Bens Blog
14 Oct 2024
A desert of farms with no name
You’re probably aware of Riverford’s (and Guy’s) campaign against, so called, fake farms. P...
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12 Aug 2024
Trouble at organic mill
Industry insiders have been predicting it since last autumn, but it’s finally coming home t...
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02 Aug 2022
August News
Ben debates bacon, shares a polytunnel pesto and his lack of trust in Truss – it̵...
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08 Jun 2022
Fishy tales – saltimbocca fish fingers
Unquestionably, the best thing would be a ten-year moratorium on catching anything but that...
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21 Feb 2022
February News
Green Ketchup, A Ham with No Name, and Porridge Traumas. No, this isn’t a Dr. Seuss b...
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19 Aug 2021
Booze, schmooze and Smokehouse news
With wine sales continuing to go uppity up-up and it becoming obvious that what’s good for ...
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08 Jan 2021
Let’s get smoky
By Ben Watson. BBQ & Ice Cream Work has started on ‘Harry’s Smokehouse’ and...
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26 Nov 2020
Good Business
By Greg Morgan. Little steps in the right direction I joined Ben’s in 2013 and never looked...
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17 Nov 2020
The challenges of ‘local’ food
By Guy Singh-Watson Making a living from growing veg even on a medium scale is challenging ...
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08 Jul 2020
Churchtown moves towards wilder farming
Bold changes are coming to Churchtown Farm – for twenty five plus years, principle supplier...
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01 Jul 2019
Bottoms Up! Ben’s Booze News for July.
When it rains it pours. I’d just got back from my wine jolly to Sicily when the phone rings...
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02 May 2019
Ben’s Wine & Tapas Booze News
Our first ‘tell us what you think so you can help us chose which new wines to stock’ tastin...
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01 Feb 2019
Less plastic is fantastic – NEW beeswax food wraps
As a business, we’re always on the lookout for solutions to tackle the single use pla...
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01 Feb 2019
Plastics Update
As a business, we’re always on the lookout for ways to reduce our inclusion of single...
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07 Dec 2018
Christmas 2018: Mince Pies and good palm fats – an update
With our mince pies flying off the shelves at this time of year, we inevitably face questio...
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22 Oct 2018
Stop picking on farmers
Does anyone else feel that since the release a few week’s ago of the UN Intergovernme...
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15 May 2018
Raise a glass of English Fizz
There’s a bit of a do on this weekend – we’ll be open as usual for celebrators ...
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13 Mar 2018
Being realistic about bacon
I’m probably shooting myself in the foot drawing attention to ‘Yes, bacon really is killing...
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15 Feb 2018
Two very different Bakewells
The news is full of links between so called ‘ultra-processed’ food and cancer, with another...
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15 Jan 2018
Ben’s take on Veganuary
Veganuary will be over soon but, let’s not kid ourselves, things aren’t going to return to ...
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15 Jan 2018
The minefield that is food packaging
As a business we are constantly striving to do our bit to cut carbon emissions and reduce w...
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28 Nov 2017
Festive goodies
Without the stress of making thousands of organic mince pies for the Riverford veg boxes, w...
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30 Oct 2017
The grass is greener – or is it?
It seems ‘grass fed’ is becoming more and more of a buzzword – used at every opportun...
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10 Oct 2017
Prices and provenance
Pass the butter please – if you’re lucky enough to have any. Now that we’ve all accep...
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01 Sep 2017
The peril of wellness diets
The other summer food news that won’t go away seems to have been around the perils of so-ca...
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01 Sep 2017
Organic or not, food is more than just a commodity
It might just be me but the summer news season seems to have been particularly weak, with t...
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18 Aug 2017
The real problem behind Southern Salad’s demise
I talked last week on the blog about food security and how the fall in the pound, post Brex...
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11 Aug 2017
Why we need to dig potatoes
One thing all Watsons have in common, despite loving our food, is that we don’t like to spe...
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04 Aug 2017
The chicken or the egg? Either way it’s a scandal
Did you know that the average chicken has more room in the fridge or oven than it ever did ...
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28 Jul 2017
No chlorine chickens here
I’ve spent twelve months not mentioning politics (in general) and BREXIT (in particular) bu...
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19 Jun 2017
Thinking Aloud!
Please excuse the rather self-indulgent nature of the following – it’s me think...
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27 Apr 2017
It’s Happened!
The new signs and website are up. Everything else is the same so I hope you’ll agree that i...
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20 Apr 2017
An ode to Begude
With twelve of the Domaine Begude wines (including magnums of the top Chardonnay and Pinot ...
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24 Mar 2017
Ben’s Wine & Tapas Update
We’re still feeling our way but, judging from the feedback, we’re doing most things right. ...
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24 Mar 2017
More About The Name Change
Things are finally happening on the renaming front. New signs will be going up in the next ...
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24 Mar 2017
Natural Cure Bacon
From the butchery at Staverton, is our ‘Natural Cure’ bacon. Ali seems to have got it down ...
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16 Feb 2017
Plastic Dilemma
Thanks to Lucy Siegle for highlighting the plastic dilemma in her Observer column. It’s suc...
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16 Feb 2017
Valencian Citrus
Courgettes and lettuce might have been suffering but the more traditional seasonal harvest ...
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13 Feb 2017
Ben’s Wine & Tapas is Open!
BEN’S WINE & TAPAS opened on 9th February. If this is news to you, we’ve taken over wha...
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17 Jan 2017
Taking Over the Tangerine Tree in Totnes
Totnesians with their ear to the ground might already have heard that we’re taking over the...
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16 Jan 2017
Happy New Year and Sanity Sapping Red Tape
Happy New Year and all that. Despite all the gloom, for us 2016 wasn’t that bad so more of ...
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07 Dec 2016
Christmas Goodies
With thirty three (and still counting) Christmas’s under our belt I’d like to think we’ve g...
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07 Dec 2016
The Cornerstones of Any Farm Shop
I think that what we do best is fresh ingredients for you to take home and cook yourselves....
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07 Dec 2016
December’s Booze News
Hopefully, you’ll be coming along to our Christmas wine and general grazing sessions on 9th...
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24 Nov 2016
Keep Warm With Our Hygge Fuel!
Staverton customers might have noticed a better range of firewood, kindling, composite logs...
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24 Nov 2016
Mince Pies, Nuts and More…
You might have seen our mince pies in the shops already and they were voted ‘best luxury mi...
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24 Nov 2016
Vintage Roots Christmas Wine Tasting
Our friend Emmanuel, from Vintage Roots (the organic wine people) will be at Staverton on D...
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22 Nov 2016
Mince Pies and Palm Fat
While our mince pies are ‘going viral’ there is a down side – palm fat. Yes, we do us...
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16 Oct 2016
October’s Booze News
I spent a week in the Languedoc on a sort of busman’s holiday visiting some of our, and Riv...
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19 Sep 2016
A new start and nothing to do with brexit
Last time around I mentioned that we’ve been doing a bit of navel gazing about the future o...
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17 Jul 2016
A deconstructivist, food-ster, peasant…
For reasons I can’t tell you about yet, but soon will, we’ve been spending a certain amount...
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05 Jun 2016
Welcome to the plastic gates
Recycling? Take it into your own hands. Last month I mentioned, I confess in a slightly thr...
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24 May 2016
What’s with the anti-sandwich movement?
What’s wrong with a sandwich? A quick rant. What’s the problem with the sandwich? Eve...
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28 Apr 2016
Mint in May
Marvellously mint in May. April is always a bit touch and go but come May and we really are...
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25 Mar 2016
Easter feasting
Will you be feasting on meat this Easter? Being naturally contrary, I’ve always taken a pec...
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05 Feb 2016
Cowspiracy theory – of course you can be an environmentalist and eat meat
Apologies, Farm Shoppers, if you don’t know what I’m talking about but, brother Guy, via th...
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04 Jan 2016
Paris in the Spring Time
Paris in the spring – it’s warm enough but we’re not there yet Every silver cloud has a dar...
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25 Nov 2015
Riverford Soups
Our ‘2013 Organic Food Award’ winning chunky soups are back on the menu. Four flavoursriver...
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25 Nov 2015
Panorama & Gmo’s
Haven’t things changed? For years it was Frankenstein food and evil multinational biotech c...
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