IN THIS ISSUE:
BFM update
BFM Allotment Ambassadors – and We Dig No Dig
Bridport Food Festival
“Companionship & Connection” Children’s Food Fayre
Bridport Primary School Fair
Glut Stall and Community Fridge need you
Going Nuts about saving the Amazon Rainforest
Food Resilience in Dorset – DCAN event 10 July 7pm
Climate Emergency Plan Review – feedback by end August
The Agroecological Way: Short course in Agroecology, 22-26 Sept.
Walk on the Wild Side
‘Feeding Dorset’ feedback
BFM website inspires Home school student to write article
Links

BFM update

We’ve drafted this visualisation of Bridport’s ‘local food scene’ (illustration by Sarah Wilberforce). It shows community-led organisations and projects, and begins to map out connections. Bridport has many groups working on a range of aspects of food in our community, mostly carrying on with their particular remit and own ‘community’, and several do link up at times. Please let us know if you are part of or know of another community group involved in food and which should be added to this map, and of existing inter-connections/ partnerships which could be shown.

BFM hooked up with the Community Shed and Edible Gardens… more.

BFM Allotment Ambassadors – and We Dig No Dig

We Dig’s first no-dig bed by the medical centre is now in place and planted up with fruit, veg and herbs. Look out for harvesting info on the notice board.

BFM Allotment Ambassador Eileen Haste writes: “Our lighting and white goods shops are a great source of cardboard if you thinking of giving the “no dig lasagna” method a go. Our strawberry bed was overgrown with weeds and so we moved them, covered the ground with cardboard and then covered that with organic matter. We planted our squash plants and they are now enjoying the moist warmed soil. You do need to keep on top of slugs that also love the moist warm hiding spots! But it’s a great way of making use of waste products, nurturing nutrient rich soil, depressing weeds and saving time digging – win-win!”

Bridport Food Festival

The Bridport Food and Beer festival this year was as successful as ever, showcasing the best of our local restaurants, caterers, chefs, other food and drink businesses, to a throng of thousands.

Bridport Food Matters’ tent was buzzing with discussion, connections, No Dig, plant sales from the Edible Gardens projects, pesto-making and more.

The spectacular Young Cooks Festival Kitchen was full of children and families making food for sharing, playing in an under-5’s kitchen garden and creating an imaginary artistic feast too. Having a washing up station with hot water meant the Bridport Community Cooking Kit could be used all day with no need for disposables. Read more here.

Hearty congratulations to this year’s Committee, chaired by Peter Wilson, including several new members.

Read more on the Mayor’s Blog and see more photos in the BFM Gallery.

“Companionship & Connection” Children’s Food Fayre

On June 16^th the Children’s Food Fayre “Companionship & Connection” continued the long-term partnership between HOME in Bridport, Sustainable Bridport (previously Transition Town Bridport) and Opera Circus, charities and organisations all based in Bridport with multiple roles. Part of Bridport Food Festival, this wonderful afternoon, organised by Jonathan Scott, celebrated food, food producers and most of all children’s hspace=”15″ vspace=”15″ talents. Thanks to St Mary’s Primary School, their children and staff, the volunteers and all the local food producers, farms and others who fed us and made the afternoon possible.   Thank you to the Edible Garden Project’s long-term funders The Ernest Hecht Foundation and Kitson & Trotman.

Photos: Robert Golden

Bridport Primary School Fair

The Edible Gardens team put on a stall showing the work that had been done in their garden and were able to chat about the ‘soiling your undies’ project, new photos {Robert Golden} on display of their story and food plants to take away.

Photos of Viv Kendrew, Chris Uren and Sarah Wilberforce, and some of the year 5 team that came for many weeks.

The Edible Garden at Bridport Primary School continues to flourish with the help of the children in our Gardening Club. In late September they will be holding a Harvest/Water event open to the public.  Follow Facebook BPS Edible Garden.

Glut Stall and Community Fridge need you

Many individuals and businesses in the Bridport Community provide food for the Glut stall and for other groups offering food for free or for a donation. The shout out today goes to Felicity’s Farm shop which raises money from their 2^nd hand book stall to spend on produce to donate. This week they provided a whole box of bananas to the Glut stall.

Are you able to offer some time to collect produce to take to the Glut Stall and the Chapel in the Garden? Offers are all co-ordinated and arranged by Peter Wilson. Essentially what is needed is people with suitable vehicles, estate or hatchback, to pick up and carry crates of food to deliver.
Availability is important and it could be any day of the week. Please contact Peter Wilson 07778 159826 for more details and to discuss what you might be able to offer.

For more information on how to access surplus donated food, visit the BFM website.

Going Nuts about saving the Amazon Rainforest

Brazil nuts foraged wild by the Kayapó community in the Amazon are now available for sale in the UK via a unique new sustainable trading partnership with Hodmedods. Read the article in Wicked Leeks here.  Jyoti Fernandes, Fivepenny Farm, came up with the idea to the import tonnes of Brazil nuts – buying them will help the survival of the indigenous peoples.

Order from Hodmedods or get in touch with United Diversity Bridport who are exploring a bulk order as part of the Bridport Food Co-op buying group. Email Josef Davies Coates with “Suma” in the subject for info about the joining the group, which places periodic orders from Suma Wholesale Co-operative.

The Agroecological Way: Short course in Agroecology, 22nd-26th September 2023

Tamarisk Farm, West Bexington, Dorset.
The course offers a foundation in the ecological processes, politics and farming methods central to agroecology, and will give first-hand insight to a broad range of enterprises at Tamarisk Farm in order to demonstrate these in practice.

The June course was so very popular. For more information, visit www.theagroecologicalway.com.

Walk on the Wild Side

Rest and restore yourself before visiting the Wild and Free picking patch. Always open and accessible. The Cowshed Wildlife Garden is directly behind the Medical Centre Bridport.

‘Feeding Dorset’ feedback

In April Help and Kindness, together with Dorset Council and Public Health Dorset held an event to celebrate the fantastic work that the food projects do across Dorset.  The event also set out to start discussions around food sustainability across the county, linking in growing projects. You can read the feedback from the two discussion groups here
Feeding Dorset: Affordable and Emergency Food Discussions (helpandkindness.co.uk) Feeding Dorset: Wider Food Projects & Issues (helpandkindness.co.uk).

The follow-on event will be on Wednesday 11 October.  For further information and to add your feedback contact Wendy and visit https://www.helpandkindness.co.uk/food-projects.

BFM website inspires Home school student to write article

Rebecca has been teaching home-schooling students for a recreational program about gardening and looking for similar resources. She writes: “Our group found your resources www.bridportfoodmatters.net/links/environmental-organisations-with-a-local-presence/ page very helpful. So, we wanted to say thank you!

One of our students, Mindie, did some research for extra credit and submitted another article on eco friendly gardening!

Links

Food Farming and Countryside Alliance launches a national conversation about food.
Following a citizens’ call to action in the recent People’s Plan for Nature, we are launching a National Conversation About Food. What we eat and how we eat it is just the beginning of a much bigger conversation – we all need food, and yet the way we now produce food is one of the main contributors to the nature, climate and health crises facing us today. Read more and join in here.

How do we change our thinking around food? Henry Dimbleby and Tim Spector
The co-founder of LEON restaurant chain and author of the National Food Strategy, Dimbleby is a leading voice on how the food we eat affects of our own health and the health of the planet. Watch the 5×15 and Keystone event here.

With the Land: Reflections on Land Work and 10 years of the LWA With the Land, marks 10 years of the LWA. It explores what it means to work with the land, reflects on the wider land work movement and celebrates what is achievable through collective action. Buy it here.