In 1309 Bishop Walter Stapledon was granted a charter by King Edward II allowing a weekly market and annual fair to be held. But the market disappeared some years ago. Recently the Parish Plan polled the townsfolk 60% of whom wanted the return of the market.

To find out more on who will be trading and where, click on this link:

http://www.buy-local-campaign.co.uk/chudleigh/

Local dairy farm's cows coming home.

I’ve decided it is high time I got started on contacting some larger institutions regarding BLoC. So this morning I pulled my finger out and sent emails to the BBC’s Gardeners’ World (to comment on the forum ‘Gardens, gardening and plants/Using native plants’ and both the Countryside Online and the National Farmer’s Union regarding ‘Farmers and Farming/Supermarkets. Good or bad for farming?’

We shall have to wait and see if they respond and how serious they take it. It’s a start, I have a lot of this sort of thing to do for a while!

http://www.buy-local-campaign.co.uk/buy-local-forum/

Please register with the forum as the greater numbers BLoC has the more power it will weald and the more we can do to change for the good.

Think Local
Buy Local

I have realised that what the campaign needs is not so much this blog but some dedicated forum software so that people can comment and interact more easily. The forum software I am using is phpBB found here:

http://www.phpbb.com/

The software seems quite good so far and allows a lot of control. I cannot say it has been easy though and I have around 10 years of web expience behind me.

So the forum for the national Buy Local Campaign is well under way and will be starting soon, I just need to find the time to wade through all the different preferences and work out what on earth the instruction are trying to tell me.

Wish me luck, it is a non-technical persons hell.

Version 3 is now shown below. I will simply update the logo shown below as I work on it. Feel free to let me know if you like it or hate it.

Possible Buy Local Produce campaign logo.

Chudleigh High Street.

This question isn’t so easily answered as you may think. Is the boundry half way to the next town, within the parish, within the county, country, GB, europe?

If I open a Buy Local shop in my home town of Chudleigh as I intend, will there be enough produce provided by the people of the town to keep the shop functioning? Would I need to expand the area I draw from in order to fill the shop. Maybe the boundary needs to be flexible and contract if the shop has enough town produce or if a neighbouring town opens a Buy Local shop

It should also be taken from the point-of-view of the producer. A larger producer needs to sell its wares to a larger area in order to be a viable business, the local town would not be enough to sustain them. Does that mean that as a Buy Local shop I should accept produce from a larger producer who is further away. Otherwise it would seem that I am limiting my Buy Local shop to small producers and that larger producers are bad in some way. Surely a company has the right to expand if its product has made it successful.

The problem will no doubt be different for each Buy Local shop and be resolved with experience. But it would be best to have some guidelines to follow, ones that can be modified as time shows what the best practice is.

Please give your opinion by leaving a comment.

Farmers Market with HRH Prince Charles.

I believe there is. There should be more of them and there should be far more people using them.

Markets are the heart of a town for all sorts of reasons you already know. But I’m very surprised to see so few people using them and that there are so few of them. There should be more markets, more often and with a greater attendance.

People need to buy produce on a weekly basis and  farmers need a weekly income so why are most Farmers Markets only once a month or twice a month at best? I know that one of the reasons I am put off attending these markets is that I am never sure whether I have the correct week or not. If they were every week it would be easy to remember when they are there.

I also believe Farmers Markets should not be limited to food only. All local produce should be included so that someone who makes their own felt hats or hand-built bicycles could attend. That would surely pull more visitors in.

There is another way that I feel Farmers Markets could be augmented. Each Farmers Market town should have an associated Farmers Market Shop. The shop would sell nothing but local produce most of which would come from the Farmers Markets producers. The shop needn’t sell the complete range of products but things like eggs, meat and bread are needed daily. It could be a mix and match affair with each producer having a different relationship with the shop.

Please delve in and read the posts above, both our economy and our culture are at stake. Also, please do leave a comment and register your support.

Many thanks,

The Devonshire Deli