What’s on your plate? An organic farmer, a priest, a magazine editor, a parliamentarian, a former agriculture and food minister, and an academic discussed food sovereignty and the ethics of eating in a public forum hosted by Christ Church Grammar School’s Ethics Centre and Slow Food Perth on 24 August 2010. Held in the school’s chapel, the panel tackled significant local questions and delved into our connection with food. See our report and blog link to a lively and challenging discussion.

Flavours of Chittering. This truly local, one-day food and wine celebration will take place in the tantalising Lower Chittering valley on 12 September. The village hall will become a market for farmers and artisan-makers offering the diverse tastes of Chittering: citrus, beef and bread among them. Chef Emmanuel Mollois will host a cooking demonstration. Cantina’s Michael Forde is preparing a long-table lunch featuring local, seasonal ingredients. Don’t miss this wonderful ‘small food’ event…

Mundaring food finders! Glen Forrest five-year-old Serena Duane was the winner of Slow Food Perth’s food gardening tool quiz in our ‘food finders’ marquee at the Mundaring truffle festival on Saturday 31 July and Sunday 1 August. Serena won a Twigz long-handled tool set. She was among more than a thousand kids who discovered the stories of apples, wheat and potatoes during the festival, digging for spuds, tasting apples and rolling out pasta dough. Find out more…

A garden of the spirit. Join Slow Food Perth on 9 October for lunch in the New Norcia community’s St. Gertrude’s refectory. Author Trisha Dixon, an authority on early twentieth century Australian garden designer Edna Walling, is leading a garden history tour of Western Australia. This lunch will be shared by tour participants, including Australian Garden History Society representatives. Slow Food members will have priority bookings. A reservation form will be released shortly.

Terra Madre delegates 2010. Spencers Brook organic berkshire pig producer Annie Kavanagh is among 11 West Australians selected to participate in Slow Food’s Terra Madre world meeting of food communities in Turin, Italy, in October. Others include Wellard chilli growers Heather and Mike Biggs and St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls’ principal Julie QuanSing-Rowlands, who has has been selected as a learning community delegate. Discover more about Terra Madre.

The green box…follow the RSS feed link in our green box – look right – and you’ll have all the latest information from our ‘nose’ blog delivered to your desktop or laptop computer. It’s the way to stay up to date with Slow Food Perth’s activities, events, projects and stuff we find fascinating about the world of food. You can also discover whatever ‘the nose‘ – named for the rare black berkshire pig – has sniffed out by following our recent posts listing which appears below the green box.

Good, clean and fair. Support producers and makers recognised by Slow Food Perth. These include biodynamic, organic and conventional farmers producing food in concert with the environment and using the most diligent of stock care. You’ll find most of them at farmers’ markets in Perth and the south west. Acknowledged producers range from beef farmers to orchardists, from cheesemakers to vignerons. Support these good, clean and fair food champions.

Food with latitude. St Hilda’s junior school students in Perth’s Mosman Park have created a concept plan for their bush tucker garden as part of the Food with latitude project sponsored by Slow Food Perth and children’s environment awareness organisation Millennium Kids. The garden idea has been developed in talks with the local indigenous community. St Hilda’s, Lathlain and O’Connor primary schools and South African Ntshidi village school are partners in Food with latitude.

Small food awards. Slow Food Perth’s small food awards recognise Western Australian champion rural producers and enterprises. Soon we’ll be releasing the awards’ nomination form. We’d encourage all Western Australian rural communities to become involved in the process. The criteria will include Slow Food’s good, clean and fair principles – that food should taste good, that it should be produced ethically, and that the grower or maker should be fairly rewarded for their enterprise.

Slow film shorts. Learn about Slow Food’s Terra Madre, Slow Food’s world meeting of food communities that brings together, every two years, 5000 farmers from around the globe. Watch and listen to Slow Food international president Carlo Petrini talk about ‘the new biodiversity’. See clips made by Slow Food Perth members – ‘Pure paddock chooks’ and ‘One simple idea’. Go to our Slow film shorts…regularly uploaded, keeping you in touch with the politics and pleasure of food.

Slow Food Perth images. See images from Slow Food Perth events, ranging from the Balingup small farm field day to a pasta-making taste workshop, from a visit to Talijancich vineyard in the Swan Valley to a Perth reception for Slow Food international president Carlo Petrini. If you’ve attended one of our activities and have a good camera eye, we’d love to publish your images and name you as the photographer! If you’d like to contribute, please email us.

A growing foundation. The Kitchen Garden Foundation’s Stephanie Alexander recently celebrated Palmyra primary school’s selection as the Western Australian demonstration school for the foundation’s kitchen garden programme. Principal Hugh McCrackan has been a driving force in food garden development. We’ve supported Hugh’s initiative and encourage all Slow Food members to muck-in at participating schools.