Best Regional Local Food Food & Drink Producer – Muddy Stiletto Awards 2024

The Food Library a small, independent food business run by Laura Elliott and Michael Mayhew in Cecil Road, Northampton. Their home hosts the Food Library book collection, a monthly seasonal Dining Club and their Larder of produce made with fruit and vegetables grown in their beloved Kitchen Garden. They also run the Workshop for Sustainability directly across the road, which is home to the How-to Workshops, Food Hall Socials and the Kitchen Garden. The Workshop for Sustainability is an old coach building workshop and is steadily growing into a slow-food hub.

The spaces aren’t open daily at the moment but you can visit for events, to collect produce bought online from the Larder or join The Library and borrow from a growing collection of 1000+ books capturing generations of wisdom and knowledge from around the world on growing, cooking and preserving. 

The book collection has inspired the Food Library’s year-round programme of How-to Workshops, where guest experts, chefs and authors bring their own self-sufficiency practices to share including foraging, fermenting, cooking with fire, working with wild food and soon, more slow-food cooking practices. Drawing on this knowledge, Laura & Michael also prepare their bespoke, award winning Liqueur and Preserve collections, using produce grown in the Kitchen Garden or foraged, combined with locally sourced ingredients. These bespoke and seasonal drinks, chutneys and sweet treats are then incorporated into Michael’s menus for bespoke monthly Dining Club events.

Laura and Michael are committed to growing their own delicious, chemical-free, environmentally friendly food, being an active, friendly library and project in their neighbourhood and participating in a local, sustainable food chain.

The Food Library online shop is open.