JUST as Jorge Luis Borges wrote of the roots of language in his prologue to El otro, el mismo, so it is with the truffle: ‘irrational, and of a magical nature’. Slow Food Perth invites you to join us for all that is irrational and magical about the truffle – with good food, wine, local community and conviviality at its heart – at our Mundaring truffle festival down-the-road lunch in Sculpture Park, Mundaring, on Saturday 08 August 2009. The menu, prepared by Terra Madre chef-delegate Vincenzo Velletri, is still being plotted on a tabletop, yet we can hint that it will most likely celebrate the renowned hunter-of-truffle – the pig – with rice, capsicum, rucola and other seasonal, edible wonders. Wine will come from Hills vineyards, with its selection arranged by Maxinne and Anto Sclanders of Cosham Wines and Patrick Bertola of Lion Mill.

On Sunday 09 August we encourage you to visit the Slow Food Perth’s ‘good, clean and fair food’ marquee at the festival and explore our ‘brainfood’ tunnel of food memories, participate in blindfold food tastings, enjoy exceptional wood-fired pizza and wonderful coffee, and learn more about ‘small, slow food’.

Lunch booking form PDF version or Word version. Information E Slow Food Perth.

READING Corby Kummer’s article in The Atlantic about song being used to produce more lilting gelato brought back memories of visits to a cousin’s dairy farm where he used music at milking times to produce more milk. The link above shows famous Italian tenor Marcello Bedoni singing to the cows in the fields of the Lancashire dairy farm.

MICHAEL Specter in The New Yorker, February 2008, writes about the very complex issue of food miles and carbon footprint. Simply put, carbon footprint is a measure of the total contribution to global warming of each and every human activity, whereas food miles is the distance food travels from field to plate. Specter talks about how food carries enormous symbolic power, and the concept of ‘food miles’ is often used, he says, as a kind of shorthand to talk about climate change in general.

The term ‘food miles’ was first used by Dr. Tim Lang, author of “Food Wars” and Professor of Food Policy at London’s City University in 1994.

In May 2006, Lang, at Slow Food in Bra, explained that the concept of food miles is part of a broader issue of sustainability which deals with a large range of environmental issues including local food. He went on to say “that the point was to highlight the hidden ecological, social and economic consequences of food production to consumers in a simple way, one which had objective reality but also connotations“

The term ‘food miles’ is now being superseded by the term carbon footprint as it is often not just the distance that food travels that has to be considered. Specter highlights one of the many aspects of this in his article in the New Yorker:
“researchers at Lincoln University, in Christchurch, found that lamb raised in New Zealand and shipped eleven thousand miles by boat to England produced six hundred and eighty-eight kilograms of carbon-dioxide emissions per ton, about a fourth the amount produced by British lamb. In part, that is because pastures in New Zealand need far less fertilizer than most grazing land in Britain (or in many parts of the United States). Similarly, importing beans from Uganda or Kenya—where the farms are small, tractor use is limited, and the fertilizer is almost always manure—tends to be more efficient than growing beans in Europe, with its reliance on energy-dependent irrigation systems”

The Carbon Trust established in the United Kingdom in 2001, is an independent organisation set up by their government and its mission is to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisation to reduce carbon emissions and develop low carbon technologies. They have also developed a label for some food items to show the total carbon emissions used to produce the product.

In May 2009, Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd released a statement that his government would establish the Australian Carbon Trust to help all Australian to do their bit to reduce Australian carbon pollution. A new web site will provide a portal for individuals and households to simply calculate their energy use. The Australian Carbon Trust will be developed in collaboration with the Carbon Trust in the United Kingdom.

RICHARD Cornish, journalist with The Age, writes a stimulating article about milk, our relationship to it and our lack of knowledge of it. A blind taste test was carried on nine milks ranging from biodynamic, organic and the regular homogenised milk. The panel from the Epicure section of The Age newspaper showed a clear preference for the organic and biodynamic milks.

‘END of the Line’ – an excellent and eye opening book by Charles Clover about over fishing – has now been made into a film and will be released worldwide on World Ocean Day on 08 Jun 2009. It is said that the good news is that the film is not merely a tolling bell – Clover offers genuine, practical solutions which could turn the tide. Samuel Fromartz writes in Salon magazine an article about Clover’s globe-trotting expedition for research for his book. Clover is the environment editor for London’s Daily Telegraph.

Slow Food University of Gastronomic Sciences’ student Corby Kummer writes enthusiastically in The Atlantic about the deliciousness of culatello.

‘LITTLE backside’ – as culatello translates into English – is made from the muscular rear legs of the pig, with the skin and the bones removed. The best known is Culatello di zibello and has been recognised by the European Union and granted DOP, or ‘protected origin’, status. Culatello di zibello is a Slow Food praesidia. It is becoming more difficult to find true artisan culatello because the farm buildings essential to its production are frowned upon by the health authorities of the EU.

Gloucestershire farmer – and heir to the British throne – HRH Prince Charles, who enjoys the Italian-cured culatello, has now entrusted his own pigs to Italian pig farmer Massimo Spigaroli. Owner of the Antica Corte Pallavicina, Spigaroli is also the president of the Culatello di Zibello consortium.

Consorzio del Culatello di zibello” DOP
From the thigh, the fat in excess is removed, as well the anterior part of the meat. Wisely salted and set in the bladder from expert hands, in the humid canteens it becomes a unique product. Soft, delicate, sweet, with its typical perfume and persistence that are probably higher than its fame, it will be a joy for you and your clients. Simply unforgettable. The thirteen producers unified in the consortium have some rules far stricter than the normal DOP, producing without additives and preservatives, uniquely in wintertime. It is forbidden to use refrigeration cells to modify the seasoning, using only the climate offered by this zone.