Local food & farming news, October '24
Local food & farming news, October '24
The return of one of Somerset's best dinners, (unintentionally) rewilding the Levels, and other notable happenings in – or relevant to – this county of Somerset
For this month’s round-up of food and farming news in Somerset, things are beginning to look distinctly autumnal – that annual urge to celebrate harvest is showing no abating, with plenty farm-based seasonal feasting, crop swaps, and apple pressing to be had.
If there’s anything you think’s worth including in November’s newsletter, just drop me a line.
Let’s be onto the news then shall we?
One of Somerset’s best dining experiences returns this October
For the first time in seven months, bookings are now open for one of Somerset’s foremost dining experiences.
Emerging from wedding and music festival season, Pennard Hill Farm, which is currently sitting at the number one spot in this newsletter’s provisional power ranking of restaurants in Somerset, is back in business with its Farm Feasts. As you might guess from the name, these are farm-to-table dinners that make good of what’s in season and what’s locally available – whether from Pennard Hill’s own pigs, sheep, and veg garden, if not from Somerset regenerative farms such as Gothelney, Redwoods, and neighbours Brown Cow.
Starting from October 25th, and ending 15th February are sixteen events – significantly bumped up from last year’s tally (all of which sold out). This time round, the farm’s Tom Godber-Ford Moore, an excellent cook himself, is joined by Tom Warren (formerly of HOLM and The Savoy) to help on the pans.
Part 2 of Crewkerne People’s Assembly announced
Food and farming campaigner Roger White has announced the follow-up to July’s people’s assembly in Crewkerne that began to investigate how the town might respond to further interruptions to its food supply.
The second assembly, to be held on the 10th November, will hinge around the challenge of producing more food in Crewkerne. Those who “grow food, would like to grow food, could teach or help others to grow food or perhaps have some land or a garden that could be used for growing food” are especially invited.
Series of food & farming events hit Frome this autumn
A medley of food-based events are popping up in Frome this season, in what might be the town’s busiest autumn for such things yet.
This includes the return of Pumpkin Day & Harvest Swap – a kind of mini-festival celebrating local, seasonal food. There’ll be crop swaps, local farmers selling their produce, and workshops on things like land-based living and making organic fertilisers at home.
More on the eating side of things is Canteen, a new pop-up pay-what-you-can community restaurant organised by Frome Food Network (a local food collective founded and co-ordinated by yours truly). Inspired by the likes of The Long Table in Stroud, the goal of Canteen's pop-ups (25th October and 15th November) are to see if Frome would like more permanent access to hearty, nutritious, affordable, and delicious food in a communal setting.
Other food-oriented events in Frome this autumn include a screening of regenerative farming film Six Inches of Soil; a seasonally-inspired supper club at Vallis Farm; and cider, apple pressing, and tree walks as part of Apple Day.
Wells’ annual food festival bigger than ever
Wells Food Festival – one of the biggest of its kind in the county – is back this month. Expect 200 food and drink stalls, a special celebration of English wine, conversations around improving school meals and access to healthy food, and street food courtesy of JJ’s Trinidadian Doubles, Ah-Ma’s Dumplings, Bo Bom Gelato, et al. This will be the first time in the market’s history that it takes over Wells High Street.
Should the Levels be level?
Somerset Confidential recently published an article about local authorities’ failures to maintain the Somerset Levels – this being of particular concern to the residents who’ll bear the brunt of the flooding that’ll almost certainly occur this winter without the appropriate measures in place.
That’s an important and timely story in itself. Perhaps more interestingly though, it triggered a sentiment I thought was a bit taboo: that letting the Levels – which have been dredged for centuries in order to ‘reclaim’ the area for farming – return to nature might actually be the best course of action. Doing so would displace hundreds of thousands of people and disrupt local food production, but given that’s likely to happen eventually anyway, wouldn’t it be better under local citizens’ own terms?
Regeneratively-managed livestock a crucial talking point at upcoming farming conference
LandAlive, a regenerative farming conference aiming to help farmers across the South West – and beyond – transition to more environmentally sustainable ways of farming, has released its full list of speakers for its first event in November.
The roster includes some of the South West’s most progressive food producers, including George Ford (Nempnett Pastures), Matt Chatfield (Cull Yaw mutton), and Tim Willimas (Earth Farmer), as well as those at the centre of UK policy-making and better farming advocacy.
It is no coincidence many of the speakers mentioned are livestock farmers – given that 34% of the UK’s cattle herds are concentrated in the South West, one of the big themes for the conference will be how grazing animals can play an integral role in improving soil fertility and biodiversity.
Ned Palmer and Meera Sodha headline Topping’s food talks
Topping – the small bookshop chain – has for a while now been a reliable destination to hear from and meet new and established food writers. That continues this month, with the likes of prolific recipe writer Meera Sodha, cheese authority Ned Palmer, whisky legend Dave Broom, local no-dig hero Charles Dowding, and mythological chef Pierre Koffman making their respective appearances at Topping’s shop in Bath.
What news from your side of Somerset? Let us know in the comments.