Here is the latest newsletter from Herefordshire Food Alliance:
A warm hello from the Herefordshire Food Alliance.
We hope you’re enjoying the summer. Herefordshire farmers are currently busy combine harvesting, and you might be busy keeping a vegetable patch watered! But we hope you’ve found time to embrace summer food: sun-ripened fruit, eating outdoors and slowing down to savour seasonal, locally grown produce. At the same time, the recent heatwaves and ongoing lack of rain are stark reminders of the growing challenges climate change presents for food production, making resilient local food systems more important than ever.
In this newsletter we’re delighted to share reports from two exciting new initiatives. We were thrilled to welcome primary school children to Lower Blakemere Farm to discover where their food comes from and how farming can work in partnership with nature. Huge thanks to Heather and Phil Gorringe and their team for hosting two inspiring school visits on their regenerative farm.
We also joined forces with Herefordshire Meadows and Dreda Darling of Caradoc Farm to host our first sold-out Feast on the Farm, celebrating meadow restoration and its role in a nature-rich local food system. You can read more about both projects below. Plans are already underway for the next Feast – with a wheat, flour and bread theme—watch this space.
Behind the scenes, we’ve also been working with partners across the Marches bio-region developing an exciting collaborative project. This has meant temporarily reducing the time available for Food Alliance coordination (including missing June’s newsletter) while we focus on laying the foundations. We believe the long-term benefits will be well worth it, and we look forward to sharing more information when we can.
Finally, please do take a look at Wicton Farm’s blog and crowdfunding campaign, which closes soon. After losing their milk contract, this small organic, 100% grass-fed herd, where calves stay with their mothers, is raising funds to create on-farm processing and a community collection hub.
Looking ahead to September, we will be holdiing a working group session to review and develop ideas for Herefordshire Food Alliance governance. Please get in touch if you’d like to be involved or have thoughts to contribute.
Whatever the rest of your summer holds, we hope you enjoy the tastes of the season, with the chance to appreciate the people, places and landscapes that make Herefordshire’s food so special.
Farm Link – School trips to Lower Blakemere Farm
HFA had 2 really fun school trips at the Gorringes inspiring Lower Blakemere farm this summer. A huge thank you to Heather and Phil and their amazing team..
Feast on the Farm – Meadow Connections
HFA had a sell out at their first Feast on the Farm event in collaboration with Herefordshire Meadows!
Wicton Farm Crowdfunder Launch!
Wicton Farm, Bromyard, is an exemplar in high welfare, sustainable dairy farming and they need your help!
