Food Blogs - a couple of points...

The whole blog business is new to me but I have been addicted to reading about food for years. A current obsession is the Observer's food monthly. Colourful, well written and rich as a fruit cake, here in this new age of austerity it is the only Sunday paper/supplement I buy.

But if I need a daily fix then the Guardian's www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth will do the job.

Check out Dan Lepard's easy bread recipe http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/21/flash-loaf-bread-baking-recipe

Enjoy.

Rod.

Michael Pollan's Food Rules

For those seeking sound advice about buying and eating food you need look no further than that listed below. Michael Pollan has been a keen advocate of the virtues extolled by Slow Food but his own advice adds so much more. His shortened version is - Eat Food, Mostly Vegetables, Not Too Much.



12 Short Food Rules, From Michael Pollan:

1. Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2. Avoid foods containing ingredients you can’t pronounce.
3. Don’t eat anything that wouldn’t eventually rot.
4. Avoid food products that carry health claims.
5. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket; stay out of the middle.
6. Better yet, buy food somewhere else: the farmer’s market.
7. Pay more, eat less.
8. Eat a wide diversity of species.
9. Eat food from animals that eat grass.
10. Cook and, if you can, grow some of your own food.
11. Eat meals and eat them only at tables.
12. Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure.

At the recent Conference in London Carlo Petrini founder of Slow Food suggested we should reunite our selves with the notion of eating with both"Love and Pleasure." I couldn't agree more.

Rod.

Made me smile......

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

A site designed to make you think and save money. Can't be bad....


Rod.

The Beginning........

Welcome to our new site. We have been busy over the last few months creating the agenda for next year. This will be published shortly.

I have just come back from a Slow Food Conference in London that was provocative, inspiring and motivating.

The heart of the meeting was to use Open Space Technology to open up areas of discussion people felt passionately about. It proved a great catalyst for open dialogue and people were really keen to swap ideas and search for common ground.

We have a unique situation in Jersey as we are surrounded by cold waters abundant in marine life and a fertile Island producing world renown produce. The Island and what it produces is widely admired and much envied.

One of the concepts deeply embedded in the Slow Food psyche is reducing the distance from producer to plate. That combined with creating an open respect between the the producer and the purchaser were hot topics of discussion. Whilst a few struggled with what Slow Food means we became closer as a group in appreciating the fundamentals that lie behind Good, Clean and Fair.

It is part of our agenda to focus on all the issues raises and that are particularly relevant to Jersey.

This Blog is one of the ideas that was galvanised by discussing blogging with other Conviviums. Both Slow Food Liverpool and Edinburgh proved great sources of inspiration.

Another idea warmly received by me was to meet local members at a Pot Luck event were people can eat, drink and chat informally. The social aspect combined with hearty discussion and fuelled by good wine is a terrific idea. Watch this space.

All in all it was a successful event and I'm sure it will provide most of the UK Conviviums with food for thought. Every pun intended.

Rod Bryans - Committee Member