Luckily, the Blackwell's Festival Marquee, back this year after an absence, and packed with free events. There owls almost all the time (real live owls!!), although it would have been nice to have some more structured talks about them, or at least keepers who were a bit more keen to chat to festival-goers. There was also a pop-up cafe/restaurant from the guys behind the ever expanding Jacob's empire (Jacob's and Field, Jacob's Inn, and Jacob's Chop House). The menu looked tempting but I just grabbed a coffee - a shame, as it tasted burnt and bitter.
I was visiting mainly because there was no way I was going to miss the foodie combo treat of Sophie Grigson and Riverford founder Guy Watson in conversation. Sophie Grigson was one of the first food writers I can remember watching on TV, with her spiky hair and giant earrings. I still have her recipes for moussaka and sausage and apple pie by heart. I knew a lot less about Guy; although I admire the idea behind veg boxes I'm quite happy going out to one of Oxford's fantastic farmers' markets when I want some local produce.
The discussion was unstructured and, initially, a little stilted as a result. Both speakers made some lovely noises about how fabulous organic seasonal food was, but there was little bite to the chatter. Things got going after Sophie had talked through a display copy of a Riverford veg box, discussing her favourite vegetables and her least favourite (yay, another swede hater!) and some interesting ways of cooking them (yay, another roast cauliflower fan!). The audience joined in, offering their own ideas, and a sparky debate started up about whether we needed new ways of cooking traditional vegetables. Is this a necessity in order to stay interested in your food, or is it a tarting up, a dressing of mutton as lamb, when the vegetables are perfectly exciting in their own right? I'm firmly in the former camp, but it was great to hear some passionate arguments from the other side!
The debate moved on to cover organic farming, looking at some of the ways this affects the wider world, rather than focussing on any (much debated) nutritional benefits or taste differences. It was interesting to hear how Guy has seen his farm develop in a totally different way to his neighbours' intensive non-organic farms, with a greater range of natural wildlife and better quality soil. He felt that this had made his farm more robust when this winter's floods hit: his soil is apparently significantly thicker and richer in nutrients than that of non-organic farms in the same area, and as a result his yields are staying high, or growing, whilst theirs decline.
To round things off, there was some chatter around the effect supermarkets had had on vegetable supply chains since Riverford was founded over twenty years ago. Many of the audience were veg box regulars, but what about the rest of us? Where can we source British, local, seasonal, organic vegetables? Lots of people mentioned farmers' markets, but there was some ignorance about how widely these had spread. A lady standing next to me had no idea any existed in Oxford, because she didn't want to go online and look for them, which highlights one massive change in the last twenty years: marketing is now mostly done online! The majority of the audience missed having a greengrocer's on their street, but generally we noted a positive trend, with the opening of stores like 2 North Parade.
The Oxford Literary Festival will be back next year, and if the Festival Marquee returns with it I shall certainly be back for more. This is high-end, entertaining and intellectual debate; well done Blackwell's!
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