Good, clean and fair food for all!
Good, clean and fair food for all!
Terra Madre 2018 Up to four scholarships - worth up to $2,500 each - are on offer from Slow Food Hunter Valley. The scholarships were launched on the 26th March by chef and restaurateur, Tim Montgomery, the 2016 scholarship winner, Tom...
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The next general meeting is on May 1st. Our general meetings are held every second month with committee-only meetings held in the alternate months. For a full list of all scheduled meetings (general and committee meetings) in 2018 please see...
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Take advantage of Maitland's very own paddock to plate Slow Food Earth Market. When? Thursday 3 May 2018 (2pm to 6pm). Held in The Levee (High Street, Maitland) on the first and third Thursday of every month. So come and support your local producers...
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Slow Food Hunter Valley will be at the Tocal Field Days this May. Please call back soon for further details.
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Slow Food Hunter Valley volunteers were thrilled to be running the Cool Bar at the Maitland Show. This gave us the opportunity to raise money to support the Buy a Bale Hunter Appeal for our local farmers. According to the Maitland Mercury “The Maitland Mercury, Newcastle Herald, Hunter Valley News and The Scone Advocate have joined forces with the charity Rural Aid and its Buy A Bale Campaign to help Hunter farmers as they fight to survive the dry conditions” (see full details here).
Our Cool Bar provided watermelon juice, iced black tea, iced flavoured (raspberry and strawberry) tea and watermelon granita.
Thank you to our farmers who came up with the produce in spite of the harsh weather. Thanks to Liz for her excellent teas, Andrew for keeping the ice supply going and making a huge contribution to the pack. Thanks to Amorelle for working behind the scenes as well as at the show. Thanks to Bob and Helen for making the yummy watermelon granita which was a hit and to everyone else who juiced, served, publicised, cleaned, sold, talked, cleaned some more, organised, sliced, diced, hefted watermelon, flogged achachas and … you guessed it … cleaned some more. Well done!
We would like to say thank you to Felicia and Amorelle who made a final push to increase sales by carrying around watermelons and doing the “hard sell” on stragglers and other traders at the show.
In 2016 we rescued acres of pumpkins that were destined to be ploughed into the ground. The pumpkins were gathered by Slow Food Hunter Valley volunteers and sold via a pumpkin pop-up stall in the Levee in Maitland’s main street. The participation of our local farmers, the support of Maitland City Council, the reaction of the media and the amazing response of locals (far and wide) meant hundreds of tonnes of pumpkins did not go to waste. This proves that together we can fix our food system.
At Slow Food Hunter Valley – in just one year – we turned 704 kg of fresh food into nutritional meals for the local community centre. The food is distributed to locals who are finding it difficult to make ends meet. This process is made possible through donations from local farmers, home gardeners with excess produce, and Greenhills Fresh Grocer. As many as seventeen Slow Food Hunter Valley volunteers have helped with the preparation and cooking at the Reader’s Cafe in East Maitland.
To encourage farmers and chefs in and around the Hunter Valley to focus on – and work with – local, seasonal produce we offer a scholarship to Turin, Italy to attend the bi-annual Terra Madre (Mother Earth) event. In 2016 Tom Christie, a local small-scale farmer, was the winner of the inaugural scholarship. The experience provided Tom with exposure to a wealth of knowledge from farmers across the globe and enabled him to realise the potential of small-scale farming. This scholarship will be open again in 2018.
Slow Food Hunter Valley continues to support school gardens such as the Telarah Public School who runs a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. The garden provides 130 children access a two-hour program each fortnight. As the program has matured, the teaching focus in the classes has widened to include applied learning in maths, science and English. It also engages parents who volunteer in the program and includes all student teachers who are rostered on for a turn in the garden.
Fresh food is still achievable even in remote outback communities. In Central Australia, Slow Food Hunter Valley is partnering with Watarrka Foundation and working with local Indigenous leaders and schools to grow fresh food. The supplies fresh produce to locals who would otherwise have to travel up to 600km (one-way) to buy what can be grown in their own back yard. Our Fresh Food in Remote Communities project has been ongoing for three years.
Slow Food Hunter Valley is made up of everyday people who, together, realise they can do a lot of great things that make a difference. And from time-to-time, a we even do a few extraordinary things. You too can make a difference. In fact, everyone can make a difference. Your contribution, regardless of how large or small, helps. So become a member, volunteer, come to a Talking Dinners event, attend our meetings, or make a donation. Whatever you can do, it all makes a difference.
As a devastating drought continues to impact Hunter Valley - and other NSW - farmers, Slow Food volunteers in the Hunter region...
On ABC' Women's Work, read about how Amorelle Dempster turned a field of muddy pumpkins into a slow food revolution.
Our friends at Warners Bay Community Garden Inc. volunteered to turn several boxes of donated aprons into bags that can be used...
The Tocal Field Days were held on May 5, 6 and 7 this year. Slow Food Hunter Valley was engaged to look after...
