Wilderness Festival 2022: Celebrating Our Natural Larder.
In this blog, Social Pantry Sustainability Consultant Nash Gierak recounts the ideas and take-away messages from ‘Celebrating Our Natural Larder’ – a panel discussion at Wilderness Festival on how we can make the most of British and locally grown ingredients.
As the sun rose over the Cornbury Estate, the early birds of the Wilderness crowd—clutching much-needed coffees—made their way over to The Dining Rooms tent to hear some of the UK’s most compelling chefs talk about their specialist subject: our native produce. Across the course of the weekend, festival-goers had the unique opportunity to partake in feasting and dining experiences through a series of long table banquets, under the steer of chefs usually scattered across the country. The accompanying panel talks offered a further immersive aspect to proceedings, offering the chance to learn about the ethos behind some of the most fascinating restaurants in the UK right now.
Food writer Clare Finney chaired the talk, peppering us panelists with a selection of thoughtful questions around our topic: Can – and should – we replace imported ingredients with our natural larder? As the only non-chef of the group, I was placed to offer my perspective as sustainability consultant and representative for Social Pantry, and was as eager to hear as our audience about how Harriet Mansell (Robin Wylde/Lilac), Sam Buckley (Where The Light Gets In), and Will Devlin (The Small Holding) approach fresh, local, seasonal eating in their own establishments.
Throughout the hour, we all pitched in with our favoured ingredients which stand in for imported produce; where citrus would be used sparingly, if at all, in the kitchens of my fellow speakers; we could find tartness and sourness in rhubarb and damsons, but if it was the flavour profile we were after, we could find it in sea buckthorn (orange), or in herbs such as lemon balm, lemon thyme, or lemon verbena.
Our chefs are truly engaged with their surroundings, embracing their respective regions, able to access the majority of their ingredients fresh on the day, and at times just yards from the kitchen door, in Will Devlin’s case. Harriett Mansell’s passion for foraging shone through, with her encyclopaedic knowledge fueling the creativity so evident on her menus. Sam Buckley spoke passionately about the manifesto behind his vision, and clearly walked the walk, making that all-important connection between food and community, as evidenced by his involvement with The Landing, an urban growing project perched on the roof of the Merseyway Shopping Centre.
I know from speaking with our own Sarah Turner, focusing on British ingredients has been an involved process of adapting, learning traditional preserving skills, and utilising innovative zero waste techniques inspired by her stages at zero waste restaurants Silo and Nolla.
We all had rules around imported produce, with Harriet Mansell recalling the rarity of oranges making an appearance at Christmas, and the possibility of using waste product from others, such as the cocoa husk from Pump Street Chocolate, as used by both Social Pantry and Where The Light Gets In.
One of the most thought-provoking lines of questioning from Clare centred around how we might approach discussions about our national larder without sounding jingoistic, or like we’re denying the influence of other countries—and of empire—on British food culture. How do we continue to celebrate and grow the incredible diversity of cuisines we have in this country whilst at the same time moving toward a more sustainable and self-sufficient way of eating? I was able to offer my personal perspective having grown-up in a dual-heritage household.
For the home cook, realistically speaking, we will continue to include foods from around the world in our diets; for some of us it’s part of our culture, and those cultures are also part of the tapestry that is British culture. For many people that emigrated to the UK in decades past, adaptation was always a part of the equation before the more unusual imports were more widely available, whether substituting supermarket limes for the more pungent shatkora, or growing coriander in an improvised garden, as my own family did. All panelists were enthusiastic about the input and influence from their international teams, finding too that it was possible to easily grow many non-native species that could be weaved into dishes. We touched on the ways one might replicate mainstays of other food cultures, such as fermenting fava beans to create miso.
Ultimately, the movement led by our chefs has come about due to—as a nation—being so disconnected from our land and all its resources. We’ve lost our way, and in the process are in danger of losing touch with tradition, our wild intuition, and the associated specialised skills required to identify, and gather ingredients that are not widely commercially available. It has been heartening to see a renewed interest in foraged ingredients, and distinctly British flavours being celebrated on the plate again. We have relied too heavily on unsustainable unseasonal imported produce for too long. It’s time to redress the balance.
