Dear Slow Food Oxon Members:

This is our monthly update on our recent and upcoming activities.

Thank you Ian & Ruth Bird for organising our fungi foray on 29 October. Although not many edible mushrooms around, we certainly had fun and Ian’s mushroom soup and stuffed Portobellos were most welcome!

Many thanks also to all those who helped organise and launch our Slow Food Student project. We had over 60 young people attending! In fact, we had had to close the signup website 3 days before the event, as we were overbooked. We have many hopes that this will become a permanent and popular student movement and the CO-OP grant allows us to have a second event for students sometime in January-February. An article will be soon posted on our website, for now though you may want o see some pictures in Features, www.slowfood-oxon.org.uk

I hope you have all received the new Christmas Guide and found it worth the money. Thanks to all those who’ve already send in their cheques to £4.50. Please send them to the address below.

This message is also a reminder, that our next event is on Wednesday 15 November, at The Rose on High in Oxford. It is dedicated to bread, and to Anrew Whittley’s book “Bread Matters”, and everyone is invited to bring a favourite loaf, either made at home or from your favourite local bakery, bring some snacks , chutneys or cheese, and drinks will be available from the open bar. Starts at 6:30. Please sign up asap with Liz Wilding.

Our December event will be a Christmas potluck evening. We would like to invite all those who’ve been to Terra Madre to bring some pictures and their stories. It will be interesting to hear how you found Terra Madre this time. We don’t have a date yet, will be some time mid-December, please follow our website for the date and venue. If anyone would like to host that evening at your place, please let me know, we normally have about 25-30 people and would love to be somewhere in a homely environment. Thank you, and see you all soon.

Last but not least, some news from Slow Food UK:

Slow Food UK office opening date & forthcoming events

We have an opening date for the Slow Food UK office in Ludlow: it officially opens on Monday 4th December and will be staffed by Fiona and, we hope, an energetic volunteer or two. Fiona will initially work from the council offices in Ludlow but will move to premises provided by Advantage West Midlands on a newly built eco-park at the edge of Ludlow early next year.

We are also looking for office furniture and computers - the less we have to buy, the more money we have for strengthening the movement - so if you have any desks, filing cabinets, chairs or serviceable computer equipment you don't need, please let Fiona know.