The Parsonage Farm Spring Market - see what's out there!

One of the things I love about where we live is that there seems to be such a vibrant local food scene. Producers everywhere, support from a Community Interest Company, Hampshire Fare, which offers PR advice and networking opportunities for local food businesses (not to mention organising a huge food festival in July), famers markets, and, increasingly, smaller but no less important events bringing together food, drink and craft. It's a really great way of highlighting what's going on in the local area, and encourages people to think about whether they could get what they need from somewhere other than the supermarket or the internet. 

My friend, Peter Lane (he of the amazing pork pies) told me about the Parsonage Farm Spring Market when I met him a few months ago, and the date went straight into my diary. Parsonage Farm is, in their own words "a family-run business offering a warm and friendly service to all. We sell local, quality meat from animals raised on-site using natural, environmentally balanced and sensitive farming practices." Not only is the meat reared in a great environment, it is slaughtered at the Laverstoke Farm Abbatoir which is just down the road, and means that the animals hardly travel any distance when they finally get the chop. It's where Peter gets most of his meat from, and when you visit the farm and see the quality of the meat on offer, you can see why.

Not only do they sell their own meat, though, they have diversified in a number of ways, one of which are regular markets. Now, of course, it would have been rude not to check out their meat first (Peter having sold out of his pies by the time we actually managed to get to the market). We visited the butchers, where Mike the butcher was demonstrating his skills.

Mike demonstrating his butchery skills

Not only do they sell fresh meat, they have recently branched out in to charcuterie, and let me tell you, if you are into that sort of thing, it really is utterly delicious. We tried fennel & garlic, coriander, and red wine & garlic and couldn't decide between them so bought a bit of each one while we were there. Not that they will last long...

It wasn't just about the meat though. There were lots of fantastic foodie and crafty stalls and demonstrations going on. In particular, I was interested in The Hampshire Jam and Chutney Company . The stall was run by Sue Rockhill, and the jams and chutneys - well, sometimes I wonder why I bother sweating over my own jam pan...

I couldn't resist a pot of 'Dumpsie Dearie' jam made to an old Herefordshire recipe (with Hampshire ingredients), as it happens. Apparently if it had blackberries in it, it would be called High Dumpsie Deary jam. Fantastic name. Fantastic jam.

As you can imagine, I always have more than a passing interest in any cake stalls that are knocking around, and the Blackberry Cottage stall caught my eye. Not just cake, cake with hidden ingredients: beetroot, courgette, carrot, swede, spinach (yes, I am here to tell you that the spinach brownie I tasted was delicious). Alas, there was no swede cake left, but a beetroot chocolate loaf made a very excellent birthday cake for me to share with some friends

What's even more brilliant, there's a book coming out soon, so all those unloved veg box swede can be turned into more than mash or soup.

I will be looking out for that one.

While I was dribbling my way around the food stalls, the Husband and the kids were drawn magnetically to the woodturning skills of Chris Allen

While the children (and the Husband) were fascinated watching the man at work, I was talking traveller bouquets with his willing assistant. You can't really see them very well in the photo (on the shelving, in the pic above), but these are beautifully crafted wooden bouquets traditionally made by the traveller community from pieces of wood, peeling back thin strips in the same way as you might curl a ribbon when wrapping a present. There's a better pic on Oneday Woodcraft's facebook page. Simple and beautiful. I decided in the end to buy myself a spurtle, though. For porridge, and possibly rolling out pastry, although Pink thought it might have its place as a defensive weapon...

Finally, after all that nibbling and chatting, what better way to quench ones thirst than with a quirky cup of coffee. Actually the coffee wasn't at all quirky, but the cafe was. Allow me to present Colonel Grumpy's Coffee Bus:

Like everyone I spoke to at the fair, 'Colonel and Mrs Grumpy' have a story - and what a story! 

Colonel Grumpy (I forgot to ask his real name, so I shall assume the moniker he has assigned himself!) ended a distinguished career in the army spending 5 years as the Defence attache to Guatemala. Not wanting to return to a life of boredom, and wanting to do something to help the people of Central America, they bought an old bus from Indiana (yes, in the USA) on Ebay (yes really!), drove her to Guatemala, where she was renovated before they shipped her back to the UK where she now serves as a travelling coffee shop, selling Guatemalan coffee and crafts.


It was a fantastic afternoon - and so inspiring, talking to people so passionate about their products and what they do, be it a sports therapist now making and selling cakes after a chance conversation with a client whose daughter wouldn't eat veg, to a couple having a high old time selling coffee from a refurbished bus and raising awareness of Central American issues.

More importantly, though, coming to an event like this makes you appreciate what is on offer locally. As I get more and more insight into what's available around us, it has occurred to me that the supermarkets have achieved the greatest PR stunt ever - convincing us that we should buy from them rather than from our local suppliers. There is some fantastic produce out there (not just food, I hasten to add) and it is actually pretty easy to get your hands on it - local producers will deliver, or you can find their produce for sale in smaller retailers or from more regular markets. The vicious circle of the supermarket is that we never get the chance to see what is actually out there locally, so we carry on buying from them.  

I would be lying if I said that I have stopped buying from the supermarket. I don't always have access to a car, and a delivery of some products in some cases, where quality isn't necessarily an issue, does make economic and practical sense. However, with the help of organisations like Big Barn - with its handy postcode finder to show you where you can buy local produce, some investigations of my own and tip offs from friends, I am finding it much easier to buy my fresh food locally - and if the produce itself isn't local then using local shops to source it: fish for example, which I now buy through the butcher.

The thing is, that however much this Spring Market conjures up some kind of rural idyll, some kind of 'olde Englande', and however enjoyable it is to mooch around and taste a few things here and there, there's a serious point behind it. If there's something similar in your area, I'd really encourage you to make the effort to go - you might discover a whole world of amazing stuff being produced on your doorstep - be it meat, jam  - or spurtles

Rapeseed Oil - all the flavour, none (well fewer, any way) of the miles

Have you come across rapeseed oil yet? It's being billed as the British answer to olive oil - tasty, and healthy. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall champions it.

Rapeseed oil is great stuff. I get bottles of Pratt's Rapeseed Oil from the Winchester Farmers Market - the rapeseed is grown and the oil produced only a few miles from us on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border, and this, to my mind, is reason enough to buy it (for me, obviously - I mean if you're in the north of Scotland, there's probably a more local producer you could find).

However, local or not, I wouldn't buy it if it wasn't also delicious. It's got quite a strong flavour, really nutty and quite complex in the same way that olive oil can be, although it's a different taste. The other good things about rapeseed oil are that it has a high burn point which makes it really good to cook with because you can get it hotter. It's also got only six per cent saturated fat and is high in Omega 3. A good alternative to olive oil, from right here at home. Recently, as well as using it generally in place of olive oil, I've embraced it stirred into crushed new potatoes as an alternative, healthier topping for fish pie.

What are you waiting for?


Disclaimer: I bought my bottle of Pratt's Rapeseed Oil at the Winchester Farmers' Market, and this post is totally unsolicited. In fact, they don't even know I've written it. Hope they like it...

Buy Local? Big Barn can help

Have you come across Big Barn, yet?

They are a Community Interest Company, committed to local food, and to reversing the anti-social trend of the UK food industry which is currently contributing to :

Small farms going out of business
Small rural shops and post offices closing
Decreasing access to fresh food
Food being produced for shelf life and not flavour
Excess animal movement
Too many additives in food, hidden behind a label
'Staple food' costs actually rising as middle men & retailer margins increase
Increasing consumption of ready meals
Increased reliance on oil as specialist farms move away from mixed farming

The basic idea of Big Barn is that by making it easy for people to buy food locally, from local producers, it will help slow the inexorable march of the supermarkets towards the homogenisation of our food and the death of our high streets and small producers. Lots of long words, and rhetoric there, but I feel like we're heading for some kind of 'moment' in our food culture, and long words and rhetoric are called for.

It's all very well thinking that as individuals we can't really make a difference, but if we don't do anything, then we really won't make a difference. And if we all take little steps, well that will probably add up to some quite big steps. It's all very well saying, "Oh yes, but it's not convenient for me to buy local" or "well, it's just too expensive", and rely on someone else to shop locally but if we don't do something, we're going to end up with the supermarket as the only option, with very little accountability. We've all seen how easy it was for horsemeat to get into the food chain - horsemeat that was unfit for human consumption - and the fact that we have become so far removed from where our food comes from can only contribute to this. If we can get back to local - even a little bit - and support local producers, buying more directly, we can show the big players in the food industry that we DO care about where our food comes from and what's in it. You see, it's all very well getting hot and bothered about it, but if we don't actually DO anything about it, to impact where it matters - in the profits of the big boys - the big boys won't change. Simples.

I buy from the supermarket - I'd be lying if I said I didn't - but I also try to shop locally where I can. We have a  great butcher in the village and I trust him and his meat. Fantastic. I can get fish from him too. If I get the chance, I'll get veg from a Farmers Market (if the back garden isn't providing). It doesn't always work though. I don't always have access to a car, and there's no greengrocer in the village (although there are local veg box schemes). I know I should do more. In the words of Peter Lane (he of the fabulous pork pies), may be we could all take half an hour to find one local producer, and go and buy from them. It would be a good start.

This is where Big Barn comes in. I've copied this straight off their website, what their commitments are:

1. Provide a definitive database of producers who want to sell direct.
2. Promoting these producers by displaying them on post code specific maps.
3. Actively seeking other like-minded websites to have the BigBarn map, free, to open within their website to promote local producers.
4. Develop and promote an on-line market place to allow producer members of BigBarn e-commerce to sell local food on-line.
5. Continually looking for ways to help producers team up with local shops to offer consumer a complete range of food & drink cheaper, like for like, than the supermarket.
6. Accessing any grants to help achieve the BigBarn community's objectives.
7. Providing producer members with a database of case studies to help them improve their businesses and better meet the needs of local consumers.
8. Continually improve the BigBarn website and related technology to make it user friendly and world class

And how does it work? Well, see number 2 - basically by using your postcode to find local suppliers in your area it makes it easier to by local. They are also pioneering online shopping from local producers. How good would that be?

As you'll see, I've added a button to my blog where you should be able to do the post code thing and find local producers near to you. Apparently, I may get commission from this. Frankly, I'm not so fussed about that, but if it helps people access more locally produced food more easily, that's fine my me. Apparently the whole horsemeat thing has sent people scrambling for their local butcher - let's continue this trend and make shopping local more than a passing fad.

So what are you waiting for?