Slow Food Southern Highlands

The Southern Highlands of New South Wales are unlike anywhere else in Australia -- a particularly beautiful agricultural region 100 km south of Sydney. Local producers grow an amazing diversity of high-quality foods.  We're so lucky to live here!

Welcome!

We're a friendly, active group who, every month or so, enjoy an exciting Slow Food activity like those of more than 80,000 members around the world.

You can see a few examples of these activities on this page. If you give Jill Dyson a call on 4872 4884 or 0419 617 021, or email her (include your telephone number) at info@slowfoodsouthernhighlands.com she'll tell you about our upcoming events and invite you to come along and enjoy our conviviality!

Members of Slow Food’s Southern Highlands convivium have learnt much from local producers. Here Reg, a local apiarist, takes a hive apart to show us the different components, while keeping the bees at bay. We help to form networks between farmers and consumers. It’s part of Slow Food’s efforts to preserve local, regional and national foods, especially those threatened with extinction or not favoured by large food supply chains.

We use "convivial" often, not only because it describes us well, but also because a Slow Food branch is called a "convivium". This was a Latin word, originating in "living together", for the common room where everyone ate and talked at the end of the day. Eventually it became the term for a festive gathering. Later still, it gave rise in English to '"convivial" -- fond of feasting, drinking and good company; sociable; merry, festive.

Slow Food links pleasure and food with awareness and responsibility. We do that in many ways -- by more fully understanding the production of food; by forming networks between farmers and consumers; by learning about our land and its limitations; and by seeking to preserve local, regional and national foods and food practices -- especially those that are threatened with extinction. And we enjoy dinners and long-table lunches as part of Slow Food's theme of "education of taste".

We believe that good food shouldn't be an upmarket thing; we should all have the right to enjoy good, clean and fair food in everyday living.

The website of our national body, Slow Food Australia (http://slowfoodaustralia.com.au) tells what the Slow Food movement is about. In addition to national coverage, it has links to the website of the international body in Italy, which among many other things undertakes vital activities to encourage the growing, trading and enjoyment of "good, clean and fair" food in developing countries.

Some of the huge variety of Southern Highlands produce that Slow Food members have experienced.

Slow Food's Founder, Carlo Petrini, has said: “Good, clean and fair food is only possible with knowledge: the knowledge of those who bring food to the table and the knowledge of those who eat it. Understanding more about our food, how it tastes and where it comes from makes the act of eating all the more pleasurable”.

So we acknowledge the need to slow down and not become a victim of fast life; the importance of once again savouring the pleasure of “slowness”, starting at the table, where we can relish the satisfaction provided by local dishes and those characteristic of other cuisines.

Before a delightful long-table lunch, members of the Southern Highlands convivium recently heard from Barbara about her company’s local wine production.

Come along and enjoy!

Jill Dyson
Convivium Leader
Slow Food Southern Highlands