David Shreeve's Creation Time 2011 Blog Number 3

David Shreeve's Creation Time 2011 blog number 3

An email arrived this week to let me know that Lincolnshire is the surprise winner of a public poll to find Britain’s Favourite Food Spot, seeing off tough competition from Cornwall and Hampshire.

The poll was conducted to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the national food celebration, British Food Fortnight, which starts this weekend. The story reported that an over-the-moon spokesman for Tastes of Lincolnshire, explained that they have the freshest and tastiest local food – premium sausages, delectable pork pies, Lincoln Red beef and the famous Lincolnshire plumb read, best enjoyed with Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese to name just a few of the local treats.  

Celebrating local food is just what twenty two members of the Church of England Bishops’ Environment Group did when they had a locally sourced breakfast in Oxford this week:

Eggs from Broughton Grounds Farm near Banbury (The farmer is a churchwarden at Broughton Church and his wife is a lay leader at the local Baptist church showing a good example of Churches Together working locally)

Bread and cereals made with flour milled at Wessex Mill, Wantage and grown on farms within the diocese.

Butter and Yoghurt made from Jersey Mill sourced from within the diocese and produced at the Upper Norton Dairy at Church Hamborough.                                  

Cheese made by the Crudge Family at Kingham from milk from the Over Norton Jersey Herd

Milk from a small family run organic herd at Great Rollright near Chipping Norton.

Apples from orchards in Nether Worton and Upper Heyford.

There was also jam and marmalade from South Oxfordshire, made by parishioners in the villages of Blewbury, East Hagbourne and Upton. All jams (except the elderflower honey which uses fruit sugar) use Fairtrade sugar and all apart from the marmalade made from local produce.

At Creation Time of all times it was good to show the Bishops just how local their breakfast could be and hopefully they will be thinking now how they can organise similar celebratory meals in their own dioceses.  When people question the relevance of harvest festivals with strawberries on sale all year round it is good to take the opportunity of Creation Time to celebrate how much creativity is going on around us.

Whilst the happy eaters of Lincolnshire celebrate, and our Bishops are back in their dioceses with fond memories of Oxfordshire, the 13^th Annual City Harvest Festival is celebrating London’s 16 city farms and more than 100 community gardens.  Visitors to the festival can see Golden Guernsey goats from Newham, honey from Walworth, pumpkins from Kentish Town, Indian runner ducks from Vauxhall, Bengali kerala from Shoreditch and blackcurrants from White City.

Add to all this positive news the mellow warmth of the Autumn sun and you can understand why for many people Creation Time can be a very special time.