Images

The village of Zerradoun lies in the Rif mountains in north-eastern Morocco. Here the Al Wifak cooperative, comprising twenty women, obtains various types of salt from a natural source located between two valleys surrounded by mountains and fields of durum wheat and barley. The salt pans are at least 200 years old and have dry stone retaining walls. After the salt is collected the women take it by mule to the cooperative’s workshop where it can be ground or packed in granulated form. The cooperative produces table salt (white or flavored with cumin) and bath salts scented with orange blossom.

For thousands of years the ancient Dogon people have lived in their harsh, awe-inspiring environment in Mali. In traditional vegetable gardens, womenfolk transform the flowers, fruit and leaves of each plant into a condiment called somè. The Dogon Somè Presidium, set up to protect this tradition, also includes a number of other products such as kamà (the powder of dried sorrel seeds) and pourkamà (the powder of fermented fruits of nerè, a local tree). It involves several villages and the entire production chain - from cultivation, harvesting, and processing through to packaging.

© Paola Viesi

More than 500 small farmers, breeders, fishers and food producers representing fifty food communities from across Brazil came together along with cooks, academics, youth and artists in March of this year for the second national gathering of their Terra Madre network. The meeting allowed participants to discuss the issues facing them and strengthen their collaborative efforts, and included various other activities over the four-day event: taste education workshops, culinary demonstrations, seminars, a biodiversity market as well as exhibitions, feature films, music, theatre and dance.

In a city where a mass of fake markets sell products which have travelled across the world, the Bucharest Earth market was created out of a desire by small producers to reclaim the right to sell their own products at an honest price, and by consumers to know what they are eating. Held every weekend, the market has become a regular fixture for many people, bringing Romanians together with high quality small-scale producers and the best of their country’s gastronomic traditions.

The Slow Food Argan Oil Presidium was founded in 2001 to protect a product which has played a key historic role in the cuisine of the Berbers, a nomadic Semite population present in North Africa. Today, the market price of argan oil is much higher than olive oil due to the high level of manual labour required. These photographs offer a glimpse into the process from tree to bottle, a tradition passed down through generations from mother to daughter.

1,000 communities celebrated Terra Madre Day on December 10, 2009 in a global collective occasion to promote sustainable food and ‘eating locally’.
Held on the occasion of Slow Food’s 20th birthday, the day was celebrated by more than 100,000 farmers, producers, cooks, students, and Slow Food supporters across the association’s network of 150 countries.
Here is a collection of photos from events around the world.

Dharti Ma No Diwas
The role of women in rooting communities to their traditions and nature was celebrated on Terra Madre Day when 250 women came together in Manipur, India. Organized by the Sewa Academy, the event focused on sharing, documenting and cooking traditional recipes. The women, mostly farmers and food producers from rural areas, spoke of their experiences and shared a meal before dancing, singing and praying together.

The origins of the Cervia saltworks are lost in history, with some attributing their construction to Etruscans, others to the Greeks (the town’s original name, Ficocle, was probably of Greek origin). In any case it is clear that salt production was already thriving in this area during Ancient Roman times. Today only one small traditional saltpan is still active, Camillone, which continues to produce an excellent salt with a very sweet taste using ancient techniques.

In the Venetian lagoon, the green soft-shell crabs, or shore crabs (Carcinus aesturarii) are the focus of an activity unique in Italy, halfway between fishing and extensive farming. Moleche refers to the soft-shell crabs, when during the molting periods of April and May and October and November they lose their hard shell and become soft and tender. Their name comes from the Italian molle, “soft.” Moleche are cooked while still alive, dusted with flour and fried in oil.

The ancient Sumerians probably knew saffron 5000 years ago. The plant is native to the Mediterranean basin, perhaps the island of Crete, where wall paintings have been found depicting stigma being collected. Taliouine (Morocco) saffron has high levels of safranal, the substance responsible for its aroma, and phenyl ethanol, which gives it characteristic floral notes. The whole family works to gather the flowers which grow in small fields dug out of the rocky land, and then continue processing in the courtyards of their houses, while they sip saffron flavored tea.