It’s British Food Fortnight! It’s an important one for us here at Honest Bean because our passion for British grown food is a huge part of our story.
British Food fortnight takes place around this time every year and this year it runs from 16th September – 1st October.
Back in 2019, when Adam and Zoe started The Honest Bean Co, the mission was simple: to get more people in the UK eating British-grown fava beans. Packed with protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals, fava beans are not only incredibly nutritious but also sustainable to grow. They are an ancient crop too and have been grown here in the UK since the iron age.
Despite this, we discovered British fava beans are mostly being exported to the Middle East and beyond, with little recognition here, at home on the British food scene.
Beans are getting bigger
Modern awareness of health and climate change has begun to slowly to change that though, and the fava bean is firmly back on the British menu. Our roasted fava bean snacks are a super easy and delicious way to boost your protein intake and enjoy British grown fava beans!
British food brands we love
Another reason why we love British Food Fortnight so much is because it’s an amazing opportunity to celebrate and show some love to some of our fellow British food and drink producers. There are so many out there who are doing a great job of waving the British food flag as well as making fantastic products.
Check out some of our favourites:
Hodmedod
These guys are fellow British bean warriors. Hodmedod was founded with the aim of getting more British-grown pulses into British kitchens to support diverse sustainable rotations in arable farming and provide good, healthy wholefoods. They search out less well-known foods, like fava beans, black badger peas and British grown quinoa.
Check out the Hodmedods blog to find out more about what they do or give them a follow on Instagram.
littleseed
Producers of Extra Virgin British Rapeseed oil, we love what littleseed is doing to fly the flag for extra virgin cooking oils that are grown, pressed and bottled here in the UK.
We love using their oil to cook with. As they put it, it’s the award-winning British alternative to olive oil. Their website is full of delicious recipe ideas and ways to use rapeseed oil as replacement for butter in baking and how to use it for making delicious salad dressings.
Check out the littleseed website and give them a follow on Instagram to find out more.
Yorkshire Sea Salt
We’re passionate about ancient crops but the folks at the Yorkshire Sea Salt Company’s passion is the ancient method of producing sea salt. They are restoring sea salt production to the North Yorkshire Coast, bringing back a long-lost tradition that began in the area over 6,000 years ago.
At Honest Bean Co we implement regenerative agriculture methods to ensure the future of our landscape for generations to come. So we really love Yorkshire Sea Salt’s commitment to maintaining the Yorkshire coastline they call home and bringing back the ancient tradition that began in the New Stone Age.
Check out the Yorkshire Sea Salt website or follow them on Instagram
We hope you’ve enjoyed finding out a bit more about why we’re so proud to be a British food producer and some of the other British producers we love. Next time you’re out shopping we challenge you to look a little more closely at the origin of your food and support British farmers and producers wherever you can.
