FOOD producers are getting ready for an annual get-together.
Green Valley Grocer in Slaithwaite has organised a series of events in the run-up to the third Colne Valley Local Food Festival next month.
Foragers can pick blackberries, rosehips, mushrooms and wild herbs for their lunch during a wild food walk today.
Alan Scully will lead the ramble from opposite Green Valley Grocer on Carr Lane at 2pm.
Green Valley Grocer is also hosting a series of Meet the Producer events in the run-up to the festival.
Rachel Liles from Longley Farm, Peter Sargent, a garden grower from Netherton, and Yvonne Kilvington, who produces honey in Slaithwaite, will take questions from 2pm to 7pm on Thursday, August 30.
They will be followed from 2pm to 5pm on Wednesday, September 5 by Mike Shaw, producer of Scape Honey, and Carl Warburton, who makes Pextenement Cheese in Todmorden.
The following day customers can meet Michael Blake, who grows food on a Slaithwaite allotment, and Rob North of Holmfirth’s Pure North Cider Press between 2pm and 7pm.
The food festival itself will take place on Sunday, September 9 in Slaithwaite’s main car park on New Street.
Green Valley Grocer will be open from 11am to 4pm during the event.
Onita Harrison of Holmfirth Tea and the Briggs family of Far Wortshill Farm outside Slaithwaite – who produce milk for the shop – will be in the shop to talk about their work.
Green Valley Grocer’s local food co-ordinator Marie-Claire Kidd said: “On festival Sunday people can taste a refreshing brew and meet the farmers who produce our milk – a supplier we’re particularly proud of in the light of recent controversy over milk prices.”
Ange Dews, who works at the shop and grows some of the fruit and vegetables sold there, added: “Customers can taste the food, meet the people who produce it and ask any questions they like.
“It’s a way of connecting people with what they buy and increasing sales of local food, which are two of our main aims.”
