Homemade in Haddenham

Yesterday the Beautiful Wife and I took a stand at the above event. It is run by an organisation calling itself Haddenham in Transition which aims to move the "village" of Haddenham (supposedly the largest village in England) towards a more sustainable future. They run a apple press (for the use of locals) and are working on various other means of reducing waste and the inevitable footprints which go with the excesses of modern living. They run Homemade in Haddenham for the trading of goods made or grown around the village. The Beautiful Wife uses her incredible talents to produce almost anything that involves stitching (from fine embroidery to leather goods) and I stole 18 inches of her table for some tray bakes.
Much more important to me than making enough money to by a bottle of wine for dinner tonight was the diversity of people who took stalls and provided food and drink of an exceptional quality. Let me tell you, the quality of the pork roast (from Orchard View Farm) was off the scale of good things. XT Brewery were there (see earlier post) and there were lectures on breadmaking, home brewing and bee keeping amoung other things.
The day was a triumph, full marks to Allison and the team - I'll be back next year with more Brownies to sell! 

Thame Food Festival - WOW

On Saturday last I worked with the magnificent team at What's Cooking for the Thame Food Festival. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling a sense of irony that many of the stallholders, foodies to a man or woman, were unable to get round and talk food with other traders because it was just so wonderfully busy. The weather was kind, and that hasn't been a given this year; the organisation worked well for most people: many (oh so very many) people had a fantastic day: and scores of independent traders did what they became independent to do - trade!
Now I'm not going to pretend that the good people of Thame represent a cross section of the British public and the thousands of visitors who came from largely the Bucks / Oxon borders are clearly not on the breadline but there was a genuine interest in traceability, food ethics, locality and all the other things that really matter in the new food movement.
There will, no doubt, be the armchair critics of such an event - don't listen to them - They either weren't there or they just don't get it. 
I, for one, can't wait for next year.