There’s more to the Slow Food movement than taking your time at the dinner table and making sure to chew each mouthful 20 times. The founding members of Slow Food Seacoast, the most recently founded chapter of Slow Food USA in New Hampshire, hope to show the area what this culinary, socio-political, cultural movement is all about.

“It’s about enjoying good company and good food,” says Peter Bixby, one of Slow Food Seacoast’s founding members. More than food and company, though, Slow Food is about “connecting producers with consumers, so that consumers become co-producers,” says Bixby.
The Slow Food movement was started in Italy by Carlo Petrini as a reaction against the homogenization of food brought about by the fast-food lifestyle. It is an international movement. Slow Food USA oversees the activities of regional chapters in the United States. Slow Fooders embrace their regional culinary traditions by preserving and promoting regional produce and traditional recipes. Sustainability is also important to the Slow Food Movement.

“We want to be a conduit for the connection between food and taste and sustainability,” says Bixby.

“What’s native? What’s heirloom? What gives us a sense of where we live?” asked John Forti, another founding member of Slow Food Seacoast, at the group’s informational meeting at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, Sunday night, July 9. “We take inspiration from our gardens and our regional landscape.”

The five founding members of Slow Food Seacoast—Bixby, Forti, Serita Frey, and co-leaders Alison Magill and Michelle Moon—first began discussing starting a local chapter in January. Slow Food chapters are called convivia, from the word “convivial,” meaning fond of eating, drinking and good company. Five founding members are required to start a convivium. In addition to securing status as a non-profit organization and supplying biographies of each of the founding members detailing their interest in Slow Food, the group had to submit a mission statement to Slow Food USA outlining why they felt the Seacoast represented a unique culinary tradition that deserved to be preserved and celebrated.

“We had to demonstrate that we had something unique to contribute to Slow Food USA,” says Moon. “We went all the way back to Native American traditions, up through the colonial period and maritime traditions and to the present period. We touched on a little bit of everything.”

According to the rules of Slow Food USA, a convivium must have three events each year. These can range from tasting parties to educational programs to outdoor concerts featuring food from local producers. Slow Food Seacoast plans to have monthly meetings to go over business and celebrate a mutual appreciation of quality, local food. Michelle Moon says the July 9 meeting was meant “to catch up the last few people who didn’t know what Slow Food was about.” Twenty-three people attended the meeting, and Slow Food Seacoast already has 120 people on its mailing list. The meeting featured freshly picked raspberries from Warren Farm in Barrington and iced tea from White Heron Teas of Portsmouth. Moon says a number of area businesses, including Me & Ollie’s Bakery and White Heron, have expressed an interest in becoming involved with Slow Food Seacoast. “They have some great ideas,” Moon said of interested local business owners. Slow Food Seacoast is excited for their involvement. “Part of Slow Food is supporting local food producers,” says Moon.

Slow Food Seacoast’s first official meeting will be held July 30 at 6 P.M. at Stoodley’s Tavern at Strawbery Banke. The meeting is only open to Slow Food members. Membership fees for adults are $60. This provides access to area Slow Food events as well as a yearly subscription to the two Slow Food magazines: Slow and The Snail. For more information, contact Michelle Moon (603) 422-7507 or Alison Magill at (603) 664-2589.