Blimey - I can't believe we got through all this and more over the last week. I'm beginning to think I should have called this the Suffolk Feast rather than the Suffolk Diet.
It just doesn't feel like it was only 10 days ago that all this food was delivered to my door. It actually seems like weeks ago, not just because of all we've managed to eat, but thanks to everything I've learned in the process.
As well as enjoying some fine food this week, for me it's also been about getting back to basics and connecting with the people who make the produce and witnessing the passion that goes into their products too. And that's something you don't experience when you pick up a jar of a well-known brand at your local supermarket.
When you buy freshly made local food, you get to find out that the producer was up at 4am making it, or has been in the bakery since 5am or that it's been made from foraged fruit that would have otherwise gone to waste. When you hand over your money, you see that it's going back into the very thing that they are passionate about, their business and the production of fresh local food.
Even if you are one-step detached from the producer, you can still see the enthusiasm that is inherent in getting that food to your door.
Take Paul Campbell for instance, the person who challenged me to live off Suffolk food in the first place.
Paul runs the Local Food Direct delivery service, which makes the job of buying local food a heck of a lot easier, as it delivers on behalf of a whole range of local producers who would otherwise be more difficult to reach for an average consumer in Suffolk.
But it's not just any ordinary service, it's a lottery funded not-for-profit social enterprise that helps others into employment as well as promoting local food. And while chatting to Paul that day, it became clear that this business was not about the money but about the passion for creating an infastructure that gave people acccess to a new sustainable way of shopping.
And it's also a way of giving local producers wider opportunities to sell their products. Living in this side of Suffolk, I would never have had such easy access to a wide variety of produce, or even heard of the Queens Head, Brandeston or Highways products shown below.
And that's probably been the highlight of the experience for me, learning new things about what's available on my doorstep in Suffolk and finding out more about the people behind them.
For me it's about caring where our food comes from that gives the food on my plate that extra pizazz and in an unexpected way it connects you back into your local community too, whether it's hearing that the local dairy's cows who happen to be on maternity leave, or the couple who are investing some of the proceeds to help their son teach kids in Japan.
But before I go, I think I should give a huge shout-out for the unsung hero of our own Suffolk Diet this week. It's never something that I appreciated until recently but is absolutely fabulous in salads and in juices and even pickled in a jar with vinegar.
If you've not discovered it yet, keep your eyes peeled as you roam around the county.
The Suffolk vegetable of the moment has most definitely been....
......beetroot!
But if you become such a fan like me...just remember the protective clothing first, and be ready to rinse your hands straight afterwards.
0 comments:
Post a Comment