Slow Food Festival Initiative

On impulse attended a Slow Food Festival at Federation Square,

Victoria, with the family today.  My sister worked the Eureka Coffee

stand with her employer and his staff, and together formed a dedicated,

hard-working team servicing the crowds with sustainable capuccinos,

short blacks, and lattes all day.  We tried their coffee and the

flavour and quality was second to none.  Grown and produced in the beautiful

Byron Bay region of New South Wales, it is roasted on site at

Eureka, North Fitzroy, which makes it very local.  Add to that all

the other benefits involved in the making/production of it, the

“Slow Food” sustainability of it, it makes for a great coffee

experience.  Produce was available from all regions of

Australia: cheeses from Tasmania which we tried, all slowly aged;

a fruits/smoked meats/cheese “in season” platter with lovely

sour dough bread from Slow Food Melbourne, and a gorgeous

plate of freshly picked ripe figs from Slow Food New South Wales.  This

movement in food is supported by a large network of regular national

markets, forming the Australian Farmers’ Market Association.  It was

wonderful to enjoy eating fruit picked the day before, and the range

of product on show was wide and varied, from homestyle ice-cream,

to organic sausages, to seafood.  So the movement to slow food is

a style of eating that’s anything but boring, and it’s nice to just sit

and watch the crowds go by, busy swapping ideas on where they found what,

creating a wonderful community atmosphere, right in the heart of an

urban place. 

(copyright Monika Roleff 2008.)