Terra Madre Day

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This week, December 10th, was the time to celebrate Terra Madre (literally Mother Earth). Before we explain this, perhaps we need to explain the Slow Food movement. Slow Food was created in the late 80's by an enterprising and visionary Italian: Carlo Petrini. The Slow Food movement was a response to Fast Food and everything it represented.

Our society has become extremely efficient in producing edible calories. In its industrial form, food has become caloric intake with very little thought to nutrients or its impact on human health, the environment and culture. This has happened to the point that in 2013, for the first time, more people have died as a result of malnutrition and obesity related diseases than malnutrition from starvation!

What may surprise many is that our small community of Pelham has a very vibrant and active Slow Food convivium. And this week, Ridge Berry Farm hosted the Pelham convivium as we celebrated Terra Madre day.

Before, we report on the celebration, we thought we would educate our readers a bit on the Slow Food movement by providing a video describing the global network.

Slow Food Canada has recently also published a beautiful video describing the importance of Slow Food across this country: Slow Food in Canada

Every year, on December 10th, the Slow Food movement celebrates Terra Madre day. Our own Pelham convivium gathered at the farm's Tea Room to enjoy a dinner among like-minded friends. This dinner was entirely prepared by our members to celebrate what we consider real food and also to get a report from our own Pelham delegate to Terra Madre and the Salone del Gusto in Torino, Italy (more on this later).

23 members of the Pelham Slow Food convivium gathered at the Tea Room for Terra Madre day

We gathered to enjoy each others company and to celebrate local food.

Enjoying good food and good company

We took this opportunity to share with other members our own passion for the farm, its history and our art glass collection by providing everyone with a short tour. We all gathered in the gallery to share a great selection of appetizers while everyone had a chance to sample our home made Raspberry Mead.

Great selection of appetizers served with our home made brew

The highlight of the evening was a report by Dennis Malone. Dennis participated as our delegate to the Canadian contingent of the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre this past October. This event is a major international trade fair of sorts showcasing and celebrating food producers from around the world. Half of the fair is allocated to Terra Madre and the Slow Food movement.

Denis debriefing the convivium about his Terra Madre 2014 experience

To get a sense of this event, we've embedded two videos in this blog. The first is an introduction to Terra Madre 2014. It captures the energy of the movement and the multicultural aspect of the Slow Food movement; the second is a report of the show and the many activities of what is now a very vibrant community.

Today millions of people across the World, in over 150 countries, are active in the Slow Food movement. For us it represents every principle we are trying to promote at the Farm and in our own Tea Room. If you are concerned about the nature of our food, sustainability, biodiversity, fair trade, the environment and our health, we would strongly urge you to join and be active. More information on our local convivium can be found on the following page: Slow Food Pelham.

Trained as an Aerospace engineer and having participated in a few Space programs, I thought it fitting to close this blog with a Terra Madre day greeting from Space!