The inaugural meeting of the U3A Food Interest Group was held on Tuesday 11th August and it promises to be a great group. We started with a discussion on the purpose of the group, the expectations of the members, and where we saw it heading in the future. The members have a great diversity of interests so we anticipate some very fascinating meetings to come.
And of course there is no point in having a food interest group if you don’t discuss food! So at this meeting we talked about and sampled chia seeds. We learnt about its origins, its growing requirements, nutritional profile, and how to use it in your kitchen. The yummy part was sampling dishes made from it – Coconut and keffir lime chia pudding with a raspberry and rosewater compote, a chocolate chia mousse, chia seed biscuits, and a fresh apple, orange and mint chia seed drink. We also looked at and discussed the uses of a chia gel.
We are all very much looking forward to the next meeting where our topic of the month will be “coconut.” As an added bonus, one of our members has been involved in the business creation of coconut products in Vanuatu and has promised to tell us about that. The topic had been set before we discovered her expertise in this area so it was the greatest bit of serendipity – it is going to be wonderful.
Our group number had originally been set at 6 members but after some discussion we decided we would like to extend that number to 9 so if you are interested in joining us (meeting the 2nd Tuesday of each month) please email Pauline at paulinewnz@hotmail.com or phone her at (03) 347 8280.
Click here for the Food appreciation group web page.
