I’ll let someone else report in full on yesterday’s wonderful Cream Tea at Roydon Village Hall. I’ll just report the results of the survey that the Food Hub Working Group presented.

It said:

The original vision for the Diss Community Farm (DCF) not only envisaged collective growing of food on a local site; it also included a proposal to buy additional food from other providers which could then be sold with food grown by the group. This clearly has some advantages in increasing the product range and bridging seasonal gaps for example.

The “Food Hub Working Group” would like to know what would members be willing to order from third parties through a food hub?  Assume that the items would meet the principle standards of the DCF i.e. broadly local / sustainably grown. This is to give us an indication of demand and does not comprise a contractual obligation!

Nine questionnaires were returned, but most indicated they were for 2 people, so the results represent 17 people. In order of scores they were:

Cheese 14
Fruit/Fish/Homemade cakes, pastries and savouries 12
Bread 11
Eggs/poultry/lamb 10
Honey/Jams and preserves/Dried goods (pulses, nuts etc) and wholefoods 9
Vegetables not available from our land/Milk/Beef/Pork 8
Venison 7
Game 6
Canned goods 4
Juices (veg, fruit)/ Homemade soups/Soya milk/Tofu and other soya products 2
Local flour 1

If anyone wants to complete a questionnaire who wasn’t at the meeting or who didn’t at the meting, here is a blank form. Please email it to me or to Steve Scott. Food hub questionnaire v2