We’re back!

Wow, that was a long break!  With apologies for the gap in transmission, we have to report a busy time here at Slow Food Nottingham HQ.  Our first two meals of the year went really well, thanks to those who attended the AGM at the Hand and Heart, and those who joined for our annual visit to the Larder, who again, did a sterling job of coping with a table full of chatty foodies!  We made new friends, had marvellous food and wine.  It was a grand night.

We have also been busy behind the scenes, planning our own upcoming events as well as attending a few organized by other people.

A few weeks ago, we spent a very pleasant afternoon at Stonebridge City Farm with their Wild Food ‘expert’, Rebecca Beinart.

The humble lime leaf. A common sight along UK highways, but if you are going to wrap it around garlic rice, best not collect from main roads!

Actually, Rebecca makes no claims to being an expert, but over years of interest and consultation with specialists, she has amassed a wealth of knowledge about food that can be foraged in your local area.  We munched on lime leaves gathered from trees just opposite the Stonebridge site, and sampled some garlic rice which was flavoured by the lovely wild garlic that is in full bloom right now.

Everyone loved the rice flavoured with wilted wild garlic and garnished with some of the pretty flowers.

With some deft handling of a makeshift ‘rocket’ oven, Rebecca also whipped up some dandelion fritters, which were lovely and offered a whole new view of these hooligans which are slowly invading our garden and allotment.  Now we can wreak our revenge and get a free meal.  Result!

Last weekend we spent another pleasant, if artery troubling, morning at the Artisan Cheese Fair at Melton Mowbray.

Cote Hill Red, made in Lincolnshire

This event continues to go from strength to strength and this year boasted around 50 stalls selling wonderful British cheeses made by small scale producers the length and breadth of the country.  Samples abounded, and after dutifully trying most of them, we settled on a Wild Garlic wrapped Yarg from Cornwall and the very lovely Bosworth Field from the marvellous people at Sparkenhoe as favourites.   Although it was a very difficult choice, which necessitated two visits to some of the producers!

You had to be tough to win the battle of this Bosworth Field and actually snag a sample! Gorgeous cheese.

But now it’s back down to work.  Our rescheduled picnic is currently scheduled towards the end of June during Slow Food Week (18-24th June) and our Very Veggie Day will take place on July 1st at the Ecoworks Kitchen in Nottingham.  We will be exploring lesser known veggies and cooking up some unusual dishes to make use of the humble vegetable as the star of a main meal, instead of the sideshow.  Places are limited, so let us know quickly if you are keen to join us.

Slow Wishes till next time…..

 

Fair Trade Fortnight

One of the core values of Slow Food is that farmers and workers are paid a fair price for their product and for the labour involved in getting it to market.

On Monday the Fair Trade Foundation will kick off it’s 2012 Take a Step campaign to get people buying Fair Trade.  They are encouraging us all to hold an event, follow them on Facebook or simply buy a Fair Trade product that you haven’t bought before.    They are aiming for 1,500,000 such steps during 2012 and to date they have 12,227.

What will your Next Step be?

 

Slow Food Nottingham in the News!

Slow Food Nottingham will feature in the next edition of Nottinghamshire Flavours magazine.

Due out at the end of March, the article will outline the history of the group and our philosophy, as well as mentioning a few of the events we have planned for the coming months.

Nottinghamshire Flavours magazine has a readership of around 2,000 and is stocked at outlets around the county including :

Arnold Chambers Butchers, 31 Front Street, Arnold. Tel; 0115 926 7034

Beeston Fred Hallam Ltd., 23 High Road, Beeston. NG9 2JQ. Tel; 0115 925 4766

Bleasby Manor Farm Tea Shoppe, NG14 7FX Tel; 01636 831 316

Blidworth Mike Maloney, 47 Mansfield Road, Blidworth. Tel; 01623 491114

Colston Bassett The Colston Bassett Store. Tel; 01949 81321

East Bridgford Bridgford Garden Centre Café, Fosse Road.

Edwinstowe G. Lock Butcher, West Street, Edwinstowe. Tel; 01623 822 200

Gonalston Gonalston Farm Shop, Southwell Road, Lowdham. Tel; 0115 966 5666

Keyworth Budgen’s, Wolds Drive, Keyworth NG12 5FS. Tel; 0115 937 5079

Lowdham The Bookcase, 50 Main Street, Lowdham. Tel; 0115 966 4143

Mansfield Woodhouse Richmond Stationers 8, High Street, Mansfield Woodhouse Tel; 07979 525792

Nottingham The Cheese Shop, Flying Horse Walk, Nottingham. Tel; 0115 941 9114

Nottingham Waitrose, Trinity Square. NG1 4AF Tel; 0115 941 9289

Ravenshead Bradbury’s, Milton Court, Ravenshead. Tel 01623 793 780

Sherwood J.T. Beedham, 556 Mansfield Road, Sherwood. Tel; 0115 960 5901

Tuxford S.T. Horne Butcher, 8, Eldon Street, Tuxford Tel; 01777 870370

Tuxford Mellors Farm Shop, Milton, near Tuxford. Tel; 01777 870 354

Upton Lizzyz, Upton Hall.

Warsop Mike Maloney, 2a Burns Lane, Warsop. Tel; 01623 844137

Welbeck The Welbeck Farm Shop. Tel; 01909 478 725

West Bridgford Paolo’s Seafood, 97 Melton Road. Tel; 0115 981 2441

Wollaton John Bodsworth Quality Butchers, 183 Bramcote Lane, Wollaton. Tel; 0115 928 4714

Worksop Mike Maloney, Bridge Street, Worksop. Tel; 01909 485130

Miss it – miss out!

 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all Slow Foodies out there!  We hope 2012 sees you well fed in all senses!

Slow Food Nottingham will be putting together some events over the next few months, but in the meantime it is nice to be able to kick off with a cracking news food story from the city.

The University of Nottingham has been recognised as a ‘Good Egg’ in the Compassion in World Farming’s 2011 Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards.  The awards recognise companies that are committed to implementing substantial changes and for making progress in their sourcing of meat, eggs and dairy products.  Since 2006 it has been the policy of the University to buy only free range eggs. Every year 200,000 of them are used across its catering outlets.

Eggsellent news!

Karen Knight, Commercial Business Manager in the University’s Commercial Services Department said: “Both students and conference organisers alike recognise the importance of obtaining food from ethically-sound suppliers. With more than 20 catering outlets across the University we are delighted to receive the Good Egg award and feel that it is a true recognition of The University of Nottingham’s commitment to ongoing responsible food sourcing.”

 

Taking care of business

Things got businesslike for Slow Food UK earlier this month, when the organisation’s AGM was hosted by the School of Artisan Food at Welbeck.  As the man said: “That was our idea!’.

We at Slow Food Nottingham thought the School would be a great venue for our AGM, with the beautiful setting and great facilities, as well as the potential for an awesome lunch.  SFUK looked into it and made the arrangements.  The School did not disappoint!

The AGM agenda was quite short.  We had an inspirational round up of SF activities throughout the world from Ursula Hudson, a member of the international board, and after some initial and frankly inexplicable concerns about voting niceties from a couple of members, the Board including Prue Leith, Craig Sams of Whole Earth and  and Clare Marriage of Doves Farm Foods were re-elected  to serve another term.

Sat Bains speaks to the Slow Food AGM

Then the fun stuff!  Local restaurant owner and celebrity chef, Sat Bains, gave a demonstration of his NG7 dish, comprised of foods foraged from the postcode in which his restaurant sits.  It’s a delicate concoction of wild horseradish cream, blackberry vinegar and fresh foraged herbs – whatever is good at the time!  It could be chickweed, wild chervil, Jack by the Hedge or Fat Hen.

Sat’s full time forager could not attend, so he brought along his horticulture expert John Stirland, who provides Sat with some of finest veg available and extolled to us the virtues of our ‘lost’ veg – salsify, hamburg parsley or the humble Fat Hen.

Fat Hen is considered a nuisance weed by gardeners, but after a tip from Alys Fowler on the Guardian website, we tried ours fried with a little butter and it is AMAZING.  Make sure you know what you are picking, but do not miss this free treat.

Horticulturalist John Stirland caresses a fine example of Hamburg Parsley

Back at the AGM, the School of Artisan Food provided a great lunch of focaccia, cured meats, salad and of course Stichelton, before treating us to a tour of the facility, including the new dairy, which we had never seen.  It is GLEAMING, and makes nascent cheesemakers like us salivate at the luxury of space and facilities!

We rounded off a foodie day with a breadmaking demonstration by David Carter, a recent graduate of the School’s diploma course.  David was such a model student he now works as bakery co-ordinator and is a dab hand with the dough.  He demonstrated the ‘ten-minute technique’, popularised by his old tutor Emmanuel Hadjiandreou.  Emmanuel now has a book out called ‘How to make bread’, but the ten-minute technique is so devastatingly simple, we didn’t need it.  We tried the technique a week later and our bread turned out beautifully.  Astonishing, considering we mixed the dough ingredients roughly together, left it to rest for 10 minutes, mixed again with hands for 10 seconds, rested for 10 minutes, mixed for 10 seconds and rested again for 10 minutes before mixing a final time and leaving to prove until doubled in size.  We were HUGELY dubious that the technique would even produce and edible dough, but the long resting and gentle handling of the dough allowed the gluten and flavour to develop and the dough came together fine without the need for a bicep punishing kneading session.  Not that we don’t enjoy the kneading once in a while, but we can certainly recommend the ten minute method.

Baker David Carter demonstrates the Ten Minute Method

We left the Slow Food AGM keen to drum up more members and more events, so as ever, watch this space!  And let us know if you have any foodie ideas we can follow up.

 

Slow Food at large in August

Slow news month for Slow Food in August, but at least our Chief Exec got a page to herself in Fork magazine (the place for REAL food).  The article discusses Slow Food internationally celebrating its 20th anniversary (although as we were founded in 1989, even my O level maths can’t make that 20 years, but hey – it’s all publicity, right?) and the exciting new initiatives coming through the SFUK head office.

The latest is Stop Think Eat, which we at Slow Food Nottingham can’t believe no-one thought of before!   It is simple, easy to follow and might just get people to make those small changes to their lifestyle that makes all the difference in the long run.   This is the guide from the SFUK Stop Think Eat webpage.

1.Choose local producers.

2.Opt for sustainable sources.

3.Make a small change; it makes a difference.

Join our Stop. Think. Eat campaign!

Rush, rush, rush – hurry, hurry, hurry, that’s what we do in 2011.  Today’s world is moving even faster than ever. No time to chat with colleagues. No time to share a coffee with friends. No chance to browse through the pages of a magazine without interruption.  We are on a constant merry-go-round of getting up, going to work or college, doing our daily ‘job’, coming back home again, doing the other ‘stuff’ then collapsing, exhausted on the sofa or in our favourite armchair, ready to  heat up yesterday’s leftovers for supper or take solace in that glass of red wine or shop bought beer that we saw on offer at the local supermarket, even though we don’t like the brand or even the taste of it for that matter; but hey, it was cheap. That’s ok isn’t it?

Stop. Think. Eat.

At Slow Food, we believe that there is more to life than madly rushing around from one thing to another, grabbing a quick snack in between meetings or eating ready-meals to keep us going. Slow Food is a global grassroots movement which was started to help us reconnect  ourselves with where our food comes from and how it is produced – to fully understand how the choices we make about the food we put on our plates affect others further on down the food supply chain.

So, we are launching a new campaign “Stop. Think. Eat”. We are ask you to do a few simple things to make a small difference and show your support for Slow Food.

Stop. Think. Eat.

That’s it. Simple isn’t it?

Stop rushing about and instead of grabbing the nearest ready meal from the supermarket shelf; consider choosing locally sourced food instead.  This might be local produce displayed in the supermarket, or could be those freshly cut vegetables from the window box or garden, a local allotment, or your nearest independent shop.  Or even soft, ripe summer fruits from your local ‘pick your own’ – they’re wonderfully tasty. And good for you too.

Think about how to s… l …o… w…  d… o… w… n… and think smart. A small change can make a big difference. Plan your meals in advance, so you only buy what you need for the meals you are going to make, which cuts down on our food wastage and saves you money at the same time. It also means that when you cook you get to do the testing as you go along, at your own pace, tasting the end results and enjoying the satisfaction of knowing you’ve created something special using your imagination and creativity – and made a difference.

Eat freshly prepared, freshly cooked food from sustainable sources. This doesn’t have to mean ‘only eating organic’ – more like trusting your local suppliers and asking them for fresh  fruit, fish, meat and veg, checking where it’s come from then preparing it as part of your wind down from the stresses and strains of a busy day or as part of your morning wake up. Savour the flavour of freshly cooked free range eggs, newly popped peas or hand-picked strawberries that you know have arrived in the bowl in the most eco-friendly and sustainable way possible.

Stop. Think. Eat.

Come on, you can do it today. If not now, when would now be a good time to start?

How to get involved
Post a picture of how you have made a small change to make a difference on our Facebook page - and consider Joining Slow Food, a vibrant network of individuals who celebrate a better way to eat. Membership costs 23p a week and you will receive an e-newsletter and access to the local events your membership fees help support as well as our educational programmes and global work.

Couldn’t have said it better ourselves, so may we introduce you to our tea this evening, who is fresh, sustainably caught from British waters and is begging to be baked with some onions, herbs and seasonings!

Gurney the Gurnard - fresh, sustainable - delicious!

Let us know where you are buying your local and sustainable ingredients from – we’d love to include them in our directory.

 

Is buying local our key to the global food crisis?

Bread, sugar, rice. We all have enough for this week and next and when supplies run low we’ll pop along to the shops to restock because there’s plenty more where that came from.

Or is there?

2007 and 2008 saw the world’s first official global food crisis. There were food riots in over 30 countries and the UN called emergency summits. The price of commodity crops doubled.

Today the situation has eased, but the spectre of crisis and food insecurity looms ever large, leading to an Observer piece this weekend predicting that high food prices are here to stay.  But while food prices are rising globally, Britain’s grocery bill continues to soar faster than many other developed countries.

Your daily bread - more expensive by the day

Why?

According to the Observer we are susceptible  to global price increases because we import nearly all of our fruit and almost half of our vegetables, as well as other staples like rice and wheat.  Supermarkets, which control 80% of the food sales in the UK, have taken advantage of rising commodity prices and inflation to drive up prices.

Paul Donovan, deputy head of global economics at UBS, the biggest Swiss bank, states that only 20-25% of the price of any processed food in Britain (a loaf of bread or packet of chocolate biscuits) is directly due to the global commodity price, whereas 70% or more is down to ‘labour’ costs, which include marketing, packaging and distribution.

The Goverment’s chief scientific advisor in 2009, Professor John Beddington, told the Sustainable Development UK conference that we were heading for a perfect storm of supply and demand issues due to severely affect the global food system by 2030.   Our population is increasingly urban and increasing prosperous, and thus is consuming more and more calories without actually producing any of them!  Not to mention the conventional and intensive methods of farming which require unsustainable levels of water, energy and chemicals (see Sticker Shock post from June 11).

So it would seem obvious to conclude that the less we depend on imports and food miles to secure our staple foodstuffs, the better off we will be.   Fortunately, local farmers markets are going from strength to strength and shoppers are much more savvy about the provenance of their food than they were five or 10 years ago.  But Slow Food Nottingham feels it would be foolish to let this progress slide and become a ‘flash in the pan’ dictated by lifestyle gurus rather than the uncomfortable knowledge that the low prices, easy availability and breadth of choice we enjoy now cannot be sustained.

In April 2008, the UN reported the results of a two year investigation – the International Assessment of Agriculture, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).  This concluded that ‘agroecology’ – using biological and ecological knowledge in combination with appropriate technology – along with economic assistance for the small farmers who still produce the majority of the world’s food, are our best chance of providing for the needs of a growing population in a future of limited resources

Or – good, clean and fair food by any other name.

So we at Slow Food Nottingham would like to develop a guide to buying and eating locally, informed by the people who know their region best – us!   Keep an eye on the blog for more information on that and let us have your recommendations for local markets, restaurants and shops where the focus is on locally produced and sourced food.  If we can develop this into a guide for local people to shop more locally, we might be going some way to turning that perfect storm into a nasty downpour.  Every little helps!

 

Slow Food at large

As part of a new and hopefully quite regular feature, we will be letting you know of any mentions Slow Food has garnered in the press.

While we are very much a grass roots organization, with most of the activity happening at local group level, the head office is working hard to ensure we raise our profile within the media and ensure that when we mention Slow Food, people will think ‘good, clean and fair’ food and not casseroles!

Recently, we have a double page spread in Ocado, the Waitrose magazine, publicizing Slow Food and the journey of it’s Taste Adventure over the summer months.  They also give a paragraph each to Slow Food initiatives, including Slow Food Baby, Slow Food on Campus and Slow Food Wisdom.   If you are heading down Waitrose way, have a browse and see us in print!

While this was the only sight of Slow Food in the media last month, we should give an honorable mention in this post to the new Slow Food UK website, which launched in July.   Let us know if you have any comments or feedback for the SFUK team on the new look.

 

Slow Food Nottingham dines again

It’s that time again, and after some unavoidable movement of dates, Slow Food Nottingham enjoyed another marvellous meal at the Larder courtesy of Ewan McFarlane and his efficient and attentive staff.

The menu, as ever, was glorious.  Put together especially for SFN, it covered all the seasonal bases and although the much ordered duck hearts were not available on the day, the substituted ox heart went down very well instead.

The Larder's specially created menu for Slow Food Nottingham

 

Thanks to everyone who attended and we should give a special mention to those Slow Food members we have not met before – Rupert, Kavita and Helen.  We hope everyone had a lovely, slow and convivial meal and we look forward to the next one!

Our next event is to be a picnic at Wollaton Park.   There will be a competition element for those who want to exercise their skills, so watch this space for further details!

 

Smells like Chocolate Heaven

July 1st saw the launch of Boutique Aromatique at the Welbeck Farm Shop, and Slow Food Nottingham was invited to join the party!

Nottinghamshire chocolatier, patissier and founder of Boutique Aromatique, Shelly Preston, is on a mission to introduce us to the world of real chocolate, which bears as much resemblance to the bars in your local vending machine as a Fiesta to a Ferrari!   She believes that it is practically impossible to find quality chocolate products outside London, and her view is shared by guest for the opening, Sara Jayne Stanes.  Sara Jayne is a renowned authority on chocolate,  Chair of the Academy of Chocolate and author of Chocolate – A Definitive Guide.    She described the knowledge that chocolate of the quality Shelly produces was available outside the capital as ‘deeply satisfying’.

Shelly Preston (left) and Sara Jayne Stanes

As a former Product Developer in the wellbeing and natural beauty industry, Shelly has already worked with essential oils, aromatherapy, natural perfumery and producers of first class raw materials.  Keen to combine this knowledge with a passion for high quality chocolate, she has immersed herself in the nuances of working in this tricky medium in her purpose built lab and experimented with the finest chocolate and food grade versions of ingredients and oils with which she has always worked.  Now she is launching her own collection from the shop at Welbeck.

“Over the years I learned to identify good chocolate from bad, the beauty from the beast, and acquired the skill to match flavour with flavour.  In recent years London has become a mecca for fine chocolate and I was in the right place and right frame of mind.  I soon learned that there was so much more to chocolate than I had ever realised,’ said Shelly.

Just of few of the delights in Shelly Preston's Boutique Aromatique at the Welbeck Farm Shop

You can sample some of Shelly’s creations in a tasting bag, choosing from delights like Cardamom, Coffee and Bitter Almond or Salted, Sweet Fennel Liquid Caramel or a refreshing Yuzu and Pink Grapefruit. We very much hope that Shelly will be available later in the year to talk to Slow Food Nottingham about her chocolate journey and give us the opportunity to sample some of her really lovely creations.  Watch this space for more details!