Now in its twelfth year, British Food Fortnight is an annual celebration of the best of British food and this year promises to be one of the most exciting ever. Events across the country include harvest suppers, tractor rides, slow food breakfasts, apple pressing, historical harvest re-enactments and more. There’s even an X Factor style competition for a modern day harvest anthem.
The British farming infrastructure provides us with an abundance of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs and dairy and the organisers at British Food Fortnight are encouraging us to remember to Buy British. I prefer buying from my local farm shop, butcher, baker, greengrocer and cheese shop because everything I buy is completely traceable and almost all of it is grown and produced locally. No matter where you live, it’s important to support local shops, to buy locally grown and produced food and to honour the seasonality of produce wherever possible.
Easy Recipes to Help You Celebrate the Harvest
British Food Fortnight have also launched a campaign to reinvigorate our traditional harvest celebrations. One of the biggest events is a Harvest Service at Westminster Abbey, the first to be held there since 1966. Eight hundred children have been invited to attend the service via a ‘Harvest Lottery for Schools’ launched by Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall. The children will be presenting harvest boxes made with produce they have grown and cooked themselves. All the harvest boxes will then be collected from Westminster Abbey by the Fullers dray horses and distributed to those in need by the Royal Voluntary Service.
Commenting on the event’s harvest celebration, organiser Alexia Robinson says: “Harvest festivals have long played a role in bringing communities together and reminding us how lucky we are to have food in abundance from Britain’s beautiful countryside. It is a tradition that continues to flourish in other countries but in the UK is no longer an established part of our national calendar….This year’s British Food Fortnight is about showing that everyone can get involved in celebrating the harvest: at home or at work, in your local pub, on your street, out shopping, in your children’s school or online.”
To find our more, please visit Love British Food.
Leave A Reply!