Today kicked off Slow Food Nation’s 4-day extravaganza of good, clean and fair food. We have ahead of us many hours of tasting, talking, learning, proposing new policies, and planning systems changes. It was a magnificent day and Civic Center plaza was absolutely electrified with the first batch of visitors who’ve come from far and wide to the bright and sunny (if a little hot) weather of late summer San Francisco. Fortunately the trees that line the garden offer plenty of shade.

The Victory Garden is bountiful and around it dozens of booths have been set up to sell produce, cheese, bread, artisanal specialty items, and an array of prepared foods from doughy tlacoyos made by Primavera to sizzling hot dogs from Let’s Be Frank.

The on-site cooking stations, where chefs are hard at work, are shaded by a beautiful orange canopy designed by the brilliant creative team at Albertson Design, who also came up with the Farm=Liberty design you see on the orange welcome pavilion (a salvaged cargo container!) by Jensen Architects, above.

On the Soapbox, a continuous parade of inspired speakers stood up and raised their voices on all sorts of issues (more on that later), while on the other side of the Victory Garden, an interactive compost station taught passersby about how to create “black gold” for growing good food.

We’ll have posts, videos, and photos going up on Slow Food Nation’s homepage all weekend. Check out our latest two short videos, featuring Daniel Bowman Simon of the White House Organic Farm Project, calling for an edible garden on the President’s lawn; and Thomas Odermatt, owner of Roli Roti, who tells us how to roast the perfect chicken.

Tomorrow: to the Taste Pavilions! Stay tuned.