By Andi Chapple, Marketing Co-ordinator for the Closing Loops project and the main organiser for the street food market at Light Up Lancaster.
When we’re talking about local food, people often think about ‘food miles’. As a market organiser, I can’t actually give you a specific distance that the ingredients of a meal have travelled so you can eat it at the street food market we’re hosting.
What I can tell you is that the fish in the chowder comes from Morecambe Bay, that the goat in the curried goat comes from Cockerham, the pig in the hog roast is from Lupton near Kirkby Lonsdale, and so on.
I can also tell you how far the traders travel to do the markets. Most of the people bringing delicious hot and cold food and warm drinks to the market are very local – based in Morecambe, Lancaster and villages round about. You will probably know many of them from the FoodFutures Seasonal Markets (happening on four Fridays a year) and the Lancaster Charter Markets (every Wednesday and Saturday).
At last year’s Light Up Lancaster food market in the “Magical Market Square” the average round trip for a trader for one night was just ten miles, and leaving out the most distant three traders it was just three miles. This year, some of them come from slightly more distant, rural locations, but the average is still only 18.5 miles.
A big part of what we’re trying to do with the markets and the wider Closing Loops project at FoodFutures is to support the local economy, rural and urban. If more people buy what’s made locally, the money stays around in the local economy and it builds networks of information and even friendship. What we’re doing is building an ecosystem, supporting existing businesses and organisations and making a fertile seed bed for people who are starting something new. This is reflected in the fact that some of the regular traders at Lancaster’s Seasonal Markets – the Spring Market in March, Midsummer Market in June, Harvest Market in September and the upcoming Midwinter Market in December – are recent start-ups and the markets are an important way for them to get customers.
So I hope you will come during Light Up Lancaster from 5 to 10pm on Thursday 7, Friday 8 and Saturday 9 November, enjoy the marvellous art works and then visit the Market Square to find something to eat and drink, meet your friends and family and listen to some of our excellent (and very local) musicians. While you’re there, chat to the stallholders about where their ingredients come from and where and how the food is cooked. Hopefully you’ll leave feeling inspired about the future of local food in North Lancashire.
