Food Frome is a brand new organisation in Frome town, and its surrounding area. It has been set up to look into the food heritage of this part of Somerset.

The project is being run by a keen local group who include members with backgrounds in fruit and vegetable growing, allotment gardens, cooking and baking, food retailing and Slow Food. The Chair is popular Frome resident and charity worker Peter Macfadyen and the secretary is John Payne.

We hope to publish our findings in a series of booklets. We are setting up different interest groups, such as Vegetable Growing, Recipes and Cooking or Orchards and Apples. The programme of activities may include documentary research, film-making, oral history, writing booklets or taking and collecting photos. If any of that interest you, then please get in touch.

While there is a lot of interesting written material available, the group thinks that a lot of knowledge is contained in people's memories and in recipes or gardening methods passed down in families and then shared with friends and neighbours. For volunteers who want to join us, we shall be putting on courses in how to record and document people's food memories, these courses will be free, will be widely publicised, and will start in the New Year.

In the meantime, the group is keen to hear from people in the area who have interesting stories to tell about local food. Anyone who wants to get involved as a volunteer, or thinks they may have useful information is invited to contact Food Frome.

Contact Details

Email info@foodfrome.org.uk or write to John Payne, Secretary, Food Frome, Mortimer House, 9 Vallis Way, Frome, BA11 3BD.

Funding

Food Frome is funded until 2008 by the Local Heritage Initiative, Heritage Lottery Fund and Nationwide Building Society. The money will be used to buy equipment such as a digital projector and laptop, and to run training courses and workshops on all aspects of food history.