Blog Post
The Countryside Kitchen - how the podcast started...
Milly Fyfe • 25 July 2022
With season two launching in September, here's how the podcast 'The Countryside Kitchen came about:
During the height of the pandemic, I started posting interesting recipe ideas and pictures of family meals being prepared using ingredients grown on the farm, whilst involving my two young children. I was aware of the increase of people getting back into cooking from scratch and knowing where they could source local ingredients from.
Quite quickly, my Facebook friends and twitter followers would ask if they could share the recipe ideas with their friends. I was also receiving messages to say how I had inspired other people, especially parents with young children, to get baking and involve them too.
From there, the food blog ‘No Fuss Meals for Busy Parents’ was born. I created an account on Facebook and Instagram and started posting recipe suggestion, followed by seasonal ingredient suggestions.
Having held various national positions within the world of food and farming, I reached out to my networks and interviewed farmer friends who were busy, working hard to produce food for our table. And that’s how the ‘meet the producer’ section was founded.
Each time I post, there is a local producer with an incredible story to tell. However they may not have time to market their business or would be quite humble about the achievements they have made. So I’ve taken my passion for food and farming and shone a light on interesting people, found out their route into farming, what the future holds for them, as well as where followers can purchase those ingredients from.
From there, I established a website: www.nofussmealsforbusyparents.com
to house all the photos, recipes and interviews.
I realised quite soon on that interviews with local food producers would need more than a Facebook page to house the content. Understanding how someone has built up their farming or food business and how they may have diversified, takes up a large word count. But there were so many interesting anecdotes, stories and history to share as well as talking about recipe suggestions and where you could buy ingredients from, that I had to grow the project even more.
That’s how the podcast ‘The Countryside Kitchen meets’ came about.
In September 2021, Milly launched a monthly podcast with a different farmer, food producer or lover of local produce. Recorded in advance and streamed on a podcast hosting service, the podcast has been downloaded hundreds of times, with 10 episodes to tune into to date.
Interviews include Gold medal winning Paralympic athlete Charlotte Henshaw, Love British Food founder Alexia Robinson and Staffordshire Beef, Arable and Diversification Farmer Rich Bower.
The podcast is fun, informative with some time saving hacks to help busy people, especially parents with young children, to prepare and enjoy tasty meals using local sourced ingredients. Understanding and promoting how food is produced from the farm to fork is important to me.
I'm hopeful that it makes a difference and more people are aware of the wonderful farming community we have across the British Isles. That includes promoting the message of buying British, shopping locally and Backing British Farming.
Season two will launch in Sept 2022, with the hope that it will reach out to an even bigger audience.
To find out more about the Podcast ‘The Countryside Kitchen Meets’ contact Milly on 07752989544 or email hello@millyfyfe.com
You can listen to the podcast on all major streaming platforms including Apple Music, Spotify and Google Music. The RSS feed is here: https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-countryside-kitchen/
And the podcast also sits on this website: www.millyfyfe.com
Other News / Blog Stories
Northamptonshire Farming Entrepreneur Milly Fyfe® ARAgS will head up a new radio show called ‘Tastes of the Shire; exploring Northampton’s food and farming scene from field to fork’ airs for the first time on Saturday 1st June. The show will feature a variety of interviews with grassroots farmers, producers, makers and foodies from Northampton and the surrounding countryside, to discover what is made, produced, sold and available to enjoy around the local area. Milly commented ‘I have a real passion for sharing amazing stories interviewing inspiring people who grow, rear, and process the food and drink we can enjoy, found right on our doorstep. I hope to take you all on a culinary journey exploring the people behind the farm gate, shop counter, restaurant kitchen and factory wall to discover what makes Northampton taste great.’ The show launch coincides with Northamptonshire Food and Drink Week , which is a campaign to bring people together to celebrate the food and drink scene across the county. Available on 106.9FM, NLive Radio is Northampton’s local radio station and hosts a variety of different music, business and specialist shows including Open4business, 90’s, R&B, rock and the Golden Hour. Station Manager Martin Steers commented ‘We are very excited to welcome a new food and farming show to our station, packed full of engaging conversations with local businesses, producers and food brands. Milly has really grasped the opportunity and we hope that many people tune in to learn more’. The Tastes of the Shire radio show with Milly Fyfe will air on the 1st Saturday of each month, 3-5pm on NLive Radio, the station that loves Northampton. Notes Who is Milly Fyfe ® ARAgS? Milly is from Yelvertoft ( Northamptonshire) and farms with her husband Andrew alongside their two young sons, where they rear beef cattle, sheep, arable crops a few pigs and a kitchen garden. Milly has a background in Marketing and PR and also founded a social enterprise called No Fuss Meals for Busy Parents CIC , helping more people to cook from scratch using local, seasonal produce. In 2023, Milly was awarded an associateship from the Royal Agricultural Societies , farming’s equivalent of an MBE, for her work connecting consumers with UK food production. She is also the current NNBN Northamptonshire business person of the year, a silver Local Food Hero through Northamptonshire Food and drink awards, has a podcast called The Countryside Kitchen meets and was recently recognised by Small Business Britain as a top 100 female entrepreneur in the UK. You can find out more about Milly on social media using the handle @ MillyFyfe on Twitter and Instagram or @MillyFyfeOfficial on Youtube , Facebook and Tiktok . About NLive radio NLive Radio is the local radio station for all the people of Northampton, it operates under a not-for-profit community radio license from Ofcom which is held by and run in partnership with the University of Northampton. All the presenters are volunteers made up individuals from across the community, including staff and students from the University. The station broadcasts on 106.9fm across Northampton, online at nliveradio.com and it's on dedicated smart phone app, as well as on smart speakers via “Launch N Live Radio”
Somerset and former politician Neil Parish launches a new podcast today
A collaborative farming industry event taking place on 27th February at 1 birdcage walk with TIAH, CARAS, IAGRM, FCN and the Farmers Club under 35's
Here is is the 2 minute clip which was produced and shared across social media to highlight the harvest on our farm - Enjoy!
