Sustainability
Squisito are practising members of Slow Food so we support biodiversity, locality and artisan skills. We aim to produce food that is good, clean and fair in the wider sense of the words.
Consequently, Squisito food aims to be eco-positive and local. Whilst we prefer
to use and grow organic food we are not organic certified since Squisito is too
small and would not want to ship less than fresh organic certified ingredients
around the world for the sake of a certificate when there is good ethically
produced fresh food on our doorstep with lower environmental cost.
Through our food and our work Squisito seek to educate how our food choices
affect our environment and community by selecting whom our food is
produced by, how it is produced and how much the producer is paid.
We like to know our suppliers and customers or ‘co-producers’ on first name
terms since that is the best kind provenance there is. For more information read Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, and Fair by the Slow Food movement’s founder, Carlo Petrini.
Squisito support biodiversity and sustainability by buying locally, using local breeds and varieties and commission the rearing of rare breeds whereby customers can choose and order rare breed lamb, pork or beef grown by our ‘panel’ of rare breed producers. Squisito “Grow Your Own” meat guarantees the producer a fairer price than any supermarket, encourages less intensive agriculture and lower fossil fuel use, removes the pressure of dates on farmers, improves farm income and improves quality because the customer receives the meat when it is ‘ready’ - all at a fraction or less than supermarket prices.
Squisito can teach you and your family how to butcher and make
sausages, cure and smoke meats, bake bread and make wine and
preserve your produce as our forefathers. We believe passing on artisan
skills encourages sustainability and that passing our skills to our children
is the best defence of ours and other species.
Squisito do not generally pre-pack food other than ice cream, flour,
yeast or dried herbs and spices. We will happily sell just one sausage or
a slice of bread if that is what you need so you get good food without
waste. Squisito use biodegradable packaging wherever possible and, in
the case of bottles and jars, use those which encourage re-use and offer
a deposit equal to the cost of packaging.
At home we recycle 100% of our food waste. Squisito’s business and family waste is so low that we do not fill our non-recyclable domestic rubbish bin once a fortnight despite catering for several hundred customers at Farmers Market on a Saturday in addition to our monthly dinner parties and pizza nights. Any unsold food that our friends and family cannot consume is distributed around our village. We believe that good food is a right and those in need should not be deprived in the name of profit.
Our food is low food miles and what Squisito take from the environment we
aim to put back by changing food attitudes and encouraging our customers to
cook for themselves to become part of the solution rather than part of the
problem caused by agro-industrial food production and the exploitation of
We therefore encourage you to join the Slow Food movement and consider the
fact that every time you enter the doors of a big supermarket, burger chain
or clothing store you are effectively voting for who produces your food,
where it is produced, what breeds and varieties are produced and what the
human and environmental cost is to those countries and ours.
All you have to do is think and practice what you aspire to to make change happen.
For more information call Sara Chambers on 01788 833 477 or email Sara by clicking here
Squisito are a BBC Radio 4 'Food & Farming Awards' shortlisted Food Producer 2012, Midlands Best Street Food 2013 Award Winner and Slow Food BBC Good Food Show Bursary Awards Winner 2008 and 2010.
