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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 ~ Autumn 2009
Amazing Grazing in the Alde Valley
A two week programme of food, arts & farming at White House Farm, Gt Glemham In association with The 2009 Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival
Main Event : The Amazing Grazing Exhibition
Suffolk Sheep ~ Detail of an etching by Harry Becker [1865 - 1928] The Lambing Barns, White House Farm, Great Glemham, Suffolk IP17 1LS Friday 25th September ~ Sunday 11th October 2009 Open 10am ~ 6pm Tuesdays ~ Sundays
Artists
Tessa Newcomb ~ Tessa has shown at the farm since the second Easter exhibition in 2004. Her work in the Amazing Grazing exhibition features livestock and landscape paintings from the Alde Valley and the coast of Suffolk.
Kate Giles ~ Works in London and at Butley Mills Studios by Butley Creek on the Alde Estuary. The exhibition presents a selection of paintings on board and canvas about the estuary and coastal landscape.
Jason Gathorne-Hardy ~ New drawings of Red Poll cattle and Rams from the Alde Valley.
Stuart Anderson ~ Stuart’s magnificent life size bronze sculpture of a young thoroughbred horse Arabella has been on loan and on show at the farm since the Spring Exhibition in April 2009. He will displaying a collection of bronzes of greyhounds, horses and other animals.
Jim Parsons ~ Part time fireman, also a cabinet maker and gifted chair maker. There will be a selection of Jim's signature Windsor back chairs and also a pair of new hand made elm ball back chairs, based upon original designs taken from The Suffolk Chair Collection.
Mercury Hare ~ Mercury will be showing a collection of hand fired tankards, bowls and plates made at his workshop near Little Blakenham.
Marchela Dimitrova ~ artist in residence at the farm. A traditional icon painter from Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Marchela is working in the UK with her husband Nedyalko. The exhibition will show a small collection of recent pieces and commissions, including a large icon of St Sophia.
Raymond Hopkins ~ makes furniture with oak and ash wood from the farm. A collection of recent work, including an oak table and stools will be on display and for sale.
A Tribute to Harry Becker
The exhibition will also present a small archive collection of etchings, sketches and lithographs by the Suffolk artist Harry Becker [1865 ~ 1928]. Frequently overlooked, the work of Harry Becker is of a quality and range that should credit him as one of the country's finest draughtsmen and impressionists. For much of his later working life, Becker’s chose to paint and draw the farmed landscape of East Suffolk, often featuring men at work in the fields, ditches and hedgerows.
The archive is a small tribute to the extraordinary endeavours of Becker to portray rural life on the farms of East Suffolk at the beginning of the last century – during an age when the horse was still the primary provider of assisted power. The archive is accompanied by a collection of old farming bills from Campsea Ashe Market and copies of a more recent working diary kept by Jock Worrall Esq, farm manager of Street Farm, Great Glemham from 1962 to 1968.
Programme of Open Farm Events
The Amazing Grazing in the Alde Valley exhibition is part of the autumn season of open farm events at White House Farm, also the home of Alde Valley Lamb TM. Other events at the farm are listed below.
Saturday 26th September ~ Wild Food Walk @ WHFarm ~ 11am ~ 2pm : 1½ hour guided foraging walk followed by a wild food lunch. £25 pp inc walk & lunch. Children under 16 £8. Under 5s Free. T 01728 663 531 E riveralde@btinternet.com
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Thursday 1st October ~ Alde Valley Lamb Farm Walk & Pub Lunch @ The Golden Key, Snape ~ Rendezvous 11am at White House Farm for a guided farm walk of the flock, pastures and water meadows. Complimentary tea and coffee upon arrival. After the walk proceed to The Golden Key at Snape for a specially prepared 3 course Alde Valley Lamb lunch. £28.50 pp inc tea/coffee, walk & lunch. T 01728 688 510 for all bookings.
Saturday 3rd October ~ The Festival Feast @ WHFarm ~ 6pm ~ 11pm. A buffet feast from the farms of the Alde Valley. Come and joins us for a feast of fresh seasonal farmed and wild foods, fires, farm videos, music & Alde Valley Lamb barbeque. Autumn cordials and teas included. BYO beer and wine. £22 pp, under 16s £8, under 5s free T 01728 663 531 E riveralde@btinternet.com
Thursday 8th October ~ Open Forum @ WHFarm : Food & Farming – Re-Localising our Food Production ~ 6pm – 9pm. Open forum discussion about bringing food production back home to our farms & gardens. Fires will be lit, mint tea served. BYO refreshments & snapses. £3 Entrance Charge. All proceeds will be donated to East Feast.
Friday 9th October ~ Arabella's Lunch @ WHFarm ~ 1pm A light lunch of organic breads, salads, cheese and cordials in tribute to Stuart Anderson's sculptures, including Arabella, a life-size bronze of a young thoroughbred mare on show at the farm. Lunch is free. Donations will be passed to local charities.
Saturday 10th / Sunday 11th October ~ Final weekend. Come and join us for the end of exhibition, thanksgiving and celebrations for Pesta Nukenen Bario ~ the Alde Valley Food Adventures' sister Festival in Central Borneo.
The farm is 5 miles from Saxmundham Rail Station and close to the 118/119 Suffolk Onboard rural bus route. Cyclists, walkers and families welcome. Farm Woodland Nature Walk, Tractor Shed Films and free parking. No dogs please.
Recent Adventures II ~ Woven Dreams
26th May ~ 5th June 2009 The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, 19 22 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3SG
An exhibition of Pua Kumbu textiles from the Rumah Garie Longhouse in Sarawak. The Pua Kumbu are hand woven Iban textiles from Sarawak. The textiles are made using cotton and silk on traditional back looms with natural dyes. The patterns have contemporary narrative content. Pieces range in size from 600mm x 1200mm to 1200mm x 2000mm. The exhibition will also feature a collection of contemporary Kelabit Kabo bead necklaces made by master bead workers in Miri and Bario in the Kelabit Highlands. There will also be a small selection of contemporary working baskets from coastal and inland Sarawak. ?Exhibition Opens : Tuesday 26th May until Friday 5th June?Open Daily from Monday ~ Friday 10 am 8 pm Open on Saturday : 10 am 5 pm
THE PRINCES SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL ARTS
19 22 Charlotte Road, London EC2A SG?Nearest Underground : Old Street Woven Dreams is part of a 2 week celebration of the cultural arts, forests and indigenous foods of Sarawak in East Malaysia.?The exhibition is being held in association with Society Atelier Sarawak, Jason Gathorne-Hardy and The Prince's School of Traditional Arts.
More about The Alde Valley
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 Alde Valley Food Adventures are a rolling programme of events that celebrate these links between food, farming, landscape and the arts. The main events of the annual calendar are the four week Alde Valley Spring Festival at White House Farm in Great Glemham and a two week Amazing Grazing event in the autumn – alongside the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival.
The Alde Valley ~ Superstore Free from Source to Sea
The Alde Valley is blessed with an exceptional range of local foods and small independent retailers – it is one reason so many people like exploring the area and coming back to it year after year. This wealth of local foods – and all the benefits that come with it – is largely due to the absence of a superstore in the catchment area.
The Alde Valley is one of the few valleys in England that it is superstore-free, from source to sea. The local food retailing fabric is consequently made up mostly of farm shops, farmers markets, market town traders, weekly markets and town centre supermarkets. This provides a welcoming and supportive retailing environment for new and existing food businesses, which in turn helps to open up opportunities for local foods, with 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 local jobs, innovation and great tasting, good value grub – and all set in a beautiful countryside!
Go Green ~ DIY Food Adventures TM by Bus, Foot, Bike & Car
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.
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 Sea Hawk fish and chip shop selling local fish and Red Poll beef burgers. Inland, Saxmundham has a busy High Street with a butcher, deli, tea rooms. Hotel and Wednesday Market Day. 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 and good mix of cafes, pubs and restaurants. In between, there are cafes and shops at Hacheston and Marlesford, whilst the quiet Upper Alde Valley is full of livestock and arable farms – and an excellent variety of local pubs and B&Bs. 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. 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.
Recommended Sites for Places to Stay
There is a good choice of places to stay in the Alde Valley. For a full list please visit www.visit-suffolk.org.uk For local places to stay we recommend the following websites : www.bestofsuffolk.co.uk www.aldegarden.co.uk www.aldevalleybreaks.co.uk www.whitehousefarm-sweffling.co.uk
For those wanting to really their wings and venture abroad, come to the beautiful Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak in Central Borneo for The Alde Valley Food Adventures’ sister festival Pesta Nukenen Bario. The next festival is in July 2010 ~ which leaves plenty of time to get there ! www.ebario.com
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