Common ground

Suffolk is liberally studded with commons, where Gypsies often graze their ponies and horses. Commons were once widespread all over Britain: areas of land where rights to pasture animals, grow crops, gather firewood and even build houses were held ‘in common’. The common at Mellis, where my in-laws live and which is only a few miles away from my shack, is the largest in the county. A nature reserve rich in plant and animal life, it comes alive at this time of year.

Mellis was home to the late Roger Deakin, the writer and documentary-maker best known for his book Waterlog. Deakin was a founder member of the charity Common Ground, which champions local distinctiveness. Through various initiatives, events and artistic collaborations, they try to remind people of what is special and unique about their everyday surroundings, and one of their particular interests is local produce. For a long time, British food has been looked down upon, but through the efforts of people like Common Ground, and advocates of native culinary traditions like Fergus Henderson at St John Restaurant, people are gradually realising that Britain does have a distinctive cuisine that is worth celebrating. In their superb book The Bread Builders, Daniel Wing and Alan Scott see fit to comment that ‘…the two countries thought by many to have the worst commercial bread in the world, [are] England and Australia…’. I think that’s a terrible shame, and I hope that the example shown by people who are ready to take on the creeping industrialisation of our eating habits will one day rehabilitate British baking.