Want to swap homemade chutney for eggs? Onions for Cakes? Why not? Provided its homemade, home grown or foraged, bring it to ‘The Great Cotswold Food Swap’ and you can swap it! No money changes hands, food is the only currency.

The event will last about two hours.  The first hour is about sampling and chatting to the other participants. It’s a great opportunity to swap recipes and tips. After that it’s time to place bids. Swappers weigh up their offers and then exchange their goods. This will take around another hour for all swaps to be completed. 

Our swap will take place on Sunday 8^th September at Berry Farm in South Cerney near Cirencester.  Berry Farm is run by Claire and Chris Jeffery, Claire is sustainably minded and a passionate foodie.  She grows her own food and amongst other things, she  makes her own apple juice and elderflower cordial.

Claire said, ‘Growing and producing food is at the heart of what we do at Berry Farm. A food swap fits perfectly with our farms ethos and is a really practical way to exchange excess foods for other edible goods.’

Food-swapping events started to gather momentum a few years ago in Brooklyn, New York. There have been a few events within the UK but this will be the first of its kind in The South West. The Cotswolds is renowned for being an area with a great reputation for food so we are expecting a wide range of great quality produce and lots of people wanting to take part.

This event is a joint collaboration between Berry Farm and thebestof Cirencester. Thebestof Cirencester promotes great local businesses and ran a successful ‘Buy Local’ campaign in June.

Lettie Elwin, owner of thebestof Cirencester said, ‘Food Swaps are a great way of bringing like-minded food lovers together. It also brings the local community together and I’m really excited to be a part of it.’

There will also be very limited amount of spaces for small local businesses to join in and bring their own produce. Though if course it needs to be foraged or grown/made onsite.  At the end of the swap at 12:30pm,  we will invite the local public to join in the fun and buy any left-over goods or just sample the delights of the Berry Farm BBQ.

Places are limited to a maximum of 35 participants. For details on the event and to book a place please contact thebestof Cirencester on 07818090620 or email cirencester@thebestof.co.uk