A series of events to celebrate Somerset farmers and food producers is taking place across the county this harvest time. What started out as a simple church flower show has grown to become the Great Harvest Trail.
Jointly organised by the Diocese of Bath and Wells, Somerset Young Farmers Clubs and the Mells Group of Parishes, the Great Harvest Trail includes the Five Parishes Flower Festival, concerts, countryside events, and harvest services.
Pride of place at all these will be the Harvest Torch. Commissioned by Love British Food, the torch is the focus of harvest celebrations in a different county each year. This year Somerset has been chosen as the host.
Revd Clive Fairclough from Mells says “This is a fabulous opportunity to celebrate harvest and support our farmers across Somerset and locally with our flower festivals in five villages around Frome.”
The torch will be taken to schools, churches and Young Farmers Club events across Somerset in recognition of the farmers and food producers of the county. On its way round it will stop off in the Mells group of five parishes to the west of Frome, where the seeds of the Great Harvest Trail were first sown.
Here they are working together on the Five Villages Flower Festival on the weekend of 21/22 September. A wide range of activities is planned at each of the churches: flower displays, concerts, craft demonstrations, bulb planting and teas. Visitors will be able to travel to each location along a local harvest trail of walking and cycling routes.
The torch will also be stopping off at Mells Harvest Barn Dance in the medieval Tithe Barn on 27th September where party goers will be entertained by the Somerset Levellers. Its final journey will be by tractor to Wells Cathedral for the 85th Somerset YFC Harvest Service on 6th October.
For further details contact Fr Clive Fairclough.
