I think we’re nearly there on locating local food but it has taken a lot of time and effort. I have reflected that this is very much the way my mother shopped in the 1950s! As Rod and Carolyn commented, it would be hard to do this if you were working full-time, unless you planned very well in advance (and it helps to have an allotment like Carolyn). Well here goes with what I’ve discovered in the last 3 weeks.
The hardest area was dairy, since I guess East Anglia is not generally pastureland. Surprisingly, the most local ‘East Anglian’ milk is at Morrisons. Cheese from the Farmer’s Market and shop opposite the Catholic Church is mostly goat or ewe- Wobbly Bottom from Hitchin and Norfolk White Lady from Wymondham. Delicious Lincolnshire Poacher is cow cheese as is cheese produced in Oakington by the Truckle Cheese company but beware the latter is not made using local milk. I haven’t been able to find any local butter or yoghurt, so with tea, pepper and rice these are my non-locals.. I’m going to try making my own yoghurt (as instructed by Carolyn) so I can substitute some curry powder for the yoghurt and have a kedgeree.
On Wednesday mornings a fish van from Grimsby is at The Boot in Histon and a van from Lowestoft comes to the Farmers’ Market but check which fish have actually been landed on the east coast as they carry other sources.
No problems with meat, vegetables or fruit but it would be very different in January. Impington Farmers’ Market provides wonderful Red Poll beef and chicken and eggs from Cottenham. The stall which sells the eggs also refills rape seed oil bottles for £3. The seed is grown in Chatteris. Our local butcher (Robinsons in Histon) provided pork and lamb from Somersham and venison from Newmarket. We always get our vegetables from Cottenham and fruit from our and friends’ gardens- mostly apples, pears and raspberries at the moment.
Bread has been baked at home using local flour from Huntingdon and dried yeast produced in Peterborough. Like Carolyn, we missed the biscuits, so Vic has refined a recipe for local ones.
Starting with The Dairy Cookbook rccipe for Butter Digestive biscuits:- 3oz wholemeal ; 0.5 oz plain flour 0.5 oz oatmeal ; 0.5 tps baking powder ;0.25 tps salt;1.5 oz butter ;1.5 oz caster sugar plus 3 tbs of milk. The baking powder was omitted, KIng’s Ripton oats instead of oatmeal and Munn’s rapeseed oil substituted for the butter, this makes a paste which clings to the bottom of the mixing bowl as soon as the smallest amount of milk is added. It can be flattened into a greaseproof paper lined tray with the back of a well floured spoon and baked for 20 minutes at 160 C. Taste is quite nutty oatcake/digestive.
An improved recipe is
3oz Glebe Farm wholemeal flour; 2 oz Glebe Farm plain flour ; 1.5 oz rapeseed oil ; o.25 tps Maldon salt; 1.5 oz Silver spoon caster sugar, once the oil is worked into the dry ingredients add small amount of Copella apple juice [ or Aspalls cider ] to make a dough. [ A dough Jim but not as our mothers knew it ] This may be rolled out using massive amounts of plain flour on the board and rolling pin. Once cut to shape use a floured cake slice to pick up the biscuits and bake as before. Tastes half way between digestive and rich tea!
A key principle seems to be that you cannot eat any food which you have not made from scratch yourself as sources are poorly labelled. We’re continuing to enjoy the challenge, with the help of the Aspall’s Suffolk cider and the Greene King beer (Bury St Edmunds).