Sunday APRIL 22, 2012 | 1:00 - 4:00 pm

The Galt Museum & Archives and the Slow Food Southern Alberta Convivium [SFSAC] invite you to walk, bike, skate or skip on over to the Galt on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22 from 1:00 – 4:00 pm to “slow down” and celebrate local food by meeting local producers, sampling local foods, testing your taste buds in a blind taste-testing challenge, and learning how to make a slow-cooked meal with the Lethbridge Personal Chefs.

The day’s program features the launch of the free SFSAC Directory Faces of our Food, a booklet which highlights 31 area producers.

“Slow food begins with us, in the hearts, heads and stomachs of local eaters,” says Jackie Chalmers of SFSAC. “Join us on Earth Day to slow down, use all your senses, celebrate the pleasure & diversity of real food and get to know the “faces” of your food, your producers and processors, and become a part of a worldwide network of 100,000 members in 1300 Convivia worldwide.”

Each of Slow Food's 100,000 members around the world are part of a convivium – a local chapter – that brings the Slow Food philosophy to life through the events and activities they organize in their communities: from shared meals and tastings to visits to local producers and farms, conferences and discussions, film screenings/festivals, taste education courses, promoting farmers' markets or supporting local and international campaigns. In Canada there are 34 Convivia, of which three are located in Alberta.

Local caterers Lethbridge Personal Chefs return to the Galt on Earth Day from 1:30 – 3:30 to demonstrate how to slow down and enjoy a slow cooked meal, and will provide samples and recipes on the half hour.

“This is a unique opportunity to come to the museum as a family and reflect on what has stayed the same and what has changed in your family meals over the past century” says Community Program Coordinator Leslie Hall.  

April 22 will also be the last day to take in the traveling exhibit “Earth’s Climate in the Balance: Climate Through Geologic Time, 4.6 Billion Years of Change… What’s Next?”.  

Those who “Bring Your Own Cup” will receive a free coffee at the Museum Store, and a self-guided Native Prairie Plants Garden tour developed by the Lethbridge & District Horticultural Society rounds out the afternoon – the prairie crocuses and prairie smoke are already poking their heads out of the ground.

For more information on all events and programs at the Galt Museum & Archives visit www.galtmuseum.com.