The soul of Slow Food is a shared desire to enjoy the pleasures of the table and savour the efforts of our local food producers. Our events reflect this passion.

The Pig Reigns Supreme

On one of the few balmy evenings that fell over the Ottawa valley in midsummer, a heady smoke redolent of bacon greeted 50 guests of the second annual SFOG summer feast at Mariposa Farm on July 30. The smoke could be traced to a not-quite-familiar animal lazily turning on an outdoor spit attended by chef Bruce Wood. A pig yes; the conventional pig sold everywhere, no.

The evening's porcine offering was a 105-pound Tamworth, noted for its long belly which, coincidentally, makes very good bacon. Originally called the "Irish Grazer.", the Tamworth was believed to have been brought out of Ireland in 1812 by Sir Robert Peel. Peel took the pigs to his estate at Tamworth, England, from which their common name was derived. American Thomas Bennett from Illinois imported the first Tamworths in 1882 and soon after, the Canadians followed suit. At the English Royal Show in 1865, the Tamworth was first classified as its own breed. It has gradually become quite popular throughout the world among those people who want a lean, bacon-type carcass.

SFOG's particular pig, which was raised organically and allowed to roam free, was provided by Titia Posthuma of Maberly, ON. It arrived at Mariposa the obvious way: in the cab of the pickup in the passenger seat.

"We want to eat pig, not marinated, fussed-over meat," explained Wood when asked about his preparation technique. "I used maple and birch hardwood logs to barbeque it and had to keep it hot the whole time. I did nothing to the pig while it was cooking, except set it on fire, but that wasn't intentional, although it did enhance the flavour. However, I should point out, this is a little too high stress of a cooking technique.

"I put the pig on at 1:00 a.m. and got up every hour to check the fire," said Wood. "It was ready at 6:30 p.m. the next day so in total, 17 hours of cooking."

Wood was backed up in the kitchen and the dining room by Mariposa owners Suzanne Lavoie and Ian Walker, whose gardens supplied the ingredients for other dishes, including curried beet and carrot salad, mixed organic greens with cucumbers, tomatoes and onions with a herb vinaigrette, grilled vegetable salad and spiced roasted potatoes with sour crème. Wetting the palettes of the appreciative guests were several offerings from Konzelmann Estate Winery, poured by representative Hugh Kruzel.

As a side to the grilled pork, diners were offered duck confit legs with a fruit gastrique and assorted homemade relishes and pickles. Completing the meal was a picturesque goat cheese and four-berry tart with edible flowers, the blooms picked only an hour or two before the meal.

Outdoor Supper for Summer Solstice

The Summer Solstice provided Ottawa/Gatineau Slow Food enthusiasts with a great excuse to celebrate; and the ensuing feast on July 21 was a tribute to fine summer dining. Hosts Jessica Garceau and convivium leader/fire master Bruce Wood presided over a meal featuring chicken breasts marinated in birch syrup (a new taste treat for most members, and provided by the convivium member who had made it this spring); sausages, and fresh-frozen bass courtesy of another member-diner. Potato and lentil salads, grilled vegetables, and roasted fresh oyster mushrooms, picked and cleaned by one of the participants, rounded off the main courses. Lovely summer fruit desserts completed the meal. Attendees of legal age enjoyed a variety of Konzelmann Estate Winery offerings with the meal.

Rare Breeds Meets Slow Food

Ottawa/Gatineau Slow Fooders had a rare treat indeed last February 23, when members gathered with Rare Breeds Canada representatives from Eastern Ontario for a pot luck dinner. Rare Breed members are devoted to helping maintain heritage breeds of Canadian farm animals; they encourage members to assist with "maintaining commercially viable breeding groups, rather than as museum pieces."

For the dinner, Slow Food members provided condiments and desserts. Rare Breeds offerings for the feast included some delightful, farm-made raw-milk cheeses; grass-fed Highland beef stew; a squash dish with "Cox Creek Farm maple syrup in it and. . .garnished with tomatoes grown and put up last fall." The Chicken Pot Pie was a dish "making use of a lot of `odds and ends' from our basement storage and freezers. It is our version of a Chicken Pot Pie, using vegetables from our garden and our older Australorp laying hens that have been 'retired'."

Local Cheeses and Wine Featured for Spring 2004 event

SFOG members and guests sampled raw milk Quebec cheeses and several selections from Konzelmann Estate Winery on April 19. Headlining the event in the kitchen of Passion in the Kitchen on Bank Street was special guest Jeff Crump, professional chef and president of Slow Food Ontario. The cheeses presented by SFOG President Bruce Wood included two Quebec cheeses: Benedictine Bleu from Abbaye St. Benoit du Monts, Kénogami from Fromagerie Lehman and one from New Brunswick: Tomme Le Champ Doré from La Bergerie aux 4 Vents.