When I first saw gardens sprouting in schoolyards across Alberta and Sask-atchewan, I was encouraged that children will learn more about food.
Food is seen as one measure of our traditions. When traditions have been lost, they have been lost forever. We cannot assume that the food we enjoy today will be available for the next generations.
Serena Milano of Slow Food in Turin, Italy, believes it is not enough to write down how to grow a plant, but that we need the experience of farmers.
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Slow Food Canada recently met in Osoyoos, B.C., for its annual conference. Osoyoos, which means meeting place in the Okanagan First Nations language, was a good choice for Slow Food’s updates on ongoing projects, orchard and farm tours and fine dining prepared by local chefs with food supplied by local producers.
Good, clean and fair are the basic tenets of the movement, which began in 1986 amid the opening of Italy’s first McDonald’s restaurant in Rome. Protests ensued to prevent it from tarnishing Italy’s strong reputation for good food.
Slow Food’s focus on food has now broadened to include concerns for the environment, fair trade, health, animal welfare and tradition.
The bounty of food grown, raised and made in the Thompson Okanagan region is not surprising considering it has the longest growing season in the country.
Osoyoos is situated at the northern end of the Sonoran Desert and while early settlers loved the climate, it was not until irrigation arrived in 1914 that orchards and farms mushroomed.
“Having a large variety of plant products grown is natural, now the world is becoming one culture. Without diversity, survival will be difficult in the case of a calamity such as climate change,” said Milano.
To preserve food traditions, the Ark was created. Canada’s 13 contributions include Red Fife wheat and saskatoons.
The conference noted the return of sockeye salmon to the Okanagan Lake. The construction of dams and irrigation systems over the past century made it impossible for salmon to return to their spawning grounds.
A decade long U.S.-Canada effort building fish ladders has allowed the fish to come upstream on the Columbia River to the Okanagan.
Salmon fry are released in the river near Oliver, B.C., and they swim downstream to the Pacific Ocean. After two years, they make the journey home to spawn.
They are returning in numbers acceptable for commercial and recreational fishing.
Mark Filatow, chef at the Waterfront Resort in Osoyoos, prepared salmon on an open fire pit on the beach and served it with fresh sorrel for the evening meal.
Slow Food has grown into a global, grassroots organization with thousands of members around the world. Its members believe that they can reduce hunger, improve quality of life and look after the environment by caring about the food supply.
Is Slow Food relevant in Canada? We have a cornucopia of food that should be protected along with our producers. Our status as the bread basket of the world is being challenged, but we can produce good, clean and fair food.
