Kathleen Finlay Named Slow Food Hudson Valley's 2025 Snailblazer

This week I want to introduce you to a woman and two organizations whose work is rooted in the belief that food can shape a healthier and more just world. They understand that the way we grow, share, and think about food is one of the most powerful tools we have for creating real change. Once you know about them, I think you will feel the same way.

If you are like me, you love this time of year in the Hudson Valley because it is when the calendar starts to fill with events that bring our community together, and this weekend was no exception. On Sunday, Liberty Farms in Ghent hosted Wild Hudson Valley, a spring benefit for Slow Food Hudson Valley. The barn was filled with chefs, farmers, and community leaders who care deeply about the future of food in our region.

Slow Food, for anyone new to the movement, is a global organization working to protect biodiversity, preserve food traditions, and build a food system that is good, clean, and fair. The name comes from a moment of resistance in 1986 when a McDonald’s opened near the Spanish Steps in Rome. The founders pushed back against what fast food culture was erasing. They wanted to protect seasonality, pleasure, and the stories behind our food, and the idea of slow became their rallying point.

That philosophy was alive at Liberty Farms. Hudson Valley chefs cooked entirely from what the land is offering right now. Ramps, fiddleheads, micro herbs, porchetta, handmade pasta with mushrooms, steelhead trout, local cheeses, wine, and hard cider. Even pickled knotweed made an appearance. It was the kind of food that makes you pause long enough to taste not only the flavors but the place and the people behind them.

The afternoon centered on honoring Kathleen Finlay, President of the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming and founder of Pleiades, a national network of women leading environmental and food system change. Kathleen is someone whose work you notice not because she seeks attention but because the work itself earns it. Her career has been shaped by a steady commitment to environmental justice, regional agriculture, and women’s leadership, and she carries that work in a way that invites others to step forward.

Slow Food recognized her with a Snailblazer Award, an honor for people who chart new paths by choosing intention over speed. The snail has long been the symbol of Slow Food and a reminder to slow down, be deliberate, and resist the pressure of industrial food culture. A Snailblazer is their version of a trailblazer, someone who leads the way while staying rooted in that philosophy. For Kathleen, whose work has embodied that spirit from the beginning, it could not have been more deserved.

Organizations like Slow Food and Glynwood give us the what and the why. They show us why our food system needs to change, why local farming matters, why biodiversity is worth protecting, and why the relationship between farmers, eaters, and the land is worth tending. That work is essential. It is the foundation everything else rests on.

But there is a gap between understanding why something matters and knowing how to live it out on a Tuesday night when you are tired and the refrigerator feels uninspiring. That is the exact reason that I have created My Mindful Kitchen to close.

The My Mindful Kitchen Method helps people bring these values home and into daily practice. The movement lives in the fields and at beautiful events like Sunday’s, but it also lives in the small choices we make in our own kitchens every day. My goal is to make that translation simple and meaningful, using the kitchen as a place to practice mindfulness, belonging, and purpose. Knowing why something matters is the beginning. What changes lives is knowing how.

If you are not already connected to Slow Food Hudson Valley or Glynwood, I you will check them out. The Hudson Valley is home to some of the most extraordinary people working in food today and making your mindful food journey easier.

And if this sparks something in you, a pull toward living a little more intentionally around food, I would love to help you take that next step. You can find My Mindful Kitchen here, where I explore how to bring these ideas to life one small choice at a time.

Because when we all work together, real change can happen.