Visit County Durham, through its destination food brand Taste Durham, has pledged support to a national sustainable food initiative through a VegCities takeover of Durham Farmer’s Market.
The takeover, which is a Sustainable Food Cities initiative in partnership with the wider Peas Please project, aims to highlight the county’s distinctive local produce, whilst raising the importance of people selling, cooking, and eating more vegetables.
Michelle Gorman, managing director at Visit County Durham, said: “We’re delighted to pledge our support to the VegCities takeover. The distinctiveness of Durham’s produce is extremely important to the local economy, with visitors spending £318m on food across the county each year. Initiatives like these not only support local producers, but they also encourage people who live here, and those visiting, to sample the best we have to offer”.
The takeover of the Farmer’s Market will provide the opportunity for visitors to purchase local produce, watch a vegetable cookery demonstration by students from New College Durham and East Durham College, sample dishes which feature vegetables as the key ingredient, with Taste Durham recipe cards to try at home.
Peter Samsom, Food Durham’s VegCities Coordinator said: “A staggering 80% of adults in the UK don’t get their 3.5 portions of vegetables per day, despite the fact that we all know that veg is good for us”.
“Through this event, we hope to show that meals where vegetables are the main ‘players’ are tasty and easy to make, and they’re pretty cheap too. At the same time, it’s great to make the link with local Durham producers and support the local economy”.
The VegCities takeover of Durham Farmer’s Market will take place on Thursday 17 October in Durham Market Place.
So far 23 organisations across the county have pledged their support to the VegCities Food Durham initiative. Businesses can get involved by visiting www.vegcities.org/local/county_durham/
