Ludlow Food Festival: Listen to the experts on the Netherton Foundry Castle Gardens stage this Friday and Saturday
If you’ve ever read a restaurant review, a cook book or a food column in a newspaper and thought “I could do that”, you really need to come and listen to what Samuel Goldsmith, senior food editor at Good Food and chair of the Guild of Food Writers has to say. The author of cookbooks, The Tinned Tomato Cookbook and The Frozen Pea Cookbook, Samuel will be talking about building a career in food writing.
Adam Alexander:
What’s a seed detective? Find out by listening in on a conversation between Adam Alexander and Ross Underwood. Adam is a story teller, but his true passion is collecting rare, endangered and, above all, delicious vegetables from around the world.
Crisis, what crisis? Hands Together Ludlow is a local charity which works through a range of projects to give help, information and support to people in and around Ludlow. The chair, Sue Chantler will be discussing the food crisis facing many people with local hero Steve Guy, Slow Food’s 2024 ‘England Person of the Year.’
And our friend Jen Goss who is currently working on projects teaching children, communities and many more how to cook and helping set up a charity - Cegin Y Bobl, a non-profit organisation based in Carmarthenshire, established to build on the legacy of the successful Cook24 programme.
Where’s Wilf
Felicity Cloake is well known for her writing, including her cookbooks, travelogues and “How to make the perfect….” Column in the Guardian; her bicycle and Wilf, her dog.
The last time we met Felicity, Wilf had been left with dogsitters, as he was not permitted to enter the event, but we are really hoping he will be accompanying her to Ludlow Food Festival, where stallholders will melt before those “just a tiny taste, please” eyes.
But however cute and famous Wilf is, Felicity is the star attraction and will be in conversation of Friday afternoon with the ever entertaining DJ BBQ, discussing Felicity’s latest book, Peach Street to Lobster Lane, describing her adventures cycling across the USA in search of American cuisine.
This promises to be a highlight of the weekend, so get along to the Netherton Foundry tent in the castle gardens, at 3:30pm on Friday 12th September.
The regenerative generation
We are keen to hear this discussion, hosted by Kate Humble, as we have heard much and understand little about regenerative farming.
Kate will be joined by Wild by Nature’s brothers in law Ed and Jake, who left their jobs in the city and moved back to where they had grown up in the Welsh borders, with a shared desire to be closer to nature and to grow, cook and share the food from their farm. At Wild by Nature they farm primarily for flavour, selecting traditional breeds that are best suited to the environment and giving them the time to mature and develop naturally.
Jake They manage their livestock in a way that increases biodiversity and allows for natural regeneration of soil.
Ed Also taking part in the discussion will be Clare from Planton farm in Shropshire, a regenerative farmer and influential voice in regenerative agriculture, with deep roots in both policy and corporate spheres of the agri-food world. Since the early 2000s, she has held roles spanning the entire food system – from grassroots farming to corporate strategy – bringing a wealth of experience and a systems-thinking approach to everything she does.
Venue: the Netherton Foundry Castle garden tent at 11:30am on Saturday
Aaron Vallance with Kathy Slack
Aaron Vallance is a food writer and NHS consultant psychiatrist. So who better to chat with Kathy Slack about her raw but lyrical book Rough Patch, describing her depression and the solace of sinking her hands into the soil, sowing seeds not only of vegetables, but also of hope? Aaron’ debut book - Friday Night Chicken - is due out in April 2027, a coming-of-age memoir that recounts the foods, folklore and traditions of his Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.
Venue: Castle Gardens Stage - Castle Gardens. When:13th September 2025, 12:30 pm to 1:15 pm
Jimi Famurewa with Felicity Cloake
Jimi Famurewa is a British-Nigerian author, broadcaster and freelance journalist, whose smile and personality light up the screen whenever he appears as a guest judge on Masterchef. To quote the Guardian his book, SETTLERS “ is a wide-ranging survey of the cultural and economic life of London’s African diaspora. A blend of memoir, social history and reportage, it is made up of nine essays that take in everything from education, housing and policing to religion and cuisine. The general tenor is celebratory: the author waxes sentimental about independent supermarkets such as TM African Foods on Goldhawk Road, where customers can indulge in “unhurried lingering, haggling on price, speaking at volume in thick-accented patois or pidgin or, perhaps, not even in English at all”. Scoffing Nigerian scrambled eggs in West Kensington’s Pitanga restaurant, he experiences a “quintessential Proustian rush” – “I might as well be slumped happily on my mum’s corner sofa, listening to the faint sound of her singing church hymns in the kitchen.”
No doubt he and Felicity will have a lot more to say about influence and experience of Africans and their place in London’s rich food culture.
Venue: the Netherton Foundry Castle garden tent at 1:30pm on Saturday
Frankie Paz
If you thought veganism was a trend for modern youth, think again. Francesca Paz has been living a plant-based lifestyle for over 15 years, inspired by her vegan 97- year-old grandma, and her time living in sustainable communities in South America. Frankie healed her own mind and body of addiction after years of fast living in London, through reconnecting with nature and developing her own delicious nourishing food, tonics and potions.
We will fascinated to hear about how she shares her reconnection with the wildness of nature through foraging, seasonal eating, and honouring natural cycles.
Venue: the Netherton Foundry Castle garden tent at 3:30pm on Saturday
