Monday, August 14, 2017

Slow Food Talks at WOFEX 2017 x Seed Swapping


You are what you eat...

What do you feel when you hear or read this quote?  I hope you're not offended, and if it makes you proud then, I'm smiling with you, that means you're on the road to helping our world to be a lot better in the future.

The first mention of the phrase 'you are what you eat' came from 1826 work Physiologie du Gout, ou Medetations de Gastronomie Transcendante, in which French author Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”

This had been one of the core responsibility of Slow Food Movement-create awareness about biodiversity and passion for real food.


Enjoying with a reason- and that of good, clean and fair fair-trade products is the motto of Slow Food. Founded by Carlo Pertini in Italy in 1986, Slow food became an international non-profit organization in 1989.  Slow food combines pleasure and food with awareness and sense of responsibility. the aim is to preserve biodiversity in our food supply, to spread the taste and to bring together the producers of excellent food and the consumer.

And that's what happened during the last Slow Food event at the recently concluded World Food Expo in Manila.

It was the last day of WOFEX 2017 (Saturday), and was I glad to finally make it, especially to the Slow Food Talks and Seedy Swap, farm-owners, entrepreneurs advocating food culture and heirloom cuisines, food purveyors and of course people like me who wants to get on the bandwagon converged and shared stories together about their interests.

The series of Slow Talk had been an eye-opener to me.


I was particularly looking forward to attending the talk about urban gardening as I'm building our rooftop urban organic garden.

Carlo Sumaong of MNL Grow Kits gave us an enlightening speech about how a plant grows from its seed.  Also, how to easily care for them.



A drinking sesh, este, talk about a northern traditional drink followed as Ken Alonzo, a mixologist paved the way for Proudly Promdi and it's root.

After tasting Tapuey and Bugnay wine, I want to plan a visit to Ilocos again and see for myself how this drinking tradition can slowly carve into the hearts of many Filipinos and yep, foreigners alike. Bugnay, also known as bignay, are berries with a tart flavor, is actually a superfood.  Hence, this wine can also be a healthy alternative to other alcoholic drinks.


The bugnay wine was mixed with calamansi juice and carbonated water, and it sure was refreshing.


The third speaker was Kiko Torno who gave some info about Slow Fish.  He shared getting huge and right sized King crabs from their fishery, 7 Hectares, and how to catch the fish in its right size can actually solve some problems of resource conservation.


The last to give the talk was Nicolo Aberasturi from DowntoEarth and it was about Slow Meat.  His talked mainly circled on taking care of heirloom, native pigs and cattle as compared to growing genetically grown ones.

My most awaited event, the seed swapping activity.


The activity was opened by Bea Misa of Ritual.  I wasn't able to bring the seeds I prepared from my garden (as I left it at home, having to march harried to a certain event in Makati).


She brought Black ginger, talinum,



Cacao seeds and plant for re-potting.


Kai Farms seeds.


Amira of Kai Farms intirducing the seeds she brought from their farm in Cavite.


 From Earthbeat Farm...


Clang Garcia, Food Holidays' publisher.


I had a lot of fun with the seed exchange and interacting with the farm owners themselves as they have given me information about such plants and how to grow and care for them.



Who knows, I might become a full-pledged farmer myself, probably before I get old.  In the mean time, let me just enjoy the herbs, vines, and seedlings I have in our rooftop garden.

Below are more snippets of the Arc of Taste for the Slow Market inside the World Food Expo.

To know more about Slow Food movement and how to be a part of it do click on https://www.slowfood.com/.











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