Richard Stevens

Over the last few years, Jill Hood and I have visited Ludlow on several occasions to pick up tips for the Food and Drink Festival and today we set off again on our familiar journey. The purpose, this time, was to attend a seminar organised by Graham Perkins, former Vice Chair of the Ludlow Food Festival and who now runs a company called Skillbuilders.

The great benefit of theses types of event is the networking that takes place with other people and organisations involved in similar activities to ours. So we made some very useful contacts indeed - a lady who runs a Beer Shop in Ludlow; the organiser of another Food Festival in Shropshire; a representative of the The Prince’s Trust and a member of the staff at Companies House.

But the most interesting part of the day was left to the end. A guided tour ‘behind the scenes’ at the venue for the seminar - the Ludlow Food Centre. Only opened a year ago, this purpose built centre promotes local food. A large food hall supplies all manner of locally sourced produce. But for me the most interesting part of the tour was to take a look at the workshops which the ordinary visitor can view through large windows in the shop. We were shown the bakery, the butchers shop and the two large meat stores, the cheese and butter making dairy, the coffee roasting workshop, the pickle and jam kitchen and the general store room.

If you are ever down that way do call in. It’s a fascinating place.