Dear Slow Food Oxon Members:

Happy New Year! I hope you all had an enjoyable break with lots of Slow cooking, eating and drinking! I certainly did (especially cooking ;).

I am looking forward to a New Slow Food Oxon Year, with lots of meaningful and exciting events. We need to meet and plan for these, I am sure that many of you have wonderful ideas for 2007, so we shall use the time in our second AGM to do some planning, too.

Slow Food Oxon second Annual General Meeting

The AGM is now set for Sunday, 28 January, in Henley-on-Thames, at the Three Tuns Food House, in their cosy Barn Room, those of you who came last year and 2 years ago will know the place very well. The management changed, and the Head Chef John is looking forward to meeting us and learning more about Slow Food. He will be serving lunch to those who want to enjoy a meal in Henley (check www.thethreetunshenley.com for menus, very much advisable to book upfront) and we shall start the meeting after lunch at 2:30. Note that the Pub does not provide evening meals on Sundays, therefore try to have lunch there. Please attend the AGM, to have a look back at 2006 and help plan activities for 2007. Committee members are all expected to attend and we will accept nominations for new members in 2007.

To help us plan the 2007 events, I attach here a very simple form which you are welcome to bring or email me (in the event you cannot attend the AGM). It is similar to last year and I hope you will come up with lots of exciting ideas.

Before the AGM though…

Slow Food Oxon Book Group

A passion for food and a love of books led to the formation of our Slow Food Book Group in March 2006. The aim of the group is quite simply to discuss books related to food and the pleasures of eating. We usually meet in the Summertown Wine Café and sip drinks as we talk, although the venue sometimes changes to accommodate wider events involving food, such as our Bread evening in November 2006. The discussions are relaxed and very informal; reading the book is suggested but certainly not required. The books are chosen by the members of the group and as you can see from the titles that we have already read our tastes are quite far-ranging. New members are always welcome to join us. We meet about every two months – check the events section of the website for details. If you would like to attend our next meeting please email Liz Wilding with any questions.

Our next book will be: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

At this meeting on 24 January, 7pm, the book discussion will be combined with a salt tasting. We will sample a variety of ‘finishing salts’ and see what we think of the differences. We hope to range from Maldon sea salt through Breton fleur de sel to Hawaiian black lava salt and beyond.

Previous Books:

Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World by Gina Mallet

The Rituals of Dinner by Margaret Visser

In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore

Eating up Italy by Matthew Fort

Bread Matters: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Baking your Own by Andrew Whitley

Suggestions for future reading:

British Regional Food: In Search of the Best British Food Today by Mark Hix

The Kitchen and the Cook by Nicolas Freeling

The Physiology of Taste by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Terra Madre Update
Visit the Terra Madre website, www.terramadre2006.org for the latest news, as well as transcripts and recordings of speeches and Earth Workshop presentations.

How can you help build the network? One good way is to visit the blog.terramadre2006.org, and contribute, either by writing a post or read and comment on other people's messages, questions and posts.

Send a Terra Madre e-card! You can mail anyone an electronic postcard featuring one of the many faces that came to Turin in October. Just go to ecards.terramadre2006.org.

Slow Food in the International Press
- "Did you know?", by Jane Wheatley, The Times (Britain), December 4, 2006
Petrini at the inauguration of Slow Food UK.

The Artisan magazine, Issue 6 also published an article “In it for the ethos”, focusing on producers’ expectations and benefits from Slow Food.

With all ideas, suggestions, questions, please email

leader@slowfood-oxon.org.uk or just reply to my messages.

With my Slowest and Best Wishes,