The Shoalhaven district, located on the east coast of Australia, south of Sydney, offers a magnificent diversity of coastal, rural, forest and mountain countryside.

Blessed with a temperate climate, the area supports a wide range of producers from fishing and oyster farming to dairying, market gardening and vineyards. This in turn is attracting a growing number of restaurants, chefs and providores committed to using the best and freshest local produce.

Slow Food Shoalhaven, established in 2007, is part of Slow Food Australia and the international Slow Food movement. As part of this movement we seek to promote it's philosophy:

- that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy - a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.

Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process.

We run a number of functions throughout the year which highlight the diversity and quality of produce and producers within our region, as well as educate our members. So check out our events page to see what we have planned in 2009.

Download a copy of our latest newsletter to see what we've been up to recently. And if you'd like to join us click on our Join page to get more information. We'd be delighted to hear from you.