THE 2009 edition of Barossa Slow: traditions and transitions – Slow Food Adelaide and Barossa convivium’s international Slow Food event in South Australia’s Barossa Valley – featured a ‘Challenge of the robes’ between men of the cloth, local winemakers and vignerons, and butchers debating the subtle differences between the smoke houses of the Barossa at an event called ‘The High Table’.
This was just one of the enticing highlights of a programme that began with a slow-cooked dinner billed ‘The Long Table’ in Nuriootpa, meandered across ‘The Producers’ Table’ and ‘The Producers’ Picnic, a ‘Barossa Journey’ encompassing the Barossa farmers’ market and four different producers, a ‘Talking Tables’ dinner, and concluded with ‘The High Table’ in Angaston.
The Barossa has long been known as a food haven, a place where the evolution of the ‘waste not, want not’ principle has simmered into an industry in its own right. With 2009 Barossa Slow highlighting the traditions and transitions of our food culture, visitors to the region had a rare opportunity to immerse themselves in the very heart of these customs, to meet the makers and savour the exciting elements contributed by insightful newcomers. The current custodians of the Barossa culture acknowledge the rich history of tradition, stemming from European settlers finding their way in an unfamiliar land and resulting in a melting pot of delicious food styles. This exciting but intimate event, led by the very people who hold these traditions dear, feeds the souls of passionate cooks and those interested in the paddock to table lineage. Barossa Slow is about mixing tradition with the ‘now’, progressing but withholding, being commercially viable but maintaining integrity. Bringing it back, moving it forward. Keeping it real. Slowing us down.
- Barossa Slow 2009 programme
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