ARC Agricultural and Rural Convention

Lila has asked that I publicise this link about the future of Agricultural and rural Policy in the EU

dear all,
please get aquainted with ARC2020 http://www.arc2020.eu/front/, I think 
you will agree with most of the postulates and if you agree please sign 
http://www.arc2020.eu/front/sign-the-communication/, I would be very 
grateful if you could promote the idea, this document will be presented 
to MEPs and EU institutions, so the more people sign, the better:)
Best wishes,
Lila

Continuing the pasta tradition

Life is returning to normal here in North Wraxall and Bath but with one small change.  I attended my first Farmer's market since getting home from Bolsena and I added a new product - fresh ravioli!  I couldn't wait till Christmas for a pasta machine so got myself one last week and have been experimenting since then.  Last Friday I decided to make some ravioli with seasonal fillings.    Butternut squash, ricotta, sage and marjoram was one, with beetroot, almond, orange and ricotta for a second type.  The squash, beetroots and herbs were all from my garden.

I didn't make too much but it was so delicious that I thought I'd give it a go at the market; I sold out.  I will take some more in two weeks and see what sort of feedback I get.

Knowledge passed on from Nonna Teresa is being put to use in Bath, England.  Thank you.

Vix

Updated material

I have updated the page on the blog with the material we have been sending around on google! Take a look at our library page.

On pigs and blogging (and report for Grundtvig)

Great to see your post Vix on pigs. I am compiling now a short report for Grundtvig on our days together. The official one will be done by Sabrina in Italian for the national agency. I am posting it here for your comments.
Geoff has sent to me and Sabrina his feedback, and we do have your forms, but I hope we can use this space to chat a bit about the out come. I see the google groups has taken off which is great as well.
This is a very dry report so do spice it up a bit!

Rather missing all our good times, though not the cold of the Convento! I am going back with my family this weekend to see a house I would like to rent there (from Isabella who had the jewelry) and I do plan to take my family to see the pigs, especially now I am so informed by Vix and her research. : )

I am still digesting our  moments, will share more creatively what I personally got out of the week together over these days.
 Wendy

Short report on Workshop on Politics of Food, Gender Roles and Environmental Change held October 17 to 24 2010 Bolsena, Italy

The workshop was held in the unique environment of a 17 century restored Convento where participants were able to learn and enjoy the surrounding country with opportunities to visit slow food restaurants, farms and small food producers. The workshop offered both a formal learning as well as participatory hands on experience including cooking, open dialogues and exchange held around the fire place, outside in the garden, in the work stations and over many enjoyable meals.

It was a widely diverse group made up of different countries, ages, experiences and education levels. Despite differences, everyone was very collaborative and friendly, though some of the participants experienced language difficulties, this did not stop them from learning and enjoying the events. Participants were able to compare the diversity of their experiences embedded within the workshops focus on the world wide dynamic of globalization environmental change and food security. In the stories shared there was an interesting contrast of different cultures of food and gender relations.

The blog (Gender and Food Politics in Europe) that was set up during the Workshop underlines the importance not only of the information shared by speakers on EU policy on food, US and trade regimes but also the hands-on activities of food preparation, particularly Signora Teresa who showed the group pasta making. The gender politics of the kitchen was noted as well, as the men chefs were not as able to share knowledge as the women. The ICT component including group blogging pictures on face book and skype interview with Raj Patel was another key contribution to learning and communication of the workshop. As was the sense of history of the place in visits to museums and talks given on matriarchy and ecofeminism as part and parcel of the global politics of food, rise of agribusiness and about the commodification of food in food industry. 

There were several outcomes of the groups learning time together:

• The blog allowed for all participants to share their thoughts, and experiences, as well as pictures of all the food and sights.
• A facebook page was set up to share mostly pictures of the workshop
• A google group was set up to continue exploring the multiple links between food, gender and environment as one step on the way to forming a network engaged in food, gender and environment to understand how to encourage greater awareness of ‘slow food’, traditional cuisine and how to appreciate the importance of women’s roles in food production and culture
• The experiences of the workshop will feed directly into another Grundtvig workshop to be hosted in Berlin on meal security and the culture of food in February 2011.
• Through sharing and networking on the blog the group aims to share more information, both receipes for the Berlin meeting and information on what is happening politically around food and how to act in solidarity with women living in very harsh conditions in former Soviet Union where food prices are high and many people go now to food banks (in Estonia for example) and trade within Europe is not favourable (for example Moldavian wine). It will also be important to continue sharing the shifts in gender roles and new methods for research such as in the UK which is redefining what is the poverty line based on people themselves undertaking the research.
• One follow up was suggested between participants from Poland and Hungary that would discuss how to educate children in healthy food and lifestyles
• The researchers among the group agreed to explore how to look at engendering agriculture in the EU and raise awareness of food prices speculation. Some of the participants will investigate how to design a research project which gender audits (using gender budgeting methodology) and applies the idea of meal security proposed by one of the participants from Germany  as well as connecting research with advocacy at the European and global level. 

The overall evaluation of the participants underlined that the experience was very positive, especially the hospitality and beauty of the place and deliciousness of the food!

Fotos of WS on FACEBOOK

Dear friends,
check out the Convento S. Maria del Giglio Facebook page: Link to the Convento Facebook page

Polish gingerbread

> Gingerbread:
> 500 g Honey (or 250 g sugar + 250 g Honey)
> 200 g cream - 12% not more than 18%
> 200 g butter
> 1 teaspoon of baking soda
> 3 eggs
> 2 bags of vanilla sugar or add some vanilla aroma
> 3 glasses of flour
> 2 spoons of cinnamon or even better a bag of gingerbread spices
> favourite dried fruits(raisins, dates, plumes, apricots, figs, not
> cherries) , raisins, nuts, almonds, the more, the better geliebtes
> Backobst - am besten getrocknete Pflaumen, Rosinen, Wallnusse,
> 2 spoons of cacao (dark, bitter, not Nesquik-style;)
> mix all dry ingredients,
> melt honig with vanilla sugar, when it is already cool, add the dry
> ingredients, eggs, cream and fruit, mix, relish (attention, it may turn
> out that you like it so much that you come to a conclusion that's great
> without baking and you will be right! i always try to convince my Mum to
> eat it in a raw form:))
> put in a baking tin (I recommend baking paper)
> 180 degrees for 60-90 Minutes, enjoy!
> Lila

Gaining skills, losing skills.

During this week of discovery we have experienced tales of bread, pasta and cheese making. We have visited producers and growers and tasted their food. On our drives through the countryside of Lazio and Umbria we have seen the vegetable gardens and small scale (compared to some regions of Northern Europe) agriculture. We have walked a little around Bolsena and seen the bins of grape stalks and smelt the fermenting juice from the wine being made for home consumption. This is patently a region of great fertility peopled by those still in touch with the land and in possession of great skills. And yet these skills are in sharp decline and the countryside is being depopulated. Why make bread that is physically demanding and takes 24 hours of care, admittedly intermittent care, but care nonetheless, when you can buy supermarket bread for probably less money and very little effort? Never mind that it is unsatisfying, of dubious nutritional quality and is probably made with flour imported from elsewhere. Why spend a whole morning making pasta when you can buy it in more shapes and forms than you can probably name for very little money? Why undertake the drudgery and uncertainty of growing vegetables and keeping livestock, at the same time as trying to earn a living? These are questions that are being asked all over the world, not just here in Bolsena.

Signora Teresa

We spent a wonderful afternoon on Thursday being shown how to make pasta by Signora Teresa. At 84 she has been making pasta for her family twice a week for more years than most of us would care to remember. For those of us in the affluent west pasta is a convenient ingredient; readily available, quick and easy(ish) to cook and, above all, in it's dried form, cheap. Pasta can be dressed up with a fancy sauce or served economically with nothing more than a drizzle of olive oil and perhaps a grating of parmesan. In Britain we might eat it twice a week with no thought and even less consideration, more respect is given to it in Italy but how many people here still make their own? Why does Nonna Teresa? Making pasta must have a deeper symbolism than just the provision of bodily fuel. The procedure is tied up with complex aspects of nurture and love.

Mixing eggs into a 'Vesuvio' of flour

Nonna Teresa, while demonstrating her skill was a picture of restraint. Making pasta to her, her daughter and her grandson, was a normal everyday activity with no more mystery about it than peeling potatoes would be for the rest of us. And yet there she was, surrounded by 15 or so interested people, cameras flashing, who were recording this everyday experience. She handled it well concealing her astonishment and amusement that such a basic skill should be either alien or sought after. And yet there we were, asking questions and wanting to experience and acquire her lifetime of knowledge in just one short afternoon. She patiently pointed out when we should add more flour, knead more, add water to the dough or allow it to rest. Trying to articulate what was, to her, innate knowledge that should have needed no articulation.

Kneading the pasta dough

Nonna Teresa's skill, acquired over a lifetime of repetition, is something that is being lost. These everyday skills are losing their importance and, with their loss, society as a whole is the loser. Nonna Teresa's daughter no longer makes her own pasta on a regular basis. The labour of 'home made' is now saved for special occasions. Only the enthusiast or crank makes their own bread now.

These are small scale, domestic examples of everyday skills that are being lost but agriculture is also suffering. The days when every householder grew a few vegetables,saving their seed from yeaer to year, crop to crop, is fast disappearing. Many would not consider this a problem and yet this mass de-skilling, the loss of the ability to provide our own raw materials and then transform them into food, has serious consequences for the world. Many urban children are now so out of touch with the sources of their food that they have no knowledge of where milk, meat or eggs come from. To lose these connections, abilities and knowledge dis-empowers every one of us. Not only are we losing the skill to feed ourselves but we are surrendering our autonomy to transnational corporations on the way. We should all be very concerned about this. The future of the planet and the ability to feed ourselves should not reside in the hands of those whose motivation is profit and who have the power to dictate what we eat. The continued persistent de-skilling at all levels should be ringing warning bells for all of us.

Making ciciliana pasta

Nonna Teresa was tolerant of our inept attempts to make the simplest of pasta shapes but as a society we should not be so tolerant. I am not advocating a return to the supposed 'good old days' when peasants worked 15 hours a day with no security and little return, but I would like to see a move towards the realisation that the previous generation are a repository of skills and knowledge that is in real danger of being lost forever to the detriment of us all.

Nonna Teresa may not know how to send me an e mail but she can make 15 different types of pasta. Pasta that is economical and nutritious and which can feed family with one egg, a little flour and some water. That is a talent and skill which deserves huge respect and which should be valued, nurtured and disseminated. This sort of knowledge and skill is too valuable to be lost and I, for one, am grateful that Nonna Teresa shared it with me.

Vix