My family and I spent a lovely day at the Organic Food Festival at the historic Bristol Harbourside on Sunday 13th September. The weather was more than we hoped for and the day turned out just perfect.
I also had the privilege of meeting Graeme Hume, Director of Pravera and a pure gentleman. It’s good to meet the people you speak to on the telephone. 
There were about 200 organic producers, from cheese, wine, products for the home, beauty and much, much more. I was amazed to discover just how many organic products there was available to buy.
The festival was buzzing with atmosphere, the smell of freshly made organic burgers on a grill only left everybody with a grumble in their tummy, so we had no choice but to have a taste of it ourselves, and boy! was it deliciously yummy and morish.
Best out of all for me was the artisan cheese stall from The Bath Soft Cheese Co. I’m not a big diary lover as it makes my tummy feel funny. The rest of my family loves cheese, so I thought I’d give it a taste, what harm could that cause. Now, I’m pretty much hooked on the Wyfe of Bath, described as chewy, succulent and bouncy. The cheese is redolent of buttercups and summer meadows. An immediate taste of the cheese took me back in time to when I was a little girl; it tasted just like the sweetmilk cheese I was brought up on. I bet the gentleman on the stall couldn’t wait to get rid of us; we were kind of cleaning out his tasting bowl.
I also picked up some cleaning products from Alma Win for my home and salon. I opted for the trial size pack, retailing at around £5 for 5 products and a complimentary packet of Heavy-Duty Washing Powder, not that we are a messy family. I was keen to wash the dishes that evening, even though we already use an ecological washing up liquid, but this washing up liquid was like a new toy for me. With only a few dishes to wash, I squirted the squeezy bottle a few times and off I went. Oops! I think I might have squirted to much, my husband gingerly points out to me, it say’s ‘concentrated’, what don’t you understand about that? So, if you buy the liquid don’t be tempted to use too much. This little 125ml bottle is going to last me a long time.
My daughter managed to enter the Mádara Eco Cosmetics competition, fingers crossed; hopefully her name will be pulled out of the hat. She loves the Mádara products and was quite excited to visit their stall.
As part of my mission to attend the Organic Food Festival, I was hoping to find new products and ideas for my organic salon. I prefer not to mention a potential product that we are hoping to launch on the Free To Explore Beauty website and in our salon. It will appear in our New Products category over the next few months and posted in our blog.
All in all, I can’t say how privileged I felt attending the Festival, my husband and kids loved it and we look forward to attending next year. I think the Festival should be held every quarter as this will encourage new traffic and allow organic producers to capitalise and invest even more into their products and hopefully this will have a knock on effect to keeping prices low.
It would be really nice to see more people supporting organic producers, as they are the ones who bring to us this scrumptious tasting foods and other goodies that are not only clean and free of pesticides and goodness knows what other nasties, they are kind to fluffy bunnies or any other animal for that matter, as a whole they care about our planet and the people who live on it.
I have heard many people say that organic produce is far too expensive. At present this is true in some cases, with only 3% of people buying organic, how is it possible for these organic producers to keep the prices low. So, if we want a healthier lifestyle, let’s stop moaning about prices and do our bit together and buy organic, and soon the prices can be affordable for all.
I didn’t want to ramble on about our fabulous day as there are lots of others who attended and have written their own very interesting articles about their day at the festival. Below are some links to these articles.
Serial Cooking, Le Blog
This is Bristol.co.uk
Daisy Green Magazine
Buying Organic is not a luxury, it’s a lifestyle.
Stay Healthy, Be Happy and Live Harmoniously
Mim
Photos:
Top right - Graeme Hume and Miriam Holcombe
Bottom left - My daughter, Leilah and son, Aaron
Photographer: My camera shy husband - Simon
My main problem with ‘natural’ and organic shower gels is their tendency to smell floral rather than fresh - and the way that this doesn’t always leave you feeling quite as squeaky clean as you’d hope to right after a wash. I don’t like heavily ‘herbal’ scents either, and it’s rare to find an organic gel that’s free of such pungent aromas.
