Hi all,
What’s going on with the Future of Food Partnership? What’s happening in Spain?
wuou! that’s a good question!
In Asturias, and at Gaia y Sofia, there are always things going on…but among all of them, I would like to share with you how the “Future of Food” inspired us! what kind of “movements and actions” have been happening after the last two meetings at our spanish corner.
Ok! Raw food was a pleasant shock, a discovery for us. And luckily, a discovery and a source of inspiration for our local community, too.
During the first spanish meeting last November, we gave an open space for the local community, and specially the local CSA group (community Supported Agriculture consumer group) to get to experience and taste the Future of Food Learning program. Welcoming them to a wonderful raw vegan evening meal followed by a get-to-know-each-other game, so in this way we could give answers to questions, share views and have an interesting debate while tasting new food and meeting new people and organizations.
And what was next?!
This May, the local group organized a raw vegan workshop, leaded by a joung raw cook, Mariola, we all met during that meeting. 10 people assisted. We have never ever seen that interest in our area before! people were enthusiastic about it and they cooked and learned together! it was a grass root spontaneous movement and we are very happy about it! so, with their permission, we will share a couple of the workshop’s recipes!:
Chocolate mousse
Ingredients:
2 avocados (ripe)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
8 dates
20ml water
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Preparation:
Soak, macerate the dates in orange juice during 2 h. Crush and triturate with the rest of the ingredients together. That’s it!
Pineapple and Ginger smoothie
Ingredients:
1 pineapple
some fresh grated ginger
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Preparation:
Cut the pineapple in cubes and leave a few minutes in the freezer. When you can see it has started to freeze, take the pineapple and triturate it, together with the ginger. Then you can leave the smoothie in glasses and decorate them with some cinnamon on top.
But not all FOF meetings have been focused on raw food. Then, we had a bilateral meeting with the intention of welcoming the irish partner to the project; so a “big” group of irish fellows came to Spain, the East Clare Community Cooperative. We said: Hi guys! and celebrated it!
This meeting was centred on the “celebration of food” and life! of course. Foraging, eating and sharing!
As one of the educational tools explored during the meeting, Fionnuala facilitated a wonderful workshop named “You Are What you Eat” where we exercised sharing our personal relationship with our meals, and we also experienced the qualities and surprises of tasting food with different senses!
We also practiced some games with the intention to rise awareness about food and give the space for different cultures to share meals and food habits!
Sebastian and me got very inspired by these workshops, so what is going on in this little corner of Spain, is “Food Mimes” and “Last Suppers”!! A further development and implementation of Food workshops in learning programs!
At Gaia y Sofia, we consider this as a very important and inspiring element to share in non formal education programs. And we are looking forward to implement some workshops in our next meetings, Training courses and local and internacional events!
Think what you eat! play some Food Mimes!
What else is happening at Gaia y Sofia?
The food will be an essential part of our next international event, the “3 Senses Gathering”, 14th-20th October. A multi-lingual and intercultural Gathering that celebrates the creation of new projects and networks; inspired by Satish Kumar’s life journey and his grand new book “Soil, Soul & Society”. We will start a pilgrimage by the hand of Satish, local author Ignacio Abella and Sebastian, cooking together, walking to a 200 years old mill with our maize and celebrating “beautiful grown food” that enriches our body and spirit!
Check details at Gaia y Sofia’s website
And finally, some news from our work at Hotel Posada del Valle, a family business and host for our meetings.
Life is flourishing at the organic farm, the vegetable garden, the orchad, the sheep flock..
But something new is going to happen..
..Next September it will be the month of Food at the hotel! We will prepare different “Food Experiences” for our guests, involving some “hard hand work”, experiencing traditional asturian cuisine; creating “farm to fork” meals with seasonal vegies, and cooking Posada del Valle’s Food Specials.
Check details at the Hotel’s website
So that’s it for now!
Enjoy the spring, and see you soon!