A cheesemonger's guide to Somerset cheddar

The Cheese Lord on what separates a Westcombe from a Glastonbury Twanger and a Keen's from a Monty's. Also: when's a cheddar a cheddar, and how to…

Dec 17 • Hugh Thomas

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Panettone parties, feminist opposition to caged hens, and the long-awaited return of a Bruton pub

The latest intel on food, farming & food culture in Somerset (and beyond)

Dec 3 • Hugh Thomas

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November 2025

"The margins on a bag of flour are nothing like the margins on a handbag"

Amid one of the biggest nut harvests in recent memory, Glastonbury farmer Roger Saul reflects on the ticking "timebomb" of British farming

Nov 19 • Hugh Thomas

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Tax-dodging snail farms, the food bank moral dilemma, and how we might prepare for a more food resilient future

Here we are, then – after this month’s (quite thorough!) survey of supermarket prices versus independent food shop prices, it’s back to the monthly…

Nov 5 • Hugh Thomas

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October 2025

Can independent shops beat supermarkets on price?

While in Frome on a weekly food shop, I wonder: are independent retailers really as expensive as people think?

Oct 22 • Hugh Thomas

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Notes from a food festival in Bristol, does local food have a place in mainstream grocery shops, and huzzah for global warming

Roll up roll up for this month’s intel on food, farming & food culture in Somerset (and, on occasion, beyond)

Oct 8 • Hugh Thomas

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September 2025

One bean, an ecological crisis, and a 5,000-mile headache

Are we helplessly complicit in farming's destruction of the world’s most precious ecosystems the other side of the world?

Sep 24 • Hugh Thomas

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Food festivals, televised greenwashing, could horse milk ever take off, and the most coveted British food item in Paris

It’s that time of the month again, where digestible news items of at least a vaguely interesting nature, accompanied with some commentary where…

Sep 10 • Hugh Thomas

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August 2025

“We need to restore land in a way that's healthier for us, the environment, our communities”

Redwoods Farm’s Amy Chapple on the (not so?) lonely job of farming, regenerative fibs, and difficulty relating to non-farmers

Aug 27 • Hugh Thomas

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Farm shops in Somerset, farm shops about Somerset, tea-dunked madeleines, and a big name London chef comes to Frome

It’s that time of the month where I welcomely or unwelcomely offer up some digestible items of a food and farming nature.

Aug 13 • Hugh Thomas

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July 2025

Somerset's best restaurants (Summer 2025)

22 restaurants at which you might like to eat next, according to someone who thinks they know what they’re talking about

Jul 30 • Hugh Thomas

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Fake honey is everywhere, Britain's eating behaviours will cook the government, and Jeremy Clarkson's an agro-fascist?

Here I am then, back in your inbox with a compilation of recent news and observations (depending on your perspective, some useful, some much less so…

Jul 16 • Hugh Thomas

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