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Cities are remarkably good at distancing consumers from the food they are eating. What is the impact of this? Our health suffers, the environment suffers and animals suffer. We need to reconnect with our food. We need to be aware of where it comes from and how it was produced so that we can change this system.

As consumers we have the power to change the way things are done. The slow food movement is 20 years old and convivia around the world dedicate themselves to reconnecting people with their food and those that produce it.

Dax Villanueva only became aware of the moral deficiencies and unsustainability of first world living recently. In this time he has slowly been making the transition from slacktivist to activist. He is passionate about educating others and he does this through is blog, Relax with Dax, and his involvement in the Slow Food Mother City convivium.

A delicious and affordable (from R35) brown bag lunch will be on sale at the venue.

Date: Thursday 22 July

Time: 12:45 for 13:00pm

Venue: Lobby Books, Cape Town Democracy Center, 6 Spin Street

Contact: Andreas Spath at aspath@idasa.org.za or 021 467 7606

Parking options:
Street parking in the area is safe and will cost you R3.50 per hour.
Parking garages open to the public in the area include:

Plein Park (Plein Street; to get to the entrance, turn off Plein Street into Barrack Street and then into Corporation Street).
Mandela Rhodes Place (entrance in Burg Street, off Wale Street)

Via IDASA

I always imagined mead as a rough kind of beer, something dark, brewed from hay and potatoes, that would go well with a haunch of wild boar. So the mead tasting at Touch of Madness on Friday 23 April was a revelation.

Mead is the most ancient alcoholic drink, easy for our ancestors to discover as made simply from honey, water and yeast. Types of mead can be found in pretty much every culture that’s in contact with bees. So in Ethiopia it’s tej, while in the Eastern Cape, the Xhosa call it iQhilika. Most of the meads we tasted were from a small brewery in Grahamstown called Makana Meadery, which is inspired by the local methods of mead-making (the yeast, for example, is indigenous, harvested from the roots of a drought resistant plant). The Makana bottles are sealed with a wax capsule, a nod to the bees.

Fig-infused mead, glowing golden in the sun.

Cape Winemaster Hanneke van de Linde led the tasting of five Makana meads, under the brand name Honey Sun, and a homebrew. It’s quite common for the brew to be infused with herbs or spices – this style is called metheglin. Makana also infuses its meads – the first flight was fig (infused with the fruit and leaves of the Cape Fig), coffee (scented with wild beans from the Koffie Bay area) and chili. The first thing that surprised me was how light and golden the drink was. Served chilled, or it becomes viscous, it has a strong floral, slightly vegetative nose and complex, not overly sweet, flavour. The fig flavour had natural affinity, with slight cinnamon overtones, the coffee was more minerally and the chili offered a wooded nose with a satisfying kick at the end of the palate.

Mead tasting notes and glasses at the ready...

Then we tasted the Honey Sun dry, a subtle mead of pure honey, and Makana’s award-winning herbal mead, infused with rooibos, honeybush tea, cinnamon and apple. This was the most complex and sophisticated of the meads – definitely one to add to the cellar. Finally, we tried ‘Trevor’s Home Brew’, and this was the cloudy, dark, nutty mead we had imagined – Christmas cake on the nose and a creamy mouthfeel. Made in a bucket in the cupboard and unfiltered, this was rough and ready, and pretty delicious, stuff!

Touch of Madness put on a mead-friendly meal, with a sweet and spicy chicken stir-fry followed by rooibos -infused crème brulee. Although it’s best served as a welcome drink on ice, or with biscuits after a meal, Makana’s light golden mead would also pair well with Morrocan food or a Cape-style fruity curry. It’s a beautiful drink with a fascinating history that’s sure to spark conversation around the dinner table.

Did you know?

In Europe, it was traditional to give newlyweds enough mead to last them a month, hence the term honeymoon. The idea was that the mead would inspire cheerfulness and abandon, and at the end of the moon-cycle the couple would have proved their fertility with a pregnancy. Having indulged, I can see how that might work, actually…

Yes, mead has been fused with more interesting herbs in the past...

Slow Food Mother City will be hosting an introduction to the pleasures of preserving with Oded Schwartz on 10 April.

Oded is South Africa’s leading expert on preserving (seriously, he wrote the book: Preserving, published by Dorling Kindersley in 1996, and translated into thirteen languages). He’s friendly and knowledgeable, and he’ll give you enough confidence to finally attempt a jam, or at least a chutney!

Join us for two hours of preserving history, theory, skills and tips, shared in a convivial atmosphere in Oded’s own kitchen. We’ll be tasting Oded’s preserves and pickles, and washing them down with Jack Black beer.

At this event, Oded will explain pickling techniques and science, give some history of pickling, offer samples for tasting, and answer your questions. No pickling will be DEMONSTRATED; we hope to offer a hands-on course with Oded in the near future, guided by participant feedback from this workshop.

EVENT DETAILS:

Date and time:
Saturday 10 April 2010. 3pm-5pm

Venue:
Oded’s Kitchen, The Old Biscuit Mill, 375 Albert Road, Salt River (why not stop by the Neighbourgoods Market beforehand?)

Cost:
R70 for members, R90 for guests

Bookings:
Space is limited (20pax), so 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.

First come, first served. If you have not made the deposit within 2 days of booking, we will make your space/s available to the next person in line. Please book before Thursday 7 March 2010.

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.

In early March Slow Food Mother City will be visiting the Biodynamic Farm on Spier Estate outside Stellenbosch.

Biodynamic agriculture develops soil, plants and animals into a closed, interacting and interdependent circle of production, characterised by a holistic, natural approach. Spier Biodynamic Farm includes a half-hectare vegetable market garden, and pastures for grazing pasture reared beef, broiler chickens and egg-laying chickens.

At 10.30am on Saturday, 6th March, Christo, the farm manager, will show us around, and answer your questions. It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn about ethical food production, and enjoy the last of the summer weather in a beautiful location.

Date and time:
Saturday 6 March 2010. 10.15am

Cost:
An administrative fee of R20 for Slow Food Mother City members, and R30 for guests. There is no charge for children under the age of 16. If you would like to take home a frozen Spier chicken for your supper, please add R77 onto your deposit (each chicken is a gorgeous, hefty 2.2kg, so you are paying R35/kg).

Location:
Spier Biodynamic Farm – www.spier.co.za

Directions:
Take the N2 leaving Cape Town. Take the Baden Powell Drive exit, and turn left immediately. After ten minutes, you will come to traffic lights by a giant strawberry statue. Turn right (signposted Annandale Road). Two minutes’ later, you will see a driveway on your left, signposted “Spier Wines”. Take this turn, and park on the side of the road just before the security booms. We will wait for everyone to arrive, and then drive in convoy to the farm.

If you would like to come, please email us at: events@slowfoodmothercity.co.za and let us know how many people you are bringing. There are only 25 places available. We will then send you banking information to make your deposit.

On the evenings of 23 and 25 February 2010, we will be introduced to the world of unfiltered, lovingly crafted artisan beer. &Union’s beers are imported, but are made from top quality ingredients and, because they are brewed for up to 6 to 8 weeks instead of being rushed through the process in days, have distinctive flavours unlike anything mass-produced.

Which makes them perfect for food-pairing! In line with &Union’s philosophy of keeping their food offerings local, seasonal and organic wherever possible, we’ll be sampling locally raised and cured meats, organic olives, and some of the best of our local cheeses (made with unpasteurised milk).

The beer experts will be on hand to explain how each beer is made, and what makes them different from your average brew. And, helped along by carefully selected food matches, we’ll learn what flavours and characteristics we should be picking up and why.

&Union has a lovely selection of locally produced meats, cheeses and sausages, as well their famous beers and wines. For those who are keen to socialise, there is the option of staying on to have some dinner at &Union after the presentation.

If you would like to come to this event, please RSVP to events@slowfoodmothercity.co.za as soon as possible, indicating on which date you would like to attend. Numbers are limited by the size of the venue, so we will be offering this event twice, with a maximum of 15 guests on each date.

Date/s:

Tuesday 23 and Thursday 25 February 2010.  ** UPDATE:  this event is now fully booked, but if you’re keen to go onto a waiting list, mail us anyway, and if there are any cancellations, you’ll be first in line! **

Time:

6.30pm

Cost:

R20 for Slow Food Mother City members, R30 for guests, payable at the event.

Venue:

&Union is located at 110 Bree Street, Cape Town. www.andunion.com

Upcoming events:

If you can’t make it, or beer isn’t your thing, here’s a taster of the events and projects we’re organising for the months to come.

• Indigenous lamb tasting and CSA
• Food Film Festival
• Fruit & vegetable preserving workshops
• Fruit Community Supported Agriculture projects
• Wine and biodiversity outings (includes picnic – children welcome)
• Producer showcases
• Wild mushroom forest walk (children welcome)
• Chocolate tasting and demonstration

If you would like to become a member of Slow Food Mother City (R70 per annum), please visit this page and sign up!

Green Drinks, for those who haven’t encountered it yet, is an open, informal for discussion on ‘green’ topics.  It’s happening all over the world, and this particular version takes place every third Monday at Josephine Mill in Newlands.

Here’s the full programme:

Dear Friends

Here we go again with the first of ten gatherings this year…This one celebrates and questions our connection with nature through food – where and what is the progeny and purpose of our nourishment. An awareness of food from its biological to political… we are back on the PechaKucha format – short presentations from some interesting do-ers, be-ers and activists

Slow Food Mother City
Slow Food Mother City is a local convivium (chapter) of the international Slow Food movement.
Celebrating good food in Cape Town is what SFMC is all about. Sharing their passion for local produce, food artisans and seasonal eating, the new convivium is organising a series of relaxed foodie events throughout 2010. Hear about what’s planned, and find out more about projects supported by SFMC, such as the Cape Town CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and a soon-to-be-launched open seed network.
www.slowfoodmothercity.co.za

Wild Organics
In addition to operating a city-wide organic box scheme, Wild Organics also offers foodies an old style organic shopping experience in the heart of Woodstock’s heritage area. In addition to fresh organic fruit and vegetables, Wild sells free range meat, cheeses and pickles, and serves meals on selected days of the week.
www.wildorganics.co.za

Heart Global – Food Tents
Millions of South African children go hungry everyday. In response to this ever increasing crisis, Foodtents offer a sustainable, cost-effective, low maintenance solution to provide those most in need with fresh vegetables on an ongoing basis.  Find out how Heart Global’s revolutionary, make-shift greenhouses are helping communities source and secure supplies of nutritious food
www.heartglobal.org

KwaLapa
Kwalapa is an organic wholefoods store in Newlands, sheltered under a very large tree. It’s a place for people to meet, share ideas, experience delicious organic foods and dip in / become part of a fantastic way of life. Kwalapa is telling the story of food, from farm to table, reconnecting conscious eaters with where, when and how their food was created.
www.kwalapa.com

If you too would like to share your dreams or what you do, please let us know (greendrinks@josephinemill.co.za). Make a presentation in the future…. and become a part of a growing, conscious–living community. Share knowledge, wisdom, skills, hope, and enthusiasm.

Map and further details: http://www.josephinemill.co.za/greendrinks.html