Field to Fork with a Food Safari
Forget about clocking up air miles to safari in Africa. Here in sunny Britain, you can enjoy a Food Safari to experience food, from 'field to fork' first hand. This is the bright idea of Polly and Tim Robinson, who offer the perfect gourmet experience while you enjoy an eco friendly escape in Suffolk. A food safari is a far cry from your usual cookery school; Food Safari is a gastronomic interactive experience that is bound to delight with its tasty variety - including Cheese in a Day, Catch and Cook and a unique event that sounds rather interesting, a Beer Safari!

Throughout the year, the Food Safari organises one day gourmet food experiences that are fully interactive with farm and food tours, often with hands-on cookery workshops and classes and even better, the chance to feast on the day's 'fruits' at The Anchor in Walberswick. Having been totally absorbed by The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, it has never felt more important to understand where our food is sourced from, to meet the producer... and even more so, witness the welfare of the animals we end up eating, and how they are processed before they arrive on our forks. Food Safari actively supports local producers so enjoy our whirlwind tour of Food Safari's events to tempt you into a gastronomic experience!
We love the idea of wild food foraging and where better to forage than Suffolk's coast which boasts an abundance of wild herbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, fungi, flowers and seashore foods. Depending on the time of year, an expert will take you on a 2 to 3 hour tour to forage to your heart's content. Later in the day, you'll also discover delicious recipes to turn your winnings into a yummy four course meal. Learn more about Wild Food Foraging Events here.
Wild Mushroom foraging takes place in October at the Food Safari.Having enjoyed many childhood holidays on the North Norfolk coast, The GIN Lady knows only too well the fishy delights the East Anglian coast has to offer. Last time I ventured to Suffolk, I discovered many a smokehouse, just like I did further north when I was much younger. Much to our delight, the Food Safari also offers Smokehouse Tours, a brilliant way to understand the magic behind smoked fish.

For this half day tour, you'll receive a behind the scenes tour of Pinney’s at Butley Creek, where "oysters have been cultivated for centuries and Richard Pinney started smoking fish in the 1950s". Then returning to Pinney’s own restaurant, The Butley Orford Oyesterage in Orford’s pretty market square, you'll experience a hands-on demonstration to carve a whole salmon. The finale? A relaxing seafood lunch! Find out more about the Food Safari's Smokehouse Tour.
Other seafood experiences include Food Safari's upcoming new day, Catch & Cook as well as Seafood in a Day. Sea to plate, this one day event also includes a smokehouse tour with the added bonus of getting on a boat tour - weather permitting - for a baiting up demonstration of lobster pots, with the aim to catch lobsters, edible, spider and hermit crabs, as well as other fish and shellfish. This combined with a hearty feast at The Butley Orford Oysterage, sounds like a cracking sea to plate event. Learn more about Seafood in a Day here.

While Suffolk offers up an abundance of seafood, its fertile land also supports a lot of livestock. In recent weeks, we've blogged about the importance of happy pigs, and this is your chance to see what a difference it makes first hand. Food Safari has partnered up with Blythburgh Farm and its Free Range pigs. And when they say Free Range, they mean it, as these pigs are free to roam in large paddocks giving them the space to behave naturally, like rooting in the soil and playing.
If you don't know how to tackle a pork carcass, then let award-winning butcher, Gerard King, show you. Gerard, from the Suffolk Food Hall, will demonstrate the forgotten cheaper cuts, like shoulder and belly, and suggest a variety of uses for your own kitchen. After this expert demonstration, you can have lots of fun making your own sausage recipes - think blue cheese, ginger, fennel, and paprika - to barbeque for lunch after. To end this event, you'll enjoy a relaxed pork lunch with beer and wine expertly selected by The Anchor’s own Mark Dorber. Tempted? Visit Food Safari's Free Range Pig in a Day now.
Go on a Free Range Pig In A Day event at Food SafariWild Meat in a Day has really got our attention, as we haven't got the foggiest on how to prepare wild meat. Harvesting wild meat is as sustainable as it gets, but what to do with your game? In partnership with Robert Gooch and Ray Kent of The Wild Meat Company, one of Rick Stein’s Food Heroes, this day event will help you shoot, hang and age game. Going one step further, you'll also learn how to butcher your locally-shot game with the necessary knife skills.

At this Wild Meat in a Day event you'll also hear from Madalene Bonvini-Hamel of the British Larder with some "exquisite, mouth watering game dishes" and get to learn her tips, ideas and advice for cooking game for when you get home.
At a "laid-back lunch" in The Anchor’s dining room you will be treated to a gourmet game menu complimented by a hand-picked selection of wine and beer. To get confident with game and enjoy some delicious wild grub, visit Wild Meat in a Day here.

Cheese after a meal or as a tasty appetiser is delightfully appealing, but the cheese making process is just as tantalising. Cheese in a Day offers the chance to discover dairy, from cow to cheese. On your visit you'll meet the pedigree Guernsey herd at a local farm and learn how all their food is created on farm (nothing goes to waste!) as well as experience the actual cheese making process by hand. Heck, you can even milk the cows if you want! Learn more about Cheese in a Day here.

Don't worry, the event doesn't mean hanging around until the cheeses age to get a matured taste!

Food Safari cater events for everyone, from private and corporate events to children safaris. The GIN Lady can't wait for her pre-schooler to turn six, as the Children's Food Safari is an exceptional day out for kids aged 6 to 12. Here your children will meet rare-breed pigs, chickens, see beehives, get into the vegetable garden and polytunnels and then will get hands-on making their own lunch, even collecting their own eggs to make pudding! This sounds like a great eco friendly excursion for children - your little ones will have the times of their lives and learn a lot too!

All this talk of food is making us thirsty which brings us to the Beer Safari - an inspired idea! Here you will learn the key ingredients found in beer and how beer is brewed by the experts. Food Safari knows only too well you can't truly enjoy the day without a lot of tasting... so at the end of your tour, you'll get to taste lots of local varieties at the local gastropub, and learn how to best match your food with beers. Read the Beer Safari information now.
Harvesting hops locally in SuffolkFood Safari is a true gift for foodies and one we will be enjoying ourselves in the very near future. As they offer a brilliant variety of foodie events, there surely must be a day's event you're salivating over too. To find out more, visit FoodSafari.co.uk. And why not also read our feature on Eco Friendly Places to Stay in Suffolk, to tempt you even more!



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