During our 2018 Ginger and Spice Festival, we hosted a series of educational food demonstrations and workshops about the importance of fresh, seasonal and locally produced food. This was followed by a celebratory community meal in collaboration with local chefs, sponsors and Love British Food Ambassador, Olivier Blanc.
The celebrations, which took place during British Food Fortnight 2018, were at the Zone and then Longland’s Primary School, Market Drayton.
Community Event
This community fringe event championed local producers such as the farm shop on the high street, ‘The Field’s Kitchen’, Morgan’s Country Butchers, Longslow Bakery, Flower and White and local gingerbread manufacturer, Original Biscuit Bakers. The event was also sponsored by Alliance in Partnership, the company who provide daily schools meals to Longlands Primary School and who are specialists in educational catering.
Henri Le Worm
Olivier, who is the founder of the award winning educational food and nature app for children, ‘Henri Le Worm’ based on a character of his chef father, Raymond Blanc, OBE, used recipes inspired by the app which incorporated fresh, seasonal vegetables grown in the school’s community garden and seasonal produce, kindly donated by sponsor Alliance in Partnership.
Education
The children had a chance to use the education and fun app ‘Henri Le Worm’ via the school ipads and learnt about where food comes from, why it’s good for them and how to cook it, explained via a series of animated insect characters. Local chefs James Sherwin of Wild Shropshire, Chris Burt of the Mytton and Mermaid, Adam Purnell – A Shropshire Lad & from Jean Claude from Alliance in Partnership also took part on the day as well as other volunteers and school and Zone staff.
Seasonal Menu
Together they created a rainbow salad; cabbage, broccoli, spring onion and cheese slaw; potato, parsley, thyme and free range egg salad; cucumber, apple and mint salad with tahini dressing; fresh peas with mint; and broccoli in chick pea batter served with pesto – this was served alongside beef burgers and sausages sourced locally and cooked on a kadai by expert BBQ chef the Shropshire Lad!
For pudding, chef Chris Burt, developed the Market Drayton Mess a take on Eton Mess with fresh, locally sourced fruit, local meringues and locally produced gingerbread!
Alliance in Partnership also brought along a smoothie bike which taught the children about fresh and seasonal fruits whilst having fun!
Afterwards, the children’s parents were invited to enjoy the fresh and tasty food prepared earlier in the day and everyone ate together at a community meal.
Interviews
Watch the videos below to see how the event unfolded:-
Olivier Blanc
Olivier Blanc, Ambassador of Love British Food tells us why it’s important to eat seasonally and locally.
Zillah Cope
Headteacher of Longlands Primary tells us why it is so important to teach the children about seasonal food.
AIP Catering
Sally Tyson, AIP Catering, tells us why she is passionate about educational catering.
Fields Kitchen
The Fields Kitchen donated their local beef
Adam Purnell
The Shropshire Lad tells us why local is important
For further reading on the benefits of eating seasonally and supporting local producers, see Olivier’s article here.
