The Bridport Food Matters stall at the Festival Food Market on June 19 attracted a lot of visitors, and prompted many useful conversations. A couple of hundred people took away BFM leaflets with information about the new website, and many of them also signed up for the newsletter. We also had many useful conversations about the Bridport food scene in 2030 (see more here), ways to strengthen the local food economy, and responses to the bigger climate change picture.

Our programme of guest speakers also attracted a lot of interest and prompted some lively discussions. Philip Colfox shared his hopes and challenges for moving to regenerative farming on the Symondsbury Estate. Katkin Tremayne and Ipar Hughes of Vital Roots Garden spoke about foraging and fermented foods. Nick Phillips of Chideock Champignons gave us lots of useful tips about growing and cooking with fungi, and their benefits to the ecosystem (see picture above). To hear recordings of the talks, click here.

The Bridport Food Festival, organised by Bridport Local Food Group, is one of the major highlights of the local food calendar: whilst the former had to be changed this year, the Market on Millennium Green was very well attended, and much appreciated. One of the many highlights of the day was Sam Wilberforce and Alan Heeks in a tomato costume handing out our leaflets!