contact info

I've enjoyed doing the talks.
If you'd like to get in touch my email is herefoodshire@hotmail.co.uk

End of challenge digestion

So it’s now that confusing time that comes when any period with clear rules/structure comes to an end. What now? What will we actually eat now we can eat anything?
Will I actually go on making bread- which I enjoyed doing- or will I be too idle?
Will I go back to things like rubbish Cornish pasties – I hope only when desperate as one I had recently was horrible! I’m sure that that eating much more fresh food and cooking from scratch was definitely a health benefit in itself.
It will be relaxing to be less fussy about hospitality – it has never seems a good look to question food you are being offered as a gift. On the other hand, some of the happiest moments of the challenge were shared meals of local food with a variety people- it makes a great basis for hospitality.
I've just been reading Fast Food Nation (2001), a lively, though depressing, read on the many disadvantages of industrialised agriculture. Schlosser focuses the short and long term health risks that relate to eating the food. And on the stories of the workers who farm, process and sell fast food - often poorly paid and working in deeply unsatisfactory conditions. This seems a timely reminder of the importance of a fair deal for producers as we move into Fairtrade Fortnight – though that does not cover migrant workers outside the developing world.
I strongly believe that it is nourishing to support what you do believe in, as well as challenging what you don’t. And I appreciate the extra services local shops offer. Like the corner shop who kindly pack goods for my elderly mother in law and take time to have a chat. Our plan is to focus on independents and markets and skip the supermarkets as much as possible. So I hope that lethargy and convenience don’t totally change our now-established habits much.

Valentine vegetable valete

Well I wasn't sure it could all be done- but it was! And I guess that applies to the whole year, as well as this morning.
Leominster Farmers Market featured vegetable jugglers, plus fantastic carrot recorders with kitchen samba backing from the Valentine vegetable ensemble, led with panache by my dear husband Andrew, aka Mr H.
We had vegetable mosaic and sculpture, heart shaped vegetable bunting (swede works a treat), a full heart shaped English breakfast, a red fluffy food heart (made by Echo) and ‘guess the weight of the characterful squash’. Plus heart shaped cress, cake and biscuits generated by Farmers Market stallholders. Thoroughly satisfactory! Many thanks to all who helped. The Hereford Times came and so there should soon be some pics up on their website.
Despite all the excitement I was frozen after 2 hours and even more respectful of the hardy farmers’ market stall holders who manage 4 hours stints, often several times a week. It was good to recover at the Forbury Fairtrade café with some mostly local soup afterwards. And of course I realise that I can adjust my diet at my own convenience, while friends with, for instance, gluten intolerance, do not have this luxury.
It’s been an excellent year and recommended as an experiment. This week we’ve added with a few dashing ingredients to our diet. Sparkling water. Oats, lentils and lapsang tea - really pushing the boat out on celebratory food! Some French wine has made an appearance too. And it’s relaxing to be able to buy things like brownies from the market without an inquisition on where every ingredient has come from. The plan is to stay with shopping in the independents and markets and give the supermarkets a miss in general.
There are a couple of talks on Herefoodshire coming up in Leominster. The first is for Fairtrade fortnight and also features Jan and Les Hardy talking about their Fairtrade trip to Peru; it’s on Saturday, March 6th at the Community Centre at 7.30 and includes wine tasting, Traidcraft snacks and hand made Peruvian alpaca goods for sale. Then there’s another burst on Monday, 9th March at 7.30 at the Talbot for the Leominster Civic Society, who showed my Herefoodshire film earlier in the year.

Hello Times readers!

Herefordshire is indeed blessed with glorious food & drink. And plenty of places to buy it, especially in the market towns. I hope you'll come and try it - or indeed buy more of whatever food is local to you.
If you’d like to find out more about our year of local/Fairtrade eating do browse the blog or visit http://www.myherefordshire.com/herefoodshire.aspx for some background to the Challenge. You’ll find a 5 minute film you can watch from there (scroll down the page a short way) and links to some our of local food websites (below the lettuce photo).
Personally we’ve found this a really positive challenge as it is about doing something enjoyable, rather than giving up things, or doing deeply unappealing things like only eating McDonalds.
And it not just us! Reuters ran this story on Feb 2nd: ”Ethical food shopping has not been abandoned despite the economic downturn and shoppers are buying more locally-produced and Fairtrade foods, as well as goods with higher animal welfare standards, a survey showed on Monday.” http://uk.reuters.com/article/personalFinanceNews/idUKLNE51102F20090202.
These choices by shoppers, whether of a few pounds a week or more, all make a difference to small scale producers, independent shops and the way our countryside is farmed.Give it a try!
Fairtrade fortnight is coming up fast: 23rd Feb- 6th March. See http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/ for more: and there is indeed much more Fairtrade marked food than there used to be.

We’re giving our hearts to Herefordshire produce!

We'll ending our year long Herefoodshire Challenge as we started it - at Leominster Farmers’ Market. A year ago we emptied our kitchen cupboards of all non-Herefordshire and non-Fairtrade produce and ran a tombola to give it all away to surprised members of the public. Since then we've been eating and drinking entirely Herefordshire and Fairtrade produce –which has been an interesting and tasty adventure.
This year February’s Farmers market fortuitously falls on Saturday Feb 14th, providing plenty of chance for Valentine’s fun. Join us in Corn Square: the market runs from 9am to 1pm and activities will be taking place from 10.30 - 12.30.
So come to Leominster to buy lots of great local produce, see our vegetable bunting and admire a ‘hearty’ English breakfast (that’s heart shaped eggs, bacon and sausages…). There’ll be plenty of chances to get involved in vegetable based fun activities – with a touch of romance. In the Forbury chapel you can make a heart shaped felt purse with local Ryeland sheep wool from 10 am – and enjoy Fairtrade and local refreshments. And, to round things off, at noon we will have the Valentine Vegetable Ensemble playing music on edible instruments, flanked by vegetable juggling.
This all adds up to even more reason to come and support our stalwart and skilful Farmers’ Market stallholders, who grow, pick and sell their fine produce 12 months a year in all weathers. There's plenty of great local produce to eat and drink, even in winter! Plus Leominster boasts many locally owned independent shops selling lots of local food and drink all week through.

14 sorts of veg and counting - not bad for January!

January is galloping by at an alarming rate - but the nights are drawing out and the mornings finally starting to turn. There are loads of vegetables about. We have some spinach in the garden and inside we have supplies from 2 Farm shops of brussel sprouts, broccoli, potatoes, swedes, carrots, onion, celeriac, parsnips, beetroot, green cabbage, red cabbage, leeks, and butternut squash .
So that’s 14 sorts of veg, not counting cauliflower (we just finished one), 2 other sorts of squash we could have bought from Green Acres or purple sprouting, which I’m sure is round somewhere as Court Farm were selling it a month or more ago. I admit we’re short on green salad (though Grove Farm probably have some) – but coleslaw is not a problem, though I admit I’d forgotten about it entirely till just now.
We have started to look back over the year and realise how much we've learnt. And how many things we haven’t got round to that would be easy and fun – endless food producers we haven’t met yet and recipes untried. There is still such a lot more we could do with promoting/enjoying/eating our Herefordshire food and drink – plus valuing the producers and the contribution agriculture makes to our landscape. Jane Wheatley's piece in this week’s Times, http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/gardens/article5573746.ece, shows how a small group in Todmorden has started a ball rolling that has got people all over the town engaged with growing their own - in a place with far fewer natural food growing advantages than Herefordshire.
Plans are now underway for the end of the Herefoodshire Challenge year - Saturday Feb 14th at the Farmers Market in Leominster. We’re going for a predictable but heart felt theme – dreaming up a variety of veggie and other food valentines. Hope you can come along!

Freezing ground veg shock horror

What a surprise! It turns out that it’s difficult to get root veg out of the ground when it’s frozen. Extraordinary...
Anyway, luckily we've still got some veg left from before Christmas - and there is still the above ground veg, like cauliflower and cabbage, which we're hopeful of tracking down soon.
It’s now less than a month till the completion of our year. We’re waiting with interest to see what our response to this is - but we're both quite clear that life without supermarkets is Absolutely fine. There are enough local shops which we pass as part of our normal routines to keep us going – not to mention the whole of Leominster as a weekend treat. Mr H is clear that he is looking forward to being able to go into local shops without being picky about stuff from Shropshire & Gloucestershire – and even further away. And I'm definitely looking forward to some oats. Apparently a lot of Herfordshire oats go to Mornflake, so maybe I’ll try them first.
I'll be at Leominster Farmers Markets on Leominster on Feb 14th. As we started the Challenge there it seems a good way to sign off with a Valentine for Herefordshire produce and its producers. But for now we’re still chugging along, munching our way down our sack of potatoes (£5.99) and other assorted produce.

Christmas cheer

After frantic efforts to track down last minute Fairtrade tangerines (thank you Ledbury Rd Co-op) we seemed all set. Even our own breadcrumbs. Various sacks of veg in the back porch along with the chicken and excellent cheeses in the fridge. My first attempt at making cheese biscuits in the new oven was touching rather than particularly edible – I now realise that the prick marks are to stop them blowing up like mini chapattis... Fairtrade sparkling wine at the ready, plus sparkling local perry and quantities of Dunkertons Black Fox cider in hand.
And despite a few key people being off colour with various bugs we had a lovely meal. Springfield chicken, local veg and Fairtrade Christmas pud with most impressive cider brandy flames.
Very pleased with the stuffing which included fresh parsley and thyme from the garden, along with some dill that’s been hanging on in the conservatory. There’s even a rather confused orange tomato in there - though I’m not sure what it would taste like.
Flour situation critical – I finally got round to buying another a sack of wheat but, whoops, all millers are away for Christmas. The kindly Glyn Jones have loaned us a hand grinder, which we're marketing to passers by as a festive work out. A kung fu friend of our son is way in front on production. And you certainly appreciate flour more when you’ve ground it and sieved yourself!
Tonight we have young friends in, eating Golden Valley lamb with garlic, own rosemary and best Bray mint jelly. Meanwhile a vegetarian friend is tucking into roast squash (after the usual life and death struggle to hack the thing apart, which always makes me fear for my arteries.) Lots of lovely veg to roast and windfall apple crumble for pud. Mulling spices producing strengthening results as always. So here's to a happy festive season and best wishes for the New Year and 2009!

Sterling slide yet another reason to buy British food

It doesn't look as if sterling is having a good Christmas.
And this is important for our food shopping - because as the pound slides against the euro the price of imports goes up... And 68% of our UK food imports come from the EU (2006 figures). OK the supermarkets may absorb the increases in costs in the short term - but not indefinitely.
We are going to be needing our local producers even more as prices of imports climb. So let's support them now and make sure they are all in good heart for this new challenge.
Veg growing is catching on and even small areas can produce a fair bit. Browsing a few seed catalogues for Christmas might be nearly as much fun as travel brochures (!).... The BBC has a good website on Growing your own - http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_index.shtml
Its important not to get morose, so for a counterbalance to the doom and gloom around at the moment try this article on 'One man's crusade to plough up the inner city': http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-urban-farmer-one-mans-crusade-to-plough-up-the-inner-city-836358.html?r=RSS as a tonic. And then follow with a glass of mulled cider. Or two.

Festive jollity opps

This is of course the season to be jolly - and Herefordshire offers plenty of opportunity on both food and drink fronts to make yourself, your family and friends and our splendid producers jolly in one fell swoop - or indeed swipe.
Farmers markets are coming up in profusion:-
• Saturday 13th Dec: Leominster Corn Square from 9.00 – 1.00 with Victorian Street market and Priory Christmas tree festival thrown in for good measure
• Thursday 18th Dec: Hereford Hightown 9.00 - 2.00 + Victorian market in Commercial St
• Friday 19th Dec: Ross Market House 9.00- 1.00
• Saturday 20th Dec: Leominster Corn Square 9.00 – 1.00
There are also 6 weekly country markets in Herefordshire with excellent homemade mince pies and other treats: see www.country-markets.co.uk/herefordshire for locations and opening times.
Plus village markets
• Friday 19th Dec: Much Birch Community Hall 2.30 – 5.00
• Saturday 20th Dec: Woolhope Dome Village Hall 10.00 -12.30
• And probably in Bosbury the same day
There is such a choice of meat: turkeys, geese, clucks, chicken plus whatever you might want in the way of beef, pork and ham… and there’s no problem getting free range meat either. The helpful butchers in Leominster are offering all kinds of options, like frozen duck and 6lb turkey breasts, for those who want something less massive.
Lots of great tasting good value veg around – great offers on sacks of spuds or smaller nets of root veg and sprouts if you ask at your local farm shop.
Nancy’s Christmas puddings are very strong on local ingredients – and always splendid quality. I’m looking forward with interest to trying out brandy butter made with cider brandy and also testing its pudding ignition qualities.
In the last 2 days we’ve been to two events with excellent mulled cider, which seems to me to have a lot going for it. You can get handy sachets of FT cider (& wine) mulling spices in Oxfam – thus getting 2 sorts of warm glow at the same time by supporting both local and international farmers .
Fairtrade comes into its own at Christmas - all that dried fruit, nuts and chocolate….and I’ve always thought that as a county of farmers it makes sense for us in Herefordshire to do our best to ensure that other places’ farmers get a fair deal for their produce too.
Traidcraft and Oxfam have a good selection of Fairtrade treats and present options, plus cakes and puddings. If you’re more of a web person you can get a great range from Traidcraft, now including Palestinian olives and sun dried tomatoes.
The supermarkets have got a good range of Fairtrade fresh fruit and a quick ring round was encouraging on what is available locally. Sainsburys & the Co-op come up with the most lines on the Fairtrade Foundation site. When I rang the local stores they both had easy peel citrus, lemons and avocados in stock. Asda also sounded promising and said they have a Fairtrade fruit section. The Co-op are particularly strong on Fairtrade wine.

November slithers by

Somehow November is nearly over and not a single entry on the blog. October was a rush of blog-blood to the head with the end of summer time, the food festival and the much enjoyed ‘bicycling round the market towns’ trip.
December is about preparing for Christmas, which I’m keen to avoid in November. And somehow November hasn’t been high profile on the food front. We've munched away, continuing to enjoy what’s around but without any dramatic new ideas. Enjoying 6 types of squashes from Greenacres at Dinmore. Drying 3 sorts of bean that we hope will be good in soups. Being impressed at staying power of mizuma and parsley in the garden. Mr H is suffering frightful withdrawal pangs for cheese biscuits, so will have a go at those.. though our oven is a tad unpredictable and my track record on biscuits shaky.
And now its nearly time to turn attention to local/Fairtrade Christmas.
Mr H was feeling on the glum side about this, but after making endless lists things are looking promising. There are a few question marks on the fruit front, especially finding Fairtrade oranges and lemons - but I haven’t really looked yet. Lots of opportunities for using Fairtrade dried fruit and maybe the considerable stash of dates we seem to have…There are Palestinian Fairtrade olives on the way, which is very exciting.
Several interesting bottles of local alcohol plus some non-alcoholic cordials are squirreled away. Still undecided on the meat front - but spoiled for choice there. And veg should be no problem.
So… we’ll keep you posted.

5 days: 100 miles: 60 producers/retailers/caterers

Cycle trip a great experience. Straight out of our front door on the bike and within yards there are local food producers. And that's pretty much how it went all week.
We'd got to 20 by the time we got to Kington at the end of Day 1. I'm quite sure there were loads more within yards if it had been warmer/we’d been fitter... you can see the photos at gallery.me.com/andrewjmorris/100267, which give an idea of who we saw where.

One obvious thing is the variety - both of sorts of produce and scale. So we went from micro cider makers to Westons to the monster new UBL cider plant at Ledbury. We saw kitchen gardens, allotments, small fields, enormous orchards. Its food everywhere. And it was good to meet a lot of the people who actually produce it and hear stories of the triumphs and many difficulties they face.

Nancy was brilliant at finding not too steep back roads, often with hardly any traffic. We went through such lovely villages and hamlets – no need to go far to explore. You may have spotted our fluorescent ‘Herefoodshire’ flags on the back which greatly improved our visibility.

One small difficulty is that when you ask for 'Whatever you've got that's local' the easy answer is often 'meat'. Which is delicious - but I can only cope with so much…. While doing some research for the Food Festival I found out that the 1950s ration for meat per adult per week was 100gms - and we now gnash our way through 1.6kgs a week of the stuff. So there's certainly some scope for a major reduction -while making sure the meat we do eat is high quality and outdoor raised and of course local from one of the many excellent butchers we saw in all the market towns this week. We have a vegetarian friend staying for a while so the next challenge is to see what we can rustle up together on the veggie front... There are certainly fantastic veg around at the moment.

APPEAL!
Does anyone have any overripe runner or other beans hanging about still? I’m looking for beans to dry and put in soups later in the year. The pods don’t matter- it’s the beans inside I’m after. So if you’re about to compost yours please don’t and let me know - especially if you’re round Leominster or Hereford.