Foraging, fermenting, jam and apples at The Frome Independent this October

The Frome Independent is welcoming in the autumn at their next market, with a celebration of edible abundance, wild food and community spirit.

The market team will welcome visitors to their own “Village Green Preservation Society” on Sunday 7th October.  Market-goers can come and meet food educators, fermentation and preserving experts and foragers to their pop-up Village Green area next to Frome Library. There will be a series of talks, demonstrations and Q&A sessions that will take place throughout the day. Visitors can also try fermented and foraged foods and learn about the history of foraging and preserving wild-growing plants and herbs.

 Leading the programme of activities will be Katie Venner and Helen Kearney, founding members of Wild & Fermented, a collective of food producers who are based in Somerset and trade at the market each month.  

Katie Venner is a food educator and fermentation enthusiast who will be talking about fermented food and drinks, and demonstrating how they can be made at home. Helen Kearney is a medical herbalist and forager who runs a five and a half acre organic farm in Devon which is part of the Ecological Land Co-operative’s first site in the UK. She also has a background in permaculture, cooperatives, organic growing and outdoor education.

 The Village Green Preservation Society will also be the setting for a town-wide jam making competition. Residents are invited to bring their own homemade jams, conserves, jellies and marmalades down to The Village Green, where award-winning jam-maker Mary Longford of Absolutely Preserves, will taste and award prizes. 

Sustainable Frome’s Apple Group will also be taking part. They will bring their traditional community apple press to market, turning the town’s windfalls into freshly pressed juice throughout the market day. Proceeds from the sale of apple juice will go to local charity Dorothy House, who will be collecting funds and raising awareness throughout the market in advance of National Hospice Week, which runs from 8th  – 14th October.

 Across the market, visitors can expect the usual array of local food producers, street food vendors, flea market traders and craftspeople, as well as live music on the Market Place stage.

There will be autumnal children’s activities from DoodleBug Club, and nostalgic records played by DJs from the Vintage Mobile Disco crew. As usual, the Park and Ride bus service will run throughout the day form Frome Medical Practice and Selwood School.

 The Frome Independent is a not-for-profit social enterprise, and runs on the first Sunday of every month, March – December from 10am until 3pm.  For more information please visit www.thefromeindepen dent.org.uk