FOR ALL BOOKINGS & INFO
www.foodadventures.co.uk /07789 85 7818 /
riveralde@btinternet.com
THE ALDE VALLEY FOOD ADVENTURES™
The Bario & Kelabit Highlands Food & Cultural Festival 2008
Already in its third year, The Bario & Kelabit Highlands Food & Cultural Festival is a week long community owned festival held in the Kelabit Highlands of Central Borneo. It is the first overseas joint venture with The Alde Valley Food Adventures and the first community based indigenous food festival in East Malaysia.
The Kelabit Highlands are the homeland of the Kelabit race and home to one of East Malaysia’s and Borneo’s most remarkable intact traditionally farmed and forested landscapes. The 20 villages and longhouses of the Highlands, including more remote Penan settlements and hunting areas, are located within a high plateau drained by the Sungai Dappur river and the upper reaches of the mighty Baram river. The villages of the central basin and more outlying river valleys are surrounded by wet padi fields of Bario Rice, fruit orchards, and partly farmed or previously settled secondary forests. These give way to more remote river valleys, many containing a rich variety of modern and ancient megalithic monuments, burial sites, cairns and carved landscape features. The most remote valleys, near the Indonesian border, remain a refuge for many of Sarawak and East Malaysia’s most iconic wildlife species, including Rhinoceros Hornbills, Helmeted Honrbills, gibbons and the rare Bornean Clouded Leopard.
The Festival celebrates the farming, forest and cultural heritage of the Kelabit Highlands with a growing programme of events and activities.
This page is currently being updated. For more information about the Kelabit Highlands and local foods, including Bario Rice, Bario Salt and Pa Mada cinnamon, please email riveralde@btinternet.com or visit www.ebario.com . We hope you will come and join us in Bario for Festival 4 in 2009 – or for the Miri International Food Festival in August 2008!
THE ALDE VALLEY
FOOD ADVENTURES™
Amazing Grazing in the Alde Valley
Open Farm Exhibition - Autumn 2008
Friday 19th September - Saturday 4th October
Open Tuesday - Saturday 11am – 6pm White House Farm, Great Glemham
The Amazing Grazing Exhibition
A two week celebration of shepherding and livestock farming in the beautiful Alde Valley of East Suffolk. New ram & Red Poll drawings by Jason Gathorne-Hardy, paintings and painted furniture by Tessa Newcomb, handmade stick-back shepherd's chairs by Jim Parsons, dairy stools by Raymond Hopkins and chopping boards by Ronnie Watling. Tractor Shed Cinema [showing video film shorts about farms in the Valley]. Light refreshments available. Woodland & Wildflower Nature Walk. Come by bike, foot, car or bus. The 118 / 119 Rural Bus Route stops in Great Glemham, Rendham and Sweffling.
Good places to eat near the farm : The Ship Inn, Blaxhall [01728 688 316]; The Golden Key, Snape [01728 688 510]; The Crown Inn, Gt Glemham [01728 663 693]; The White Horse, Rendham [01728 663 497]; farm cafe, Marlesford [01728 747 717]; The Bell Hotel, Saxmundham [01728 602 331].
In association with The Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival, Creating the Greenest County, Suffolk Onboard & Natural England's Grazing, Landscape & Food Project. White House Farm is a Regional Finalist in the 2008 Future of Farming Awards. The Alde Valley Food Adventures TM were a Finalist in the 2006 Suffolk Tourism Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Tourism.
For more information about Suffolk, foods & landscape :
- www.visit-suffolk.org.uk
- www.tastesofanglia.com
- www.eafl.org.uk
- www.suffolkwildlife.co.uk
- www.naturalengland.org.uk
Go Green ~ DIY Food Adventures™ & the 118 / 119 Rural Bus Route
The Alde Valley is stuffed with good food. From honey and jams to soft fruit and dairy products; from estuary fish and seasonal game to local lamb, pork, poultry and beef; from organic vegetables and local breads to smoked meats and bacons : you name it and the Alde Valley probably has it ! To discover this for yourself, why not organise your own DIY Alde Valley Food Adventure TM. Orford is well stocked with fresh fish, smoked meats, a good butcher and plentiful beer. Aldeburgh is full of cafes and restaurants serving local foods, with an excellent butcher, deli, pubs, inshore fishermen and hotels. Nearby, Leiston has three butchers, a deli and even a fish and chop shop selling local fish and Red Poll beef burgers. Inland, Saxmundham has a thriving High Street with a butcher, deli, farm shop, Wednesday Market Day and town centre supermarket. Downstream at Snape there is a cluster of pubs serving local produce and a monthly Farmers' Market. Framlingham, like Saxmundham, has a weekly market on Tuesdays and Saturdays with a butcher, two delis, a baker, a new farm shop and good mix of cafes, pubs and restaurants. In between, there are cafes and shops at Hacheston and Marlesford, whilst the Upper Alde Valley is full of livestock and arable farms – and an excellent variety of local pubs serving locally produced foods. The Alde Valley and East Suffolk have good rail connections via Saxmundham and Ipswich. The roads are generally quiet and often very scenic, with inland and coastal National Cycle Routes. Or, if you want to leave the car behind, why not jump on the 118 /119 Rural Bus Service, running between Ipswich, Framlingham, Saxmundham and Leiston. It passes so many excellent local food businesses and nearby village hotspots – including Earl Soham, Rendham and Great Glemham - that we have nicknamed the 118/119 the Rural Gastro Route !
The Festival Feast
The Lambing Barns, White House Farm, Great Glemham, IP17 1LS
6pm ~ 11.30pm Saturday 20th September
Adults : £15.00 * Children under 15 : £5.00. Children under 5 : Free
A Feast of Fresh, Seasonal Farmed & Wild Foods from the Alde Valley held as part of The 2008 Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival. Alde Valley Lamb TM & Linden Farm Beef BBQ, Organic Salads from Peak Hill Farm, Handmade Organic Autumn Breads by Bread, Game Terrines from farm cafe, Smoked Hams from Richardsons Smokehouse in Orford, Mary Belle Yoghurts & Creme Fraiche, Smoked Fish from Pinneys, Cheeses from Reeve's Dairy in Friston, Game from the Wild Meat Company, Maple Farm Egg Frittata, Fruit & Juices from High House Fruit Farm.
The Feast will also include fires, a Woodland Nature Walk, farm videos / childrens films in the Tractor Shed Cinema [a TV in the Tractor Shed], the Festival Exhibition [ Amazing Grazing in the Alde Valley ] and music. Autumn Cordials & Teas included. BYO beer & wine. Families and children are welcome. Come by foot, bike, bus or car. The 118 / 119 Rural Bus Service stops in Gt Glemham, Rendham & Sweffling. Camping available by special arrangement. Bring cushions and blankets to sit on. No dogs please.
* £14.00 per person for group bookings of four or more adults.
For all bookings : Telephone 01728 663 531
Email riveralde@btinternet.com
WHITE HOUSE FARM & THE ALDE VALLEY FOOD ADVENTURES™
Amazing Grazing in The Alde Valley ~ History of Livestock Farming
The Alde Valley is home to some of the most beautiful countryside in the East of England. From the coastal estuary and heathlands to the inland river valleys and clay uplands, it is blessed with a rich mosaic of marshes, water meadows, woodland, heath and productive arable land. At a passing glance, this landscape can seem no more than an attractive back drop to the villages, towns, rivers and byways of rural Suffolk. But look more closely and the intimate connection between farming and the countryside soon becomes apparent. The coastal heathlands, a mixture of heather and scrub woodland, were once grazed by large roving flocks of Suffolk sheep. The sea walls and inland sluices helped to maintain huge areas of low lying pasture and water meadows grazed by sheep and cattle. Further inland, among the towns and villages, an extensive fabric of small fields and grassland once supported hundreds of small family owned livestock businesses producing beef, lamb, mutton and dairy produce. Although many of these have now disappeared, The Valley is fortunate to retain a growing number of independent livestock businesses, all of which contribute to the ongoing survival of the familiar rural landscape.
The Alde Valley ~ Superstore Free from Source to Sea
One reason for the continued survival of small independent livestock farms in The Alde Valley is the absence of a superstore in its catchment area. The local food retailing fabric is unusually intact. It is dominated by farm shops, farmers markets, market town traders, weekly markets and town centre supermarkets. These all provide a very welcoming and supportive retailing environment for new and existing food businesses. The local food economy is consequently exceptionally dynamic and employment rich. This in turn has helped to open up new opportunities for local food production, with very high levels of product innovation and business creation. Local foods, sometimes dismissed as being exclusive or marginal are, neither of these things – they are about jobs, innovation and great tasting, good value grub!
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