Fordingbridge & District

Food

Groups are only open to members of Fordingbridge and District u3a. For enquiries about membership contact the Membership Secretary.

The Food Group has vacancies for more members. We all have an interest in food be it eating, cooking or sourcing. Our meetings tend to be a mixture of bringing food we have created to each others’ homes to enjoy together; visits to food education establishments and other areas of food consumption and production. We have a cooperative approach and each member of the group is expected to contribute ideas to the running of the group for the benefit and enjoyment of everyone.

We meet on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, usually at 10.30 a.m. at the Group Leader's house if we are cooking. However, we may also arrange visits and these times will vary.

On 5th July some of us went on the Lyburn Farm tour. A distinctly damp afternoon threatened our al fresco evening but as we sat on hay bales on wagons towed by tractors in the barn, the sun shone through! It was still quite chilly but at least we were dry, we toured the farm and were told about their organic produce for Waitrose, Riverford and Abel & Cole.
Our guide said he had given up dealing with major supermarkets as they treated farmers so shabbily. They were only able to operate at a profit because they were licensed to use immigrant workers on fixed term contracts as local workers did not want to put in the hours in trying conditions. Over the years they had developed good relationships with their workers many of whom came back time and again.
There was a large, man made reservoir on the farm for irrigation and, much as the previous day’s torrential downpour had dismayed most of us it gave the farm enough water for a month’s irrigation.
They have a herd of 170 curious cows who are milked twice daily to produce their interesting range of cheeses; this is a relatively recent diversification to help put the farm on a more sustainable footing.
At the end of the tour we were returned to the barn, everyone being massively impressed but the tractor drivers reversing skills which returned the wagons to the precise spot we had started from!
We were then served an excellent ploughman’s meal, all the food and drink were locally sourced and obviously featured Lyburn’s cheeses.
A really fun and educational evening which gave an excellent insight into the life of an English country farmer.