- Food
Over the past decade or so, the long tradition of quality food
growing and manufacturing, in Bridport and the surrounding countryside,
has been augmented by the development of the  West
Dorset Food and Land Trust. Started in 1996, this community development
organisation has played a key role in developing the local food
sector in the West Dorset area. From it has sprung the Centre for
Local Food which has provided a commercial kitchen used both for
adult and children’s education. Local Food Links Ltd is a
community owned social enterprise based in the Bridport Centre for
Local Food. It provides a fruit and hot meals service to eight local
schools using locally sourced produce wherever possible and it is
also developing a Local Food Club to enable the community to access
the same range of locally sourced, organic and fair-trade produce
used in the school meals.
Bridport was awarded Beacon Town status in 2003 by the Countryside
Agency, setting Bridport as an exemplar of good practice, the only
town in the country recognised for its food initiatives.
The Bridport Local Food Group, a voluntary group of producers and
food based businesses from the town and surrounding villages, continues
to organise the successful annual summer Food Festival, where the
focus is very much on local foods produced by local people.
One of the best, and most popular, Farmers’ Markets in the
country is held in Bridport on the second Saturday of every month.
Based in the Arts Centre in the centre of the town, it now spills
out onto the forecourt. The town also has what is reputed to be
the oldest family-run butcher’s shop in the country and Palmers
brewery. Cider is produced on local farms.
The Town Council is supporting a project to establish a community
orchard on land at the rear of St Mary’s Church. This will
also see a number of new allotments created on this site, to be
managed by the Town Council.
There are still many small farms in the area whose families go back
generations. Dairy and sheep are the main activities, but certain
areas lend themselves to horticulture, and vibrant farm shops and
box schemes have developed in recent years. The area is also famous
for the most unlikely of West Dorset products, the hottest chilli
in the world.
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