Guy Robinson
Senior Director, Head of Residential Agency
From growing-your-own to responsible sourcing, more people are ditching plastic wrapped products in favour of a fresher flavours and healthier living.
Growing your own
From potted plants to lush allotments, growing your own food is good for you, good for the environment and even good for your bank balance. And you don’t need a massive garden to produce top quality carrots – just some green fingers.
There are few things better than the first strawberry of the season or cooking with home grown onions – it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a balcony, a small suburban garden or have finally got to the front of the queue for an allotment. You don’t even need to be a keen gardener.
Tam Cowell-Vu and her partner, Mark Cowell, started off with “no gardening experience” and just a couple of plant pots before graduating to an allotment.
They now run their own small holding that has a vegetable garden, pigs, and a microbrewery. The venture has been so fruitful that they have enough food to feed the regular Black Pig Supper Club.
Tam told us: “We were looking for the best tasting fruit, vegetables, eggs, pork and honey for ourselves and our family. And it just expanded from there. There was a lot of trial and error, but now we’re producing 800 jars of honey a year and enough fruit and vegetables to feed 45 people a week.
And it’s not just the tasty benefits Tam and her family enjoy, it’s the peace and tranquillity of being in the garden, whether doing weeding or picking fresh fruit.
“You can get lost in the garden for an hour or two,” she says. “It provides a sense of well-being and is the best medicine.”
Tam and Mark aren’t the only ones looking to turn their property into a somewhere that can make us healthier. Our Housing Futures report found that 41% of us would consider a Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) House. These are homes that meet our desire to interact with the outdoors and grow fruit and veg.
One of the other hidden benefits of growing-your-own is that it can save you money. Brits save around £268 a year growing their own, The Edible Garden Show claims. Saving money came out as the top reason for growing, followed by health and taste benefits.
Farmers markets and food festivals
With food provenance becoming more important, local farmers markets and food festivals can help you discover not just where your food comes from, but who is producing it and how it’s made.
Farmer’s markets are a great place to not only source local food but also learn something about your local suppliers – from whether they’re organic to how far they’ve travelled.
Their popularity has boomed as people become more interested in their dinner’s origin. A Barclays’ survey found that 68% of us are concerned about animal welfare when buying British produce.
And the beauty of festivals and markets is that you can now find them in most small towns across the country – and we’re getting more every week. The Kent Farmers Market Association reported that six new markets open up in the county every year.
While your local town will no doubt have its own market, there are certain extra special ones worth seeking out, like the regular Stroud market or The Good Sheds in Canterbury, a rare indoor market set up to support local cottage industries.
We also recommend The Great Dorset Chilli Festival for a spicy day out and the Nottingham Food Festival, both taking place this August.
And if you’re living in Essex, you’re in for a treat. Not only does it have Jimmy’s Harvest Festival, run by TV chef Jimmy Doherty to bring together local producers and celebrity chefs, it’s also home to a number of great local markets.
A survey for the East of England Co-op found that 28% of locals had bought locally-grown produce during the previous week, compared to 25% nationwide. It also found that 59% of people in Essex think it’s important to buy local.
Where to buy
You don’t have to get your fingers dirty or even put your wellies on to get freshly grown, locally-sourced food. With vegetable boxes, local delis and farm-to-fork restaurants available almost everywhere, it’s easy to find out where your brunch, lunch and dinner originated.
We live in a world where convenience is key. But the need to have the best products on your doorstep while also wanting to buy ethically can often clash.
But in recent years, smaller local stores have started selling more organic and locally-grown produce to meet this demand. Figures from WRAP show that the purchasing of fresh fruit and vegetables from smaller stores has risen from 4% of all shops in 2000 to 10% in 2014.
Vegetable box schemes, meanwhile, are also growing in popularity. According to the Soil Association, they account for £236m of organic sales - an increase of 9.1% on last year.
While you can buy pretty much any fruit or vegetable from a major supermarket at any time of the year, box schemes provide us with what is in season.
It’s a way of eating that is more in harmony with the natural cycle. Instead of importing strawberries from far-away lands in September, we instead dine on freshly-plucked English apples.
They also help make people more adventurous in their dining habits. Out go the safe options like broccoli and green beans, and in come seasonal asparagus and heritage carrots.
Even the big supermarkets are embracing the trend, with Asda trialling wonky vegetable boxes full of produce classed as being too ugly for the store’s shelves – even if they do taste exactly the same.
And it’s not just retail that’s embracing its local farms. Restaurants are too. Jar Kitchen, in the heart of London’s Covent Garden, sources all its produce from local companies and farms while often making its own yoghurt, granola and kombucha.
Owner, Lucy Brown, says: “Farm-to-fork eating is a trend that can be seen everywhere from TV shows like the Great British Bake Off to young bloggers posting recipes online. I think part of the appeal is that it takes us back to the home cooked meals of our childhood, before processed meals.
“On top of that, people are also taking more interest in the environment. It’s so much better to buy local as it leaves less of a carbon footprint and helps support small independent businesses.
“Many of our customers won’t have the time to be sourcing local food – so we do it for them. Our new supper club, called Land, helps celebrate one central ingredient.”