Community
Reflections from the Bioregional Banquet
Is there a conker under your seat?
On a stormy autumn evening on Friday 3rd October, 120 farmers, fishers, growers, educators, and community members came together for the Bioregional Banquet - an evening of storytelling, feasting and exploring the future of food and farming in our region.
Guests arrived at the Barn at South Milton, stepping out of the wind and rain into the warmth of a community harvest celebration. They came with offerings from the land; vegetables, grains, and gifts from farms and gardens across the region. They placed their offerings on the hearth as music was played by Harbottle & Jonas. Inspired by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, author of Hospicing Modernity, everyone was invited to drop a handful of dried beans into Three Hope Jars - a quiet act of democratic expression. The final count offered a vivid picture of our collective mood: 322 in favour of radical change, 237 for system transformation, and 52 for maintaining the status quo.
“One in four households in this bioregion is food insecure” - Chantelle Norton
Stories from the Bioregion
Once seated, we were welcomed and addressed by our community judge, who introduced the evening’s format, inspired by La Rasgioni, a Sardinian tradition for collective listening and deliberation. A community jury was drawn at random as guests reached underneath their seat to find a conker signifying their selection. They were invited to listen closely throughout the evening, to sit together over dinner and deliberate, sharing closing reflections on what they had heard and felt.
We were then guided by Toni Spencer and Robyn Minogue to listen to our eight stories. Each storyteller shared powerful, personal tales from across the food system - from land to sea, field to kitchen.
• Oliver Lee, How Now Dairy, on caring for land that in turn cares for us.
• Shelley Castle & Frank, Flete Field Lab, on fungi, mycelium, and healing the soil.
• Adrian Bartlett, Fisheries Advocate, on a lifetime at sea and the future of fishing in South Devon.
• Rachel Phillips, Apricot Centre, on nurturing the next generation of regenerative farmers, whilst regenerating the soil and feeding the community.
• Lewis Winks, Right to Roam, on the struggle for access to land, & finding belonging in place.
• Chantelle Norton & David Markson Food in Community, on working for food justice, fighting food insecurity & waste.
• Fred Groom, Vital Seeds, on preserving open-pollinated seed diversity and seed sovereignty.
• Naomi Oakley, Challacombe Farm, on farming for nature first in Dartmoor’s uplands & farming as guardianship of land.
The stories were of course not exhaustive, but sparked a profound sense of inspiration in what’s possible when people dedicate their lives and work to tending the land and our food system. And we know there are many stories from South Devon still to be told…
Our harvest feast!
Dinner, catered by Charlie and the team at The Cellar Door, featured a menu crafted from local ingredients, showcasing the abundance of the bioregion and the creativity of its producers including How Now Dairy, Stone Tree Dairy, the Apricot Centre, and Bugford Kitchen Garden. Dishes included smoked line caught mackerel rillette, Bugford beetroot three ways with Stone Tree Dairy goat’s curd, Braised feather blade of Hall Farm beef & a chocolate and amaretto torte, blackberry. After dinner, the Judge invited the Jury - represented by a selected spokesperson - to feed back their deliberations, questions, hopes & ideas. They read this out from a sacred scroll, which was then rolled up, tied with ribbon and passed onto the judge, and back to Isabel at the BLC, with a commitment to carry this work forward.
Looking ahead
The Bioregional Banquet was designed not as an endpoint, but a beginning - a shared moment to open a conversation about food security and resilience in South Devon. The stories, questions, and relationships that emerged that night will continue to guide how we work towards resilience and belonging within our bioregion. As the autumn deepens, the Bioregional Learning Centre will be gathering more stories and reflecting on the feedback from the evening, sharing the jury’s “verdict” and finding ways to weave what was learned into our wider climate adaptation work.
With gratitude
Our heartfelt thanks to the storytellers, guides, jury, musicians, caterers, and everyone who contributed - including those who brought produce & all of our guests for bringing their open hearts. The gifted food was packed up and donated to Food in Community’s food support programmes. The salad and potatoes appeared the very next day at their “pay what you feel” café in Totnes.
South Devon Crabbers by Adrian Bartlett
At dawn, they steer through mist and foam,
Where gulls wheel high and breakers roam,
They cast their pots in waters wide,
And trust the mercy of the tide.
With steady hands, the ropes they haul,
Through storm and sun, they face it all,
Proud men who work the briny plain,
And bring the Devon crab again.
