Dear Slow Food Oxfordshire Members and Supporters: This is my November update with some details on the upcoming events, members’ news and a summary of the SF headquarters’ monthly update. SF Oxfordshire December event: Thanks to all those who’ve signed up for our next event. It will be a presentation and introduction into Transylvania/Romania Slow Food (and drinks) brought by our members who went there in September. Thursday, 15 December is the favourite day for most and we shall meet at 7PM in Oxford, at Oxford Brookes University, in the new Buckley building on London Road, room BG10. Although it’s a classroom, it is brand new, it has a kitchenette adjacent to it, power point facilities for the slide show, plenty of free parking at that time of the day and last but not least – free to us. Please find directions to the campus (Gipsy Lane in Headington) at http://www.brookes.ac.uk/findus Buckley building is the one on London Road, cornering with Gipsy Lane and the building is still surrounded by construction fence with a purpose built gate and lights leading to the entrance. In case the entrance door is shut (it usually closes at 6PM) please wait for me to open it or call my mobile. There will be food and drinks from Romania and we shall have some extra nibbles as well, but do note that this is not going to be a full dinner meal. January event I would also like to suggest that our following event be focussed on planning for 2006 and held in January. I hope that we shall have a lot of you there because that will be the time to have your say in what you want to see happening next year. We shall make it easy though, and simply ask to fill in a short Questionnaire but that will be after a review of SF Oxon2005. We’ll make it a “tea-time” event then. Please mark your calendars for Sunday, 22 January, 3PM and we shall advise you on the venue and directions nearer to the day. Members’ Announcements Some of our members have asked me to share some information with you, which I am doing with pleasure. I guess this is one of the aspects where our website could be used effectively, if we are to network among ourselves – the Forum we have there has been built for this purpose we just need to open it more often, to make it functional. If you don’t know you User name of password, please e-mail our webmaster Jeremy Rowntree webmaster@slowfood-oxon.org.uk A friend of Greg Dawson who is an extremely talented potter is holding a pre Christmas exhibition in his studio near Chipping Norton. I think it would be really interesting for some of the Slow members. Please contact Greg for more info. Fiona Jefferson spotted (while watching Breakfast TV) a young lad called Sam Stern (aged 15) who had written a cookbook for teenagers, “Cooking up A Storm: the teen survival cookbook.' He's been into cooking since he had to stand on a chair to reach the cooker, and although Fiona hasn't seen his book it might be just the thing to engage kids. If you happen to be in Spain In anticipation of Terra Madre 2006, the convivia of Spain are organizing the first 'National Meeting in Defense of Biodiversity and the Protection of Food Heritage', to be held November 25-27 in Castielfabib in Rincón de Ademuz, a rural inland area renown for its agriculture and food. About 200 food producers and others who work to protect and promote biodiversity will be in attendance, including representatives from the six Spanish presidia and all the food communities that participated in Terra Madre 2004, together with other communities identified by Spanish convivia in recent months. For three days, the participants will convene in conferences and debates to come up with strategies for collaboration and exchanges and to educate the public on the need to recover and protect food diversity. There will also be opportunities to taste and purchase local food products from all over Spain at the event. - View the event program (in Spanish). - Please visit the Terra Madre website and Terra Madre forum for more news and information about these food communities and others. If you happened to be in Rome: The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity is organizing Eccellenti e solidali ("Excellent and Fair") in Rome on December 3. This fundraising event, held in the splendid Palazzo Rospigliosi, will be the first time that the Foundation is formally presented in the Italian capital. 20 renowned Italian winemakers and artisanal food producers will offer their extraordinary products to the public. These same winemakers will be auctioning off some of their rarest bottlings the last week of November on eBay, the auction website (in Italy). All proceeds from the event and the auction will go to the Foundation to finance its projects in developing countries. More information will be available in the coming weeks on the Foundation website. A minimum donation of €30 is requested for participation in Eccellenti e solidali. For more information about the auction or the event, call +39 0172 419711. - In other news: Fishermen from Orbetello travel to Chile for a Presidium exchange - Visit the Foundation website for more information and news about Slow Food's Ark and Presidia projects. http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/ Focus on other Convivia: Slow Food Ticino Supports the Foundation In Switzerland, Slow Food Ticino held a fundraising dinner on October 27 which will benefit the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. A year after Terra Madre, the convivium has invited the Ticinese participants to share their impressions of the event and to discuss the themes of Terra Madre with members. Dinner was prepared by the extraordinary Dario Ranza, chef of the renowned Villa Principe Leopoldo in Ticino, who used Swiss Ark products as well as those from Ticino's Terra Madre food communities and other international presidia. The event was a particularly valuable occasion to share with these members the philosophy and the progress of Slow Food's projects with respect to agricultural biodiversity. In the evening, those present were shown a special screening of a video documenting Terra Madre, which will soon be sent to all the convivium leaders around the world. There was also a presentation of the results of the meeting between the Terra Madre food communities in Kenya and discussion of possible collaborations between the Kenya and Swiss convivia. For more information, contact Luca Cavadini, slowfoodti@bluewin.ch or the Terra Madre office, terramadre@slowfood.it. Why did you join Slow Food? Slow Food is working on a new membership drive. Next year's theme will expand on the "1,000 reasons to join us" in our brochures and will describe many such possible reasons to potential new members. To this end, we hope you will help us by telling us why you became a Slow Food member and why you chose to get involved in the movement. Some responses we've received: I'm a Slow Food member because what I eat becomes Teresa Mattis. Teresa Mattis, housewife, Genoa, Italy I am a member of Slow Food because the aspirations of this great movement are important in ensuring that the wonderful diversity of traditional foods and the skills of those who make them survive for future generations. Will Studd, cheesemonger, Sydney, Australia I hope this will make a pleasant reading over the weekend!