Dear Slow Food Oxon Members:

This is a monthly update to inform you on upcoming events and also, to Welcome! All our new members who have joined recently. Please use our website www.slowfood-oxon.org.uk to see the list of future events and reports on our past events (in Features). If you’d like to enter the Members Only area, please email our webmaster Jeremy Rowntree and ask for your user name and password webmaster@slowfood-oxon.org.uk

Thank you! To our members David and Nena Barbour for organising and hosting on 19 August the best ever event, from what I gather. In fact – 3 events in one day: farm tour and cakes, brewery tour and pub dinner. Well done! Those of you who missed it, please look for the report and photos in our features (will be posted shortly).

Good News!

We have got some fantastic news! Our grant application for £1,000 to run a project with University students has been approved by Midcounties CO-OP and the Committee will meet soon to finalise the plans and launch the project in the near future. You will be able to learn everything about it from my emails and from our website. Thank you all for your support! If you have contacts with communication networks at Oxford University, we shall appreciate your help in promoting the project to students.

Fungi Foray on 29 October

Some 24 people have already signed up for this event . There are still a few places so if you’d like to join, please email Ian Bird NO LATER THAN THIS FRIDAY because Ian will then place the booking with the County Council

Slow Food Book Club

Another very inspiring and relaxing meeting took place yesterday at the Summertown Wine Café over Matthew Fort’s “Eating Up Italy”, thank you Liz for organising it.

The next meeting will be on 15 November and we shall be discussing Bread Matters: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide by Andrew Whitley. Since bread is such an important staple in our lives we decided to have a bigger event on this theme (on the same day) and encourage everybody to bring their favourite bread, made by yourself of course, and let us know what’s so good about that bread. Bring your favourite snacks and/or drinks to it, too. This way we shall transform the book club meeting into a wholesome and flavourful bread event. I shall try to arrange a venue, ideally at an artisan bakery or at least with an artisan baker coming along and telling us about his/her business, so it should be interesting! Please sign up with Liz Wilding by 8 November webeditor@slowfood-oxon.org.uk IN the meanwhile, if you have specific ideas, email me!

Slow Food UK Stand at the Salone del Gusto
26th – 30th October, Lingotto, Turin

Producers’ Tastings
Slow Food UK has seized a last-minute chance to have a stall at the Salone del Gusto (http://www.salonedelgusto.com/welcome_eng.lasso ) under the Food from Britain package. The stall will be in Pavilion 1 together with all the other 24 British exhibitors. We would like the stall to showcase a selection of the very best ‘good, clean and fair’ products from across the country, specially selected by the UK convivia. SF Members-producers are encouraged to donate products as there are no funds to actually buy them! I hope that you will see the value of this as this is a golden opportunity to share them with thousands of visitors from across the world.
We are looking for a range of excellent products that best typify the region. You will know best what these are and what would go down well for tasting at the event. However, to keep it simple, we are not showcasing fresh meat or fish as we will not be cooking anything. The likes of smoked meat and fish, cheese and dried goods such as preserves are much easier to handle. We can accept beer but no other types of alcohol. It would also be a great help to have a selection of leaflets to go with the products, if available. If you are interested, please let me know by Monday 18 September and I shall explain you how to get those shipped (Slow Food will bear the costs).

Volunteers to help on the stand

If you are coming to the Salone and fancy sparing a few hours here and there to help man the stand, then we would be eternally grateful. It should be great fun. We are planning at this stage to open the stand from 10am – 6pm, so we are looking for people to help out for, say, 2 hours at a time or, if very keen, doubling up to 4 hours. Whatever you can manage will be most welcome. If you can’t, then that’s okay too.

I hope this is not too much to take in and I am always looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

With Slowest and Best Wishes,

Tamara