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)
Fun fact: there are currently 1,163 subscribers to The Wallfish Journal – 74 of which chip in on a monthly or annual basis to help keep this little newsletter (and just about the only source of food / food culture journalism in Somerset) chugging along.
Just to momentarily rattle the figurative WFJ bucket, if that number were to double, this endeavour would just about pay for itself, ensuring it continues to help local people make more informed decisions around what they eat and drink.
Anywho, this week we’re back to the WFJ’s monthly round-up of news and commentary and observations on food and farming in Somerset (and a few items from further afield). There’s a free preview for everyone, whie paid subs get the juicer stuff.
A lot to cover as usual, so let’s not dally any further.
Is the government killing restaurants? That’s what trade body UKHospitality has been asking, though the matter has been pretty clear since April this year, when the industry got drilled with new tax hikes (business rates, National Insurance contributions). I suppose it’s even more evident now, with 58% of UK diners saying they’re cutting back on eating out due to rising costs, and hospitality venues definitely feeling the pinch. Industry platform Countertalk have covered this in detail in a recent newsletter, also highlighting the #TaxedOut campaign to help people sway their government towards not sacrificing their favourite restaurants to the tax gods.
Bruton rewilder Ben Goldsmith went on The Last Salmon podcast recently and spoke positively of ‘lab grown’ salmon. Before we reach for any pitchforks, he might have a point – given salmon farms are, on the whole, a deplorable venture of disease, pollution, and “misery of [fish] being consumed by the lice on their backs” (also, in my view, not the least bit amounting to flavoursome food), just about any alternative should at least be considered as more desirable.
I keep seeing people stumble into the farmers’ market on Frome’s Boyle Cross and say to me something on the lines of “oh golly, didn’t know you were here.” If you’re one of those people, sign up to the SFM newsletter (for Frome specifically, if you so wish) to make sure you don’t miss out. I do enjoy seeing WFJ readers at the market – perhaps I’ll catch some of you there this Saturday.
Below the paywall: Notes from a new food festival in Bristol featuring Somerset voices; a short critique on a YouTube series on food in Somerset; one of The Good Food Guide’s top restaurants comes to Bath; the latest on greenwashing; and more besides.