Our last day. We decided to go to the Menai Food Festival, which was unexpectedly cheerful – lots of local producers arranged in tents, not so much sea food as I was expecting, but Thai food, burgers and ice cream. After reading a chapter of my book about apples (did you know that they originated in Kazakhstan ? And that St. Benedict advocated the planting of apples in monastery gardens ?), I was pleased to discover the Anglesey Apple Company:-
Next door was a stall selling plums:-
And I think it may have been Mrs. Teague who was selling local tomatoes:-
If nothing else this holiday, it’s that the fetishisation of local foods is not insignificant in terms of what it does to the land. As three Professors of Cardiff wrote in Worlds of Food: Place, Power and Provenance in the Food Chain (OUP, 2006), ‘Buying food may be a private matter, but the type of food we buy, the shops and stalls from where we buy it, and the significance we attach to its provenance have enormous social consequences’.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
You must read Michael Pollen’s The Botany of Desire.
Yes, Jennifer Jordan, the author of the book I’ve been reading, also cites his Omnivore’s Dilemma. Charles
I think you will be going home after a very interesting/eventful time here in north wales . I always say we are the best kept secret . Please spread the word we need the tourists
Yes, as I hope is obvious, we love it. There’s always more to see and do, and the pleasures of doing the same things over again – and, of course, the fact that there aren’t too many tourists. Charles
Wonderful still-lives of Apples. And fascinating about St Benedict. Thank you. As ever your Blog is a mine of Information and insight.
A suitable last Post from Anglesey. Of course it should be a separate Book !
I had heard that there was loads of delicious seafood there . It was in the marquee on the pier . Did you get that far?
Yes, just about, but it was so crowded, we couldn’t get through, so missed the oysters, and much else. Charles
Thanks for your profusion of posts over the summer from Anglesey! Interesting about St Benedict – hence presumably the tradition at Ampleforth (which always used to boast England’s northernmost commercial orchard, I think). On apples and Kazakhstan, Roger Deakin is a great read (just one segment of his last work, Wildwood).
Dear Simon, Thank you. Yes, I may have overdone the Anglesey posts. Must follow up on Deakin. Charles