In conversation with Isabella Tree (Nov23)!!
The Electric Palace in Bridport was packed. The Bridport Literary Festival or Bridlit had managed to get Isabella Tree to come and talk to me in front of the 400 people who were able to get tickets. The focus was the newly published ‘The Book of Wilding‘ which is an easy-to-read manual on what can be done on […]
M&S Food (Feb10)
“Thank you for all of your challenges and great ideas that have helped us develop our strategy to 2020.” Helene Roberts, Head of Packaging, Food Division (Feb10)
CAOBISCO Sustainability Round Table (Sept09)
“Julia Hailes ignited the CAOBISCO Sustainability Round Table with her incisive observations and commentary. Her experience and mastery of her subject gave valuable insights to the mainly business audience from across the European and International chocolate, biscuit and confectionery industries” David Zimmer, Secretary General CAOBISCO, Sep09
Food Innovation (Sep09)
The Food Ethics Council Business Forum meeting focussed on radical innovation. I was chairing the session with a presentation from Sander Mager, Programme Manager at the groundbreaking Dutch technology incubator TransForum – a quango supporting projects ranging from closed-loop farming to producer-managed supermarkets.
Pig heaven (Jun09)
A friend of mine called Sarah has bought three not so little piglets. They’re only 9 weeks old but already quite porky. They’re also rather endearing and very friendly – snuffling and snorting around their wooded enclosure. One of the piglets has been nick-named ‘rotavator’ because he seems to be particularly good at turning over […]
Plugs, insurance, credit crunch, beetles and lunch (Jan09)
Last week was busy. I flew from meeting to meeting. Not literally I hasten to add – they were mostly in London. I started with a meeting about insurance – I’m not a great fan of the industry. They’re so inefficient and bureaucratic. Talk about excessive paper production. I was talking to Adam Clutterbuck. […]
Eat Dorset Food Fair (Oct08)
Another sunny weekend for the Eat Dorset Food Fair. Set in the magnificent park at Parnham House near Beaminster, this is an annual event I really enjoy. The last couple of years I spent some time over the weekend selling books with Sara Villiers from the Bailey Hill Book Shop in Castle Cary. It’s one […]
Autumn pleasures… (Sept08)
Picking apples and blackberries in the beautiful autumn sun has only been surpassed listening to the sound of bagpipes whilst watching kites waving around against a deep blue sky. The last couple of weekends have been truly magical. The Dorset Kite Festival is annual event on Eggardon Hill near Powerstock. It’s truly spectacular even when […]
Supermarkets vs french markets…. (Sept08)
Even with the wind and rain lashing around our beach hut on the Dorset coast, we had a great couple of days. There were sunny spells and we had lots of visitors. Somehow the weather didn’t matter that much. We stocked up for supplies from the large supermarket in Bridport – but this was more […]
Summer produce (Jul08)
The weekend wasn’t glorious – certainly not the weather anyway. But I’ve been really enjoying the delicious summer produce, either from my wonderful food delivery service – Somerset Local Food Direct, from my mother’s garden or from our local pick your own. On Saturday night I had 15 people to supper. We started with broad […]