The River Stour Festival have been collaborating with Tim Nash from Tensheds Bakery in Sible Hedingham to create The Hedingham Loaf that he also calls Stourdough! Over the past month Tim has gathered wheat from Great Lodge Farm which is within sight of Hedingham Castle. He collected it in his paniers directly from the combine harvester and cycled it straight to Alderford Water Mill in Sible Hedingham where he ground it into flour using a hand mill. He then made a sourdough starter from this flour and water drawn from a local bore hole, which he’ll leave for a week to ten days to start fermenting. To make the loaves he’ll only need one more ingredient, salt, that will travel the furthest at 21 miles, from Maldon Salt. Now that truly is a local loaf and in the ethos of our 30 Days 30 Miles campaign.
To have a taster of the bread, and perhaps and pint of beer, please join us at Tim’s local public house, The Bell in Castle Hedingham. The actual loaves will be ready later in September.
River Stour Festival Apple Day
Come along and have fun making apple juice. You can bring your own apples to squeeze and there will apples from a local orchard available @ £1 per kg.
Suitable for all ages, children must be supervised. Bring your own bottles!
Part of 30 Days 30 Miles, sourcing food and drink locally in the Stour Valley, September 2021
The River Stour Festival has a new initiative for 2021 and invites you to take part whether you are someone who loves to eat good food, a grower or producer. 30 Days 30 Miles – Tastes from the Stour Valley encourages everyone to source their food more locally, support small and independent businesses and help care for our local landscape and health of the planet. We believe that it will be possible to source a good portion of what we eat from within a 30 miles radius of where we live throughout the 30 days in September.
The aims of the project are to:
form a network of growers and producers working in the valley
develop an awareness of where to source local food and drinks
encourage people to grow and forage their own food
further an understanding of the seasonal aspect of growing
connect with nature to help slow climate change locally and globally
together keep our local landscape an outstanding area of natural beauty
encourage a reduction of our individual carbon footprints and plastic usage
As a local food producer, shop or trader we invite you to be a part of our online local register, that includes a map to help shoppers discover what is on their doorstep, reduce food miles supporting local businesses. As a local resident we encourage you to use this register to help source your food in a more sustainable way and welcome you to add to the list so that we can all share and take part in this initiative. We also invite submissions to our blog and your events and promotions, through our festival mailing list and social media platforms.
If you would like to participate please drop us a line at riverstourfestival@gmail.com
