Provenance stories

Martin and I frequently talk about how best to describe Birland Feasts. We invariably use the word ‘provenance’, so I went looking for a definition that resonated with our conversations and found this:

‘When it comes to food, provenance is all about knowing its origins.This includes where and how it was grown, raised, caught or made, as well as who was responsible for doing so. One way to think about provenance is as the story behind the food.’ The Sustainable Restaurant Association www.sra.org

I really like this definition because it covers place, practices and people. It’s also about sharing food journeys, a phrase we also often use. As such, it’s a great prompt to reflect on some recent food experiences, dig a bit deeper into what provenance can mean and tell some of our own provenance story.

PLACE

Locals only?

In April, we went to a Dartmoor Food Plan consultation meeting at The Bedford Hotel in Tavistock. While we’d been directly invited, we did feel like the Bere Alston Interlopers! However, the organisers explained that ‘Dartmoor’ in this context deliberately included surrounding towns and villages, so we were included and legitimate in this context. We thought this transparency was key.

Our next food outing was to eat: Tavistock. There are now over 25 eat:Festivals locations across the South West. With ‘local food & drink’ and 'grown from the land around us' straplines, here's their longer description as below:

‘Celebrate the great local producers surrounding the festival town… eat: Festivals … aims to connect communities with the productive landscape that surrounds them… [and] to bring a great range of producers and products into the town on the day of the festival. Mostly based within 30 miles of each town, with a few exceptional and hard to find products from further afield.’

However, in Tavistock there were very many producers from further afield. As one example, Dark Matters from Bristol. Bristol is not Tavistock, in West Devon or even in Devon. Bristol is over 100 miles away.

Does it matter the company is not local to Tavistock? No, it’s great to offer people products from further afield without falling into the trap that only ‘local’ can, and must, mean 'good'.

Do their products have provenance? Yes, their lovely vegan brownies are hand baked in small batches, using 70% organic and Fairtrade chocolate along with other ‘top quality, obsessively ethically sourced ingredients’. That’s what makes them taste great and that’s the real provenance story.

PLACE AND PRACTICES

Along with certifications in relation to practices that evidence the ways in which food is produced (for example organic and Fairtrade, as with the Dark Matters brownies), there are some key designations which link place and practices, such as:

PDO: Protected Designation of Origin/AOP: Appellation d'Origine Protégée

Every part of the production, processing and preparation process must take place in the specific region: recognised ‘know how’ gives the product its characteristics.

PGI: Protected Geographical Indication

At least one of the stages of production, processing or preparation takes place in the region.

A less well-known designation, just practice focused, is:

TSG: Traditional Speciality Guaranteed

Highlights the traditional aspects, such as the way the product is made or its composition, without being linked to a specific geographical area. 

While certifications and designations help to show and celebrate place and process authenticity in food, as the Sustainable Restaurant Association definition explains, provenance also covers knowing about the people involved.

PLACE, PRACTICE AND PEOPLE

My food heritage is Austrian, Yorkshire and Norfolk where I grew up, making for the enjoyment of a range of dumpling types. With family recipes for both Sachertorte and Parkin, my usual ‘cultural mashup’ story is about eating goose on Christmas Eve and turkey on Christmas Day.

Carrying on my father’s traditions, we would later spread the ‘goose grease’ (goose fat) on toast for breakfast, while my mother recounted how, when she was growing up, she had it spread on brown paper and placed on her chest when she had a cough.

Martin is Yorkshire through and through. As a classically trained Chef, his professional food foundations are French. His interests in wider Mediterranean cuisines grew when he ran de la Torre’s in Tavistock and haven’t stopped since setting up Birland Feasts.

Martin’s food is all about Mediterranean flavours with a twist. He cooks with gusto and places great importance on:

• Sourcing quality, local and authentic ingredients produced with sustainability in mind

• Growing our own fruit, vegetables and herbs to use

• Working with local suppliers who value conversations about food provenance

  
  

•  Making everything from scratch

  
  

• Being an approved Slow Food Movement Supporter: Good, clean and fair food for all

• Creating social, shared dining experiences: ‘We cook the food, you bring the conviviality.’

For those who don’t know, our name itself has provenance, as the Bere Peninsula was called Birland during Medieval times. When we moved here 10 years ago, we very quickly felt rooted in the natural landscape and community of ‘Bereys’, with a strong sense of the mining and horticultural heritage. While we may venture away from the Peninsula at times, we’re ‘from and for’ the place we now call home.

There are just a few tickets left for the Summer Feast on 20 June at Rumleigh Farm, Bere Peninsula...

Written without the use of AI...which of course actually means Amazing Ingredients.