THIS year’s Somerset Food Trail, from 14th to 30th July, builds on the success of the inaugural 2022 event, with more than 170 producers and retailer, 350-plus events and 100 venues taking part in the fortnight-long programme of dinners, farm walks, open days, tastings and more.
The headline theme of The Mile Feast is a challenge to produce menus that are sourced entirely locally so expect some wonderful Somerset food, from charcuterie to cider, from Bath to Taunton, Felthams Farm to Yeo Valley.
Here are just a small selection of what’s on offer – for more, visit https://www.somersetfoodtrail.org/
• Peasey Farm at Bawdrip, a small, family farm with on-site shop will be serving a 30-Mile Feast on Saturday 15th, from 4-8 pm for 100 people;
• Restaurant critic and writer William Sitwell is teaming up with neighbouring farm Westcott Organics for a designer lunchtime BBQ on Friday 28th;
• The Castle at Taunton (whose head chef Andrew Swann won the Trencherman Award for best chef in the SW) is planning a wine tasting to accompany their special feast;
• The Temperleys will host picnics and performance in their orchards at Burrow Hill, Kingsbury Episcopi, on both Saturdays. No need to book unless you want a guided tour and tasting. To organise a tour and tasting, please email orders@nullsomersetciderbrandy.com
• Award-winning cheesemakers Feltham’s Farm will have a feast cooked by Lucas Hollweg and Lucie Reader with a talk on 13 Foods that Shape Our World, by Food Programme writer Alex Renton at Felthams Farm near Wincanton, with meat, veg and cheese from their own 22 acres, on Friday 14th;
• Pomona Supper Club in Frome, set in a beautiful garden on the river Frome, where guests will dine on long tables at a set four-course feasting menu, which will finish with a local cheese paired with a glass of Pomona (Somerset Cider Brandy); cocktails and& carefully selected wines available; on 27th-29th July;
• Ceramicist Richard Pomeroy will host an intimate dinner at his house in Bruton, surrounded by his porcelain, and with a pot for every guest, on Thursday 20th;
• The Pig near Bath is hosting dinner in the Garden Room on Friday 21st July, an evening of wood oven dining paired with English wines from Limeburn Hill in Chew Magna, Aldwick Estate in Chew Blagdon and Minerva Wines in Bath; price includes pre-dinner piggy bits and fizz, coffee and piggy fours;.
• Paddington Farm Trust, Glastonbury, has farm tours and apple juice tastings on both Tuesdays at this wonderful, volunteer-run farm;
• Yeo Valley has a Supper Club with a Somerset Feast, while the Garden Cafe features a Somersetsourced menu on 20th to 22nd July;
• 42 Acres, the wellness centre and regenerative farm at Witham Friary near Frome, is offering an interactive wander around the ornamental gardens to sample edible stems, leaves, fruits, seeds and flowers. Visitors can take an edible mini-safari of the Food Philosophy Beds, designed to tell the story of Soil to Gut, with an opportunity to try home-grown and wild foraged teas, created from their agri-wilding site. There will be cake! 25th July.
Pictured: 42 Acres; a festive lunch and entertainment in the cider orchards at Burrow Hill; Wildings Cider Orchard: Richard Pomeroy’s pots.