Local food was in plentiful supply at the recent launch of the Pembroke Food Project on the evening of Tuesday, June 12.

Held in Foundry House, Pembroke's Community Centre on The Commons, there was a range of luscious soups made from local and seasonal vegetables, served with bread from the Farmhouse Bakery in Johnston.

These were followed by strawberries from Springfields Fresh Produce of Manorbier served with Calon Wen organic cream, all washed down with a glass of sparkling Pembrokeshire elderflower pressé from Alderwicks, of Haverfordwest.

Two local teams competed in a Low Carbon Cook Off run by the West Wales Eco Centre which looks at the environmental impact of food choices in a fun and engaging way with a dollop of healthy competition.

The teams, one led by the chef from the Royal George Hotel in Pembroke, and the other of Pembroke Farmers Market producers, competed head to head using ingredients of their choosing to create a winning dish that is good for the environment, as well as tasty and healthy.

Debbie Drewett, the manager of Stackpole Walled Garden run by Pembrokeshire Mencap, then spoke about what vegetables to sow, grow and harvest in June.

There was a great deal of interest in the project at Stackpole and particularly in the lovely wooden box of vegetables she brought along.

Finally, Rupert Dunn, of the Tyfu Pobl programme run by the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, gave a presentation on a range of community growing schemes in Wales and the South West.

The Pembroke Food Project is being run by the Pembroke Can Make a Difference group of Pembroke 21C Community Association, and is funded by an Environment Wales Supporting Sustainable Living Grant.

A website (http://www.pembrokefood.org.uk">www.pembrokefood.org.uk) has been established where people can find out about local, seasonal fruit and vegetables, where to buy them, how to cook and grow them with tips and recipes, a blog to complete an on-line diary of changes to their food consumption, an on-line pledge facility and links to a Facebook page and other projects.

It is hoped that one of the outcomes of the Pembroke Food Project will be a community vegetable garden. Pembroke 21C are starting with a small container garden for local children in the yard at Foundry House.

The next events in the programme are a chef demonstration evening in Foundry House on Friday, June 29, with a local chef using food from Pembroke Farmers Market to demonstrate recipes.

The Pembroke Mid-Summer Farmers Market will be held the following day, June 30, at Pembroke Town Hall where Barry Hathway, of Broomhill Farm, Angle, will have a tonne box of new potatoes outside for shoppers to buy.