Thursday 25 April 2013

Promoting local produce

Promoting local produce is nothing new as I discovered when I was looking up a recipe in "The Farmers Wife Cook Book".
Printed in 1972 it is a collection of recipes gathered together from farmers wives throughout the British Isles with the forword written by Marguerite Patten.

 In it she says..."farm cooking in this country has always been exceptionally good.......one of the reasons being they have access to some of the best produce in the world - high quality milk, cream, eggs, poultry, bacon etc. The produce is natural and comes to us straight from the country; it is delivered direct to you by the milkman" ( - well maybe not that part anymore)

Another piece of advice - "Be brave and experiment with your cooking, but remember one simple rule: your meals can only be as good as the food that goes into them. So always use the freshest and best country produce it is possible to find."

The chapter on Cakes starts with a quote from Robert Burns  'Scotland - land o' cakes.' and 200 years later Scotland is still the land of cakes!

"Baking a cake is the test of any cook's skill. The most important ingredient in any recipe is time, you just can't afford to take shortcuts. then you'll need a good supply of fresh local produce; new laid eggs and creamy butter can do a lot to raise a cake from the mediocre to the superb."


Now for the healthy bit!! -

"There is one final word of warning - good cakes are addictive, and just occasionally they can be a little bit fattening. So whatever the temptations watch your weight! "

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