Somerset Local Food Direct

Recently we have been working with Somerset Local Food Direct to market and sell our produce. They are an organisation set up to revitalise rural economies by supporting local, small-scale social and traditional growers, farms and independent food and drink producers across Somerset. With the aim of sustaining existing employment and creating new jobs for local people. Working with them provides us with another opportunity to reach a new market and find new customers. As part of the main website, we have a Godney Aquaponics page and this tells potential buyers of our produce a bit about us and the range of products we have forsale. 

As part of introduction to the organisation, they organised an evening visit, for employees, volunteers and customers to come out and see our operation.

It was a most enjoyable evening, with lots of chat about the subject close to all our hearts - local food!!

The aim of the organisation is to enable affordable fresh, local and healthy produce and provide a friendly home delivery service direct to homes within communities across Somerset. They have a variety of local producers, which sell a range of local products, from meats to greens.

During the evening we had the opportunity to talk to current and potential customers about some of unusual vegetables that we are currently growing, such as agretti.

The new Italian delicacy, known in English as 'Saltwort'. With a flavour described as a chivey samphire it has a mildly salty, mineral tang, similar to that of a succulent spinach. Its fleshy needle-shaped leaves are traditionally served with olive oil and lemon, but are also fantastic when steamed and served with a sweet and sour sauce or lentils.

Outside Melv showed us the red orach, often known as red spinach, but has a sweeter taste when cooked, with a slightly mineral flavour and a hint of fennel. This orach is smoother and silkier than spinach, but like spinach, releases considerable liquid when heated, tinting surrounding ingredients a delicate shade of pink.

Somerset Local Food Direct is a Community Benefit Society owned and financed by the local community. They are committed to promoting the abundance of beautiful local food produced and made by Somerset’s local producers.

As a new business we enjoyed the opportunity to talk to people who were interested in what we were trying to achieve and some of the obstacles that we faced. Being part of this unusual organisation that fits so well with our own objectives has given us a much wider reach to people who will potentially be supportive and valuable local customers. They recognise that it is vital that small, often specialist, local food and drink producers have access to a wider customer base than they can supply just through farm-gate sales and attending local markets.

Conversations around the compost heap were around how important it is to know where your food comes from, who produced it, how they produced it, exactly what went into it and how it helps both the environment and the local economy. 

Melv explained the scale of our operation and we both reinforced the importance of the role that Somerset Local Food provides as the essential organising link between producers and customers. The service they provide is to organise a weekly order cycle which closes at 9am on Tuesday morning, when they collate all of the customers’ orders and contact us as one of the suppliers to gather together our part of the orders. We then harvest and deliver to the warehouse where it is boxed up and delivered to the customers' door on Thursday or Friday of the same week, in time for the weekend - brilliant.