Thanks to all the people from far and wide who travelled to Tideswell this weekend to meet the faces behind the Village SOS TV programme.

Our very own “self-styled marketing man”, Tim, was on tour guide duty at the School of Food; Carol and her team at Tindalls baked throughout the weekend; the village pubs – Horse and Jockey, Star, Anchor and George served up countless meals; and the Cherry Tree, Peaches, and Vanilla Kitchen cafe were on hand to serve scrummy Tideswell Made food.  Litton Larder’s Penny’s Puds were flying off the shelves at the Peak District Dairy Shop and Chatsworth Farm Shop.

We had visitors from Devon, Sunderland, Lancashire, London, as well as people from slightly closer to home.  All were inspired with what they saw – a community coming together around food!

Wondering what all the fuss is about?  Why not watch the Village SOS episode here on i-Player:  http://t.co/x2x3C6p

Finally, we have a date for the broadcast of the Village SOS series on BBC1.  Village SOS, presented by Sarah Beeny, will track the progress of the six villages around the UK who received a BIG Lottery award to help regenerate their village.

The series starts on Weds 10th August at 8pm on BBC1 and the Taste Tideswell story will be broadcast on Weds 7th September.  Be sure to tune in!

The Tideswell School of Food was buzzing today with foodies and local producers attending the launch of the Derbyshire Food and Drink Guide.  Look out for a copy of the guide in tourist information centres, food outlets, supermarkets etc across the county.  The team from Visit Peak District attended, as did local MP Patrick McLoughlin (who’ll be coming back to do a cookery course during Parliament’s summer recess!).  Our local Tideswell producers were out in force to show of their wares, with the Litton Larder team at work in the Commercial Kitchen. Here are some pictures of the day.

Here’s Steve Vardy, Head of School, in full demonstration mode:

The Litton Larder team, who produce the most delicious Sticky Toffee Pud and use locally grown fruit and veg for jams and pickles.

Here’s Carol from Tindall’s showing off her Fidgety Pie and Pork Pies (both from traditional Derbyshire recipes).

David Thornton, deputy CEO of Visit Peak District, introducing the day:

Zane Barnes from University of Nottingham, our Brewmaster for the day, explaining the nano-brewery process: 

Waiting patiently for the tour of the School of Food:

It’s that time of the month again……

As tomorrow (27th) is the last Sunday of the month, it’s a ‘growing day’ at the Community Garden.  Come along and join in any time from 10.30 till about 2pm.  You can get your hands dirty and get some good digging exercise, or you can just come along and say hello and watch proceedings!  we’ll be down at the community garden on Sunday from 10.30am.  All welcome!

One of the jobs for tomorrow is to look at the composting area. So if you have any old compost bins, unused wooden pallets let get in touch or bring them down to the garden and we can get building.

Some exciting news! We’ve recently been awarded 150 fruit tree saplings from the nice people at The Woodland Trust.  These will be offered to villagers to help kick start our Tideswell orchard.  We’ve also had a lovely donation (from villager Pete Nash) of some rare purple peas.  These will be available to people on the basis that some seeds are saved at the end of the season to help support this rare breed.

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

In case you’ve missed it, the School of Food is running a competition to win a £70 voucher to be redeemed against any of the cookery courses at the school.

See www.tideswellschooloffood.co.uk/news/2011/1/competition-time and get entering!

The Community Garden is slowly coming out of hibernation following the cold snap in December.  The good news is that we managed to get out for the first Volunteer Day of the year last Sunday.  Despite the cold weather, we were delighted that some sprouts were still there for the picking!  (And very tasty they were too, Ed!)

The first growing year of the community garden only really started in May, so we’re chuffed to bits about what we achieved last year.  This year we have a bit more time to plan – anyone interested in shaping what we do this year is welcome to join a session to discuss in The Star  on 17th Feb – 7.30pm.

Oh, and please meet Helen.  Helen is a Tideswell resident who, before last may, had never grown a single thing.  She threw herself into the Community Garden, learning as much as she could from other villagers, and here she is with the fruits of her labours.  Result!