Open Farm Sunday this weekend

If you are looking for somewhere to take, and educate, the kids in a fun way, this weekend, consider Open Farm Sunday. Simply type your post code in here and find out what some of your local farmers have organised.

Hopefully you will find a place to buy better, fresher, food that is often cheaper than the supermarket!

Fiona at the Loch Arthur Farm Shop

Open Farm Sunday was first introduced in the UK in 2006 by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming). The first year was intended to be a pilot run of the project, but interest was high and over 300 farms opened their gates to the public. Ever sinse farmers have taken it up and made it their own and following the seventh Open Farm Sunday in June 2012, nearly one million people have visited a farm.

As BigBarn’s mission is to reconnect consumers with producers and encourage trade we fully support Open Farm Sunday. We hope that those farmers selling direct and use the day to persuade local people to switch from the supermarket to buying local.

BBC; Cheese is from plants, chips grow on trees!

Squidoo.com

A survey reported by the BBC shows an alarming lack of food knowledge. But hardly surprising when the modern food industry and retailers have separated consumer from producer. Why should a child know whether potatoes are grown underground or up a tree when they rarely see food production or are not taught about food at school?

Most of the fields around me at the moment are either yellow with oil seed rape or green with wheat, and look nothing like the food on my plate. I expect most goes to feeding animals in intensive ‘factory’ farms, also hidden from the consumer.

It seems unlikely that we will return to the days when small mixed farms surrounded housing, so bringing food growing and cooking in to the curriculum, like the school in the report, is a fantastic idea.

School Crop for the Shop on BBC

The school project we ran showed how enthused children are when given the opportunity to learn and interact with growing and cooking food. After all, we eat 3 times a day and have the primal urge of hunger.

So Victorian food for History, designing food labels for Art, seed rates for Maths, growing plants for Biology, must make each subject more relevant and easier to learn. Add to this the incentive of making some money by selling any excess food through BigBarn’s Crop for the Shop scheme, and we may see the next generation enjoying healthier food and saving the NHS a fortune. Perhaps even see a new generation of farmers?

Prince Charles attack on Food Industry

It was great to see a number of newspapers report on Prince Charles’ attack on the food industry. Backing up what we at BigBarn (Social Enterprise), have been saying for years. So here is our take on what is wrong with the anti-social, food industry, why local is better, and how we are going to build a better, more social, local, food industry.

The Prince sent us a letter of encouragement 7 years ago and I hope he has watched our progress and, perhaps, read a few BigBarn blogs for inspiration! It is fantastic that in a position of power he gives his unbiased opinion on food and farming, and raises awareness as the media report.

There is little doubt that something is wrong with the food industry, with; obesity, continuing food scares, and farmers, on average, only getting 9p in every £1 spent on food in a supermarket.

So here are some BigBarn blogs on this subject. Including; what is wrong, why local is better and how to encourage people to change, and divert as much of the £120billion spent with supermarkets, to local communities, with massive social benefit:

Blogs on what is wrong:

Shocked to see horse meat in ready meals?

Will middlemen destroy the food Industry?

Misleading Food Advertising

Blogs on why local food is better

Really Fresh, healthy, Asparagus

Growing & eating local food to enthuse kids and get them healthy

BigBarn About us video

Family Farm Shop

Blogs on how we can change

Getting people enthused about cooking

BigBarn on Radio 4 & our strategy for change

In Summary: Big business and retailers have disconnected consumers from producers and many people have become semi addicted to the simple, one stop shop. Unfortunately this has led to farmers getting a very low price and consumers buying the wrong foods at high prices.

Luckily local food suppliers are offering a better alternative with cheaper, fresher, food, and knowledge. BigBarn is here to raise awareness to local food and encourage more people to break their one stop shop addiction and buy from, and communicate with, their local suppliers.

We live in a green and pleasant land perfect for growing food. Let’s switch to local and help build a more sustainable, social, food industry.

Win a copy of the amazing Nibble Gobble Munch book

Here is a book that will help youngsters learn new and good habits and get enthused about food. Especially good local food, growing, cooking and eating!

This book describes itself as a ‘pop-up feast’ and it’s a claim it lives up to. Do you know the role of fibre in your diet? How cells divide? What are the food groups? What do each of the vitamins do? All the answers and more are to be found in this book in a fun and interactive way.

The French are already using the book in schools so it must be good!

To win a copy email the answer to the question below and 5 correct entries will be randomly selected to each receive a copy of the book.

Question: In how many countries has the book been published?

For more information, buy for your school, and to find the answer click here

To enter email info@bigbarn.co.uk

Misleading food advertising

Fresh local veg

Getting ready for work this morning I spotted two very dodgy TV adverts. Tesco ‘price promise’ and Walkers crisps.

Misleading because those watching will think Tesco must be ‘cheapest’ when on many products local suppliers are cheaper due to a shorter supply chain.

And Walkers, claiming they are a caring company, by sourcing flavouring ingredients from British producers. Quality crisp makers like Pipers, Fairfields, Just Crisps, Burts and Corkers have been doing this for years.

A few years ago pressure from these high quality crisp makers made Walkers switch from frying their crisps in Palm Oil, high saturated fat, to the much healthier, sunflower oil.

When Walkers ran an advertising campaign about the switch it was cut short when people like me asked why it had taken them so long!

So please ignore these dodgy adverts and shop locally to find better, fresher, food that is normally cheaper than the supermarket. And ask questions to get the facts and the story behind the food you buy and feed to your family.

Grow your own and Crop for the Shop

1942 Poster

Grow your own is growing in popularity. Even the government are now telling us to Grow our own to avert food shortages.

In these austere times should we all start growing our own to save money? Or is growing food more about enjoying the satisfaction of planting a seed and slowly watching it turn in to delicious food?

At this time of year asparagus is the god of fresh vegetables and a shining example of how quickly a food can spoil as time passes after picking. Sweetcorn is the same, my friend Nick insists that his wife has the water boiling before picking his corn, and removing the husk as he runs back to the kitchen!

Really fresh sweet corn

This is the kind of passion and enthusiasm we Brits need to feel about our food, and I am sure that growing food helps. Certainly the project we ran with a primary school proved this, with kids who said they hated vegetables munching on raw carrots they had grown. Click here for the video.

At BigBarn we are keen for everyone to have a go at growing food and even start trading it locally with our Crop for the shop scheme. All part of our mission to build a social, LOCAL, food industry, as an alternative to the anti-social national one, that gives neither producers, or consumers, a good deal.

There is no doubt that by cooking and eating fresh fruit and veg, half this country’s population would become more healthy, and save money. Seasonal vegetables are normally very reasonably priced compared to a ready meal, or imported food, especially if sourced locally.

A home baked potato could cost around 5p compared to a McCane ready made one, in a box, for 50p. Likewise a soup made from chopped mixed veg and some stock cubes will be a fraction of the cost of tinned soup and much more nutritious.

BigBarn Local food map with icons & rosette flag

Growing veg can also kindle some artistic flair like my bean pole wigwam made from willow poles pruned from a local overgrown willow tree.

So there are now 4 reasons to grow your own; save money, get healthy, get enthused and artistic accolade, and, make money by selling your veg through local shops.

To find these shops look for icons marked with a rosette on BigBarn, if your local food shop is not flagged with a rosette, or not on BigBarn, please tell them all about us.

Asparagus now in season, at last!

Has spring finally sprung now Asparagus are appearing? What better way to celebrate the change of the season with fresh, delicious, healthy, local, or home grown, asparagus.

Asparagus is best eaten within 2 hours from picking. The longer you leave it the more the natural sugars turn to starch and the base becomes stringy and inedible. So now is the time to find your local Asparagus grower and gorge yourself on really fresh shoots, or buy crowns and create your own asparagus bed for a crop in 2 years. You could even make money by selling your excess through local shops via our Crop for the Shop initiative. For Monty Don video on this click here.

If like me you are lucky enough to have an Asparagus bed you will cutting selected tips already, 4 weeks later than last year.  I planted my beds 3 years ago and can only pick until the 1st June (next year mid June).  They are delicious and incredibly sweet and tender if picked and cooked straight away.

I will be filling in any gaps this year with new crowns and hoping to try out some new recipes so that we can gorge on the crop and not get bored of such a healthy vegetable.

To find your local grower click here, to buy online click here, for Asparagus crowns click here and for recipes click here and type ‘Asparagus’ in the search box.

Getting people enthused about food and cooking

We have great food in this green and pleasant land, more varieties of cheese than the french, and hundreds of hours of cookery programmes on the TV.

So why can’t we Brits get more enthused about food, and cooking? Perhaps this video will help?

Not terribly British but inspiring all the same. Buying and cooking food should not be a ‘drudge’. Don’t believe the TV adverts, and the shelf space devoted to ready meals. Yes, we are all busy and work lots of hours, but let’s finish the day with a great meal, around the table with the whole family swapping stories about the day, congratulating the cook, and perhaps, even discussing the ingredients!

So what will make us change? The Horse meat scandal has made many more people think, and talk about, where their food comes from. More people have given up ready meals to cook from basic ingredients, and are pleasantly surprised to find they are saving money.

A butcher told me last week that a few young people had come in the shop and could not believe how cheap, lean mince, was, and were enthusiastically discussing what they were going to cook with it. Is this the Jamie Oliver generation?

If we can get cooking, and growing, food in schools perhaps a new food era is not far away. See our school food growing video here.

To help, BigBarn is here to help people find the freshest, best, ingredients, celebrate the seasons, (still waiting for asparagus), videos and recipes, and the story behind the food for the dinner table conversation!

If anyone has a story on how your family, or friends, get enthusiastic about food and cooking, your feedback is very welcome below.

Big thanks to BBC Radio 4 ‘You and Yours’

Our big thanks to BBC Radio 4′s You and Yours for including us in their piece about people saving money by leaving the supermarket and shopping locally. If you missed it you can listen again here and scroll forward to 37.14 minutes to get to the bit with local food and BigBarn.

Unfortunately the Scottish Power story took up some of the time allocated for the local food story. (Rather ironic that another big corporate rip off stopped listeners hearing about ways to fix the rip offs in the very corporate food industry). So here is the bit we were hoping to include, befor the microphone was switched off!

Our mission is reconnect consumers with producers to encourage trade and communication, and build trust.

Since BigBarn started 12 years ago we have seen BSE, Foot & Mouth, Salmonella & now Horsemeat, all consequences of a profit focused, long supply chain, national food industry.

I am sure we will get more food scares decaying trust in the supermarkets and food industry.

To me this is very exciting as after 12 years of harping on about why we should buy local food, people are now finding out that it is cheaper, and better.

In the long term, we want to divert as much of the £120b spent with supermarkets to local producers and retailers, as possible, with massive social benefits to all.

Family Farm Shop

To do this our strategy is;

1. To build a database of local food outlets that is constantly updated, by those listed, using their passwords.

2. Display the database on maps, on BigBarn, and as many partner websites as we can find.

3. Give consumers reasons to shop with their local suppliers including cheaper than the supermarket and crop for the shop, where you can earn from what you grow.

We now have 7,000 local food outlets on BigBarn, with more signing up to have an icon on our local food map every day. 460 have set up online shops in our online MarketPlace and 90 other websites have our map on their websites to help more people find local food. Thousands of consumers visit BigBarn every day, 19,000 get our newsletter, and some have even joined the food industry through our Crop for the Shop scheme.

We want to build a local food industry where local shops have lots of local food and can tell the story about that food.

BigBarn Local food map with icons & rosette flag

As a Social Enterprise we hope that everyone can get involved, and help build their own local food community.

If you want to help you can:

- Grow your own and sell via icons marked on our map with a Rossette
- Register for our free post code specific emailed newsletter with local news and special offers
- Tell your local producers and retailers to join us and add their details, news, online shop, offers, video +++

It’s all there, let’s make it happen and save money!

Our thanks to The Mail on Sunday

Our big thanks to the Mail on Sunday for the article about BigBarn. Anyone who missed it can click here.

We hope the article will help more people find BigBarn, read our mission, and use our local food map to switch from the supermarket to buying local. We realise that change from the convenient ‘one stop shop’ is a difficult one. So recommend a slow transition to just buying meat from the butcher, or fresh veg from the farm shop, and leaving the supermarket for everything else, once a month.

So please tell your friends, or impress them at your next dinner party with great food and the story behind where it came from and how it was produced!