[Home]    [Guidelines]   [Taste Education]    [Examples]     [Appendix] Slow Food Summer Feast - Fifth Annual Dinner at Mariposa Farm Ottawa Gatineau Convivum Within the two regions of Ottawa and Quebec, Canada Activity: Promoting local products Convivium leader: Peggy Hall, bird.feather@sympatico.ca The Ottawa Gatineau convivium was set up in 2002 and has doubled its membership since the end of 2005 when they launched their new convivium programme. At least one event is organised each month and regular workshops are also held for members and the wider community. The convivium aims to educate different groups on the importance of supporting local producers and questioning were food comes from. Our Convivium The Ottawa Gatineau convivium spans the river. Part of the hundred mile convivium area is in Quebec and part is in Ontario. The population within the convivium area is just over a million. I became involved in organising events for the convivium at the end of 2005. I was keen to make sure the events we organised were diverse and moved away from fine dining club events that were expensive and traditionally associated with Slow Food. I have tried to make events more accessible to all groups within the community. For example, I organised a pizza day for children and I organised workshops involving students. One of the aim’s of the convivium is to provide the general public with more information on Slow Food and to highlight how it is not an elitest organisation. At present we are working with other groups in the community to organise a culinary tour of our region to connect chefs with farmers so people can become more knowledgeable about the food available in our region and who produces it. The convivium has 50 Slow Food members and over 200 people have asked to be informed about the Slow Food convivum events we hold each month. We often pick up new members at events and this is highlighted by our membership doubling since the end of 2005. I feel we are reaching a lot more people through the increased number of activities we are holding. The members within the convivium are diverse there are a lot of executive and professional members. We have a lot of central government employees and business people. We have five chefs and over ten producers who are members. Members would attend most events and are also staring to help organise events. In the past members haven’t really been a part of organising events as I usually run the events. Slow Food Summer Feast at Mariposa Farm The event began at 4pm and on arrival guests where welcomed by the farm owners and were given a glass of champagne. This prolonged the arrival and we were able chat together and engage with each other. Guests were then given a tour of the farm and walked around the farm to see the animals and gardens. Guests watched Mariposa’s chef slow spit roast the wild boar and tamworth pig. The feast began at 5pm and everyone was able to bring their own wine. The menu included ‘Flying Plates’ of BBQ Duck Sausage with Roasted Pepper, Pot Stickers with Duck Confit, Foie Gras on Buttermilk Bilini and Vegetable Bundles in Filo Pastry. The Feast then moved to the dining room where guests were served Mariposa Green Salad with Herb Dressing, Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese and Pickled Ramps, Beet Salad with Candied Walnuts and Blue Bénédictin Cheese, Spit Roasted Pork with Potatoes and hand-made Chutney and Bread. The feast finished with Strawberry Goat Cheese Torte, a Cheese Plate with 3 Québec cheeses and tea, coffee, or herbal teas. This event has been an annual event at Mariposa farm for the last five years. I changed the event format slightly last year to showcase more of the breeds of pigs that were available at the farm. I wanted people to get to know different the breeds of pig that are reared locally. I switched the roast last year to a Tamworth pig and wild boar cross so people would understand that there is more than one pig breed and this year I changed the event a little bit more. Mariposa farm’s main product is duck, for example they produce confit of duck and foie gras. I included these products in the feast to showcase these speciality products and to enable people to become more familiar with what these products were. The guests were able too connect to the produce as it was explained how the animals were reared. The event has traditionally been done in a buffet style which I feel doesn’t show the food as well as when you are presented with one product at a time so I changed this aspect of the meal and guests were presented with one dish at a time. This enabled the meal to be slower and people did not have to get up and be disrupted by moving around during the meal. I organised a convivium table. This enabled convivium members to chat and get to know each other better. It also meant new people coming to the event could get to know the convivium members. I find new people always want to talk to current members of the convivium and setting up a convivium table was a good way for new people to meet the current members. The event The event was very successful, we had space for fifty guests and we had over ninety people who wanted to come to the event. I feel the success of the event was partly due to the fact that the event was well publicised and also because the promotional material was very clear about what each guest would get at the Summer Feast. It was clearly outlined what the event involved. I feel you need to be very specific about what you are going to do and why you are charging what you are charging and what guests are going to get at the event. This enables everyone to be happy. I also think it was a success because the guests were given something extra, something they weren’t expecting, a glass of champagne, and I feel guests will have gone away and told their friends about this aspect of the event. I think this annual event was successful because it enabled people to connect with the producer. People like to go to a place to eat and know that the product comes from there. This was a selling point of the event. The guests were given a tour of the farm and the meal featured many of the speciality products the farm produces. Guests were able realise the food they ate was real food and came from a farm and was local produce that had not travelled hundreds of miles before they ate it. Through the farm having links with other local producers, such as a local bread maker and cheese producer, and including their products in the meal, this enabled us to promote local produce. The event also enabled people with similar concerns about were their food comes from to engage with one another. The event’s success was also highlighted by the fact that the top chef in Ottawa came along to the event. He has a great influence over all the other chefs in the area and after the event I discussed events we could organise in the area to promote local eating. As yet we have not had any new members from the event but I think there is a possibility some people might join due to the positive feedback I got from guests at the event and people lifting the Slow Food leaflets I had set out. I think the farm’s product sales may increase as the owners’ explained about each of their products featured within the meal. The owners of the farm also mentioned the other local producers farm locations. Therefore guests could visit the other local producers in the future. I think the event achieved it’s goal of bringing people that care together and reinforced how people need to ask questions about their food. Preparation for the Summer Feast I set the date with the owners of Mariposa farm two months before the event. I ensured that the date chosen would showcase their fruit and vegetable produce that were in season. As this is an annual event the owners of Mariposa farm were aware that all the produce to be included in the meal were to be from their farm or from local small-scale producers. I discussed the menu with the farm owners ‘ to make sure the food provided would showcase the farm’s produce. The cost of the meal was also discussed and clarified. I always add another 5 to 10 dollars to the price to cover the costs of the event and to give the guests something extra, something they are not expecting and for this event this was a glass of champagne. The cost of the event was lower for members than non-members and there was a reduced rate for senior citizens and children. To advertise the event I prepared a press release and this was put on the convivium’s general website and people could email me to find out more about it. I put out a more detailed press release out to our members’. I then sent it to my mailing list a week later and another week later I put a general press release out in the media. The general press release was put in the local paper, each time we have an event I put it in a particular column in the local newspaper. I spoke about the event on the local radio station. I also put and advert in a local group’s monthly information bulletin (this group work with organic producers) and I put brochures on the event at the local farmers’ markets. I invite a media person to every event. We did not have any sponsors for this event. Lessons learned from the event I think organising a yearly event lets people get to know you and people will often come to the next annual event if they have been to the last annual event. This was highlighted by many people stating that they had come back after enjoying last year’s event. I think people were encouraged to bring their children as they saw there was a special price for children. Therefore guests realised that we were encouraging families to come to the event. Also, giving guests something more than they were expecting made the event special. I now realise that for our yearly event I need to find a venue that holds more than fifty people due to the increased demand for the event. One negative factor of the event was one of the media people put the advertisement for the event in the paper a week early and this reduced the number of my members who were able to attend the event, as some of the members were slow to book their place and then when they tried to all the places were taken. Therefore I need to ensure this does not happen again and I will not send the advert to the media so early in the future. In the future, I am keen to develop links with other convivia in the surroundings areas such as Montreal and Lanark. Each convivium has different products in their areas and I feel we could learn from each other’s local producers. << [Back]    [Home]    [List all examples]    [Next] >>