SOUTH Gloucestershire’s first ever food swap is being held in Iron Acton later this month.

The event, under the name Apples for Eggs, is part of a UK-wide initiative to share skills and produce.

It is taking place at Iron Acton Parish Hall on Saturday, March 29 (12noon-2pm).

Organiser Caroline Huish said the idea came from a Radio 4 programme about a food swap in Cheshire which inspired her to run one in her home village.

“I had been looking for a new community project for 2014 and this seemed to tick the right boxes for me,” she said.

“We have so many talented growers and cooks in our area that is seems a really good idea to see if anyone would like to swap and share.”

Food swaps are a collaborative effort and community-based activity.

Added Mrs Huish, who runs her own hypnotherapy clinic from her home the Old Rectory in High Street, said: “Essentially, a group of home or allotment producers get together for a couple of hours with some of their goodies and swap them for other items made or grown by other people in a sociable setting.

“No money changes hands, the currency is your produce.”

She added: “The beauty of a food swap is the fantastic fact that you can very easily go home with what seems like a massive amount more than you brought.

“This comes down to simple division of labour: let’s say you sweat over your stove for a couple of hours making a batch of six jars of marmalade. You take five of them to a food swap and come home with 2 different chutneys, a punnet of fresh raspberries, an apple crumble for your freezer and a carrot cake.

“So two hours work in the kitchen followed by a bit of sociable bartering gets you many, many times more hours’ worth of home-produced food for your pantry.”

Interested participants need to register beforehand on www.applesforeggs.com or for more information email caroline@huishs.com