As Slow Fooders we generally like to support the smaller producers who are more hands on and bring a little magic to their product which is often missing from the mass produced version. While these ‘artisanal’ products often end up costing more, they are definitely worth it. They usually taste better and are better for you.

In South Africa this principle applies when it comes to beer. Most of our beer is produced by SAB and while it is natural and without additives, it is made in very large quantities and designed to suit the palate of a wide audience. Artisanal beers from micro breweries on the other hand are produced in small quantities and each one has an individual personality and character.

The We love Real Beer initiative (a collaboration between Jack Black Beer and Collective São Gabriel) is organising a Craft Beer Festival on 23rd September (2010) at the Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Salt River, Cape Town. This will be a fantastic opportunity for beer lovers and non beer lovers alike to experience a large selection of the craft beers which are being produced in South Africa. Non beer lovers will be pleasantly surprised to learn that craft beer doesn’t taste like the mass produced stuff we are used to, but has a much fuller and more interesting taste.

One of our Slow Food Mother City committee members, Dax Villanueva, will be a judge at the festival and we hope to see you there too.

Further details available on the website: www.weloverealbeer.com

This year is no different and there are some which tie in very well with Slow Food principles. Below is a teaser for three documentaries which we feel would be particularly relevant, but there are many more excellent documentaries on the schedule so feel free to go and read through it on their website.

www.encounters.co.za

The festival runs from the 12th to the 29th of August 2010. Some of the screenings are at the Nu Metro at the V&A Waterfront and others are at the Labia on Orange Street.

Dirt! The Movie

DIRS: Bill Benenson, Gene Rosow / USA
2009 / 85min / Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis

Don’t be confused. English English also has a word for the “living, breathing skin”, unique to this planet, that has a negative connotation. Soil. But this is a positive film that traces the formation of ‘dirt’ over the millennia, how it has shaped us (at every burial we are reminded that we are dust) and how it features in many cultures’ folktales. Of course it is the very substance that sustains us – providing food, shelter, implements, warmth, even giving our wines their distinctive tastes if experts are to be believed. It’s humorous and engaging tone makes more palatable the caveat that, even in our deceptively environmentally-conscious world, this common or garden stuff matters as much as the air that we breathe, and gives examples of diverse, exciting and innovative projects where people are getting their hands dirty… and enjoying it. Courtesy of Woolworths

For the Best AND FOR the Onion!

DIR: Sani Elhadj Magori / Niger / France/ 2008 / 52min

Filmed in Galmi, Niger, this lingering and thoughtful film trims one of the most universally significant, and often most financially excessive, rites of passage to a bittersweet elemental level. For the Best and For the Onion charts the travails of Yaro, a hard man and an onion farmer, as he fights the elements, decreasing onion prices and competing farmers to finally provide his daughter Salamatou with nuptials that she and tradition deserve. Salamatou’s wedding teeters over the success of Yaro’s famous Galmi purple onion crop. Revelatory, succinct and simply told, the documentary follows Yaro and his labourers as they prepare the fields, transplant the seedlings, negotiate with the in-laws-to-be, sing the water in, seek advice, haggle over prices and bring in the harvest to ensure that his betrothed daughter doesn’t spend one more year as an embarrassed spinster.

Tapped

DIR: Stephanie Soechtig / USA / 2009 / 75min

Water, water everywhere, but at what a price to drink! This instantly gripping, well-researched documentary investigates the many negative health and environmental issues that surround the commercialisation of H2O. The director looks at diverse and troubling elements of the industry, charting the water’s course from its source, where the systematic plunder of free water for vast profit for international companies is at the ongoing detriment of entire communities, to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the terrifying reality of vast plastic bottle continents. In between are many worrying factors, environmental damage, unfettered and unregulated profits, contaminated so-called ‘pure’ water, and the human and planetary suffering that comes with the manufacture of easy-to-toss plastic bottles. Plunging into the well of deceit and misinformation about water, the film is sobering and thought provoking.

Slow Food Mother City has organised a picnic lunch at Backsberg Estate on Saturday 27 March 2010, with a presentation on their environmental initiatives and some wine tasting (of course!).

Backsberg has been concerned with its environmental impact for a long time already, way before it became trendy.

Backsberg invested heavily in a carbon audit so that they could reach their goal of becoming carbon neutral. This goal was soon achieved, making them the first carbon neutral wine estate in South Africa and one of only three in the world.

Most of us enjoy a glass of wine on occasion (or often!), but most people don’t realise the impact of wine farming on the environment. The removal of fynbos to plant vineyards is one aspect of that. Backsberg is a member of the Biodiversity in Wine Initiative, setting aside part of the estate for conservation of fynbos.

Backsberg has also built an Earth Centre on the estate which serves as an education centre as well as offices for Food and Trees for Africa, who assist Backsberg with offsetting projects.

These are some of the initiatives that Backsberg has undertaken, but there are many more. For this reason Backsberg has won, and continues to win, many environmental awards both locally and abroad.

EVENT DETAILS

Date and time:
Saturday 27 March 2010. 11.00am

The schedule for our visit looks like this:

• 11h00: Arrival (refreshments served outside the Earth Centre)
• 11h00-12h00: Environmental Tour of the Estate with Simon Back
• 12h00-13h00: Wine Tasting in Historical Vat Cellar hosted by Cellar Door Manager, Danwin James
• 13h00: Finger Lunch outside the Earth Centre

The event is child friendly.

Cost:
The cost will be R80 for members, R85 for guests and R35 for children aged 3-12. Wine will be available for purchase to take home or enjoy with your picnic. Cool drinks will also be available for purchase.

Location:
Backsberg Wine Estate – www.backsberg.com

Bookings:
If you would like to come, please email us at: events@slowfoodmothercity.co.za and let us know how many people you are bringing (and whether you are members or guests). We will then send you banking information to make your deposit and confirm your place/s.

Directions:
From Cape Town: Take the N1 towards Paarl. Take Exit 47 – Klapmuts, Stellenbosch R44 offramp. At the Stop street turn right (underneath the N1 towards Stellenbosch). Go over the next 4-way stop and over the bridge. Take the next left on Franschhoek (R45). About 5km down that road on your right you’ll see Backsberg.

Event feedback

We’d love your feedback on our events! If you’ve attended a Slow Food Mother City event, please let us know what you thought by emailing events@slowfoodmothercity.co.za. All comments and suggestions are welcomed.