This article is from page 28 of the 2008-10-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 28 JPG
AN ENNIS chet is flying the flag for Clare at an international foodie gath- CHureea rele vA
Clare Slow Food movement rep- resentative, Sean O’Connor of Bia na Dia in Ennis, will be setting out plans for Clare to be one of just a few centres nationally to get involved in a pilot project aimed at turning teens from a diet of fast-food.
Sean is this week attending the four-day Terra Madre conference in Turin, the bi-annual gathering of the Slow Food movement which is attended by 10,000 delegates from every continent.
The Slow Food movement has grown apace in Clare in recent years and with Brigette Curtin of the Bur- ren Smokehouse chairing the Clare contingent, now has more than two
dozen members.
Brigette is discussing a Slow Food pilot project with a local secondary school. “The emphasis in this year’s conference is educating teenagers about the joys of real food and I will be attending workshops to hear what various country’s are going to do”, said Sean.
Sean explained that Clare will be one of just a few centres in Ireland to take up the challenge.
“It’s a bit like the Jamie Oliver school dinners campaign. The de- tails are being worked out at the mo- ment and I will be bringing informa- tion back from the conference about it’, said Sean.
The conference will be a chance for Sean, a firm supporter in his restau- rant of the Slow Food ethos, to show- case Irish produce and to see what is going on with producers worldwide.
“Tt will be a very busy and very en- joyable few days and I’m delighted to be able to go and represent Clare”, said Sean. “We have such excellent producers in this county but by their nature, organic and artisan producers tend to be small and it can be hard to get any time off to attend events like Wee
One event the producers will be out in force at will be the Slow Food weekend planned for Lisdoonvarna from May 15 to 17 next.
“Tt will be a fabulous weekend with a market and lots of stalls where people can sample produce. We have such variety in Clare. There’s one woman who grows 20 varieties of native spuds and varieties of native apples. We have cheese producers and the Burren Smokehouse has won a huge number of awards. And it’s erowing al the time.”