Photography by Keiko Oikawa
“The more I see of Suffolk the more do I realise that she owes all the best parts of her character to her rivers. It is the rivers that have fashioned the country and given it all its outward beauty without them it would be bare, flat and monotonous.“
These two short, eloquent sentences were written by Julian Tennyson. They mark the beginning of Chapter 4, "The Rivers", in his book Suffolk Scene.
Tennyson’s words convey a very basic and revealing truth about the countryside of England. If you understand its rivers - where they gather and flow, their route and pace, their sources and destinations - you begin to discover how the countryside works.
Once you understand this, a second layer of awareness starts to come in. You get a feel for the land – the arrangement of hills and valleys, the variety of soils and the wealth of crops, livestock and wildlife that the land supports. In doing so, you may also begin to see where our food comes from; wheat, oil seed rape and beet on the heavy clay uplands; barley, vegetables and pigs on heath land by the coast; cattle on clay pastures and loamy water meadows in the valley bottoms.
It is this intimate relationship between the land and our food, and the people who raise, rear, make and sell it, that is often forgotten and easily overlooked. But we forget these things at our peril. At a time when government and planners seem to devote much time and money to high impact developments, or question whether we need to produce food in the UK, or side step conclusions about the impact of industrial food retailing upon communities, reconnecting communities with the local landscape can be a fulfilling path for all concerned.
Most places don’t need to be put “on the map”. What they do need is support for strategic assets that are often overlooked – local food traditions, local knowledge and also local values. At first this may sound a bit repetitive, but ask yourself this: who is likely to know more about the history, character and needs of a place or community – an external consultant or a resident of 80 years? With regard to the future of farming, there are 55+ million mouths to feed in the UK. That is a lot of people. Outputs from arable acres have increased dramatically over the past few decades in the UK. This is something for which we should all be grateful. But in the quest for more tons per acre, have we lost sight of the greater ‘peripheral’ productivity of the land in which we live? The fruit from orchards and hedgerows, the meat from home-owned sheep, pigs and cattle, the vegetables from back gardens and allotments?
To give you an example, my small farm in the Upper Alde Valley produces lamb, barley, peas and abundant seasonal wild foods. But the old pigstys and dairy are empty of animals, as are the old brick chicken sheds. The vegetable patch is a lawn and the orchard has all but disappeared. In the times ahead, the measure of my own success will be the extent to which all these sheds, the vegetable patch and orchard come back to life – back into production.
My guess is that in ten to fifteen years time superstores will be largely redundant as places to buy food. Industrial scale food production, processing and retailing cannot respond well to what more and more people seem to want, or even need - high quality fresh, seasonal, locally produced and retailed food.
The impacts of shifting to local oriented food production, processing and retailing can be dramatic, as seen in the Alde Valley of East Suffolk. This is one of the few river valleys in the UK that is superstore free, from source to sea. It has in effect become an experiment in what happens when the large multiples are kept out of a semi-rural catchment area - you get a local food renaissance, with exceptional levels of job creation, innovation and local trading. At a time when fuel prices are rising, superstores are spending more and more energy moving products around the world, it seems logical to take the easy option. Go local and make your life a bit simpler!
The words of Julian Tennyson provide a key to unlock the Suffolk and East Anglian landscape – its soft, slow-flowing rivers and productive valleys. In doing so, it opens the door to a landscape that is full almost to overflowing with fresh seasonal farmed and wild foods, produced, packed and processed by hundreds of small independent and family-owned businesses. So why not give yourself and friends or family a treat - jump on a bus, bike, train or car and tuck into the East Anglian countryside!
Jason Gathorne-Hardy is a farmer and entrepreneur/artist based at his sheep farm near Saxmundham – also home to his home brand Alde Valley Lamb TM flock.
In 2005 he set up The Alde Valley Food Adventures TM: a rolling programme of events that celebrate food, farming, landscape and the arts. He is also the Patron of The Bario & Kelabit Highlands Food & Cultural Festival in Central Borneo. To explore The Alde Valley, jump on the 118/119 Rural Bus Route.
Vertigo Miniseries Torrent
Vertigo Miniseries Torrent
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