Farming frustration, Sturminster Cheese Fest, Riversmeet and a refugee family’s journey

The BV: from the heart of the Blackmore Vale

This month we hear from farmer Andrew Livingston - frustrated with a new government showing the same poor understanding in their approach to subsisides. Helen Lacey, town mayor and member of the Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival committee, fills us in on what's in store for the event this year.

Terry talks with Phil Silvester, the chair of trustees of Riversemeet, Gillingham's not-for-profit leisure centre, about the difficulties they're facing - some of which were borne out of embracing new tech just a little too quickly.

Lastly, Jenny chats to Stuart Twiss about the Shaftesbury Refugee Group, with a warm and insightful look at the case of one of the local refugee families, the Hammouds.

• Andrew Livingston on why Labour's silence on farm subsidy payments is a huge worry: " ... the way supermarkets currently dictate shelf price it's impossible for farmers to make enough money to keep the farm running, get the bills paid and pay their staff. Subsidies keep the farm ticking over, allowing them to plan forward. "Payments used to be done by the amount of land that you owned, but that's changed: the new scheme encourages farmers to farm in the right way, supporting nature and adding benefit to the local community. That could be maintaining footpaths or hedges, or increasing the biodiversity in and around your farm. So if you're a potato grower, you're not just growing potatoes, you're encouraging bees onto your land, and you're even encouraging people to walk onto your land – which is something that that most farmers probably don't really want to do! But it's important that farming is for everyone in the community, and not just the farmer."
  
• Sturminster Cheese Festival is not to be missed! Jenny talks to Helen Lacey who was involved in the very first show back in 1997, about how the event has evolved over the years. The first was over four days, Sturminster Creamery was still in business and running tours, and on the rec there were two scout tents! There was a tea dance, cookery comp, and a fashion show on Saturday night in the scout marquee - they had to clear it for a catwalk!
  Now it's possibly one of the biggest food festivals in the South West! As always, the weekend will feature a wide variety of food and drink from across the West Country, including (you guessed it) the star of the show – cheese! The festival is an amazing showcase, with 18 award-winning cheesemakers from across the South West.
  But it’s not all about the cheese – with almost 40 local artisan food producers to discover, from chillies to jams, doughnuts to fudge, pepper to brownies, curry sauces to local trout … and of course there’s gin, vodka, rum, liqueurs and plenty of locally brewed cider and beer too. Outside the food marquees there will be aisles of local crafts to tempt you, as well as free children’s entertainment provided by the utterly brilliant Betty Boffin and Strawberry Jam (plus there’s a traditional Punch & Judy show too). The Real Ale & Cider Tent provides plenty of refreshment and places to sit and enjoy the live bands who will be playing throughout the two days…
  • cheesefestival.co.uk
    
• Riversmeet is a non-profit, community owned, community-managed leisure centre in Gillingham. Run by a board of trustees who manage the centre and its team of 70+ staff for the local community.
  "We were early adopters of air source heat pumps in 2020 and that's another important feather in our green credentials. Unfortunately, the company that installed those went bankrupt a year or two afterwards, and we've since discovered they have some design flaws - when the weather is too cold, the air source heat pumps can't cope! Through crowdfunding we've now raised enough to purchase the gas boilers needed to provide a back up, but long term we need to replace them. We don't want any more breakdowns and loss of refrigerant gas – it's the equivalent to 40 trees each time. Engineers tell us it might happen once in 10 years: it's been happening to us once every four or five months! We have 'wasted' almost £100,000 on repairs and maintenance due to the equipment being poorly designed."
  
• This month's BV has a moving account of the Syrian refugees who arrived in Shaftesbury in 2017, knowing no one, not speaking the language and not knowing what their life would be. Stuart Twiss of the Shaftesbury refugee Group tells a little of their story:
  "they had had a small farm, and in many senses, it was an idyllic existence. But the war moved closer – the government forces took most of the men, kidnapped them, killed many, tortured others – obviously without trial – and they were held for unknown periods of time. When Amar was finally released, he and his wife samar and their two children, one a baby in arms, the other just six, walked from Malula to Lebanon, sleeping in ditches, literally walking with what they could carry. And when they finally arrived in Lebanon, they slept in a bombed-out building ..."
  Read the Hamoud's story in the BV here - bvmag.co.uk/SyriatoShaftesbury
  

August's BV can be read here ... grab a coffee and jump in to the Dorset-ness. News, opinion, people, wildlife, art, farming, what's on, horses ... and frankly stunning photography.
Did we mention it's FREE? Why *wouldn't* you want a flick through? (*don't forget, we're proud to be purely digital. The only way to read us is right here online!) Frankly, it's so jam-packed with Dorset goodness, it'd be rude not to.

The BV is the 'glossy' rural monthly digital magazine from Dorset, this year awarded 'Best Regional Publication in the UK'
(Newspaper & Magazine Awards)