On 21 September at St Andrew’s Hall in Chesterton, approximately 60 people came to participate in a celebration of local food, to hear from local food producers and a panel of people who had taken part in CCF’s Eating Local challenges over the last year. They also enjoyed a delicious meal (frittata, vegetable soup and salad) of locally-sourced ingredients, cooked by the Eat Buy Local team of Helen, Ann, Bev and Sue, with sour dough rolls and bread courtesy of CamBake, meat pies from Jen at Camcattle and elderflower and blackberry cordials from Jacky (available from the Cambridge Cheese Company). What with the organisers, speakers and helpers, there were a lot of people to cook for! The event was booked out, with a waiting list.
Some comments
We enjoyed the food and meeting the suppliers and their stories and enthusiasm
“The discussion about Eating Local and how people coped in particular.”
It was an eye-opener about how much you can get locally.
After an introduction “Why eat local?” by Ann Mitchell, participant in Eating Local and member of Transition Food Group, there were some fascinating speakers. You can find a summary of some of the highlights below.
Camcattle
Jen Myers of Camcattle talked with great passion about their grass-reared cattle that we can all see grazing on common land in the Cambridge area: Coe Fen, Midsummer Common, Trumpington Meadows. This land cannot be used for any other food production, which, together with the fact that the cattle are fed only on grass or, in the winter, on waste produce such as parsnips or silage, means that the carbon footprint of the beef is much lower than usual. Jen also emphasized the importance of using the whole animal, something which many English people are very reluctant to do!
Waterland Organics
Paul Robinson of Waterland Organics spoke about his organic farm in Lode, where he grows 15 different vegetables for his box scheme – this allows him to rotate his crops, which is something few farmers do these days, as the supermarkets usually only want one or two crops from them. He told us of his background as a farmer’s son and grandson and how he had moved away from his father’s practices into organics – against his father’s wishes at first. He is encouraged by the great increase in the number of organic producers these days.
Hawthorn Farm
Brian and Angie Kearns of Hawthorn Farm, Cottenham, told us about their battle with the council to be allowed to convert a stable block so they could live on their smallholding, where they rear chickens and ducks for eggs and meat, which they sell at farmers’ markets, including in Cambridge. Angie also makes jams and chutneys from their own fruit, while Brian sells wild game when available. They love the life, but it is 364 days a year and they haven’t had a holiday in years! Angie and Brian had a delicious “tasting table” of Angie’s on the night.
CamBake
Meg Clarke and Lindsey Berendt from community bakery CamBake told us about this new initiative. At present they have one trained baker in the group, but several others will soon be qualified and we will be able to order bread from them. They use locally sourced ingredients wherever possible. (For the evening, all flour was milled at Swaffham Prior and grown in Hertfordshire.) They make bread in the traditional way, which takes longer, but tastes much better and is healthier. (There is some evidence that the fast modern processing methods used by supermarket bread today may be responsible for the vast increase in the numbers of people with gluten-intolerance.) CamBake is always looking for more members!
Cambridge Country Market
Margaret Cliff from Cambridge Country Market talked about the history of the co-operative markets nationally, starting in the early 20th century, and the kinds of things available at the Thursday stall in Cambridge market, all made locally and often with ingredients grown by the makers. (They had a beautifully laid out table of goods for sale on the evening, which attracted a lot of interest.) Margaret also told us of a hamper scheme they operate nationally, through which you can order a hamper (of anything you choose) here in Cambridge to be delivered anywhere in England, made up in the area local to the recipient – a kind of local food interflora!
Panel of Eating Local participants
After a break for dessert (local plums from Geoffrey and Clare Barker’s farm in Over, apples from Shelford and Haddenham and jammy dodgers made by Ann) the audience asked questions of a panel of six participants in CCF’s Eating Local challenge. There was a lot of interest in whether this had been more expensive than non-local eating (answer: mainly not, but meat was often more expensive, unless you bought the cheaper cuts). People were often surprised that it is possible to eat local food all year round – in fact Cambridge is very lucky in that respect; some areas don’t have nearly as many outlets for local food – and were amazed at how easy it is to source food locally. The main issue is time – it is necessary to cook most food from scratch and shop at more than one place – and people who worked full time found they needed to be much more organised than usual.
We would like to thank everyone who was involved in this event, in particular the speakers and their helpers, the planning group and others who helped on the night, most notably Penny Jones, Vicky Lacey and Urma Lawrence, but also lots of others who helped setting up and putting things away – it was a real community effort!
Future plans
We were delighted that so many people turned out on a wet evening to hear about the importance of local food. Over half the audience had not been to a CCF event before – excellent news. We hope that more people will join our Eating Local challenge starting in October. We are also planning on a local food conference in 2013, so watch this space!
For more information about Eating Local or to join an upcoming challenge, please contact Helen Karapandzic (helen@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org)