What to expect: A working farm as your backdrop. A skilled cook at the fire. A recipe rooted in this place: Appalachian, Cherokee, Melungeon, African American, or immigrant foodways, depending on the gathering. A potluck table where everyone brings something and everyone eats well. Tickets on a sliding scale, with subsidized spots available so cost is never a barrier.
We're still building this program — and we want your input.
Which farms should we gather on? Which chefs, home cooks, or tradition-keepers deserve a wider audience? Which recipes or food traditions do you most want to see celebrated? Tell us, and we'll build it with you.
The Ark of Taste
Saving What's Worth Saving
The Ark of Taste is one of Slow Food's most beloved global programs, a living catalog of foods that are at risk of being lost forever. Not because they aren't delicious or important, but because industrial food systems, shifting markets, and the loss of traditional knowledge threaten to push them out of our fields and off our plates.
Internationally, more than 6,000 foods have been catalogued. In Appalachia, there is no shortage of candidates: heirloom seeds and bean varieties passed down for generations, heritage livestock breeds, wild foods, and traditional preparations that live only in the memories and hands of those who still make them.
Slow Food Tri-Cities is working to identify, document, and advocate for the heritage foods of our region. We'll be partnering with local farmers, foragers, seed keepers, and food historians to build our regional Ark nominations, while connecting community members with the growers and producers who are keeping these foods alive.
This program is currently in development. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to hear about our regional Ark of Taste nominations.
Learn more
The Snail of Approval
Honoring the Food Businesses Getting It Right
The Slow Food Snail of Approval is a grassroots recognition program that celebrates food businesses–restaurants, farms, producers, markets, breweries, bakeries–that are putting Slow Food values into practice every day. It's not just about great food (though that matters). It's about how that food is sourced; how workers are treated; how the business connects to its community; and whether it's building a food system that's better for all of us.
Unlike conventional food awards like the Michelin star or the James Beard Award, the Snail of Approval is locally administered. That means we–your neighbors, your fellow foodies–evaluate and recognize the businesses in our own community. Awardees are evaluated across six areas: sourcing, environmental impact, cultural connection, community involvement, staff support, and business values.
We're currently developing the Slow Food Tri-Cities Snail of Approval program and will be opening nominations in the coming year. If you know a local food/artisan craft/farm business that deserves this recognition, we want to hear from you.
This program is currently in development. Want to nominate a local business or get involved in the review process?
Learn more
Tool Library
Good food starts before the kitchen.
It starts with the right tool in the right season, and not everyone needs to own everything.
SFTC members have access to our shared tool library: a rotating collection of equipment for gardening, food preservation, and small-scale production. Canners, dehydrators, fermentation crocks, seed-starting supplies, garden hand tools—the kind of things that sit unused eleven months of the year but matter enormously when you need them.
Borrow what you need. Return it in good shape. Pass the season forward.
The library is currently housed at Shakti in the Mountains and will be up and running by June 1, 2026. The library grows as the membership grows. Have a tool worth sharing? We'll take it. Need something specific not in the library? We'll put it on the wish list. Think it's a cool idea and wanna donate a latte's worth to the cause—heck yea!
Donate a tool →
Add a tool to the wish list →
Sign up to access the tool library →