BACK British Farming

Today in London, thousands of farmers have descended on the Capital to protest against the changes to inheritance tax revealed in the recent Labour budget. As a British manufacturer based in Felsted, North East Essex, we are proud supporters of British Farming and believe in the exceptional quality of British produce so we wanted to share some of the ways we can all support farming in this country.

Eating seasonal fruit and veg ultimately means you are consuming fresher, taster and far more nutritious foods. The produce isn’t travelling from long distances and therefore won’t be covered in unnecessary pesticides, waxes and other preservatives so the food will be far better for you.

This alone should be reason enough for us all to take a closer look at where our produce comes from, but in recent years, the accessibility of any and all foods we want to eat has become easier to find as the import of fruit and veg to satisfy all year round access to anything at any time. This comes at a great cost to our British Farmers.

The National Trust has a great calendar of seasonal fruit and veg that is broken down into months so you can see what is in season and also what you should be planting if you’re growing your own.

Wherever possible you can search out local farm shops where you will find locally produced goods, near us in Felsted Essex we are lucky to Priors Hall Farm, Deersbrook Farm and Great Garnetts Farm who all have a wonderful selection of local, fresh fruit and veg, meat and eggs.

We also love Riverford who provide seasonal fruit and veg boxes, all farm fresh and with free delivery to your door if you don’t have a farm shop nearby.

The beef ragù above was made with Essex grass-fed beef from Deersbrook Farm. A real treat to enjoy on a weekend evening perhaps especially with some papardelle pasta or mashed potatoes.

The time for change really is now and it’s actually really easy. Use local producers wherever you can, and if you do use supermarkets make sure you buy British and watch out for the fake farms made up to sound more appealing – there is a very good article on farm-washing on the BBC website here.

Mushrooms are very much in season now so this baked mushroom risotto is the perfect dish for a wet and windy November evening and so easy too.

By taking the time to think about how and where we buy produce is the first important step we can all make. At Humphrey Munson eating seasonally is very much a part of our ethos. To help inspire you, we’ve shared some recipes that can help you make the most of British produce within this blog post but we have so many more on the blog here.

BACK BRITISH FARMING