Come together this winter with Scarecrow’s Slow Food Winter Dinner Series.
Scarecrow is set to delight locals with great food, New Zealand wine, and company, all while highlighting sustainable ways of farming and the history of the food we eat.
Their newest event has devised the Slow Winter Dinner Series to celebrate the Slow Food Auckland Snail of Approval 2021. An award, awarded to Scarecrow alongside just 13 other Auckland businesses.
Theming the event around organic, vegan and regenerative foods, the Slow Winter Dinner Series will see Scarecrow transform its café into a warm cosy dining experience, offering three special dinners, each considering food supply chains, the environment and sustainability into the future.
All dinners stick to Slow Food Movement’s philosophy of food is good, clean and fair.
As one of the first recipients of the “snail”, Scarecrow’s Alison Dyson was looking for a way to bring forward the wider themes of Slow Food’s philosophy.
“In the past Scarecrow has hosted a number of dinners which looked at food production, supply chain, food waste, sustainability and other related topics,” Dyson says.
“Bringing the community and suppliers together to discuss food was a great experience for us all, so when Auntosh from Slow Food Auckland asked how we would like to celebrate our Snail Award for 2021 it felt natural to return to this forum of sharing and eating good food while learning more about its provinces and production and exploring our values around this.”
The first of the series took place on the 26th of June, coinciding with Matariki, themed around regenerative food and farming.
The Matariki Regenerative Farming Slow Dinner featured suppliers from the north of Auckland, which included, Durham Farms, Grinning Gecko Cheese and Heron’s Flight Matakana.
All suppliers learnt and found out new ways to manage their land to bring sustainable, organic foods to their consumers.
Tēte-à-Queue (Nose to Tail) will be the theme for their second dinner hosted on Saturday 24th July, using all parts of the animal and questions around poultry as a sustainably farmed protein.
“Our next Slow Food Winter Dinner considers the question of eating birds: can this be a sustainable practice? Can we go back to buying a whole bird, and if so, how do you prepare it at home? How are they raised, how much energy and feed has gone into growing that bird for our table? How can we make the most of all the nutritional value in a 1.5 or 2kg bird?” Says Dyson.
Dyson also adds, “There are many questions around the matter of consuming ‘poultry’. We will enjoy a duck meal where you will get to eat pretty much every part of the bird and really think about duck from many dimensions. Alongside the deep dive into duck we will explore the delicious Central Otago Gibbston Valley organic Peregrine Wines, and just to add more dazzle to the palette, a selection of cheeses from Over the Moon.”
Scarecrow’s third and final dinner will be the Earth Harvest Dinner hosted on Saturday 28th August, an extension of Scarecrow’s plant-based Auckland Restaurant Month Menu.
MP Chlöe Swarbrick and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy will be attending the final event as guest speakers, educating the diners about regenerative organic bio-intensive poly cropping, and why urban farming is a biodiversity and climate change solution.
With passionate guest speakers and the option to match with local New Zealand wines, diners can expect to come away from the evenings with a fresh appreciation for sustainable farming and their end results.
Tickets to the events are limited so put those dates in your calendars and be one of the 36 guests at each event to enjoy a relaxed dining experience.
