A Slow Food Lunch to Remember
Marilyn May 29th, 2006
Followers of Slow Food want us to rediscover flavour, savour regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food. So yesterday the Brisbane Convivium of Slow Food organised a lunch at Crystal Waters Permaculture Village in the Mary Valley not far from Maleny (Sunshine Coast hinterland). Here everything is lovingly grown in organically enriched soil and the resulting lunch (freshwater crays, organic chicken, beef and venison, salads, farmhouse cheeses and rainforest liqueurs) would put most Brisbane restaurants to shame.
The sheer quality of the ingredients, simply but expertly cooked was superb.
Julie and her husband Pat Shelton told us of their philosophy (which dovetails perfectly with Slow Food): “Since society started mucking around with food by chemically fertilising the soil, genetically modifying, pasteurising, bleaching and excessively processing – nutrition and taste have been totally compromised.” And the art of cooking is dying (how many 20 year olds can cook … anything?).
You can visit Crystal Waters and the best time is on the 1st Saturday of each month, 8am-noon, for the Village Markets. It’s a lovely 1 1/2 hr drive from Brisbane www.crystalwaters.org.au. For more information about where to stay and what else to do on the Sunshine Coast, see my previous post (Travel Talk).
Thanks for this info. I wanted to go to Maleny (we’ll be visiting in August)and now I have an excuse.
I believe the The Co-op Cafe on the main drag in Maleny is linked to Crystle Waters – in any case the food is organic and really very good. Great relaxed atmospher as well.
Hi Chris
The UpFront Club cafe and Maple Street Co-op organic food store next door are owned by a local Maleny co-operative. The UpFront Club is currently undergoing renovations but will open again sometime this month. Many residents of Crystal Waters Village are members of the Maple Street Co-op. The two are independent entities but closely linked by ethics and common membership.