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Seasons to taste 

Field to table, past to present:

A story of food in the Peak District

Edited by David Fine

Published by The Farming Life Centre

ISBN: 9780955994104

Price: £8.50

It’s amazing how it’s come round isn’t it? That we were farming organically, but didn’t know it, and now we’re farming organically again. It seems an awful long way since those very cold nights in the early sixties with no electricity or water and the Tilley Lamps to light, but when I look over the last 40 years it’s been a wonderful, incredible ride.

Richard Gill, farmer

Follow food from the field to the fork.  Seasons to taste draws on personal accounts, from the farms, factories, markets and kitchens of the Peak District, to tell a story of food that spans from the inter-war years to the present day. 

These accounts are today's oral history, spoken against a backdrop of the places and peoples of Derbyshire and Staffordshire.  They are history, an account of change, but also an illumination of the common experiences and many guises of food.  The voices in this book are rich in memory and the pleasure of food - food and farming, food and communities, food and families...

We’ve got a lovely shop. Fantastic custom, fantastic people… So we’ve just stuck with the best and done whatever we possibly could do to help people in any way we could and they in turn patronised us and supported us, genuinely and openly and honestly.

Roy Mycock, Master Butcher

We do collect blackberries still. We do make our blackberry jam; I do pick my damsons and make my chutneys and jellies, all those sorts of things. It’s part of how we live our lives and it’s very important to me.

Jill Horton, farmer’s daughter