This afternoon I settled onto my sofa and turned the volume up on my laptop, unleashing the sound of Lady Gaga into my living room. Perhaps it might have been more appropriate to have chosen something more relaxing from Suffolk born Benjamin Britten for the task that lay ahead, which involved casually browsing the website www.welovelocalfood.co.uk to select Suffolk produce in preparation for the challenge that starts on Monday.
It's the first time I've properly browsed the site, since Paul, its founder, invited me to take up the challenge. The website belongs to a social enterprise called Local Food Direct, which distributes food from local growers and producers to customers in Norfolk and Suffolk.
The web-based interface is as simple as any online supermarket system I've used. The key difference is that it tells you exactly where your food is coming from, by including the producer's details and in many instances more information about the produce itself. Some of the stories looked so interesting, I wanted to dash out to their premises and have a nosey around myself. However, that's not the point to this exercise, which is to sit back, relax and wait for my basket of local food to be delivered directly to me, hardly lifting a finger beyond a few clicks here and there.
Of course, this is a Suffolk challenge, where I could only select products from those producers who are in the county. All I can say is it certainly gave my knowledge of local geography a run for its money and it made me realise how little I know about the county outside of my local residence of Bury St Edmunds and our various ports of call along the coast.
So, it looks like I'm going to learn far more than just about which food I can buy locally. I'm going on a virtual gastro-tour around the county too. However, between now and then, I'd better firm up my rules and get down to some proper meal planning. I'm already getting jittery that it's not tomato season yet, well not in England, let alone Suffolk. Mmm. Why didn't I do this in the summer?
It's the first time I've properly browsed the site, since Paul, its founder, invited me to take up the challenge. The website belongs to a social enterprise called Local Food Direct, which distributes food from local growers and producers to customers in Norfolk and Suffolk.
The web-based interface is as simple as any online supermarket system I've used. The key difference is that it tells you exactly where your food is coming from, by including the producer's details and in many instances more information about the produce itself. Some of the stories looked so interesting, I wanted to dash out to their premises and have a nosey around myself. However, that's not the point to this exercise, which is to sit back, relax and wait for my basket of local food to be delivered directly to me, hardly lifting a finger beyond a few clicks here and there.
Of course, this is a Suffolk challenge, where I could only select products from those producers who are in the county. All I can say is it certainly gave my knowledge of local geography a run for its money and it made me realise how little I know about the county outside of my local residence of Bury St Edmunds and our various ports of call along the coast.
So, it looks like I'm going to learn far more than just about which food I can buy locally. I'm going on a virtual gastro-tour around the county too. However, between now and then, I'd better firm up my rules and get down to some proper meal planning. I'm already getting jittery that it's not tomato season yet, well not in England, let alone Suffolk. Mmm. Why didn't I do this in the summer?
