Regen agriculture from Groundswell and Great Taste starred results released
A day in country and a podcast chat with Irish cookschool maven, Darina Allen
Hello Lemonistas,
Welcome to your latest edition of The Lemon Grove newsletter. In this issue, we look at one of the UK’s leading festivals informing and celebrating regenerative agriculture and how it offers us, as eaters, good, healthy food with a focus on maintaining soil health. Whilst there I met up with Ireland-based Darina Allen, a doyenne of cooking schools, cookbook writing and TV cooking and chatted about regen farming, cooking and our relationships with the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy (unisg.it).
Groundswell
Regenerative agriculture is having a moment. And long may it last. This farming philosophy is all about boosting soil health for many benefits from producing the best quality food while not messing with the health of farmed land.
Groundswell was founded by the Cherry family on Lannock Manor Farm, their mixed farm in Hertfordshire, just north of London. John and Paul Cherry have farmed for over thirty years, converting to a no-till system in 2010. “We started Groundswell out of a sense of frustration that no one was putting on a Summer Show to which we might want to go,” they said. Groundswell was born from their desire to learn more about the theory and practical applications of regenerative agriculture.
While I was listening to one of the many talks hosted by the event, I grabbed the chance to chat with Darina Allen, the famed Irish chef, food writer, TV personality and founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School. We have a slight connection as I once appeared in an episode on the BBC Country Show Cookoff with her daughter Rachel and chef Theo Randall. My job on the programme was to help judge a Fidget Pie competition. Fidget pies are traditionally eaten in the English midlands by farm workers and are made with gammon, cooking apples, onions and potatoes, although as we found out during the judging, there are many interpretations of this classic. Click here to get Ludlow Farmshop’s (known as Ludlow Food Centre when I lived in Shropshire ten years ago) recipe for fidget pie.
Watch videos from Groundswell 2024 here.
PODCAST DARINA ALLEN
Listen here …
Great Taste results for 2024 are out!
Have you spotted the black and gold labels of jars, packets, and bottles of food and drink stacked on shelves from farm shops to supermarkets? These are the badges of honour awarded by the Great Taste Awards, one of the world’s largest food and drink accreditation schemes.
Along with around 500 food industry professionals from food writers and chefs to tea tasters and wine buyers, I am a judge for the awards. Judging takes place in the Spring and early Summer, with results released in early August, and then the ultimate few products voted as best in show are released in September. As judges, we aim to be honest, straightforward and offer impartial feedback, with each product being tasted by at least five people before consensus awards a product a 1-, 2- or 3-star accolade.
Click here to see the list of winners.
Then, on Tuesday 10 September the best of the best products (including a Supreme Champion) will be recognised at the glittering trade-only Golden Forks award ceremony which will be held at Battersea Arts Centre in south London. Foods up for contention for the award include Scotland’s Blackthorn Salt, Irelan’s Burren Smokehouse for their smoked eel and Spain’s Conservas Catalina for their anchovies in butter.
Click on the QR code below to watch a video I recorded with John Farrand, MD of Great Taste organisers, the Guild of Fine Food. (Note…the video is on my Instagram page … @lemongrovepics).
We’re on Etsy
The Lemon Grove has landed on the giant online shopping website and will be building up stock and lots of lemony, foodie books, cooking tools and kitchenalia.
We've just opened our Etsy shop, and it's the place to buy my book, 'Cook Wrap Sell: A guide to starting and running a successful food business from your kitchen'. More culinary items and citrusy goods will be added regularly.
Reading, watching and listening to …
Food writer Meera Sodha on the BBC’s Radio 4 show Woman’s Hour talking about her new book Dinner: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes for the Most Important Meal of the Day. In this book, Meera talks about the restorative power of cooking for the ones you love.
An article on the US-based website Eater about #AmericasDad Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor selected by Kamala Harris to be her running mate for the upcoming US presidential elections. Apparently, both he and Harris are ‘good with food’, no mean feat for a politician where eating a hamburger awkwardly can ruin a campaign.
Apple TV’s new food show Omnivore starring Copenhagen-based super chef René Redzepi and his grey uniform-clad brigade at his Noma restaurant. There are eight episodes each featuring one key ingredient such as chilli, rice or salt. Photographed in rich, saturated colours and lingering closeups, the films are poetically narrated by Redzepi himself. Underlying themes include tradition, family, and the threads that bind us as humans and food’s cultural significance. Created with food writer Matt Goulding, this series is worth a watch.
Best wishes
Bruce
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Bruce & The Lemon Grove’s Events Diary
My diary is a little quiet at the moment as I recover from full knee replacement surgery. I expect to be back on the Tonbridge Farmers Market cooking theatre stage in November.
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Bruce McMichael
Writer, Podcaster, Event Host & Cook, Lemonista
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