Cotham Hill is an area of Bristol that is particularly rich in Vegan options as it happens. There is of course Blue Juice, serving up fresh juices and wraps, Cork’s the off license, with a specialist vegan alcohol selection, and Cathy’s laundrette, which admittedly isn’t vegan but is extremely handy for the best service wash in town as well as a good natter. But the jewel in the crown is Earthbound, a mid sized independent organic health store that specialises in a massive range of fresh organic fruit and veg – the mainstay of the vegan diet. They are also one of the sponsors of this year’s Bristol Vegan Fayre.

‘Some of our most loyal customers are vegan,’ says Pat, who together with husband Martin runs Earthbound. ‘I think they prefer to shop in small community shops because they appreciate the quality and the service – as well as shop itself. It often seems that people who have made a choice to become veggie or vegan, or even just increase their consumption of fresh fruit and veg, have also thought about other issues. And often they don’t much like the ‘corporate’ world either, and prefer to use the power of their spend to challenge the big monopolies. I think a lot of people, especially in Bristol, vote with their choice of spend these days, and I know a lot of vegan people appreciate us as an alternative to the supermarkets. And in return we appreciate the vegan community enormously. That’s one of the reasons why we are sponsoring the Fayre.’

Earthbound stocks a huge variety of groceries, bodycare, supplements, chocolate, snacks and sweets – all of them organic and most of them vegan.

But undoubtedly the emphasis is on the fantastic collection of fresh organic fruit and veg on offer. Admittedly supplying fruit and veg is challenging, to say the least. ’It’s hard work,’ says Pat, ‘and it is sometimes difficult to predict what will sell….organic fruit and veg has an even shorter shelf life that commercial crops and can go out of date easily. But we have noticed a tremendous rise in demand for fresh local produce like this and are also not spoilt for choice as to supplies anymore – there’s no shortage of superb fruit and veg to be had from all over the South West and Wales’organic farms now.’

As with all our sponsors, Earthbound’s contribution to the success of the show has been immeasurable.