Have you ever wanted to cure and smoke your own meat and fish? Well, if so then why not let Mrs B show you how.

Things have been pretty quiet for Mrs Bradshaw lately (with only a new baby to contend with) so she is making the leap into the unknown to begin something new and rather exciting.  She has, over the years, became rather adept at turning what we have into something tasty. In particular she has become exeptionally good at smoking and curing meat and fish. In our efforts to buy British this gives us some variety when most of the available products of this nature back are still imported from Europe.  Following the conclusion of our year buying only British some of our eating habits changed but this desire to cure and smoke meat, fish and cheese (and all sorts else) endured.

As a teacher by day, Emily’s passion for passing on knowledge is almost in-built. So, she has decided to begin courses in Kent to teach other people how to take great quality local produce and transform it into cured, smoked and dried delights with little more than the contents of their kitchen, and one or two bits from the shed.  The courses will be a one day beginner sessions to start with as an introduction to the basics, with no more than 6 cooks at a time joining her to make sure that everyone can ask all the questions they want and that everyone gets a hands on experience.

For more details of what the course entails please do have a look at her new website, rather aptly named www.britishfamilyfood.co.uk

Competition Time!!!!

If you hurry there is still the chance to win your place completely free on the course taking place on 22nd April simply by signing up to the website mailing list at www.britishfamilyfood.co.uk/subscribe

It is a scary thing to start something new but she is a great cook and an even better teacher, so if you love good food and want to know more join her and I know you won’t be disappointed. Please share the message with friends and family and help her to keep promoting local ingredients and great traditional preserving methods.

James

This is just a quick post to thank those that supported the new format British Family Fayre for a 3^rd successful year. This time we attracted over 10,000 visitors for, what became 2 glorious days of celebrating British manufacturing.

I will admit that we were very nervous of the new format.  Moving it from our home town of Westerham to Chatham Dockyard and spreading it over 2 days instead of one were big risks. In reality, it was going to me a make or break event for us and I am very pleased to announce that, with the help of Lincoln West, we pulled it off yet again.

Getting businesses to buy into the event is always the hardest part. Convincing businesses that it is worth their time trekking down (or up) to the wilds of Kent is no mean feat. Even with each year being more successful than the last, it is a real struggle and sometimes it makes us feel like throwing in the towel. It feels like if we did it in London we would get far more support from business but we know that we would get nowhere near the number of visitors. However, once we have spent the day celebrating and spreading the ‘buy British’ message to thousands of happy families it all seems worth while.

So, what about next year? We have not spoken to our events company about this yet but we will go out on a limb and say that, yes, there will be a forth year. We will see you in 2016!

– James & Emily Bradshaw

NOTE: We are just producing a video blog of the event and compiling more photos. We will post them shortly.

We have always tried to steer our message away from direct political discussion. My feeling was that to discuss our own politics or use our platform to influence specific party agendas would likely polarise our audience. So when I was asked to speak at the Change-How event today in Islington, North London,  I had to really think about whether or not this was something I wanted to take part in. Ultimately, I decided to go for it and after being involved today I am glad I did.

The Change-How conference is a billed as a political festival where activists, social reformers and prominent political influencers congregate to discuss their causes with nearly 1000 other people.  I am not sure I would call myself an activist but I decided to stand up and regale our message of celebrating British manufacturing and farming… and thankfully it seemed to be well received.

I was part of a two-way ‘accidental’ discussion with a writer and documentary maker, Michael Smith. Our loose theme was on what it means to be British. In 15 minutes were were unlikely to settle this question but I suppose our conclusion was that Britishness was likely to mean something different to most people. Britain is a mongrel nation that that has soaked up many external influences over the past 2000 years or more and perhaps it is this diversity of influence which differentiates us from other nations.

Of course the discussion eventually turned to politics and it is clear that I have a slightly more optimistic standpoint about future of Britain than my debating partner. Michael was somewhat more cynical and perhaps a little more gloomy about the Britain that our children face.  We continued the discussion at the bar after our time in the spotlight in a further attempt to set the world to rights. I am still not sure we uncovered an ultimately mutual consensus about that nature of Britishness. I am not sure it really mattered.

Over the course of the 4 hours I stayed at the Change-How conference I managed to catch a number of the other discussions going on. I was struck by the energy of some people to enact social change and came away greatly inspired by the passion with which everybody put forward their vision to make a difference. I only hope that I delivered a similar passion for our cause and inspired others consider their own communities by investing in their local British manufacturers and farmers.

– James

Michael Smith is the creator of the 2008 documentary exploring the subject of Britishness. Various clips can be found on YouTube, including this one:

It has been touch and go as to whether we would do the British Family Fayre for another year. Each year the event takes up so much of our family life (and the time of Lincoln West who help us for free).  It is incredibly stressful getting 6o+ manufacturers and farmers from around the country and 1000’s of visitors to congregate in one place for the day. That being said we are doing it again but with some major changes… hopefully for the better.

The British Family Fayre will not be taking place in our home town of Westerham this year. This is the biggest change, and perhaps the saddest. Why is this? Well, let’s just say that there will be certain officials  in the town that will not share our sadness.

However, the historic Chatham Dockyard has come to our rescue and we have negotiated that they host us as part of their Salute the the 1940’s, an event which already attracts over 10,000 people each year. We hope the manufacturers that support us will reach a far wider audience through this platform, while also offering them a few more sales too.

The second change is that the British Family Fayre will now be over 2 days in September. Many of those that have exhibited with us have specifically asked for us to extend the number of days we ran the event over. This will indeed add a new and exiting dimension to the event.

What has not changed is the fact this is still a celebration of UK manufacturing and farming and that the event is still not-for-profit set up entirely to help and promote British industry.

For more information please visit www.britishfamilyfayre.co.uk.

See you in September!

– James & Emily Bradshaw (& the team at Lincoln West)

P.s. I would like to thank Henry Warde, his family and his team at Squerryes for hosting us over the last 2 years. We are forever indebted for their support. Oh!… and please try their Sparkling wine.. it’s rather good!