The sprouts have been organically grown, harvested and processed at Carmarthenshire County Council’s Bremenda Isaf Farm in Llanarthne as part of a food systems development project - an initiative that’s being delivered by partners from Bwyd Sir Gâr Food.
The project looks at how we produce, sell, promote and eat local and sustainable food across Carmarthenshire.
The sprouts were harvested on Friday, December 20 before being delivered to care homes across the county for the catering staff to use as part of the Christmas lunches.
The sprouts were planted on Bremenda Isaf farm back in the spring and are part of the wider work of the food systems development project as it looks to provide local food to the public plate, reducing the supply chain and ensuring local, organic and nutritious vegetables for some of the county’s most vulnerable residents.
The Food Systems Development Project took over the running of Bremenda Isaf, a 100-acre council farm in Llanarthne last year and is trialling and scaling up new ways of getting local vegetables onto the plates of the county’s care homes and schools.
Back in September, vegetables from Bremenda were delivered to Ysgol Bro Dinefwr to be served to pupils as part of themed lunches during their school day. Bwyd Sir Gâr Food is also part of the wider, national Welsh Veg in Schools project that’s co-ordinated by Food Sense Wales and aims to get more organically produced Welsh veg into primary school meals across the whole of Wales.
Using climate and nature-friendly farming practices, the team at Bremenda Isaf is growing a host of different vegetables that will make their way into school and care home meals, ensuring that some of the county’s youngest and eldest residents are benefiting from locally grown, high quality, fresh produce. Crops range from cucumbers to carrots and from brussels sprouts to pumpkins
As part of the project, food historian Carwyn Graves and actor Lowri Sion Evans visited the residents at Awel Tywi Care Home in the summer and recorded some of the residents talking about their memories of food heritage and traditions. The residents at Awel Tywi have also been receiving photos from the farm, following the growth of the sprouts.
Alex Cook, Food Systems Development Project Manager said: “Sprouts grow well in our climate and this year has been no exception. With the weather conditions not being as favourable for some other varieties of vegetables, it’s great that we can easily supply the required amount of sprouts for the Carmarthenshire County Council run care homes.
“Many people in those care homes will have seen the huge change in food production here in the Twyi Valley over decades, so it’s a real opportunity to highlight what can be achieved with a scalable crop, when the demand is there. We can produce a larger variety of key foods with higher density of nutrition for those most vulnerable in our society, at the same time, we work towards better food security and resilience to climate change.”
Carmarthenshire County Council's Cabinet Member for Rural Affairs, Community Cohesion and Planning Policy, Cllr Carys Jones said:“Encouraging the producing and supply of locally sourced food is a key ambition with the County Council’s Cabinet vision statement and it is wonderful to see this example of Carmarthenshire grown produce being supplied to our care homes.”
The farm is also growing grains as it explores a return to an older, mixed way of farming that’s producing the variety of food essential for public health, in tune with nature and takes into consideration the farm’s heritage and the area’s food culture.
This has been looked at in more detail as part of a heritage project that’s been encouraging local people to think about the farm, the produce and the land, asking participants to respond to how that makes them feel through art, poetry and song.
As well as trialling this innovative approach at Bremenda Isaf, the Food Systems Development project is also working with the dietetic team at Hywel Dda University Health Board to develop people’s cooking and nutrition skills, whilst partnering with the Carmarthenshire Food Network to further community connections through food in all corners of the county too.
The Food Systems Development project has funded the development of Bwyd Sir Gâr Food’s website too, to help raise awareness of the work of Bwyd Sir Gâr Food and to get as many people from Carmarthenshire involved in building a better food future for all of us.
An event was recently held at Yr Egin in Carmarthen to highlight the work of Bwyd Sir Gâr Food and to celebrate the partnership’s successes.
You can find out More about Bwyd Sir Gâr Food here