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FOOD
Eat local
British Food Fortnight started
26 September and goes on until
12 October 2025. It's the 24th
year of this national celebration
of the diverse and delicious food
that Britain produces. This year,
it's bigger than ever.
The national celebration of our
food that takes place every
autumn in the last week
of September and the first
week of October, at the same time
as Harvest Festival, the traditional
time for celebrating our home-grown
food.
This year sees more celebrations
taking place in communities and
organisations taking part in British
Food Fortnight throughout the UK.
There is a serious objective…
British Food Fortnight is a proven
influencer in engaging the retail,
catering, education and volunteer
sectors and in establishing a more
robust market for Britain's food.
Establishments taking part, whether
they are large retailers or small
independents, pubs or major food
service outlets, all report sales
increases as a result of their British
Food Fortnight promotions.
From Alnwick to York
Every year communities across
the country take part with foodie
festivities in villages, towns and
cities; fun activities for children in
schools; menu promotions in pubs
and restaurants; and British food
on the plate in hospitals and care
homes.
You can literally eat your way
around Britain during the fortnight
as nearly every county holds a food
festival during it often in several
cities in each: Horsham, York, Cardiff,
Devon, Nantwich, Isle of Man,
Abergavenny, Cornwall, Manchester,
Hastings, Alnwick, Luton,
Glasgow, Kent, Norfolk, Newbury,
Penrith, Brighton, Berkshire,
Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire to
name a few.
The Fortnight culminates in
a competition to find the best
British community event, from
small gatherings to entire towns.
Previous winners have included the
village of Haslington in Cheshire
that organised a whole day of
festivities on the green for everyone
in the community; the City of
Peterborough that held a two day
food celebration culminating in a
tremendous harvest lunch for 500
people in the Cathedral square;
the coastal town of Emsworth that
organised the best food festival we
have ever seen with activities for
every part of their community; a
group of 450 schools in Hampshire
that organised foodie activities, farm
visits for children and themed British
food Fortnight menus throughout
the two weeks; and a collection of
villages in Somerset that organised
and ran a Great British Harvest Trail
with our Harvest Torch travelling
from parish to parish.
Community activites
British Food Fortnight has a long
tradition of working with care homes
for the elderly. Hundreds of care
homes have taken part with British
chip shop days, Welsh cheese and
wine tasting, British pie and pastry
making and creating their own care
home recipe book with recipes from
the residents. One of our favourite
activities was when the residents
at the Abbeyfield Society's Grace
Muriel House in St Albans had help
from nearby Marlborough Science
Academy to clear scrubland to create
a vegetable patch in which residents
grew and harvested seasonal
vegetables. Young and old helping
each other.
www.lovebritishfood.co.uk
The event's website also hosts a good
selection of recipes, an example of
which is opposite.