A Celebration of everything that is Slowly Does It Food

Can you give us a brief history as to how "Slowly Does It Food" came in to your life and the process behind the name

"Slowly Does It Food" started out as a packaged food market stall about 4 years ago. The name related to the type of food I cooked and packaged (ie: slow cooked stews, lamb shanks and french daubes) and also to the more general food philosophy promoted by the "slow food movement".

Slow food is about preserving food traditions and promoting agricultural sustainability, bio-diversity, small producers and endangered foods.

Just over 2 years ago I transformed the business to an online food market selling organic fruit & veg, grass fed meats, fresh fish and an ever increasing amount of pantry produce and deli items.

I felt the name "Slowly Does It Food" represented the food ethos of the online shop so I kept it!  

Slow food rules!

While you have only recently joined us at Double Bay, you are incredibly well entrenched at our Kings Cross Market (and an insanely popular stallie at that!).  What has been the biggest trend for your stall that you have noticed so far?

I would say definitely the biggest growth is with my more senior clientele.  The amount of times people tell me that that "this apple" or "that tomato" reminds them of the fruit and vegetables from their childhood has made me realise that we are starting to come full circle with food production.

I genuinely believe more and more people simply want food that has been grown naturally and more importantly, tastes better.

Do you think that there has been a noticeable change in the way consumers shop where opting to shop for organic produce at a market rather than smash-and-grab in a supermarket?

People are definitely more aware that supermarkets put the squeeze on producers & growers making it very hard for them to have a decent income and produce good flavoursome produce.

Generally I hear customers commenting that organic produce offered at supermarkets is of poor quality and range.

My own theory, for what it's worth, is that it is not in the interest of the supermarkets to promote good quality organic produce over conventional sprayed produce.

Spray produce has a longer shelf life, is easier to produce and transport and has a more consistent appearance, so why would supermarkets want people to buy organic produce?  Just a theory....

What has been the largest amount of any item you have sold in one day?

Kale!  We take 60 bunches of the freshest kale to Market every week, and 3 varieties at that.  Along with English Spinach and Silverbeet.  We sell over 100 bunches of fresh greens every week and can only see that increasing with Double Bay Market now being part of our Slowly Does It Food world.

Having said that, we noticed a pretty good flow of "have you got any garlic" from our Double Bay'ites so the race is officially on!

In 5 words, why should people buy organic, more especially, buy their organic fare from Slowly Does It Food?

Vegetables taste better from Bob

**********

And yes they do!  Huge thanks to Bob for sharing a bit of what makes Slowly Does It Food an absolute must-buy-from favourite amongst the Double Bay Market community

Edge Wellness demystifies the Activated Nut

Can you give a little bit of an overview of how and when Edge Wellness came in to being

Edge Wellness is actually a medical clinic I created in 2006.  I wasn’t satisfied with the model of General Practice in Australia – ‘in and out in 5 minutes’!  I learned that doctors are forced to do this because of the inflexible nature of our healthcare system whereby they are punished for spending any length of time with a patient, and discouraged from doing much more than write a script and treat the symptom.  My medical clinic allows for much more comprehensive hour long consultations, and employs expert doctors who have the space to practise general, natural, environmental and nutritional medicine.

Working with such amazing practitioners exposed my wife (Astrid) and me to all sorts of things like Paleo, Organic and our famous ‘Activated Nuts’!

They are the best nuts we’ve ever tasted; we love baking with them and snacking on them all day. 

Patients started buying them in clinic, and before you knew it Astrid had quit her job as an interior decorator to run our market stall.  It carries our clinic name ‘Edge Wellness’ because it stands for more than a clinic. It’s about better health through the latest research and the best products and services.  Our mantra is ‘live a better life’.

Our first exposure to the OFM was finding Marrickville Organic Markets in 2013.  We were market virgins but it quickly became our weekly Sunday shop for meat, salad, vegies and smoked salmon.  The cos lettuce lasts at least 3 times as long as supermarket stuff. Scary.  The organic veg is actually CHEAPER than the supermarket. The meat is much fresher.

Marrickville is still our favourite.  We’ve never had a stall there, and we do love the other markets, but you never forget your first!

Amongst some of your products is your "activated" nut range. What exactly are activated nuts and what role (in your view) do they play in our daily wellbeing

Well the chef Pete Evans made them famous, and copped a lot of uneducated flack in the process.  I guess that’s always the way with trendsetters.  Activated nuts used to be called ‘sprouted’ nuts. Sprouting grains, nuts and seeds is a centuries-old process proven in the archaeological and anthropological record.  Nearly every food we eat requires some processing, either: cooking, sprouting or just washing.  We don’t roam around like triceratops eating plants willy nilly!

Nuts and seeds cause digestive problems in quite a few people because they are full of phytates which keep them in a state of stasis.  Sprouting enhances the nutritional component of nuts and seeds and often removes the intolerance. It’s the same as germinating a seed.  We made a short video last year explaining it

On a more visceral level, it’s hard to enjoy the recommended intake of nuts when they are bitter (raw walnuts), soggy (raw almonds), tasteless (raw pecans) and metallic (raw brazil nuts).  Cue our activated nuts: our almonds are super-duper crunchy, our walnuts are buttery smooth and our pecans taste sweet like they are coated in caramel (they’re not). Try them – nothing compares!

Always with a smile, always with friendly advice, and now a firm favourite at our markets. Do you find that each area has its own specific demographic as far as which is the best-selling product or is it more of once an Edge Wellness devotee always an Edge Wellness devotee

We’ve been introducing and removing products, always on the lookout to provide something unique and premium.  Along with our regular paleo cookies, carrot/ginger cakes and pumpkin muffins we added ice- cold drinking coconuts.  It was the healthiest drink we could find and we noticed that other stalls were selling them warm.  Ours are better by being fresh from the importer every Wednesday, and always smothered in ice for maximum refreshment.

We’re excited to be replacing them with ginger kombucha in the coming weeks.  This particular kombucha has a massive probiotic count and negligible sugar because it’s properly fermented (where the probiotics metabolise all of the sugar).  It’s made by our good friends at Amphore who have the best kombucha we’ve ever seen.  We’ll be serving it ice-cold in summer and warm in winter (when warm, it’s like a healthy mulled wine).  This will be another unique product that we are proud to bring to the markets.

What is it about markets like ours that form an important of the local community

The post-modern rejection of metanarratives is evidenced in Sydney’s embracing of local, ethical and sustainable produce.  Sydney is no longer buying the large narrative the big brands are spinning with their highly processed and mass produced products. Sydney is increasingly looking for the small narrative - the story of the local farmer, the local business, the authentic work of husband and wife teams like Edge Wellness. Our stories are personal, real, transparent, and usually include better products.  I for one will no longer buy lamb in a tray at one of the large supermarket chains. I’ll get it from Ben the Free Range Butcher who can tell me what his lambs eat, where their paddocks are, and how they were raised.

Astrid sharing the joy of free range meat

How would you sum up the world of Edge Wellness in 5 words

Live a better life!

**********

So!  nothing left for it other than to say a massive muchos gracias to Matt & Astrid for sharing a bit of their world with us, demystifying nuts that are Activated and bringing a whole lotta sunshine every Thursday at our Double Bay Market!