Why Buy Locally Produced Food

• It allows you to know more about the 'where' and the 'how' of your food production so that you can make better informed choices

• It provides reassurance and influence regarding the animal welfare and environmental standards being used

• It enhances the viability of rural businesses and the local economy whilst shortening the distance between farm and plate

• It helps sustain the land management practices that make our Chilterns landscape special

• It reverses the decline in local food production and prepares us for a time when our communities will need to be more resilient & self-reliant

You can help!

Help us keep this local FOOD Directory up-to-date. This guide has been produced by volunteers from Transition Town High Wycombe and Wycombe Friends of the Earth. Although we have tried to make the listing as comprehensive as possible by approaching all known businesses, big or small, who fulfil the criteria for inclusion, some have declined to be listed or failed to respond to repeated enquiries. There may be others whom we have inadvertently missed and to whom we apologise. Any suggested amendments (for example overlooked or new businesses, changes of details, businesses no longer operating) should be relayed to us via the online form (bottom-left). Alternatively click the link shown there to E:Mail us.

Neither the compilers of this guide, nor the listed businesses can be held liable for any inaccuracies.

This on-line guide is an updated version of the hard-copy FOOD Guide originally produced in September 2010. Some copies are still available from a number of outlets, notably the Information Centres at High Wycombe Central Library, Princes Risborough and Marlow, and Roots Delicatessen, Crendon Street, High Wycombe. Or please contact us direct. Or you can Download a PDF copy here (1.4mb), or the full print-quality copy here (4.8mb - double sided).

Subject to funding we hope to produce another edition in due course. Donations very welcome.

Local Food in Action - other initiatives in this area

Allotments

No food can be more local than that grown on your own patch. Once you have exhausted the potential of your garden, you might consider taking on an allotment. Depending where you live, allotment provision can be the responsibility of your Parish, Town or District Council. Unfortunately, some areas have waiting lists.  

Bare Gardens - the local garden share scheme

If you are one of the many people in High Wycombe who are waiting for an allotment, or longing to grow your own fruit and veg but haven't enough space, Bare Gardens is the local garden share scheme, one of many springing up across the country. The idea is that people with more garden space than they can use, lend it to someone else to grow food, in return for a share of the produce. We currently have around twenty gardens available, get in touch and we will try to match you up with the most suitable person.

www.baregardens.org.uk

National Trust at Hughenden Manor

Hughenden Manor is the venue for a number of activities related to local food. It has a recently-restored walled garden where you can pick up tips and inspiration for growing your own produce. An annual Apple Day each autumn enables you to sample and learn more about the wide range of heritage varieties grown there. Produce from the garden is used in the restaurant along with meat reared on the estate.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk  

Pann Mill Group

Set amidst a lovingly maintained garden in a corner of The Rye open space in High Wycombe, Pann Mill is, perhaps, the oldest working example of how the people of Wycombe would have obtained their flour in the past. There is a record of a mill on this site in the Domesday Book and the present one is the fifth since then. It is testimony to the enduring status of bread produced from locally grown and milled wheat as a basic dietary staple. The mill, which is powered solely by water, has been painstakingly restored and maintained by volunteers from the High Wycombe Society Pann Mill Group who run it on three days a year.

wwww.pannmill.org.uk

The Transition movement and Transition Town High Wycombe

Started in Totnes in 2006 the Transition movement provides a model for communities to thrive in a post-carbon era and is flourishing in villages, towns, cities and islands around the globe. As the challenges of peak oil and climate change dictate a move away from dependence on fossil fuels, by working together now to build sustainable food and energy supplies, as well as developing neighbourhood links, the local community can plan its own future and strengthen resilience to external shock. There are Transition initiatives in various stages of development in High Wycombe, Marlow, Chesham, Amersham, Henley-on-Thames, Maidenhead, the Chalfonts, and Haddenham and District.

www.transition-wycombe.org.uk & www.transitionnetwork.org

Friends of the Earth

A thriving local food economy is a keystone of Friends of the Earth's model of a genuinely sustainable future. Friends of the Earth is the UK's most influential environmental campaigning organisation. There are Friends of the Earth Local Groups in Wycombe, Chinnor and Thame, Maidenhead and District, and Aylesbury Vale.

www.wycombefoe.org.uk & www.foe.co.uk

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank:

The Chilterns Conservation Board Sustainable Development Fund, and Cllr Lesley Clarke / BCC Community Leaders Fund, for their generous financial support enabling the production of the original hard-copy Guide, and to those listed businesses who have given a voluntary donation towards re-print costs.

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire Food Group, and Chilterns Conservation Board for allowing access to their listings of businesses.

Jubilee Greenwood Printers for being so helpful.

All the volunteers who have given, and continue to give, their time and energy towards the creation and updating of this guide.