My Senedd Adventure

a day in the Welsh Capital

On Wednesday 28th January I went on adventure. After all trains were cancelled from North Wales, I got in my car and travelled to Cardiff, nothing was going to stop me attending the event the next day.

After many years of campaigning we had a chance to tell our story. We were invited by Jenny Rathbone Member of Senedd (MS) to present our campaign to the other members of the House and invited guests. We felt honoured to have this platform and were delighted at the turn out.

The purpose of the event was to allow us to showcase our aims and objectives and talk about the work we have been doing for so long to campaign for good, clean, fair food for all and to preserve food items that are at risk of extinction. We were treated to the most delicious buffet that was sponsored by Castell Howell and ESS the caterers at the Sendd. They went the extra mile to include items within the Ark. The menu represented the true taste of Wales and was so well received some felt it was the best buffet they had ever tasted.

Carmarthen Ham

Caerphilly Cheese

Traditional Glamorgan Sausage Bites with Denbigh Plum Preserve

Laverbread & Cockle Cakes

Snowdon / Monmouth Pudding

My job was to explain to the Members of the Senedd present and invited guests the principles behind the Slow Food movement. We explained what our aims are and what our campaign is all about. Why it is important to protect our heritage, and what it means for the future if we do not. The following is the transcript of my speech to convey a sense of context about the day;

Good afternoon. My name is Trine Hughes I am the Chair of Slow Food Cymru Wales (SFCW), a not for profit organisation totally led by volunteers. Who are not paid who do this work and who are present here today because what we do matters. It matters to us, to the people of Wales and to you to protect a way of life before it is lost.

Slow Food Cymru Wales is part of the wider Slow Food in the UK and Slow Food International movement. It celebrates all that is wonderful about Wales. It is a grass roots movement working at a deep rooted level across our communities. We all have the same shared and simple mission – Good, Clean and Fair Food for all.

Slow Food was set up in 1989 when the then leader, Carlo Pentrini, saw a McDonald’s sign being erected on the Spanish Steps in Rome. He decided there and then enough was enough and the movement was born. The activists initially aimed to stop the spread of fast food across Italy. Nearly 30 years on from that date the movement has evolved to be a worldwide force in food activism and to encompass a comprehensive approach to food that recognises the strong connections between;

plate, planet, people, politics and culture.

Through our food choices we can collectively influence how food is cultivated, produced and distributed, and as a result bring about greater change.

We in Wales are part of a global network based in over 160 countries. We link the pleasure of good food with a commitment to the local community and our environment. We want you to reconnect with where your food is from and how it is produced so you can understand the implications of your food choices.

Wales is renowned worldwide for the quality of all of its produce. From the land and sea Welsh products are highly sought after. The Ark of Taste project seeks to preserve ‘Forgotten Foods’ that are in danger of being lost, by cataloguing them and placing them in something akin to Noah’s ark.

The Ark of Taste is a catalogue of small scale products, breeds, seeds that are at risk of extinction. By raising awareness of these items that are at imminent risk we will protect them for future generations. These actions will safeguard traditional Welsh products and return them to market.

Andrew will speak about the Ark of Taste further but just to say that we have recently been successful in placing 21 Welsh products within the Ark, from Denbigh Plum to the Gabalfa Apple. If you look around the room you will see the maps which delineate where these products hail from. But what is clear is that by noting them and protecting them, on a global register, they will not be lost for future generations. They are;

Artisan Traditional Caerphilly Cheese

Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep

Bardsey Island Apple

Denbigh Plum

Hen Gymro Grain (”Old Welsh”)

Penclawdd Cockles

Pedigree Welsh Pig

Snowdon Queen Pear

South Wales Mountain Sheep

Carmarthen Ham

District Nurse French Bean

Llanover pea

Rhondda Black Runner Bean

Glamorgan Sausage

Laverbread

Mead (Traditional Honey Wine):

Mussels from the Menai Strait

Gabalfa - Cooking Apple

Welsh Gin - Perry Pear

Gwell Na Mil- Cider Apple

Abergwyngregyn Damson

Recently at the Abergavenny Food Festival we worked alongside Welsh Government looking at the synergies with the scheme that protects the geographic origin of a product. Which is the mechanism designed to show the distinctive flavour of Wales. We are hoping to work together further with to show how a dual approach to protection can preserve our Welsh flavours and protect these items for the future.

Through the Cooks Alliance programme we also work with local chefs who support our values and who promote sustainable food and local producers. We also encourage them to use ingredients from the Ark of Taste in their menu creation. Sam Everton who was recently named our person of the year has also won every accolade that a Welsh Chef can attain; as the National Welsh Chef of the Year 2025. Having previously been Young Chef of the Year (2019) and Junior Chef of the Year.(2024). This year he will compete at the World Chefs Congress and Expo to be hosted in Newport where he will represent Wales. We hope to work across the year with him and indeed have an online cookery event on 4th March which you are all invited to. Check our Socials for more information and to sign up to our mailing list.

Alison Lea- Wilson from Halen Mon came next. She explained what it means to be a supporter of Slow Food from a business perspective and how important it is to them as a company to be involved. She highlighted that they run their business on the basis of good, clean and fair and how they aim to; ‘grow slowly in a world full of food fraud and separation from the producers.’ They are also B Corp. The connections run deep and a long running. Halen Mon is not in the Ark as it is a credit to them that they are not a forgotten food, but their support of Slow Food and the Ark of Taste means it can thrive. They are a protected food name, in the GI scheme, and the connections there are palpable. Alison is our Secretary and without her and her support we would be less. She explained that it is important to her personally, to her business and the community of Wales. ‘It is about enjoyment, education and access to good clean fair food for everyone.’

My colleague Andrew Collings, was up next, he is the Ark of Taste co-ordinator in Wales spoke eloquently about the programme and what it is doing to protect our Welsh food. He has recently been successful in raising the profile of 21 items which now sit safely in the Ark. A fantastic advocate and campaigner.

He explained how the Ark of Taste is; ‘Deeply rooted in our landscape, our history, our identity in Wales and that links with our food heritage.’ How the items that have been placed within the Ark are not just historic they are alive and well within our orchards, our farms and our gardens. He made his speech a call to action on multiple levels. Let us grow these varieties at risk of extinction. Let us plant a heritage Welsh fruit tree on 9th February, which is St Teilo’s day, the Patron Saint of fruit trees.

Let us cook with them, grow them and use them before we lose them.

Finally Huw Irranca-Davies, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, spoke passionately about the importance of the movement and how he endorsed it. He talked about how we need to safeguard our culinary identity and how these items are truly unique being tied to the people and place of Wales.

His words of support where so important. They validated us and endorsed us. Recognising that working together with the UK scheme protecting the geographic origin of products is a natural pairing;

‘So the Ark of Taste and the GI are not separate strands they are complimentary pillars of the same mission protecting and promoting heritage and biodiversity of our food system.’

The photo above captures all the volunteers on the day and the speakers, who worked so hard to make the event a success. The sense of elation I felt at the end of the day is hard to describe. After many years of campaigning and banging the drum for Slow Food across the places I have lived, I finally saw a moment of clarity on peoples faces, they can see why it matters. It is happening more and more, each time we hold an event, each time we explain the principles I see a spark in the eyes of the audience. They get it. This is our moment.

This of course is only the beginning as we move forward with our mission we will continue campaigning. We are voting with our forks as this banner I witnessed at Terra Madre all those years ago stated and the work will never be finished. We have much to look forward to.