This year we held ‘Walk The Pork’ as part of The Brecks Food
Festival – a three day event that takes place as part of the wider Norfolk Food
Festival over the third weekend in September. It is an opportunity for everyone
in The Becks to showcase their skills from ‘farm to fork’ and is supported by many local businesses including The
Elveden Estate & Heygates Farms.
We were delighted to welcome The Right Hon Elizabeth Truss
who as well as being Secretary of State
for The Environment, Food & Rural
Affairs is also our local M.P. Liz has taken a keen interest in The Brecks Food
Festival since she was elected in 2010, recognising its significance in
promoting both food & tourism in the local economy.
She kindly agreed to speak at Walk The Pork as the opening
event of The 2014 Brecks Food Festival.
‘It is fantastic to be here again at Walk The Pork. I
remember the first year that I was invited along. It was an incredibly hot day
and I was amazed to walk into a field and find as well as some black pigs the
most fantastic pork and bacon products on offer.
The pigs that you have here are a very rare breed producing
a fatter meat which is I believe is coming back into fashion as tastes change -
they certainly produce fantastic meat. Since that first walk I have seen The
Black Pig being sold in many local shops, cafes and restaurants. Yours is a
great success story and is part of the wider success story of The Brecks. We have The Brecks Food Festival that Vanessa Scott
of Strattons Hotel has been so instrumental in making happen to showcase other
great Brecks produce such as The Norfolk Peer potato which anyone can now buy
in their local supermarket. In season we
also have fantastic asparagus produced in the Brecks. I think that what the festival
is doing is helping people understand the connection with the landscape, it is
a incredibly unusual landscape with amazing bio-diversity which co-exists with
really fantastic products that people want to enjoy and eat.
I am pretty obsessed with local food. It’s a great movement
which is helping people connect with the environment and nature as well as our
history. It is great that the festival
is going from strength to strength. It is good for tourism and raising the
profile of The Brecks.
As DEFRA Minister I am very open to ideas about what we can
do to promote sustainable agriculture, to make sure in Britain we are eating our indigenous
food, our fabulous local food as well as getting the opportunity to export as
well.’
