Speciality Food Magazine June 2024

4 @specialityfood I was recently reading an article highlighting the fact that in Japan they embrace 72 micro seasons throughout the year. The thinking behind this, in horticultural terms, is that fleeting seasonal changes go hand-in-hand with gardening and the blooming of seasonal flowers. Each micro season lasts only five days and is associated with specific rituals, foods, flowers and festivals. In Japan they have a word for an awareness or sense of the changing seasons – kisetsukan. So I was thinking about how we can best utilise the micro seasons and events that could be beneficial to speciality food shops. For many of our early years at Partridges we had very little Kisetsukan awareness. As speciality food retailers we clung onto the basic national celebrations to maximise sales and show a point of difference with the major multiples. For us Easter and Christmas were the big ones in the 70s and 80s, followed by Thanksgiving (American foods) for the ex-pat community in Chelsea in the 90s, and Valentine’s Day (chocolates), Mother’s Day (more chocolates) and Halloween (pumpkins and novelties) in the 00s. We made a helpful arrangement with a farmer around that time and did well with the asparagus season in late April and May, aided and abetted by our own brand of speciality hollandaise sauce. All of these could be regarded as retail micro seasons or events lasting a week at best, but they were small celebrations that the multiples could not pull off successfully. However, the potential for creativity in this area is very large and I have come up with our own suggestions for speciality micro seasons that could be employed throughout the year if time and resources allow. We have by no means done them all ourselves, but with supportive suppliers and local reference points, they may help with engaging the local community. Here goes... JOHN SHEPHERD PARTRIDGES The 40seasons of the speciality foodyear January: Veganuary, Burns Night and Australia Day (that’s about the wine) February: Valentine’s Day, Pancake Day, Chinese New Year March: St David’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day April: Easter, Asparagus Day on the 23rd and St George’s Day May: Chelsea Flower Show (floral displays and botanically inspired products), World Chelsea Bun Day (it’s a local thing) June: English Wine Week, Picnic Week, World Gin Day, Father’s Day July: Wimbledon, Strawberries, Apples and (this year) the Olympics August: Holiday season September: Harvest Festival, Great Taste Awards, Fairtrade Fortnight October: Chocolate Week, World Pasta Day, Halloween and Pumpkin displays, and Christmas Lights November: Bonfire Night, St Andrew’s Day, Thanksgiving December: Christmas, and its popular side kick New Year’s Eve Add on some sporting events, a Royal celebration and some local festival occasions and we get to about 40. Perhaps we can invent a speciality food day to celebrate all the wonderful foods we curate and sell? In terms of a new celebration suggestion, I would like to give a shout out for St Tibertius Day on 14th April. It celebrates the first cuckoo call of the year – the last being on St John’s Day on 24th June. Apparently, whoever hears the cuckoo call will have very good fortune. WHAT IS THE FOOD SECURITY INDEX – AND WHAT DID IT FIND? Defra released its first annual UK Food Security Index to assess the state of the country’s food security in 2023-2024. It’s designed to complement the three-yearly UK Food Security Report bymeasuring year-on-year changes and considering wider factors, like global conflicts and weather. According to the index, while the UK is at “its most productive since records began,” the fruit and vegetable sector is “significantly lagging behind” meat, dairy and grains, with only 17% of fruit and 55% of veg consumed in the UK being grown on our shores. In total, domestic production of all food in the UK stands at around 60% of consumption. The publication of the index was part of the government’s second Farm to Fork Summit, held on 14thMay, which brings together government and key representatives from the farming and food sectors at Downing Street. As part of the summit, an £80m funding scheme, the Horticulture Resilience and Growth offer, was announced for farmers and growers in place of the £40mEU scheme. Environment secretary Steve Barclay said the announcements would “turbocharge the growth of our horticultural sector supporting the building of cutting-edge glasshouses and innovative farming techniques to put British fruit and vegetables on our plates all-year round.” IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED TO REBUILD RESILIENCE While NFU president TomBradshaw welcomed the publication of the index and the long-termplans to increase domestic production, he stressed the need for immediate support to help the sector and rebuild confidence and resilience. “Food security is national security,” Tom said, adding, “we need actions in the short-term that underpin that statement, in order to rebuild confidence and resilience so farming businesses can continue producing food.” Kath Dalmeny, chief executive of Sustain, also welcomed the news of financial and policy support for the fruit and veg industry, but she said it “doesn’t come close to” plans proposed last year which the government “ditched”. The potential for creativity is very large and I have come upwith our own suggestions for speciality micro seasons that couldbe employed throughout the year if time and resources allow Farmers call for short-term support to boost food security Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged farmers to grow more fruit and vegetables to reduce the UK’s reliance on foreign imports as he set out its first ever food security index, but farmers say more support is needed in the short-term to bolster the industry as confidence plummets. Currently, Kath said, half of Britain’s fruit and veg growers say that their businesses “are in peril frompitifully low farmgate prices, labour shortages, unfair trading by supermarkets and the extreme weather experienced over recent years”. “True food security is built on respect and fair trading for farmers, production of food that supports affordable healthy diets, and care for the health of soil, pollinators and a stable climate that make growing food possible,” she said. To make the most of the funding, the Landworkers Alliance urged the government to focus on targeted investments for a greater number of smaller growers and to support local food infrastructure. “Fruit and vegetable growers need a roadmap for the next 20 years so that they have security to make long- term investments in soil, equipment, infrastructure and building relationships with customers,” said Rebecca Laughton, horticulture lead for the Landworkers Alliance.