Laura Luciano talks to us about food, the Slow Food movement, and her own rooftop garden.

We chat with Laura Luciano, a graphic designer from Long Island. She loves to find the stories behind locally produced food and the people who grow it.

Her passion for local food grew into her own blog, a column in Edible Long Island, and, eventually her involvement in the Slow Food movement.

Then it grew into an interest in growing her own food. So she created a rooftop garden.

Stories Behind Food

Luciano loves the stories behind the food she cooks.

“Food has a story and it’s supposed to be cherished and told.”

Along with the stories of food, she loves the seasonality of food—and enjoys cooking according to the what’s in season.

Slow Food

She talks about the Slow Food Ark of Taste, explaining that it’s, “A living catalogue of delicious and distinctive foods that are facing extinction.” A local example of a food that’s part of the Ark of Taste is the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin.

“It’s the opposite of fast food.”

Luciano is a Slow Food Governor for New York, and a board member for Slow Food USA.

A Rooftop Garden

“When I got started I did not have a green thumb at all.”

Luciano, who is new to gardening, is in her fifth year of growing. While her property is big enough for an in-ground garden, she is in a rural area with deer—so she decided to create a rooftop garden.

She says that she accepts failure, learns, and tries again.

Tips for other rooftop gardeners? She finds that the rooftop garden is extremely hot, so she creates shade by making plantings that include different plants with different heights.