Dear Slow Food Oxon Members:

I would like to update you on a few recent events and initiatives and also remind you on our upcoming events.

Berkshire and Chilterns Life Magazine – buy the April issue now available in stores, featuring Slow Food Oxon and North Wessex Dawns by Linda Braun. I haven’t seen it yet but already have had warm comments and enquiries.

SF UK Leaders meeting

This Saturday, 1 April, I attended the SF UK Leaders meeting in London at “Flaneur” Food Hall and Restaurant on Farringdon Road. Highly recommended to food lovers for dinner, shopping and take away www.flaneur.com The owner is a Slow Food member, hence the venue for the meeting.

 

SF UK Board members were all present with presentations on progress with the UK office, fund raising strategies and new marketing packages. In a nutshell, the SF UK strategy aims for

• £750,000 turnover in 5 years, these money coming from fees, trusts, benefactors and events,
• 25 UK Presidia Products (currently only 5)
• 110 Ark of Taste UK products (currently 23)
• A strong Education strategy that would allow SF UK qualify for Charitable status
• SF UK Congress every 4 years

These and other strategic lines will hopefully make a difference and SF UK are keen to hear from all of you with ideas for support and development. Specifically, a new marketing programme has been launched “Local Business Supporters”. This is to allow local businesses, known to SF Convivia and members to support SF UK through donations. Four different categories of supporters are proposed and you should receive a copy of the marketing brochure by mail shortly. Every SF member finding 3 local supporters will be awarded a year free membership. The concept is still being discussed among Leaders as there are a series of “grey area” issues with potential supporters and you may want to participate in this debate, which is now possible through the SF London website.

To reach the debating hall, you will first need to point your browser directly at http://slowfoodlondon.blogs.com/ukcltalk/ <http://slowfoodlondon.blogs.com/ukcltalk/> - for security reasons, you will not be able to reach it via the standard http://www.slowfoodlondon.com <http://www.slowfoodlondon.com> entry-point. This way, others are not alerted to the existence of the debating hall. Once you have reached the page, you will be asked to authenticate yourself to get in: the username is ukcltalk and the password is flaneur (in honour of our meeting location, but without the circumflex accent!). Commenting upon an article is very easy - just click on the Comments link at the foot of the relevant article and fire away. Do come in and join the fun!

Shopping at the Slow Food Market in Bristol

Thank you, Jane Carlton-Smith for organising the day for us! Despite the strong winds and truly “April showers” we enjoyed the experience and talking to stall holders which are all Slow Food Members. It was the 1^st anniversary of the Market, too. We later had lunch at the Quartier Vert restaurant. To celebrate the 1^st anniversary of the market the restaurant went all Italian but with a very unique slow food angle. Their manu was taken from one of Rome’s primary schools. Why Rome? The city of Rome is successfully running a project called Cultura che Nutre (culture that feeds) in all its schools reaching 140,000 children, offering simple but freshly made locally sourced and where possible organic menu. Jane will write more about this and it will be posted on our website in Features, accompanied by pictures from the day (www.slowfood-oxon.org.uk). Thank you all those who found the time and made the effort to join the group on Sunday. I know that some of you would like to see SF Oxon at local markets and we can discuss our options, of course, now that I’ve seen what it actually takes to be there every month.

Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto in Turin, October, 2006

I understand that quite a few of you have already booked flights and accommodation for the week. This is great because for the time being this is the main thing you should have organised. The Terra Madre website will open shortly and there you’ll be able to find details on activities and events. And there will be additional information by email regarding special events or allowances for SF members. Do let me know though if you have specific questions. Our Convivium will delegate 2 food producers/communities to Terra Madre and the committee should be able to reach a decision on this before 30 April.

Attending other SF events

You may want to browse other Convivia websites and sign up for their events if you happen to be in their region. Below is a list of these addresses:

Aberdeenshire : <http://www.aberdeenshireslowfood.org>

Cambridgeshire: http://www.slowfoodcambs.co.uk

Cornwall: http://www.slowfoodcornwall.com/

London: http://slowfoodlondon.blogs.com

Ludlow: http://www.slowfoodludlow.org.uk/

Manchester: http://www.slowfoodmanchester.org.uk/

Newcastle: http://gustouk.com/Slowfood/index.htm

Somerset: http://www.slowfoodsomerset.org.uk

Last but not least

Thank you to those who have signed up for the fund raising dinner in support to Slow Food UK Association on 18 May. We have so far sold 25% of the seats. Unless I hear from you by the end of this week, I will then promote the event to a wider audience at the University and other areas.

Event – Celebrate the Taste – Fund Raising Dinner in support to SF UK Association

Date – Thursday, 18 May, 7pm for 7:30pm

Venue – Headington Hill Hall at Oxford Brookes University, London Road, Headington, Oxford.

Price - £45 non-members, £85 for couples non-members, £40 for members, £75 for couples-members. If you are an active member and would like to bring some non-member friends along, as well as your partners non-members – we shall treat them as SF members. Just state so in your reply slip.

Payment – cheques payable to Slow Food Oxon enclosed with your RSVP slip

Cancellation policy – will be shown on printed invites

What will this price cover?

£10 in support to Slow Food UK national office, 4 course meal, all local, seasonal and organic as much as possible, possibly – wine (tbc), Slow Food UK Arc of Taste and Presidia products tasting, guest speaker, raffle products (proceeds to go to third world countries food producers to attend Terra Madre 2006), beautiful surroundings in Headington Park and fascinating 17^th century rooms.

Important: If you cannot attend the dinner but would still like to support Slow Food UK, please send your contributions payable to Slow Food Oxon to my home address (see below).

Reminder, please mark your calendars for the following upcoming events in the summer (now posted on our website)

24 May – Book Reading group, Oxford, details from Liz Wilding, webeditor@slowfood-oxon.org.uk

6 June – Ethnic Foods evening in Oxford (No Fuss Chinese Dinner with Chef) details and sign up with Geoffrey Whittle ranger.organics@virgin.net

10 July – Coffee tasting in Wallingford, sign up and details from Sally Turnbull sally.turnbull@slowfood-oxon.org.uk

19 August – visit to David Barbour’s Heath Farm in Swerford, Cotswolds Brewery Tour (£5 per person) and dinner at local pub. Sign up and details from David david.barbour@slowfood-oxon.org.uk

We may still add another event during these months – a wine tasting “New World vs Old World”, so we’ll let you know as soon as we secure the venue.

Thank you for your time and I am looking forward to your replies,

Tamara