St George’s Day event

SFB’s April event will be a celebration of English food and produce.  Each course includes produce from local producers or the producers who are on the Presidia or Ark of Taste lists.  This event is being held at the Devonshire Arms (see Blogroll for location details). 

Details: St George’s Day event

Kimbolton Food Festival

The first Kimbolton Food Festival is being held on Saturday, 26th April, at Mandeville Hall.   There will be 25 food stalls ranging from locally reared organic beef to rapeseed oil that is produced just outside Kimbolton. 

This will also be a fund-raising event for Puddleducks, a local state-funded pre-school, to help keep pre-school fees low in order to make pre-school education available to all members of the local community.

Details: Kimbolton Food Festival

Slow Food UK AGM

Slow Food UK AGM The 2008 Slow Food UK AGM will take place on Saturday 26 April at the Riverside Hotel, Kendal, Cumbria, at 11.00 for 11.30 am. As well as the formal business of an AGM, there should be some interesting talks and discussions – it should be well worth the journey!

On 26 April Slow Food UK will hold its Annual General Meeting.  The AGM documents will be distributed to members on 1 April.   Our convivium’s leader, Sue Miller, will be standing for re-election to the Board.  (Her manifesto will be available on this website soon.)

This AGM taking place in Kendal, Cumbria.  If you are interested in attending, contact Sue for further details.  There will be additional events held over the weekend.

Details: SFUK website (follow the link to the members’ area)

Slow Food Nation

In the autumn, San Francisco will host the first Slow Food Nation event.  Slow Food Nation is a subsidiary non-profit arm of Slow Food USA founded by Alice Waters.  The event aims to increase awareness of how food choices affect our health, our culture and the environment.  Hundreds of farmers and food artisans from across America will present their products.  There will also be many activities such as lectures, films and music.

Fairtrade fortnight: 25 Feb – 9 March

Just a reminder that 25th February – 9th March is Fairtrade Fortnight.  Bedford has many traders who offer fairtrade products.  Look out for the fairtrade sign to support many of the world’s producers who are still finding it very hard to make a living from their produce. Slow Food’s Foundation for Biodiversity is a supporter of producers worldwide.

Buying produce where you see the fairtrade sign or switching from your normal produce to Fairtrade maybe just a small change but it can make a big difference to those producers who strive to make a daily living from their produce. The attachment below details some great events going on in Bedford during Fairtrade Fortnight supported by The Bedford Borough Council.  And Bedford’s Thursday Gourmet Market has a regular fairtrade stall.

Details: Fairtrade fortnight events

Bedfordshire Festival of Food

Shuttleworth House is hosting a new event. On 5 & 6 April Bedfordshire Festival of Food aims to display anything and everything connected with food. It is an opportunity for local traders and artisans to promote their businesses. There will also be cooking demonstrations. The event is sponsored by Sainsburys and supported by Tastes of Bedfordshire and Discover Bedfordshire.

SFB will have a stall to promote ’slow food’ and the SFB Project 2008.
Details: Bedfordshire Festival of Food

International film festival

Slow Food and Cineteca di Bologna are promoting an international festival of cinema and food.  The festival aims to promote awareness of food-related issues.  It will be held in Bologna between 7-11 May.  If you are plan to go to the Festival, please could you let the Newsletter Editor know.

Ark of Taste event: Mersea bound

The boat trip to visit the oyster beds of Colchester was one of SFB’s most popular events of 2007. So, another trip has been arranged but with a bonus tasting and tour of the nearby Mersea Island’s vineyard.

Event details: Oyster Trip 2008

Rajokot’s indian tasting

Find out more about the culture and cuisine of Gujurat and Sam’s story – how he came to open his great restaurant.  This is a Slow Food Bedford event with a difference.  We’ll be taking over the restaurant for the evening of 22 February 2008.

Event details: Rajkot

Outcomes from Fifth International SF Congress

The Fifth Slow Food International Congress, held in Puebla, Mexico, brought together more than 600 delegates and observers from 49 countries, including 21 UK representatives.  Fiona Richmond, Slow Food UK Co-ordinator summarised some of the key outcomes for UK Convivia.

A Declaration set out the key strategic themes reflecting the movement’s ‘Good, Clean and Fair’ mission.

Fiona reported that one of the highlights of the Congress was a presentation by the students from the University of Gastronomic Sciences and the Youth Food Movement delegation from Slow Food USA.  They proposed launching an international network of young farmers, producers, students, chefs and activists.  This was unanimously approved by the Congress.  Action Plan

One report, Slow Food in Schools, outlining initiatives in the USA is particularly interesting for Slow Food Bedford because of our new projects for 2008.

Shortly before the Congress met, Mexico was hit by devastating floods.  This had severe economic, social and ecological impacts on the Tabasco area, forcing more than 3 million people to leave their homes and almost wiping out farming production.  The Congress expressed solidarity with the flood victims and an appeal fund has already raised thousands of Euros.