Ledbury Big Breakfast is coming!

One of Ledbury’s popular events – the Ledbury Big Breakfast – is taking place over Friday 31^st January, Saturday 1^st and Sunday 2^nd February 2025.

Annie-makes-porridge-old-style-on-the-Aga-at-the-Trumpet-Tearoom — Annie at the Aga at the Trumpet Tearoom

Local shops, cafes, hotels and other food outlets in and around Ledbury are challenged to come up with special breakfast offerings for you featuring locally produced food to brighten a winter’s day.

Breakfasts can be big or small, traditional or newly invented, to be enjoyed in our local eating places or taken home for enjoyment. Many venues will provide vegan, vegetarian and gluten free options – please check with them.

Last year you could have savoured Hot Breakfast Sandwiches, American Pancakes, Devilled Kidneys, Bacon Rolls, Eggs Royale, Benedict or Florentine, French Toast and Caramelised Bananas, a Pancake Tower, Bacon Rolls, Huevos Rancheros, Smoked Salmon, Brioche Butties, Porridge Brulé, local breads and cheese and, of course the traditional English Breakfast in all sizes and variations.

Local butchers, delicatessens and the Country Market will feature local produce for you to take home – and perhaps some breakfast specials for the event!

Granola-served-by-Izzy-at-the-Nest. — Granola served by Izzy at the Nest.

The Big Breakfast brings cheer at the darkest time of the year, with a positive message about the qualities of our local produce and food offerings. We also celebrate the importance – and on this occasion pleasure – of starting the day with a satisfying breakfast.

Why not use the event as an opportunity to go out with your neighbours, friends or colleagues?

Full details of all our businesses taking part, their special offerings and which days these will be on sale will be available on this website from mid-January.

Things can be busy particularly on the Saturday – many venues will take reservations to make things easier. A number will be now open on the Sunday.

Put a note in your diary to enjoy a scrumptious Ledbury breakfast, and please also help Ledbury Food Bank if you can. Find out how at www.ledburyfoodbank.org.

We look forward to seeing you!

November 8, 2024

Ledbury Food Conversation and “Six Inches of Soil”

The Conversation – We promised to come back to you with the conclusions of an exciting session we held with Herefordshire Food Alliance and Sustainable Ledbury in June as part of the National Food Conversation and Ledbury’s Great Big Green Week.

A well filled Burgage Hall enjoyed a hearty snack of 100% Herefordshire soup, local cheeses, bread and chutneys put us in the mood. We then got stuck in to conversation about our food system. A video set the scene and we then heard from two local producers about where they are in the ‘food system’.

What do people want? Well, after looking at many things working, and not working about food right now it was pretty hard to whittle down the very many thoughts in the room but a few themes seemed to run across all the tables and chats.

Policy change – regulating ultra processed foods, and supporting both independent and local food production. But a clear call for policy to be co-created by ALL of us!
Education – for everyone, really, but some talk of schools and also examples of where this is going well locally.
Change in supermarket practices – people shared stories of farmers being let down on crops, and prices they’re paid being too low – with a suggestion that changing their practices is something that customers do have some control over.Thanks to everyone who contributed to the conversation – we all learned something from the evening. Special thanks to Herefordshire Food Alliance for moderating the evening.
What’s next?

We talked in June about how our food is grown and the fertility of the soil.

We are taking this theme further with a showing of the film “Six Inches of Soil” on the evening of 27^th January at the Burgage Hall, Church Lane, Ledbury with partners Herefordshire Food Alliance and Sustainable Ledbury.

This film tells story of remarkable farmers, communities, small businesses, chefs and entrepreneurs who are leading the way using ‘regenerative’ farming techniques that work in harmony with, rather than against nature. It focuses on local food systems and shorter supply chains.

There will be plenty of opportunity to follow up on the themes of the film with questions and discussion.

There’s more about this film at https://www.sixinchesofsoil.org/story-of-the-film.

Further details of this evening event will be posted nearer the event.

And also for your diary…

The Ledbury Big Breakfast will take place in and around Ledbury over the weekend Friday 31^st January, Saturday 1^st and Sunday 2^nd February. Full details of participants and their offerings will be available here from mid-January.

Find out more about the National Food Conversation at https://thefoodconversation.uk/

October 9, 2024

Apples are big in Much Marcle this weekend – The Big Apple!

Cider presses are gearing up for action in this corner of Herefordshire, and Big Apple venues are standing by to welcome you to the Marcle Ridge on Saturday 12^th and Sunday 13^th October. The apple harvest will be in full swing – no matter which way you turn around Much Marcle, apples are everywhere! Not to mention pears – perry pears of course.

Eight familiar Big Apple venues, including Woodredding, Lyne Down, Hellens, Gregg’s Pit and Awnells Farm, alongside Westons Cider with their new sales area and tasting room, will be welcoming visitors to enjoy the orchards, see, hear and smell cider being made and taste many different varieties of apples, local ciders, perries and apple juices. And don’t miss apple teas at the Memorial Hall!

This year’s highlights include:

Giving a hand to press perry pears from the ancient avenue at Hellens Manor
Wheeling along with the Big Apple Bike Ride
Tasting ‘Five cheeses, four ciders and a perry’ hosted by Brian and Fran Robbins at Woodredding, with Dean Storey of Monkland Cheesemakers
Sessions on practical aspects of planting and pruning apple trees led by orchardist Martin Hayes
The chance to buy refurbished garden tools from Tools for Self Reliance Cymru
A talk from agronomist Matt Greep describing the ‘Friends and foes of an apple orchard’ – a ‘must’ for those who like to do things for themselves
Adam Wells talking about his recent book ‘Perry: a Drinker’s Guide’ alongside tastings of five Herefordshire perries
Gregg’s Pit offering a tutored tasting of three vintages of their single variety Thorn champagne perry.

There will be tasty food offers to tempt you and musical interludes including Ciderkin Session, Ross Folk Choir, Leominster Morris, Gidderskins and Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk are to be found in and around the different orchards.

Full details of venues including locations, parking, special events and advance booking (where required), can be found at https://www.bigapple.org.uk/harvestime/.

Once again, a tractor and trailer service will run between Westons and Awnells Farm, and the 232 Daffodil Line bus will provide a regular connection between Much Marcle and Ledbury, Newent and Ross-on-Wye.

The Big Apple is delighted to be working alongside others this year to place apples right at the heart of Herefordshire under the umbrella of Hereford AppleFest.

Information provided to us by The Big Apple Association.

July 29, 2024

Notice of our Annual General Meeting … and an Apology

We are holding our AGM on Monday 12^th August at 6.00pm at the Market House, High Street. Ledbury (upstairs).

You will be most welcome to join us for this important event. It’s an opportunity to find out who we are and meet the new committee for the year 2024/25.

We are always open to new ideas to support our aims of encouraging local food and drink production and retail.

Access the following papers for the meeting via the links:

We are hoping to provide Zoom access to this meeting.

…and an Apology

We apologise that due to technical problems our website has not been available for the last few weeks. The problems are now resolved.

Because of the problem, you may not have seen the blog on July’s successful Ledbury Celebration event – this is now available at Ledbury Celebration Beats The Weather.

July 11, 2024

Ledbury Celebration 2024 beats the Weather!

Early morning rain disappeared in time for everyone to sample this year’s Ledbury Celebration last Sunday (7th July), Ledbury’s celebration of local food and drink with music, poetry and our historic heritage on the last day of the Ledbury Poetry Festival. Only a short shower intervened.

Held in historic St Katherine’s, Ledbury, including the new St Katherine’s Square area, the event featured 17 local food and drink producers selling both street-food to enjoy on the spot and specialities to take home.

The entertainment “menu” included poets Freddie Barker, Emma Clowsley and Johnny Fluffypunk. The Poetry Busker spent the afternoon creating poems on demand on his 1930’s typewriter.

The music “courses” featured Four Crying Out Loud – Ledbury’s own fisherman’s quartet, The Hey Yahs Acoustic trio reviving old classics, Marie McMally enchanting with her sax, and The Banderos rocking the Blues as the start act of Ledbury Fringe week.

The Town Mayor of Ledbury, Councillor Stephen Chowns visited the event, meeting those taking part.

For youngsters Kid’s Kitchen was on hand encouraging an interest in cooking and for Ledbury residents with good memories Ledbury Carnival mounted an exhibition of “50 years of Carnival” – a reminder for this year’s Carnival on Monday 26^th August.

A raffle of prizes generously donated by local businesses raised over £60 for Ledbury Food Bank.

The day was brought to a colourful close by Ledbury Border Morris who demonstrated five traditional dances – in the sun!

This event was a partnership between Ledbury Food Group, Ledbury Poetry, and Ledbury Town Council.

Ledbury Food Group thanks everyone who made this year’s event a success – stallholders, volunteers, organising team, performers, funders and most importantly all those who came to the event.

We welcome feed-back and ideas for this event for the future – contact us at ask@ledburyfoodgroup.org or phone 01531 633637

This event is organised by Ledbury Food Group, Ledbury Poetry and Ledbury Town Council with help from Ledbury Fringe. It has received £1,500 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. We are also grateful for financial help from Ledbury Town Council and the Herefordshire Community Foundation.

June 19, 2024July 4, 2024

Ledbury Celebration – 7th July – full programme now available

The Ledbury Celebration on Sunday 7th July celebrates the local food and drink of Herefordshire and its neighbouring counties with an added menu of music, poetry and our historic heritage.

This year’s event again brings an outdoor market and street food to historic St Katherine’s, Ledbury next to the 15th century Master’s House, just off the High Street. The event runs from 11am to 4pm with entertainment from midday.

Local produce will be on sale either to eat and drink “on the go” or to take home to savour in slower time.

Producers and street-food specialists this year include:

Aseem & Asia’s Afghan Food – exotic bakery
Ali’s BBQ – charcoal grilled burgers
Berry’s Luxury Ice Cream – says it all
Continuum Conceits – desirable chocolate
Dizzy Dudes – Cocktails and Mocktails
Gregg’s Pit – prize-winning cider and perry
Kitchen Flowers – versatile food products from flowers
Ledbury Country Market – apple juice, honey, bakery
Little Marcle Organic Produce – fresh organic veg boxes
Molton Bene Pizza – fresh pizza
Monkland Cheese – cheese from Herefordshire
New Market House Café – Laszlo’s Goulash
Orchard Grove Preserves – local jams and chutneys
Seb’s Cider – traditional Herefordshire Cider
Whinny’s – coffee, teas, frappés and more
Wilce’s Ledbury Cider – our most local cider
Wykeham Gardens – plants for your garden

And we hope more!

In addition you will find:

Kid’s Kitchen introducing children to cooking
Sustainable Ledbury – find out about living more sustainably
Our own stand – ask us about local food
Herefordshire Food Alliance – find out about the national Food Conversation and getting informed about food issues
50 years of Ledbury Carnival exhibition – transport to the 1970s

Buy some food, find a seat and enjoy a special afternoon of entertainment

Ledbury Poetry has lined up special “al fresco” poetic performances during the event featuring:

At 12.45pm – Freddie Barker – Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2024-5 and a multimedia powerhouse creative.
At 1.45pm – Emma Clowsley – “unflinchingly honest, laugh out loud funny, and at times profoundly relatable.”
At 2.45pm – Jonny Fluffypunk – Stand-up poet, lo-fi theatre maker and self-made underachiever

And

Through the afternoon – Kornel Kossuth aka The Poetry Busker. Kornel writes poems on the spot on his 1935 Remington Portable for passers-by based on the topics and ideas given him. Your opportunity to influence a poem!

And a feast of musical entertainment…

At 12pm – Four Crying Out Loud – Since being formed in a desert of public anticipation, they have become Ledbury’s favourite Boy Band
At 1pm – The Hey Yahs will perform a mix of contemporary and classic covers to suit all tastes for you to sing and dance along with or just sit back and enjoy.
At 2pm – Marie McNally – a professional multi-instrumentalist with a great passion for music, especially the saxophone – will entertain with a mix of lively sax hits and her infectious energetic performance.
At 3pm – The Banderos – a dynamic and authentic blues band delivering the true essence & soul of the genre

And to end a special day…

At 3.40pm – Ledbury Border Morris will close the event with their unique blend of border counties traditional dances

And you can visit Ledbury’s heritage sites – the Church, The Heritage Centre and the Town itself, or book in for a session of poetry at Ledbury Poetry Festival on the last day of the festival. – Programme at https://ledburypoetry.org.uk/home/whats-on/

Can you help us at this event?

We always need help to prepare the site for the event and to take things down when it ends. We also need help with stewarding during the event. If you can help please ring Griff at 01531 633637 or email ledburycelebration@gmail.com. You will be valued!

This event is organised by Ledbury Food Group, Ledbury Poetry and Ledbury Town Council.

With financial help from Ledbury Town Council and:

June 4, 2024

What’s going on with Food?

We invite you to join the national Food Conversation at the Burgage Hall, Ledbury on Monday 10^th June from 7pm.

We are running with Herefordshire Food Alliance an evening of discussion to explore what you expect from government and business when it comes to food – and how the food system can deliver more for health, nature and climate.

A lot of people claim to know what ‘people’ think.

They say “people don’t want a nanny state” or “people choose to eat junk food” and don’t want to be told what to eat.

But has anybody ever asked you what you REALLY want from food.

Food production is subject to increasing challenges – flooding, crop failure, production costs, climate change – and issues about quality, distribution, price to consumers, nutritional value etc.

Join us with people whose role is to bring food to your table to explore issues and see how we can progress.

Place: Burgage Hall, Church Lane, Ledbury HR8 1DW

Time: Tasty local food from 7pm – Discussion/conversation from 7.30pm

Parking: Public car parks are free after 6pm – St Katherine’s and Bye Street are the nearest.

Free event – donations to Ledbury Food Bank appreciated.

The Food Conversation is run by the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission – more information can be found at https://thefoodconversation.uk/

This event takes place as part of The Ledbury Great Big Green Week.