Delicious D&G Issue 2

Directory of members

Farmers’ & Community Markets

Flavour Fortnight

centre pages 12-13

Explore local flavours at 12 markets across D&G page 24

A taste of D&G’s foodie festival pages 22-23

DeliciousD&G Your free guide to discovering a more delicious Dumfries & Galloway

2012

Contents 4-7 News 8-9 Awards 10-11 Distinctly D&G 12-13 Members’ Directory 14-15 Going Wild!

16-17 Meet Douglas Lisi Bee-ing a Bee Farmer Garden Grown 18-19 Deliciously Fresh Meet Allen Henderson 20-21 Meet Dennis Cockburn Tasty Events 22-23 Flavour Fortnight 2012 24 Farmers’ & Community Markets Meet Margaret Vaughan Delicious D&G is published by Savour the Flavours of Dumfries & Galloway.

All details are believed to be accurate at the time of going to print. For up to date member information visit www.savourtheflavours.co.uk Contact Savour the Flavours on 01644 430 109 or email liz@savourtheflavours.co.uk Front cover Main image: A loin of local wild rabbit encased in a spinach mousse with baby vegetables and a truffle foam, at Del Amitri, Annan. Credit: Debi Allan

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Welcome to Delicious D&G elcome to the 2012 edition of Delicious D&G, our annual newspaper looking at the flavours of Dumfries & Galloway through the food, the drink and the people of this creative corner of Scotland.

Dumfries & Galloway is a naturally delicious place to indulge in artisan food and drink, produce that’s been created by hand, often using traditional methods, usually in small quantities. The resulting food and drink is special and very different

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from what you would find on supermarket shelves, it’s food to be tasted, savoured and enjoyed.

But it’s not only the artisan produce that tells the story of this region. In this edition of Delicious D&G we’ll introduce you to some of the iconic foods that are strongly associated with this area, paying particular attention to Galloway Beef.

We’ll also give you an insight into how some of the top chefs in Dumfries & Galloway work closely with producers to ensure the food

they present speaks volumes of the land it was created in. We’ll introduce you to some of the people behind Dumfries & Galloway produce and we’ll invite you to get closer to the flavours of D&G through social media, events and markets.

Whether you’re visiting Dumfries & Galloway for the first time or have lived here for decades, indulging in delicious locally produced food and drink is a perfect way to discover the flavours of this beautiful part of Scotland.

D&G Food on Show umfries & Galloway holds the Presidency of the Royal Highland Show this year and Savour the Flavours is taking title sponsorship of the Food Hall Cookery Theatre to showcase the delicious products and the inspirational chefs who make our region such a tasty place to visit.

For four days in late June the eyes of rural Scotland turn to Ingliston near Edinburgh. 180,000 people visited the Show last year and 90% of them took in the sights, sounds and flavours of the Food Hall, making the Food Hall the perfect place to put Dumfries & Galloway in the spotlight.

In the Cookery Theatre five of the region’s top chefs will demonstrate how to create mouth watering menus from Dumfries & Galloway produce. Russell Pearce, Tom Kirkpatrick, Lara Smith, Ian

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McAndrew and Stephen Myers are all passionate about using quality local produce and they’ll inspire visitors to the Cookery Theatre with their culinary ideas.

The chefs will use local produce to highlight their Flavour Fortnight events, much of which will be available to buy at the D&G producers’ stand, just a few steps away from the Theatre.

Organised by the South of Scotland Competitiveness Projects the Dumfries & Galloway producers’ stand will let visitors buy D&G produce direct from the

producer, hearing the stories behind the products and discovering exactly what it is that makes artisan food and drink so special.

Meanwhile in the Countryside Area, Show visitors will be invited into the Dumfries & Galloway Village which will highlight some of the things to see and do in the region, such as nature and wildlife, arts and culture and outdoor activities. The flavours of Dumfries & Galloway are high on the agenda here too as new regional event catering group Deliciously Good Food serves D&G burgers, ice cream, soups and snacks to thousands of Royal Highland Show visitors.

The Royal Highland Show is also the launch pad for Flavour Fortnight 2012. Now firmly established as one of Scotland’s most important food festivals, Flavour Fortnight sweeps across Dumfries & Galloway from 25th Aug – 9th Sep – find out more about this year’s festival on pages 22-23.

Liz Ramsay of Savour the Flavours said: “The Royal Highland Show is a perfect platform upon which to celebrate Dumfries & Galloway’s exceptional food and drink. From catering to producers to chef demonstrations to food festivals, visitors to the Royal Highland Show will be in absolutely no doubt that Dumfries & Galloway provides a naturally delicious holiday experience.”

The Flavours of our Landscape Take a bite out of Dumfries & Galloway this year and join our region’s real food revolution. here’s been a real boom in Dumfries & Galloway produce over the past few years, driven by a surge in interest in quality local food and drink. That interest is manifesting in independent food retailers thriving during the recession, community and farmers’ markets becoming ever more popular and locally produced, artisan food and drink appearing on menus right across the region. Dumfries & Galloway is becoming a food destination, a place where quality food is just as sought after as beautiful landscapes and friendly welcomes.

As one of Scotland’s largest and most rural regions, Dumfries & Galloway has traditionally been associated with agriculture and

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primary production. Now this region is increasingly appreciated for its quality artisan produce and delicious dining experiences.

With its swathes of lush green hillsides, tumbling rivers and a huge sweeping coastline, the landscape of Dumfries & Galloway paints a pretty picture of Scotland’s natural larder.

That landscape is home to a disproportionately large number of artisan food and drink producers; small and micro businesses who have turned their love for food and drink into thriving enterprises, creating unique products that often carry a flavour of heritage, tradition and innovation.

People in this part of the world are passionate about their food – and it’s

no wonder when the natural world around them is filled with such bounty. You can delight both body and soul with specialities such as Galloway Beef, Solway Scallops, Scotch Lamb, traditional breed pork, freshly caught local seafood, smoked delicacies, local ales, wine, whisky and cider as well as a wide range of speciality local cheese, scrumptious ice cream and hand-made chocolates to round off your meal.

For visitors to Dumfries & Galloway discovering and sampling these artisan treats is a joy. Whether in restaurants and cafes, independent shops and farmers’ markets or direct from the producer themselves, real, fresh, local, seasonal produce is a delightful sensory experience.

The interest in local food doesn’t stop at the regional boundaries. As the world becomes ever more fast paced and as technology creeps into

every facet of our lives, there’s something wholesome, honest and inspiring about connecting with real people who make artisan food in traditional ways.

With local food and drink soaring in popularity across the UK, Dumfries & Galloway is playing a small but important part in a real food revolution. People are turning their love of quality food and drink into small businesses and many, many other people are turning away from the convenience of supermarkets to return to the satisfying pleasure of quality, local produce, purchased directly from the people who are most passionate about it.

Treat your senses by indulging in a taste of Dumfries & Galloway this year and discover the pleasure to be found in carefully crafted, high quality local food and drink served in beautiful surroundings in Dumfries & Galloway.

About Savour the Flavours avour the Flavours champions Dumfries & Galloway local food and drink, working with producers, chefs, retailers, markets and schools to highlight the quality and encourage the use of Dumfries & Galloway produce. Savour the

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Flavours is funded by LEADER and Dumfries and Galloway Council and it welcomes membership from businesses who produce, use or sell Dumfries & Galloway food and drink. For more information visit www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

Riaghaltas na h-Alba

www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

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Get Social ood producers from across the region were recently invited to take part in a special social media training course designed especially for food businesses. As a result Savour the Flavours members have been tweeting, liking and sharing information on social media networks, engaging with customers in this friendly and accessible medium.

For award winning butcher Iain Renicks from Thornhill (John G Renicks Family Butcher), social media is much more effective than websites, he said: “Facebook is massive for us, the fact you can get info out instantly to people who know your business is great and it’s also good for promoting what we do – we have even had

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orders placed via Facebook.”

Nigel Taylor of Barlochan Highland Beef @BarlochanBeef started using Twitter in February and has been amazed at the impact it’s had on his business.

“I’m very new to social media, I was very sceptical but I am becoming convinced that it works and we have had direct benefits. I found Mark Schatzer, author of the book ‘Steaks’ in Canada and I’ve had some very interesting conversations with him, and I’ve also started to hear about all the new foodie things going on in London, especially about things such as new steaks being invented, for example Picahana Steak and Jurassic Steak, and I’ve found some new customers!”

You can also follow Savour the Flavours on Twitter on @SavourFlavours and like Savour the Flavours on Facebook for D&G food news and events.

Shara Routledge

New for 2012: Hot Smoked Trout

Poacher’s Pickle Celebrates 25 Tangy Years

offat Water Foods has launched a new range of kiln-roasted hot smoked rainbow trout. The company, now a regular at Moffat and Dumfries farmers’ markets, has also recently opened the rainbow trout fishery to the public so that customers can enjoy a day’s fly fishing and take home a fresh trout, as well as buying hot or cold smoked trout direct from the farm.

Shara Routledge said: “We have just celebrated our 12 month anniversary since we first started smoking our own rainbow trout commercially and are feeling very buoyed up by the positive feedback that we have had from everyone through the year.

“We are always experimenting with new ideas and right now are working on two exciting new products – one is potted hot smoked trout and the other is hot smoked trout pate, and we will be launching these in time for Christmas.

“We are also continuing to work closely with chef Russell from local

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restaurant Brodies in Moffat and we are enjoying sampling the new and inventive ideas that he is coming up with, most recently Posh Fish and Chips.”

Russell Pearce uses the hot and cold smoked trout regularly on his menus: “I first discovered Shara’s trout when a friend came running into the restaurant and asked if I had tried the smoked Moffat trout. I was intrigued, imagine trout coming just four miles from the restaurant! I soon discovered that this was a very much fledgling venture and I managed to secure twelve weeks of exclusive use of the trout within Moffat, in return for helping Shara and Ollie raise their profile by providing a demonstration at their trout farm during Flavour Fortnight.”

Moffat Water Foods are now supplying restaurants, caterers, delis and farm shops across Scotland and England, as well as selling direct via markets, the fishery and the internet.

alloway Lodge Preserves’ iconic Poacher’s Pickle celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and the popularity of the famous traditionally made pickle shows no signs of slowing down, outselling all of Galloway Lodge Preserves’ other products by a factor of five!

Fiona Hesketh of Galloway Lodge Preserves describes it as the ‘little black dress of chutney’ and credits traditional manufacture with its continued appeal: “We make it in small batches using tomatoes, apples and onions,

cooked slowly for a long period of time in traditional barley malt vinegar.

That’s quite a different process to commercial chutneys which are often made with acetic acid, but the difference in flavour is really noticeable. Our traditional method produces a depth, richness and complexity of flavour that our customers love.

“Poacher’s Pickle is very much our flagship product and I’m delighted to see it reach its quarter of a century milestone, still as popular as ever!”

New Regional Chefs Association eading chefs from across Dumfries & Galloway have come together to form the D&G Chefs Association. The organisation, which was officially launched this summer, has been in discussion for some time and has the ultimate goal of increasing the use of local and fresh food across Dumfries & Galloway’s hospitality sector.

The ten chefs, representing restaurants and hotels from Gretna Green to Stranraer, have put together an ambitious programme of activity for the Association, much of which focuses on training and skills development. An online private forum for people working in hospitality businesses such as restaurants, cafes, B&Bs, visitor attractions and pubs, provides a place for chefs and cooks to share ideas, recipes, suggestions as well as being a place to ask for advice and support, or to get answers to questions on topics such as local sourcing and menu planning.

The group is already addressing a lack of formal cookery training in the region by mentoring young chefs and the chefs are talking with training providers to look at ways of adding value to existing certificated qualifications. Meanwhile the chefs will also be organising workshops for chefs and business owners in the autumn, explaining the multiple benefits of using local, seasonal and fresh ingredients within menus.

Liz Ramsay of Savour the Flavours who has supported the group said: “It’s incredible that so many of our top chefs want to share their knowledge and expertise with the industry, investing considerable time and effort in this drive to improve the food experience for visitors to our region. This is an opportunity for all sectors of the hospitality industry to think about how they can improve their food offering by using more fresh local food, and I’m optimistic that this important new organisation will have a lasting impact, creating a more delicious Dumfries & Galloway in the years to come.”

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New for 2012: Scottish Salami aron Kennedy Stewart of Clash Farm in Port Logan has been inspired by her Italian heritage to introduce a new product – Scottish Salami. The salami is made from Clash Farm’s free range pedigree saddleback pigs, grown for twice as long as a commercial pig, to imbue the salami with a rich, rustic flavour which has already passed the taste tests of her Italian family members!

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Caron said: “My father came over to Scotland from a small village near Monte Cassino when he was 17 having grown up on a family smallholding, so Italian approaches to food and small scale artisan production have always been part of family life.

“When the opportunity for introducing a new charcuterie range of Clash Farm products arose it

Earth’s Crust Bakery Pioneers The Real Bread Loaf Mark he Earth’s Crust Bakery is one of the first fifty bakeries in Britain to adopt The Real Bread Loaf Mark, offering an at-a-glance assurance from a baker that a loaf was made without the use of any processing aids or other artificial additives.

The essential ingredients that make up real bread are considered by the campaign to be flour, water, yeast and salt, with no artificial additives but with additional natural ingredients such as nuts, cheese, herbs, oils, fats and dried fruits allowed.

The Earth’s Crust Bakery, which opened last year in Laurieston, specialises in Sourdough as well as Spelt, Rye and other speciality breads.

Artisan baker Tom van Rooyen said: “All of the loaves we bake are what the Campaign calls Real Bread.

Of course, our regulars know and love the taste of our natural loaves, but now The Loaf Mark makes it easy for other people to see that we’re baking an honest crust.”

Tom recently shared his passion for artisan bread by hosting

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Introduction to Sourdough workshops during Flavour Taster earlier this year, and he was overwhelmed with the interest from members of the public with all his events selling out. The Sourdough event will run again during Flavour Fortnight 2012 as well as a more in-depth half-day Artisan Bread Baking workshop.

Real Bread Campaign co-ordinator Chris Young added:

seemed a very natural step. Our saddleback pork is very well suited to this type of product. So far we’ve started with three flavours of salami and we’re excited about introducing the salami to our customers.”

Clash Farm Scottish Salami will be launched at the Royal Highland Show in June, and will be available to buy at D&G farmers’ markets and direct from Clash Farm later in the summer.

“It’s great that The Earth’s Crust Bakery is one of the first bakeries in the country to sign up to the scheme.

We still call for an Honest Crust Act that requires all bakers to declare everything that goes into a loaf, but for now The Loaf Mark is a quick guide to additive-free loaves.”

Any baker can use The Real Bread Loaf Mark by signing an annual agreement that he/she will only use it to promote loaves made without the use of any processing aids or other artificial additives and full details of The Loaf Mark scheme can be found at www.realbreadcampaign.org

www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

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Give Your Diet a Nutrient Boost D umfries & Galloway nutritionist, dietician and food allergist Lorna Willock is encouraging people to think about how using more fresh, local produce could boost the nutrients they get from food. Lorna has put together a typical menu of local fare, full of nutrient dense local produce. She said: “I often hear clients bemoaning the tastelessness of the vegetables and fruit bought in supermarkets.

Why? Because most of this produce

is picked unripe and shipped halfway round the world! It’s all about costs rather than quality.

“For fruit and vegetables to gain all their nutrients they need to be ripened and quickly made available to the consumer. That’s where our farmers’ markets and local producers come up trumps. The food quality is fantastic and its nutritional value is top of the range.

“Look at our local, high quality artisan cheeses – from Galloway Farmhouse producing their delicious

ewe’s milk cheese, with masses of health benefits, to Loch Arthur with their amazing farm shop. Local grass reared meats and game contain no hormones.

“Local breads are freshly baked on the day without preservatives and local baked goods and cakes only contain the basic ingredients, without all the additives used to keep supermarket products on the shelves for weeks. You really can taste the quality in these local foods.”

orna’s typical daily menu of healthy local foods includes:

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Breakfast Omelette with local free range eggs and vegetables.

Earth’s Crust Bakery bread, such as rye sourdough, with local John Mellis honey.

Lunch Salad platter with local cheeses and Galloway Smokehouse game served with Galloway Lodge Preserves’ Poacher’s Pickle and local oatcakes.

Dinner Locally landed fish from Ferry Fish, served with local vegetables and potatoes washed down with a glass of Waulkmill Cider.

Treats Local chocolate, ice cream or produce from a selection of local bakers.

Deliciously Good Food group of local food producers have joined together to raise the quality of catering at events. Called Deliciously Good Food the aim of the local and artisan food producers is to bring high quality local foods at reasonable prices to events in Dumfries & Galloway and beyond, giving people visiting and living in the area a snapshot of the flavours our region has to offer.

The new group will be debuting at The Eden Festival before attending the Royal Highland Show and the British Pipe Band Championships in June, Tough Mudder at Drumlanrig Castle in July, Wigtown Show, Dumfries & Lockerbie Show and the Galloway Country Fair in August.

Deliciously Good Food is determined to wow the crowds with

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Dumfries & Galloway flavours and they’ve put a delicious line-up of treats on the menu. A Taste of Galloway is well known for their Galloway Beef and hog roasts but this year they’re adding a ‘Tartan Burger’, made with a pure Galloway Beef Steak Burger, topped with Lockerbie Cheddar, Galloway Lodge Preserves relish, saddleback hog roast, free range sweet cure bacon and onions. It’s a hearty D&G feast that’s not for the faint hearted!

Specialising in catering for vegetarian and gluten free diets, the Green Tea Room from Moniaive will have a delicious range of eats on offer including produce from multi-award winning Loch Arthur Creamery.

Meanwhile there’s nothing quite like a tasty ice cream on a glorious summer day and Glen Urr Ice Cream

has created some deliciously Scottish flavours including tablet and whisky ice creams, made from the milk from their award winning herd of Ayrshire cattle. Other regional producers and more local products will be added to Deliciously Good Food as time goes on.

Chirstie Baird of A Taste of Galloway who leads the group said: “We know that people are hugely interested in local, quality artisan food and drink, they’re actively looking for something different and authentic at events and festivals, after all, enjoying the food at an event should be just as special as enjoying the event itself.

We’re really looking forward to making Dumfries & Galloway produced food and drink accessible to people at our region’s major events, and we’re excited about the prospect of taking Dumfries & Galloway’s deliciously good food to events and festivals in other parts of the country.”

Highlanders in Pride of Place at Ramsay’s B arlochan Highland Beef has had a boom during the past year, and for owners Nigel and Angela Taylor they’ve been in the enviable but daunting position of becoming one of Gordon Ramsay’s favourite suppliers! While this time last year the couple were content with doing a handful of local farmers’ markets and supplying their local shop with steak pies, this year they’re supplying Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, one of only four restaurants in the UK to hold 3 Michelin stars. Nigel explains: “As a business, financially, last year it was kind of borderline. Now, it’s all gone crazy! The majority of our beef now goes direct to London supplying Gordon Ramsay’s Foxtrot Oscar and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay where our produce actually

appears on the menu as Barlochan Highland Beef. Our turnover of beef has tripled and it looks set to increase even further with the London Beef Cartel now placing regular orders.”

The demand for Barlochan Highand Beef was bolstered after Foxtrot Oscar Head Chef Cary Docherty named it ‘the best beef in the world’. The first of Gordon Ramsay’s chefs to discover it, he has since shared his passion for the Highlander beef with others and demand has soared.

Nigel continues: “What’s so amazing is that we didn’t go looking for this business, Cary found us! We didn’t understand the restaurant business well enough to even imagine that our beef could make it onto the tables of one of the top restaurants in the UK. Cary has

been brilliant for us. He is passionate about food and works hard to source the best ingredients and then to serve them in a way that lets the food speak for itself.”

Angela Taylor said: “We are really indebted to Cary and to Claire Smyth, Head Chef at Ramsay’s, for the help they have given us. One of the highlights was

last autumn when both chefs helped us achieve the BBC Good Food Show Bursary Award. This meant that Barlochan Highland Beef was on show for five days in front of nearly 100,000 people. It was awesome!

We had five staff on the stand and still struggled to keep up. So much has happened in the last twelve months, it’s been a wonderful roller coaster ride.”

Nigel credits their success with a passionate belief in the quality of Dumfries & Galloway produce.

“We have some of the best food products and raw ingredients right here in this region, and you have to believe this to be able to sell it. Okay, we had some very fortunate breakthroughs, along with some extraordinary help from Gordon Ramsay’s team, but it’s all about having the best product and absolutely believing in it.”

As well as supplying top London restaurants, Barlochan Highland Beef continue to trade regularly at markets in Dumfries & Galloway including Dumfries Farmers’ Market, Colvend Producers’ Market, Creetown Produce Market, New Cample Market and at Wigtown Market when stock allows.

Love Food Hate Waste G Zero Waste Volunteers are encouraging people to embrace Dumfries & Galloway’s rich food culture by reducing food waste. It’s estimated that an astonishing £1 billion of food is wasted in Scotland each year, but small steps can make a big difference in reducing that waste.

Planning meals in advance,

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making shopping lists, checking portion sizes and cooking with leftovers can all help households reduce food waste, whilst increasing their enjoyment of quality local produce. Tips on making more of local food by reducing waste can be found at www.dumgal.gov.uk/ dgzerowastevolunteers

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Awards Jock Rome and Maurice McMenemy

Rising Stars of Retail Best Food Producer 2011 K Loch Arthur scoops top award at the BBC Food & Farming Awards W Loch Arthur farm shop is popular with local people and visitors alike

ilnford Farmshop and Restaurant near Dumfries was awarded the Rising Star Award

by FARMA, the UK’s leading farm retail organisation. The Awards, known collectively as the ‘FARMA’s’, recognise farm shops, farmers’ markets, pick-your-own and farm attraction sites that are leading the way, exemplifying a passion for local food, a commitment to farming and the environment and a talent for retail.

Receiving the award in January Jock Rome, owner of Kilnford, said: “It is particularly pleasing that the huge effort made by our staff, both in the shop and on the farm, has been rewarded. They are committed to high standards in food production and presentation and so it is wonderful to be given national recognition.

Kilnford Farmshop has created much needed jobs in the region, provided an outlet for a variety of local producers and a source of good local fare for our customers.”

Scottish Hotel Awards embers of Savour the Flavours shone at the prestigious Scottish Hotel Awards in May. Cavens Country House Hotel was named as the Hotel of Charm whilst Annandale Arms Hotel in Moffat and Hillcrest House in Wigtown both collected Real and Local Food Gold Medals.

Head Chef of Smiths at Gretna Green, Stephen Myers was one of only four chefs to be awarded the Hotel Executive Chef Médaille d’Or. Stephen is on something of a winning streak, having also recently been awarded 2 AA Rosettes for food.

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hilst many people wax lyrical about the world class quality of Dumfries & Galloway produce, it’s particularly rewarding when that quality is officially acknowledged by industry experts. The cheeses of Loch Arthur Creamery in Beeswing became some of the most sought after in the UK last winter after the social enterprise was named the best food producer in Britain at the prestigious BBC Food & Farming Awards.

Creating quality, artisan food while providing meaningful work opportunities for adults with learning disabilities, volunteers from around the world and a devoted local workforce, Loch Arthur was the perfect fit with Radio 4’s Food and Farming Awards who were specifically interested in individuals and communities taking control of their futures by working from the ground up. The judges commended Loch Arthur’s approach, noting its contribution to sustainability through organic production methods, social enterprise, meaningful work and, of course, its high quality produce.

Chef Richard Corrigan, chairman of the judges, said: “The spirit of Loch Arthur will follow me to my dying day. That cheese is not just good – it’s a great cheese.”

The response to the win was staggering, with Loch Arthur inundated with orders for its award winning cheeses. Barry Graham of Loch Arthur said: “The wonderful thing about this award was that we were nominated by a member of the public who thought well of us and wanted to share their support of us with the award organisers. So it was great to simply be nominated but then to be shortlisted was a great honour in itself.

“The actual judging process when the judges came here, was an amazing experience because we felt they really connected with us. It didn’t feel like an inspection or judging, just sharing what we do with people who were appreciating it.

“The award was based on our produce being world class and it was wonderful to hear a chef of Richard Corrigan’s standing saying at the awards ceremony that ours was undoubtedly one of the top ten cheeses in Britain. Winning the award has been very uplifting for everyone at Loch Arthur, it’s very much a recognition of what we’ve been doing for the past 25 years in pioneering local and artisan food.”

The awards ceremony itself was broadcast on Radio 4 and was followed shortly thereafter with a programme that told the story of Loch Arthur and the other Best Food Producer finalists. Barry added: “It became apparent to us very quickly that the Radio 4 Food Programme has a very committed and devoted audience and the response was so profound and so immediate after the programme was aired that it was as though someone had opened the floodgates. The people who contacted us had a real interest in what we were doing, an appreciation of what we were about and a real longing to get hold of our produce.

“It catapulted us into a different level of public awareness than anything we’ve ever felt before, so much so that we couldn’t fulfil the quantity of orders that came towards us for Christmas. The award has undoubtedly drawn people’s interest and attention to this area, and has helped to enhance Dumfries & Galloway’s reputation as a centre for artisan food.”

Thistle Do Nicely! wo members of Savour the Flavours took home trophies at the regional finals of the Scottish Thistle Awards recently and will now progress to the finals in November to compete for a coveted national award.

Ice cream producer and visitor attraction Cream o’ Galloway took home more trophies than anyone else in Scotland, winning the Best Visitor Attraction, Best Nature Based Experience and Training and Skills Development awards in the Central South West region. Meanwhile Castle Douglas deli Thistle ‘B’ Scrumptious proved that small is beautiful by scooping the Best Shopping Experience award.

Considered to be the Oscars of the Scottish tourism industry the Thistle Awards recognise and reward excellence throughout the customer experience.

Speaking of their win Wilma Finlay of Cream o’ Galloway said: “It was absolutely amazing to win 3 awards. We were hoping for one and fantasising about winning two, but never dreamed that we would get the hat-trick. For me it recognises the outstanding work that Helen Fenby, our visitor centre manager, has done over the past 10 years and it has made all our staff proud of the work that they do every day. But we won’t be resting on our laurels, our aim will be to continue to improve our service and our facilities and try to win some of those national awards!”

Clint Burgess and Helen Cronie of Thistle ‘B’ Scrumptious are no strangers to award wins, having also this year taken home trophies from

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Pie Perfection! cotch Pies from Dumfries & Galloway were named the best in the world earlier this year as butcher Iain Renicks of John G Renicks in Thornhill was crowned the 2012 World Scotch Pie Champion.

Fighting off tough competition from north and south of the Border Iain’s secret pie recipe, that includes well seasoned local Galloway Beef, was carefully crafted to appeal to the experienced palates of the judging panel.

Speaking of the win, Iain Renicks said: “I have been competing in the competition since it started and it has been a long held ambition to win the title, because the competition holds a

S the Dumfries & Galloway Life People Awards where they were named Retailer of the Year, and from the Dumfries & Galloway Business Awards where they scooped the Local Food Hero award. Helen said: “We are thrilled and overwhelmed to be a Regional Winner in the Scottish Thistle Awards, this really does mean the world to us. The last year has been great for Thistle ‘B’ Scrumptious as we have also been lucky enough to win Retailer of the Year as well as Local Food Hero awards. Our aim is to work with as many local producers as possible and each award is very much a credit to them too. Without such high quality produce, totally committed producers, loyal customers and support from Savour the Flavours, none of this would have been possible. Our thanks to everyone.”

great deal of credibility within both the butchery and baking trades. It is a truly independent competition, judged by your peers.”

“We are probably the smallest business so far to win the World title.

I make every pie that goes out of our doors so it has been a lot of work keeping up with the incredible demand. We have sent Scotch Pies to Norway, France, Ireland and Australia and we’ve had people travelling from all over Scotland and England just to get their hands on the pies. The Saturday after we won the award we had a chap travelling all the way down from Aberdeen for a dozen pies!”

Helen Fenby and Wilma Finlay celebrate a hat-trick

Afternoon tea at Abbey Cottage

Excellence in Tea for 10 years! bbey Cottage Tearoom in New Abbey has recently celebrated its tenth Award of Excellence from the Tea Council in their Top Tea Place of the Year Awards. Abbey Cottage, which overlooks the beautiful Sweetheart Abbey, is a popular tearoom serving a wide range of local produce and home baked treats, and was also a recent finalist in the

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Scottish Thistle Awards, being pipped to the post in the category of Best Cafe, Bar or Restaurant Award by the Salon Bar at Blythswood Square in Glasgow. Abbey Cottage’s 2012 Award of Excellence was one of only 38 awarded to tea rooms across Britain in recognition of their outstanding quality and consistently high standards in tea service.

www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

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Distinctly D&G very land tells a story through the food and drink that it creates, produce that speaks of the soil and air, the rivers and seas that nurtured and imbued the meat, fish and fruit with rich, distinctive flavours. Dumfries & Galloway has many distinctive flavours, a rich agricultural landscape perfect for dairy, beef and lamb production, with a long sweeping coastline peppered with busy harbours. We take a look at three products that are distinctly Dumfries & Galloway, representing our region’s heritage breeds, traditional production methods and new products that are breathing life back into ancient orchards.

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Galloway Beef and Belted Galloway Beef While the white striped Belted Galloways are the

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most obvious and perhaps the most iconic of local cattle breeds, they trace their origins to the ancient Galloways. Both breeds are perfectly suited to the landscape and climate of Dumfries & Galloway and both breeds produce exceptional, highly sought after beef.

Galloways and Belted Galloways are both hardy breeds which thrive on the rugged landscapes of Dumfries & Galloway, in fact they positively benefit the landscape. Their lack of fussiness in grazing improves the biodiversity of an area for wildlife and game by controlling weeds, rushes and tough grasses.

It’s the traditional methods of rearing that create such an exceptional beef. Chirstie Baird of A Taste of Galloway explains:

“Galloways are a traditional slow maturing cattle breed, they hate being kept inside and thrive high up on the D&G hills grazing our hill grasses and vegetation. To produce the meat for a good steak I’d say that one of the qualities that you need to have is patience. Like most fine foods quality beef needs time to mature in its natural environment.

“As our cattle are mainly kept on a diet of grass and barley grown on the farm, producing our beef is a slow process but the end result is worth it.

Beef produced like our Galloway beef has a much finer grain, the fat has flavour and the beef tastes of how beef should taste.”

It’s that distinctive flavour that makes Galloway beef so sought after by chefs. Lara Smith, Head Chef of the Buccleuch Arms Hotel, says the quality of Galloway beef is noticed and appreciated by her customers.

“Galloway beef is a long standing, traditionally farmed beef, free ranging and very hardy. This life style gives a full bodied flavour to the beef that is consistent and delicious, which is why Galloway beef has seen off competition over the generations of more commercially viable, pen fed, quickly fattened and early finished herds.

“Galloway beef is renowned for its low fat content without losing any of its flavour benefits, so it’s the natural choice for us at the Buccleuch, but the most important factor for us is the continuous praise we receive over the quality of our beef.”

The Belted Galloway, affectionately known as the Beltie, is thought to have resulted from crossing the ancient Galloway with the Lakenvelder, a Dutch belted cow, in the 17th and 18th centuries.

For farmer Jock Rome who opened Kilnford Barns just outside Dumfries last year, Belted Galloways were the obvious choice.

“I’ve been farming beef cattle for almost 50 years and during that time have enthusiastically tried different breeds, different feeding and different systems and continually tried to improve the quality of the product. Now that I’ve been able to finally retail our own product, few things have given me as much satisfaction as the very high

Dumfries & Galloway Life Ruby and Vincent Marr

proportion of customers who come back and say ‘it’s the best I’ve ever tasted!’.

“The three most important things we look for in good beef are flavour, tenderness and marbling.

Galloway beef excels in taste because the cattle grow slowly and almost reach maturity before leaving the farm. Galloways are much smaller at maturity than their continental cousins. This means that the fibre strands within any particular cut of meat from Galloway cattle are often finer giving a superior texture. The marbling is the result of the natural survival methods of Galloway cattle which require that they store fat within their tissue to help survive the long cold winters. That marbling within the tissues is the key to the ‘cookability’ of the meat, producing a succulent joint that is just bursting with flavour.”

Net and Coble Salmon Fishing Dating back to at least the 12th century, net and coble fishing is the only method of net fishing allowed in estuaries and it’s the method of fishing that Vincent and Ruby Marr use to catch wild salmon in the Cree.

Net and coble salmon fishing has been part of the Marr family since 1890 and Vincent’s passion for this traditional method was inherited from his parents who would take their sons along with them when they fished the Cree. Vincent’s wife, Ruby, is probably now the only net and coble salmon fisherwoman left in the country.

Ruby Marr said: “For us the net and coble salmon fishing is more than just a labour of love. On summer days when we work the tide at 4am, the town sleeps as we fish with the morning mist and the sunrise over

Cairnsmore can be quite breathtaking. It is our escape from mobile phones, computers, orders and deliveries. We enjoy nature as little has changed in our salmon pools since our forefathers’ day, we know our heritage lives on with our generation.

“Fishing a night tide, we enjoy the silence, and the beauty of the moon on the water. Awaiting a 20ft tide however, is an eerie experience, as we sit in the estuary awaiting the tide to get us back to our anchorage. She arrives with a roar, whirls of waves surround us and at times can be frightening. You do have to love it. You take the bad days with the good, respect the sea, and every year, as the season approaches be prepared to mend nets, dig trees out of salmon pools, and prepare for the year ahead.”

To this day, it is still only Vincent and Ruby who catch their own wild salmon. Although catches are no longer as they were in Vincent’s father’s day, there is still an adequate supply of fresh wild salmon which allows Vincent and Ruby to serve visitors to their cafe with wild smoked salmon, from the sea to the table, caught, cured, smoked, sliced, packed and often served, all by their own hand.

Dumfries & Galloway Cider and Perry Two years ago few people knew that Dumfries & Galloway was home to some ancient apple orchards but when Chris Harrison moved to the area he was determined to seek out and harness the heritage apples of the region, turning them into deliciously refreshing, traditional still cider.

Launched last year Muckle Toon Rosie from Waulkmill Cider Orchard has soared in popularity and Scotland’s only traditional cider is made from 100% Dumfries & Galloway apples. Chris Harrison said: “There are plenty of apple trees flourishing in the local area and a number of local estates still have parts of ancient walled orchards from which we’ve been able to collect some of our apples. Every apple used for our Muckle Toon Rosie cider is collected from within Dumfries & Galloway and we use a wide selection of apple varieties to enhance the texture and tastes, for example a very old Scottish heritage red fleshed apple called a Bloody Ploughman gives the cider its beautiful rose colour.”

This summer Chris will launch a brand new product at the Scottish Beer Festival, traditional perry (pear cider), made from ancient perry pear trees growing in a secret location somewhere in Dumfries & Galloway.

Chris Harrison of Waulkmill Cider

Imaginative award winning food using local and locally sourced produce 9 suites and rooms plus 2 self catering cottages Perfect for small weddings and special occasions and exclusive use Cookery School

Tel: 01659 50270 www.blackaddiehotel.co.uk www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

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Visit reat yourself to a trip to Savour the Flavours member restaurants, hotels, cafes, shops, caterers or producers and indulge in delicious Dumfries & Galloway food and drink.

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1 Abbey Cottage Tearoom l Main Street, New Abbey DG2 8BY t: 01387 850377 www.abbeycottagetearoom.com 2 Annandale Arms Hotel and Restaurant l High Street, Moffat DG10 9HF t: 01683 220013 www.annandalearmshotel.co.uk 3 Auchenree Food Store ll Low Auchenree, Portpatrick, Stranraer DG9 8TN t: 01776 810844 www.auchenreefarm.co.uk

4 Ballards Butchers l 152 King Street, Castle Douglas DG7 1DA t: 01556 502501 www.ballardsbutchers.co.uk

5 Balmaclellan House l Balmaclellan House, Balmaclellan, Castle Douglas DG7 3PW t: 01644 420227 www.balmaclellanhouse.co.uk

6 Barony Country Foods Ltd. ll Carse of Ae, Lochmaben, Lockerbie DG11 1SE t: 01387 860487 www.baronycountryfoods.co.uk

7 Barstobrick Visitor Centre lll Ringford, Castle Douglas DG7 2AT t: 01557 820112 www.barstobrick.co.uk

8 Best Western Selkirk Arms Hotel l High Street, Kikrcudbright DG6 4JG t: 01557 330402 www.selkirkarmshotel.co.uk

9 Blackaddie Country House Hotel l Blackaddie Road, Sanquhar DG4 6JJ t: 01659 50270 www.blackaddiehotel.co.uk

10 Blackwater Produce Ltd ll 139 King Street, Castle Douglas DG7 1DX t: 01556 504345 www.blackwaterproduce.co.uk 11 Brodies of Moffat l Altrive Place, Holm Street, Moffat DG10 9EB t: 01683 222870 www.brodiesofmoffat.co.uk

12 Buccleuch Arms Hotel l High Street, Moffat DG10 9ET t: 01683 220003 www.buccleucharmshotel.com

13 Caroline’s Catering l Barquhill Farm, Wigtown, Newton Stewart DG8 9BQ t: 01988 860266

14 T H Carson l The Cross, Mill St, Dalbeattie DG5 4HE t: 01556 610384 www.thcarson.co.uk 15 Castle Kennedy Gardens l Stair Estates, Rephad, London Road, Stranraer DG9 8BX t: 01776 702024 www.castlekennedygardens.co.uk

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16 The CatStrand ll High Street, New Galloway, Castle Douglas DG7 3RN t: 01644 420374 www.catstrand.com

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17 Cavens l Kirkbean by Dumfries DG2 8AA t: 01387 880234 www.cavens.com 18 Cinnamon l 73-75 Victoria Street, Newton Stewart DG8 6NL t: 01671 404440

19 Cream o’ Galloway lll Rainton Farm, Gatehouse of Fleet, Castle Douglas DG7 2DR t: 01557 814040 www.creamogalloway.co.uk

20 Creebridge House Hotel l Minigaff, Newton Stewart DG8 6NP t: 01671 402121 www.creebridge.co.uk

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Eating Out Shop Producer Outside Catering

23 Dee Fish ll The Smokehouse, Borgue, Kirkcudbright DG6 4SH t: 01557 870466 www.deefish.co.uk

24 Del Amitri Restaurant l 95A High Street, Annan DG12 6DJ t: 01461 201999 www.del-amitri.co.uk

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51 CREETOWN 31 A75 26 56

27 Foodhall at Gretna Green l Gretna Green DG16 5EA t: 01461 338601 www.gretnagreen.com/foodhall

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28 Galloway Farmhouse Cheese ll Millairies, Sorbie, Newton Stewart DG8 8AL t: 01988 850224

29 Galloway Forest Park ll Stronord, Palnure, Newton Stewart DG8 7BE t: 01671 402420 www.forestry.gov.uk/gallowayforestpark

30 Galloway Lodge Preserves lll Burgh Parks, Castramont Road, Gatehouse of Fleet DG7 2JE t: 01557 814007 www.gallowaylodge.co.uk 31 Galloway Smokehouse ll Carsluith, Newton Stewart DG8 7DN t: 01671 820354 www.gallowaysmokehouse.co.uk

32 Garden Wise Plant and Garden Centre ll Castle Douglas Road, Dumfries DG2 8PP t: 01387 262654 www.gardenwise-dumfries.co.uk 33 Glen Urr Farmhouse Ice Cream ll Halmyre Farm, Haugh of Urr, Castle Douglas DG7 3LB t: 01556 660326 www.glenurr.co.uk

35 Grierson Bros l 148 King Street, Castle Douglas DG7 1LU t: 01556 502637 www.griersonbros.co.uk 36 Hartfell House & The Limetree Restaurant l Hartfell Crescent, Moffat DG10 9AL t: 01683 220153 www.hartfellhouse.co.uk

37 The Hightae Inn l High Road, Hightae, Lockerbie DG11 1JS t: 01387 811711 www.hightaeinn.co.uk

38 Hillcrest House l Maidland Place, Wigtown DG8 9EU t: 01988 402018 www.hillcrest-wigtown.co.uk

42 In House Chocolates ll 128 King Street, Castle Douglas DG7 1LU t: 01556 503037 43 Irvings Homestyle Bakery Ltd ll Unit 1, Abercromby Industrial Park, Castle Douglas DG7 1LH t: 01556 504162 www.irvingsbakery.co.uk 44 Isherwood & Co l 41 Butts Street, Annan DG12 5BD t: 01461 202144

45 John D Owen & Son ll 47 Victoria St, Newton Stewart DG8 6NL t: 01671 402666 46 John G Renicks Butchers ll 117 Drumlanrig St, Thornhill DG3 5LS t: 01848 330243 47 Kev’s Farm Choice l Kirklauchline Farm Cottage, Meoul, Stoneykirk, Stranraer DG9 9EE t: 01776 850011 www.kevsfarmchoice.co.uk

39 House O’Hill Hotel l Bargrennan, Newton Stewart DG8 6RN t: 01671 840243 www.houseohill.co.uk

48 Kilnford Farm Retail Ltd ll Kilnford Barns, The Glen, Dumfries DG2 8PT t: 01387 253087 www.kilnford.co.uk

41 I & B Catering l 3 Clunie Avenue, Dumfries DG2 9FG t: 01387 251655 www.iandbcatering.co.uk

50 Kirkpatrick’s Restaurant l 29 St Cuthbert Street, Kirkcudbright DG6 4DX t: 07778 742556

40 Hullabaloo ll Robert Burns Centre, Mill Road, Dumfries DG2 7BE t: 01387 259679 www.hullabaloorestaurant.co.uk

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34 The Green Tea Room ll High Street, Moniaive DG3 4EJ t: 01848 200099 www.green-teahouse.co.uk

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25 Drummuir Farm Ice Cream ll Collin, Dumfries DG1 4PX t: 01387 750599 www.drummuirfarm.co.uk 26 Ferry Fish l The Rock, Carsluith, Creetown, Newton Stewart DG8 7DW t: 01671 820748 www.ferryfish.co.uk

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21 Creetown Gem Rock Museum l Chain Road, Creetown, Newton Stewart DG8 7HJ t: 01671 820357 www.gemrock.net

22 Dalbeattie Fine Foods l 69 High Street, Dalbeattie DG5 4HA t: 01556 610349 www.dalbeattiefinefoods.co.uk

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49 Kings Coffee and Books ll 12 Queensberry Street, Dumfries DG1 1EX t: 01387 254444 www.kingsonline.co.uk

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ou’ll find delicious food and drink from other Savour the Flavours producers at markets, in shops and on menus throughout Dumfries & Galloway – many of them sell direct through their website too.

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51 The Laird’s Inn l Castle Cary Holiday Park, Creetown, Newton Stewart DG8 7DQ t: 01671 820361 52 L’Aperitif Restaurant l London Road, Stranraer DG9 0AJ t: 01776 702991

53 Leccornia ll 5 St Andrew Street, Dumfries DG1 1BS t: 01387 249693 www.leccornia.co.uk

54 Loch Arthur Creamery and Farm Shop ll Camphill Village Trust, Beeswing, Dumfries DG2 8JQ t: 01387 760296 ext 1 www.locharthur.org.uk

55 Loch Ken Gallery & Cafe ll Parton Stables, Parton Estate, Castle Douglas DG7 3NB t: 01644 470260 www.allanwrightphoto.com

56 Marrbury Smokehouse lll Carsluith Castle, A75 Carsluith, Newton Stewart DG8 7DY t: 01671 820476 www.visitmarrbury.co.uk 57 Moffat Water Foods ll Selcoth Farm, Moffat, Dumfriesshire DG10 9LG t: 01683 220509

58 New Cample Farm Shop and Tearoom lll New Cample Farm, Closeburn, Thornhill DG3 5EY t: 01848 332325 www.newcamplefarm.co.uk

59 The Moniaive Chocolatiers ll High Street, Moniaive DG3 4HN t: 01848 200000

60 G & M Newton ll 17 Main Street, St Johns Town of Dalry, Castle Douglas DG7 3UP t: 01644 430225

Abbotts Chocolates t: 013873 80376 www.abbottschocolates.co.uk

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61 Penninghame House Cooking School l Penninghame House, Newton Stewart DG8 6RD t: 01671 401414 www.penninghame.org

62 Penpont Tea Room lll Main Street, Penpont, Thornhill DG3 4BP t: 07765 073913 63 Reading Lasses Bookshop-Cafe l 17 South Main Street, Wigtown DG8 9EH t: 01988 403266 www.reading-lasses.com

64 Scaurbridge House l Scaurbridge House, Penpont, Thornhill DG3 4LX www.scaurbridgehouse.com

65 The Schoolhouse l The Old Schoolhouse, Ringford, Castle Douglas DG7 2AL t: 01557 820250 www.schoolhouseringford.com 66 Smiths at Gretna Green l Gretna Green DG16 5EA t: 01461 337007 www.gretnagreen.com

67 Sulwath Brewers Ltd lll 209 King Street, Castle Douglas DG7 1DT t: 01556 504525 www.sulwathbrewers.co.uk 68 Sunnyside Deli llll 32 Bridge Street, Stranraer DG9 7JF t: 01776 706114 www.sunnysidedeli.co.uk

69 Sunrise Wholefoods l 49 King Street, Castle Douglas DG7 1AE t: 01556 504455 70 Tarff Town and Country ll Lockerbie Road, Dumfries DG1 4UX t: 01387 261661 www.tarfftownandcountry.co.uk

71 A Taste of Galloway lll Laughtmuirside Farm, Thornhill DG3 5DH t: 01848 330622 www.atasteofgalloway.co.uk 72 Thistle ‘B’ Scrumptious lll 207 King Street, Castle Douglas DG7 1DT t: 01556 504006 www.thistlebscrumptious.co.uk 73 Thistle Inn ll Main Street, Crossmichael, Castle Douglas DG7 3AU t: 01556 670203 www.thistleinn-crossmichael.co.uk

Alisons Jams and Chutneys t: 07788 175548 www.alisonsjamsandchutneys.co.uk

Galloway Wildfoods www.gallowaywildfoods.com Garrocher Market Gardens t: 07944 080335 www.garrochermarketgardens.co.uk Glebe House Winery t: 01576 300241 www.glebehouseproducts.co.uk The Jammy Coo Bakery t: 01556 620244 John Mellis Apiaries t: 01848 331280 Kaixe t: 01387 720365 www.kaixe.co.uk Kirstycakes t: 07740 343850 www.kirstycakes.co.uk

Annanwater Organics t: 07708 101336

Mayan Truffles t: 07784 389327 www.mayantruffles.com

Auchtralure Eggs t: 01776 702124

Meg’s Kitchen t: 07740 926893

The Baking Farmer t: 01576 510226 /07940 878736

Millbank Parkland Venison t: 01576 203925 www.millbankvenison.co.uk

Barlochan Highland Beef t: 01556 600221 www.bhbeef.com Blackface Meat Company t: 01387 730326 www.blackface.co.uk Border Tablet t: 01387 381224 www.bordertablet.co.uk

By Heck! t: 01387 810 444 Castle MacLellan Foods Ltd t: 01557 330905 www.castlemaclellan.co.uk Cheerful Cake Company t: 07775 991428 www.cheerfulcakecompany.co.uk Clash Farm Pedigree Saddlebacks t: 01776 860246 www.clashsaddlebacks.co.uk

Millhill Free Range Turkeys t: 01387 730472 www.millhillfreerangeturkeys.co.uk Mrs McMyns Organic Eggs t: 01387 850430 www.mrsmcmynseggs.co.uk Rowan Glen t: 01671 403633 www.dalefarm.co.uk Ruthy’s Scones t: 07900 633067 www.ruthys.co.uk Solway Smokehouse t: 01644 420317 www.solwaysmokehouse.co.uk Sunnyside Farm t: 01659 50258 www.sunnysidefarm.biz Thai Kitchen www.imthaikitchen.co.uk

Connie’s Cupcakes t: 01387 811759 www.conniescupcakes.co.uk

J. Tweedie Fresh Fruit & Fruit Trees t: 01387 720880

CupcakeMania t: 01576 510124 www.cupcakemania.co.uk

Uncle Roy’s Comestible Concoctions t: 01683 221076 www.uncleroys.co.uk

Dessert Me t: 01387 810475

Waulkmill Cider t: 01387 370203 www.waulkmill-scottish-cider.co.uk

The Earth’s Crust Bakery t: 01644 450624 www.earthscrustbakery.co.uk

Wigwam Bakery t: 01671 820455 www.wigwambakery.co.uk

The ‘Fechan Tart Company t: 01576 300077 www.fechantart.co.uk The Galloway Fudge Company t: 01387 740685 www.gallowayfudge.com

More and more local food and drink businesses are joining Savour the Flavours. Log onto www.savourtheflavours.co.uk and visit our directory for the most up to date list of member businesses.

www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

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Going Wild! umfries & Galloway is a forager’s paradise – its swathes of coast, lush forests and woodlands offering up a treasure trove of delicious flora, fauna and fungi for those who know what to look for. Wild food expert Mark Williams of Galloway Wild Foods is Dumfries & Galloway’s foremost expert in foraging and he has set himself a fascinating challenge this year – to eat something wild from Dumfries & Galloway every day for a year.

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What makes D&G such a good place to find wild food? Mainly it’s the amazing range of unspoiled wild places – rocky, sandy and muddy coast; coniferous, oak, beech and ancient mixed woodlands; lush, not-too-trimmed hedgerows; rich and diverse grasslands and wetlands. Add a particularly warm maritime climate and a little shelter from Ireland and you have the perfect conditions for an incredible range of wild fruit, fungi, shellfish, plants and animals in a relatively small area.

D&G seems to have the very best things to eat from North and South. For example, it is the only place in the UK where you can find Scots lovage and rock samphire growing on the same beach.

I couldn’t imagine a more perfect area to get to know wild food!

What got you started in wild food, and for how long have you been doing it?

When I was 19 I was working split-shifts in a restaurant on Arran. It wasn’t worth going home between lunch and dinner service, so we used to go into the woods and collect wild mushrooms. We

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only had an old Italian guidebook and were very unsure of ourselves – in fact I don’t think we dared eat a single one for at least a year!

But I got the bug and could still take you to the exact spot where I found my first patch of chanterelle mushrooms, glowing like gold on the forest floor! It was very exciting – and I’ve been hooked on foraging ever since, gradually building my knowledge by a few species per season for the last 20 years.

Wild food is becoming more and more popular – what’s the appeal?

So many reasons! It is, by definition, healthy, seasonal, local, organic and free.

Many wild foods have a flavour that farmed species cannot emulate which is why they are in high demand by top chefs.

Noma, widely recognised as the finest restaurant in the world, serves almost entirely foraged food. All this has a trickle-down effect via celebrity chefs, which influences keen home cooks. The real joy of wild food is that somebody on the breadline can find and eat exactly the same ingredients as people who are paying hundreds of pounds for it!

More philosophically, foraging connects us to nature in a very intimate and fulfilling way. We evolved for millions of years as hunter-gatherers and I think people are beginning to recognise the deep satisfaction that can come from gathering your own sustenance.

Best of all, it’s fun! Sort of like hunting for edible treasure!

Why have you set yourself the Daily Wilds challenge? How have you found it so far?

Mostly for my own pleasure and partly to try to demonstrate how easy it is to incorporate wild ingredients into everyday life.

When you consider that over the course of a year more than 200 wild edible species grow within 10 minutes walk of my house, it doesn’t look so hard! The key with wild foods is not finding them, but recognising them!

I anticipated having the odd day when I just chewed a bit of sorrel or had a nip of sloe gin, but I’ve eaten a mostly wild meal every evening since I started in January. I’m feeling healthier than ever and the flavours of the ingredients are so good that quick, simple cooking normally yields great results.

Wild food is the new convenience food!

What’s been your favourite wild food find?

Normally I’m in love with whatever I’m picking at the time! But getting something new is always a thrill. I was delighted to find and eat my first native Galloway oyster in March. I spent a long time in an estuary in the dark, dodging tides to get it, but it tasted all the better for it! It is always amazing to find a perfectly formed porcini mushroom in the autumn.

What’s been your favourite Daily Wilds dish so far?

Foraged sushi was pretty special. Seaweed, spoot clams, reedmace, wild garlic, cuckoo flowers and many other things went into it. Everything was wild but the rice. I even made a wasabi style dip out of sea radish and watercress.

Tell us something surprising about wild food.

I love the successive emotions of shock, disbelief, bemusement and delight when novice

foragers discover that some of the “weeds” they have been toiling to eradicate for years are more delicious than most of the vegetables they grow!

For example, young leaves of the much-despised ground elder are delicious in salads and are regularly served in some of the best restaurants in the country.

Are there any nutritional benefits to wild food?

The humble stinging nettle is a superfood, the sting instantly disappears on cooking, leaving you with a great spinach-like green packed full of protein, vitamin C, beta-carotene, calcium and other minerals.

So long as they are carefully picked from unpolluted sites, all wild foods are organic and free from pesticides, chemical fertilisers and such like.

There is also a growing body of evidence that our bodies are better able to digest, and less likely to react adversely to, ingredients sourced from our immediate environment.

What’s the law on picking wild food?

The Law trails a little behind what I would call best practice.

Legally, you have the “Right to Roam” on most land in Scotland. When doing so, it is legal to pick leaves, fruits, fungi and some shellfish, provided it is for personal consumption and you are not collecting a commercially grown crop. The landowner’s permission is required if you intend to uproot a plant.

Best practice – as outlined by the Scottish Wild Harvest Association – is rather more sensitive. You should show consideration for the landowner, other people who may wish to enjoy what you are picking (either aesthetically or gastronomically!), the habitat you are in, and the species you are picking.

Essentially this means picking only small amounts of even seemingly common wild foods (some can appear locally abundant while being nationally rare); never stripping out a whole plant or colony; never picking more than you need; being aware of your impact on the wider environment and other people; doing some research before harvesting.

Generally, I find that people who pick for their own consumption, respect nature and invest a little time in learning about what they are picking, seldom cause any significant harm. Most people who harvest wild plants for profit also act with great sensitivity towards their crop – it’s part of their

livelihood after all! Personally, I have chosen no longer to sell any of the wild food I harvest. It’s much more fun to barter or donate any surplus!

How should people get started in wild food?

Get a few good guidebooks, a combination of foraging books and general identification books is essential, and get out there! Don’t be excessively scared of the few poisonous species, so long as you never munch on a hunch you can come to no harm, and there are endless pleasures waiting to be discovered.

You can access tons of information for beginners and improvers through my Galloway Wildfoods website where I share information about what to look out for at any given time in the year.

Best of all, come on one of my guided walks, there is nothing like actually seeing somebody pick, cook and eat wild food to give you confidence!

Time to

enjoy the

Kilnford experience Evening Cooking Classes

Our chefs will demonstrate the dishes before you re-create them. When all the cooking is finished you will have the chance to enjoy what you have cooked with a glass of wine. Our kitchen uses ingredients sourced locally, often with produce from our own walled garden.

Cooking for Health & Vitality Fish Night Fresh Pasta Night Curry Night Guilt Free Desserts Italian Evening Men’s Cooking to Survive

Demonstration and Dine Evenings

Enjoy a glass of wine while you watch a demonstration by our chefs. Get together with friends, enjoy a restaurant experience whilst learning new cooking skills.

Private party bookings Arrange your own date, choose your class and join your friends for a great evening out!

Our cooking school is also available for hire.

Dates, prices and more information from our website.

www.penninghame.org 01671 401414 info@penninghame.org

Restaurant Enjoy fantastic local and home grown dishes in a beautiful setting Butchery Our own top quality Galloway Beef, Blackface Lamb and outdoor reared pork and bacon Delicatessen Offering a wide range of local and regionally sourced artisan foods Larder

Let us tempt you with exciting speciality foods and beer from Dumfries & Galloway as well as foods and wines from around the world that would enhance any dinner table

Crafts Looking for something different – you’ll find it here – many made by local people Nature Trail & Kids Play Area Take time out to get close to the land with a stroll through our Nature Trail and kids play area Open: Mon to Sat 9.30am-5.30pm Late night Thu till 8.30pm Sun 10am-4.30pm The Glen, Dumfries, DG2 8PT (At the Garroch roundabout on A75)

t: 01387 253087 www.kilnford.co.uk

www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

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second interview

Douglas Lisi of L’Aperitif in Stranraer

Describe your cooking style in five words.

Keeping cooking simple and economical.

What inspired you to become a Chef? My father was a chef and he was very inspiring. He trained as a pâtissie, a pastry chef, and he was also a trained opera singer, training under the Pavarotti of his day. When he moved to Scotland after the war he worked at Turnberry and became Head Chef of Portpatrick Hotel where he was known as the singing chef, as he sang opera whilst he cooked. His passion for cooking very much influenced me and I love cooking now as much as I ever did.

Describe your typical day. I rise early to make fresh bread and sauces for Sunnyside Deli and the restaurant, as well as preparing fresh desserts. Then it’s often out to do demonstrations on healthy cooking at schools and community centres.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Cooking fresh food, writing new recipes, reading about new local products and giving demonstrations on local produce.

What’s your signature dish? Describe it and tell us what makes it so special. Fresh scampi caught on the local boats, deep fried in a light and crispy batter. You can taste the freshness of the scampi, that’s what makes it so special.

What’s been your biggest achievement so far? Cooking for the Queen in 1996 with students from the college in Stranraer. It was the last sailing of the Royal Yacht Britannia before it retired in Edinburgh. Her Majesty had local smoked salmon to start followed by medallions of venison with stuffed peppers, a wild mushroom risotto and fondant potatoes. Her sweet was whisky ice cream made with Bladnoch whisky with tuille biscuit, home-made tablet and coffee.

Why is it a good idea to cook with local food?

It’s fresh, you know where it comes from, it tastes better and it also helps local businesses to thrive.

Tell us about three local products you think are must-trys and explain why. Fresh crab because it is freshly available throughout the summer and it makes beautifully simple dishes.

Local pork, such as Clash Farm pork, tastes completely different from supermarket pork and Loch Arthur cheese which has won lots of awards, it’s a must-try.

You’ve got five minutes to rustle up a tasty (local) bite to eat – what would you make? Baked salmon with tomato, cucumber and basil or linguine with fresh crab aglia olio.

Any future plans? To try and get the public more aware of how easy it is to eat healthily by going around schools, community centres, food festivals and agricultural shows. My aim is to get people cooking fresh simple food dishes.

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Bee-ing a Bee Farmer call has gone out from the Bee Farmers’ Association of the United Kingdom inviting people to consider becoming a bee farmer, and local bee farmer John Mellis says that Dumfries & Galloway is the perfect location for anyone interested in turning this fascinating activity into a successful business.

John, who is based at Auldgirth near Dumfries, has more than 400 bee colonies sited across the Nithsdale countryside.

He has been an active member of the Bee Farmers’ Association for many years, and highlighting the plight of bee farming in the UK is slowly starting to pay off with a formal Bee Farming apprenticeship and qualification now in development.

John says: “Bee farming is a wonderful lifestyle, it’s not something you’d choose to do to make lots of money, but you can make enough to live comfortably. I get tremendous satisfaction from producing 10 tonnes of premium quality food every year, working in truly beautiful locations. Tending the hives when the sun is shining on a summer day is unbeatable.”

Despite the appealing lifestyle the downward spiral of bee farming in the UK as a whole makes for stark reading. Around 10,000 bee colonies are being lost each year from a UK total of 150,000, as bee farmers leave the industry, normally due to age. Indeed more than half of the bee farmers in the UK are over 65 years of age and in the 100 miles across Dumfries & Galloway, from Langholm to Stranraer there are only three bee farmers, one aged 82, another aged 81 and John who is a comparatively young 66! This demographic crisis comes at a time when bee farming has never been more important, with bees responsible for pollinating more than £200 million worth of UK fruit and veg and now being highly sought after for the pollination of biofuel crops such as rapeseed oil.

John explains that Dumfries & Galloway is ideally suited to new bee farmers seeking to start a business.

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“Dumfries & Galloway has a huge range of plants and very little oil seed rape, which means that honey producers in this region can comfortably sustain a range of around 5 different honeys each year each with a distinctive, more complex flavour.

“Spring honey is flavoured by chestnut, hawthorn, sycamore and dandelion giving a rich, nutty dark honey. Summer honey is lighter with a more delicate flavour, created by clover, willow herb, lime, brambles and hundreds of wild flowers that grow in the meadows. Autumn is the season for making heather honey. This is the fine single malt of the honey world, an iconic Scottish product that tourists adore, and the honey produced on the hills around Wanlockhead is considered the best in the world.

“This region could comfortably sustain 8 to 10 people like me, bee farmers with around 400 hives apiece. Producing honey is a genuine business opportunity, if you do it well then people beat a path to your door.”

The Bee Farmers’ Association are planning to arrange taster days to invite people to find out what’s involved in becoming a bee farmer, and one of the taster days is likely to take place at John Mellis Apiaries. For more information or to register an interest in a taster day visit www.beefarmers.co.uk.

David Lawrie of The Schoolhouse at Ringford tends his extensive garden

Garden Grown ore than a quarter of the UK population “The garden is really coming on, we use our now grows (or tries to grow) their own soft summer fruits in preserves, apples in pies, fruit and veg. Although the national boom spinach in quiche, the list goes on and on. We’ve in veg growing may be partly due to the economic also started making our own organic bread freshly climate, for a number of chefs in Dumfries & made by hand every day, proved in the old Galloway growing their own is all about the taste. fashioned way with each loaf taking four hours While Dumfries & Galloway is famed for its meat from start to finish. Our customers are noticing a and dairy farming, difference, commenting rather than vegetable on how good things production, menus taste, and we get such across the region are pleasure knowing we’ve being graced with created such delicious the most local of produce.” local produce – fruit, Several restaurants veg and herbs freshly across Dumfries & picked from a Galloway have well restaurant garden. established gardens The Schoolhouse where fresh seasonal at Ringford has an herbs, veg and fruit is impressive garden grown to be part of which this year is deliciously diverse Angus Fordyce selects produce for Cavens’ menu growing pumpkins, menus. At Cavens mixed salad leaves, cucumbers, fennel, sweetcorn, Country House Hotel accomplished chef Angus red cabbage, herbs, beetroot, pak choi, small fine Fordyce specialises in fine dining using the very beans, french beans, courgettes, spinach, apples, best quality, seasonal ingredients, including his plums, pears, rhubarb, redcurrants, blackcurrants, own vegetables, herbs and fruit cultivated in gooseberries, strawberries and raspberries. David Cavens’ beautiful gardens. Meanwhile Cretan chef Lawrie is even testing whether the Dumfries & Nikos Apostolakis shares space in four gardens in Galloway climate will support melon cultivation!

Crossmichael to grow nearly all of the fresh For Caroline Lawrie their passion for growing produce needed for the Greek cuisine he serves in their own is all about freshness and flavour: the Thistle Inn. “There’s nothing like the experience of enjoying A passion for garden grown produce has been courgette soup in the summer knowing that the well and truly caught by Lara Smith of the courgettes that made it were harvested only a few Buccleuch Arms Hotel, Stephen Myers of Smiths hours ago, or the flavour of a lettuce picked and at Gretna Green and Robin Austin of Barstobrick, served in a salad straight away. all of whom are cultivating vegetable gardens for

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the first time this year.

While Stephen Myers is an old hand at growing, having managed his own half acre garden to supply a boutique hotel restaurant across the Border, the garden he’s planning for Smiths is at a very early stage and he has plans to greatly increase his kitchen garden for next year. “We are growing our own veg for the restaurant on a small scale this year and have started with some seeds planted and some planting going on in early summer.”

Meanwhile Lara Smith has been inspired by a surge in local interest in growing food, she said: “We are very fortunate to have the use of Douglas Murray’s land and his lifetime of experience to draw on, I am merely the apprentice gardener under his watchful eye. We are planting onions, leeks, butternuts, tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, herbs and chilli plants as well as some flowers. All our kitchen waste is being saved for the compost bins and we look forward to digging our own compost into the ground ready for next year’s planting!”

An old Victorian walled Lara Smith’s tomato plants get off to a good start garden is getting a new lease of life at Barstobrick near Castle Douglas but it will be next year before the fruits of the work being done can be fully seen and appreciated at the visitor centre. Owner Robin Austin has handed over stewardship of the walled garden to his butcher who has a passion for gardening. Still a work in progress for now, visitors will be able to see the garden taking shape throughout this year.

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Deliciously Fresh When the region’s top chefs spend time getting to know their local artisan food producers the result is memorable meals that delight the palate and ignite an interest in the produce. For many Dumfries & Galloway chefs, close working relationships with their producers is par for the course and an essential part of creating deliciously fresh food.

Sarah Burchell of Annanwater Organics with chef Russell Pearce

Hogget at Brodies D

uring Flavour Fortnight last year Russell Pearce of Brodies of Moffat tested out Annanwater Organics’ hogget on the main menu and he was absolutely staggered by the response. Hogget is a lamb between 12 and 24 months, low in fat with a deep, rich flavour.

Russell said: “I don’t think Sarah or myself was prepared for the runaway success that the hogget had.

Customers really loved the intense flavours of the meat and wanted to know about its origins and where they could source it. Very soon we both had outstripped supply, which I guess made it even

more special. Brodies is passionate about using as much local produce as possible within its menus, and since the Moffat on a Plate event, we have used Sarah’s hogget on our local tapas night and will be putting it back on the menu pretty soon, we just need to allow the stock to build up first!”

Sarah Burchell was thrilled with the response to her hogget on Brodies’ menu and she noticed many people coming to farmers’ markets specifically looking for hogget after they’d enjoyed it at Brodies. She said: “It has been a real pleasure to work with a chef who recognises the potential and unique taste of our hogget. Russell and I sat down to discuss possible cuts of lamb for him to use at Brodies and he quickly latched onto how the hogget could be something special for him to work with. He came up with great ways to incorporate it into his menus and we were delighted to find it was so popular with his customers.

V is for Venison and Veal at Smiths ince taking over as Head Chef of Smiths at Gretna Green last year Stephen Myers has embarked on a local sourcing campaign, building close relationships with producers from across the region which has led to the creation of innovative dishes based around veal and venison.

“I’ve just visited a farm near Cannonbie which is now the sole beef supplier for my restaurant and I’ve been working with Ronnie at Barony Country foods with his venison. I’m curing and making air dried bresaola and Ronnie is also smoking some

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for me to create a unique duo of venison.”

Stephen is also highlighting a healthy and tasty meat that’s had bad press in recent years and customers are fascinated by his demonstrations of veal dishes. “Veal has been much maligned but I’m promoting and using Scottish veal, reared with exceptionally high welfare standards from Blackface Meat Company in Irongray.”

Stephen will be demonstrating his veal dishes in the Foodhall at Gretna Green as part of Flavour Fortnight.

“Although we have always believed that our hogget is the best meat there is we were taken aback by the level of demand and had to work hard to keep up the supply when he frequently emailed demanding ‘more hogget please!’ Finally Russell had to take it off the Brodies menu as we had sold out. We have now increased the number of hoggets running on the farm to accommodate future demand.

“It seems to me that this sort of collaboration, between local food producers and chefs is the future for high quality restaurants. Local chefs, like Russell, who are keen to use what the producers have to offer and can use their culinary skills to bring out the best in it, can provide such a good platform to show off local food. Equally, using food with a real local provenance and a story to tell gives chefs an edge in this age when the public want to know more about what they are eating and where it comes from.”

Tom Kirkpatrick selects the catch of the day at Galloway Smokehosue

Galloway Smokehouse at Kirkpatrick’s llan Watson has no bigger fan than chef Tom Kirkpatrick of Kirkpatrick’s Restaurant in Kirkcudbright. For the past two years Tom has created a special showcase menu during Flavour Fortnight to highlight the produce of Galloway Smokehouse, and the special menu has proven to be so popular that he’s hosting his Galloway Smokehouse Showcase once again this year.

Allan is an inspirational producer, landing fish caught with his own hands, shooting wild venison himself and then carefully smoking a range of produce using traditional methods. Tom Kirkpatrick said:

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“Allan can smoke anything, his produce is simply fantastic. It’s the consistency of his produce that I love, it’s always good, I’d have to really mess things up to produce anything other than a fantastic plate of food when I use his produce.

“It’s not just smoked products and venison that I get from Allan, he’s introduced me to hake, pollock and dabs, little flounders that are really tasty and becoming really popular. Allan has been catching them for years and working with him has encouraged me to develop new recipes with products that I’d never even considered before.”

World class quality at Cavens hile interest in Loch Arthur is soaring encapsulates the best of what can happen through after winning the BBC’s Food Producer of co-operation of local producers and caterers.” the Year, Angus Fordyce of Cavens Angus of Cavens Country House Hotel said: Country House Hotel is one of their longest standing “At Cavens we buy the best produce we can. supporters, with their award winning cheeses From the very first day we opened everything has having been a mainstay of the Cavens cheeseboard always been the best quality, the linen, the cutlery... for years. Using fresh, local, quality produce is what the bread, the cheese. After researching what Angus is well known for, presenting the best of the suppliers we would use the best cheese producer catch of the day or wild in was undoubtedly Loch Arthur season game simply and Creamery. elegantly, letting the quality of “Yes, it’s part of the Camphill the product speak for itself.

Village Trust and provides a Barry Graham of Loch wonderful, supportive inclusive Arthur has long appreciated work and home environment to Angus’ approach to sourcing both able volunteers and less able quality produce. residents, a worthy reason alone to “We really do value our support this self sustaining working relationship with Cavens Hotel. Angus Fordyce of Cavens visits Barry community. Yes, they are entirely There is no ‘token’ use of local Graham of Loch Arthur organic in everything they produce, products. On the contrary, and have been long before it ever Angus takes great pride in truly enhancing the became fashionable, giving us yet another positive culinary experience of his guests by giving them a reason to use their produce. true experience of the finest foods that the region “However the bottom line is they simply have has to offer. the best artisan cheese, bread and granola, which is “Guests start their day with a hearty breakfast never off our menus. Our Restaurant cheeseboard including Loch Arthur granola and yoghurt and end is exclusively Loch Arthur and the Criffel, with its their day with a dinner accompanied by our artisan distinctive rounded flavour, has pride of place. It breads and finishing off with a cheese board of our has deservedly won prize after prize for years. award winning cheeses.

“But the cherry on the icing is that they are only “Then, very often, Cavens guests end their stay 10 miles up the road, bet they never thought they with a visit to our Farm Shop where they stock up were a convenience food producer too!” on produce for their trip home. This truly

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second interview

Allen Henderson of Sulwath Brewers in Castle Douglas

Describe your products in five words. Pure, natural ales from Galloway.

Describe your typical day. Busy, hectic, but very enjoyable and good fun.

What makes your products special? We create hand crafted beers with passion and pride. Each beer is uniquely different from each other.

What’s been your biggest achievement so far? It was nice to receive the title of Champion Beer of Scotland in 2009, and it was good meeting the Queen a couple of years ago when she visited Castle Douglas.

Why is it a good idea to buy local? When we are so lucky to have as much top quality food and drink produced on our own doorstep, why go anywhere else? Dumfries & Galloway has become an area where we are more and more sticking together to help promote each other, which is great.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?

I love to see the smile on someone’s face when they try one of our beers for the first time.

Your favourite D&G product (other than your own)? There are so many in D&G and I like most of them (and that’s how you sit on the fence!!).

Eating out recommendation? Some of my personal favourite places to eat out are The Selkirk Arms and Kirkpatrick’s in Kirkcudbright, Cavens Arms and Hullabaloo in Dumfries and The Thistle Inn at Crossmichael to name but a few. Now I feel hungry.

You’ve got five minutes to rustle up a tasty (local) bite to eat – what would you make? We all like to cook in my family. I like to cook steaks and pastas with local ingredients, my wife cooks locally caught fish dishes and loads more, my son makes various types of Scotch Eggs with local sausage, haggis or black pudding and my daughter bakes cakes and cup cakes.

Any future plans? Yes and phase one is complete. We have installed a lot of solar panels to help with our energy costs, the next step is to increase the size of the brewery by a factor of three.

Do any celebs like your products? Who & why? I can only tell you which celebs have taken our beers, they are the Queen, Prince Charles, the Hairy Bikers, Ewan McGregor, Antony Worrall Thompson, Ainsley Harriott, Rory McGrath and Franz Ferdinand to name but a few. I hope they like our beers, although I can’t quite picture Her Majesty with a glass of beer, but you never know!

www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

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Award Winning Restaurant, using local fresh ingredients on our weekly changing menu.

Book to avoid disappointment.

Tue-Sat 6-10pm, Sun 12-2pm, evenings 6.30-8.30pm May to Sep

Award winning traditional Butchers with a wide range of local produce hand prepared on our premises.

Farm direct quality meats.

Del Amitri Restaurant, 95a High Street Annan, DG12 6DJ t: 01461 201999

152 King Street, Castle Douglas

www.del-amitri.co.uk

Tel: 01556 502501

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second interview

Dennis Cockburn of Abbotts Chocolates in Langholm

Describe your products in five words. Fresh, delicious, quality, hand-crafted luxury.

Describe your typical day. The one thing I love about my job is that no two days are the same, but a typical working day starts at 8.30am, and I tend to work alone listening to Radio 2. Firstly I check what orders I have to make up and then prepare the chocolate moulds and make the ganache or filling for the chocolates. I tend to stop for lunch at 12.30pm, take our dog Ronnie for a walk and then come back to complete the next stage of the process, whether it be rolling the chocolates or putting the finishing touches to a centrepiece, and around 4pm clean up and finish.

What makes your products special? All my chocolate products are fresh and made to order, making sure the customer receives the freshest chocolates possible, regardless of the size of the order.

No order is too large or too small and we are able to create products to fit the customer’s needs.

What’s been your biggest achievement so far? When I started Abbotts Chocolates in 2006, the thing that I really enjoyed was creating something that brought so much joy to people. I soon began making chocolates for weddings and celebrations. To be part of someone’s special occasion is quite a responsibility, so even though it may seem trivial, being asked to create a wedding cake or a centrepiece and being part of someone’s big day is always special.

Why is it a good idea to buy local? If we don’t we risk losing our shops and small business that are so important to local communities, I believe in buying local wherever possible.

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Your favourite D&G product (other than your own)? There are a number of products in the area I enjoy but if I had to choose one it would be Dirrops meat. He has a good selection of meats to cover all occasions, all locally reared and served by friendly and knowledgeable staff.

Eating out recommendation?

Douglas Hotel in Langholm. Good locally sourced food, friendly service and a lovely atmosphere.

You’ve got five minutes to rustle up a tasty (local) bite to eat – what would you make? I’d keep it simple and make poached eggs on toast. Local eggs from PS Poultry and bread from the local bakers. Simple but you just can’t beat it.

Any future plans? To improve my product and expand to the next level. We are also expanding the website to include online shopping and we plan to host chocolate evenings for small groups at Border House B&B in Langholm.

Do any celebs like your products? Who & why? Dave Kelly from The Blues Band, Maggie Bell from Stone the Crows, Gregor Fisher aka Rab C Nesbitt, folk legend Martin Simpson, Tom McGuiness (McGuiness Flint) among many others. Many people have told us that they enjoyed the product because of its freshness and interesting and unique flavours.

Where can people meet you?

I can be found at a number of producers’ markets, including Moffat and Langholm, or alternatively you could just pop round for a chat at Border House, Langholm. Give us a call before coming as I may be hard at work in the factory.

Tasty Events Why wait for Flavour Fortnight? Dumfries & Galloway has tasty foodie events all year round. Visit the events page on www.savourtheflavours.co.uk for details of foodie events that are coming up.

Foraging ild food expert Mark Williams is spearheading a surge of interest in wild food in Dumfries & Galloway and he holds regular foraging events throughout the year.

On 28th July he’s combining foraging with a stunning walk through the mountains, lochs and forests of Galloway on a Wild Mountain and Forest Foraging Day.

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www.scottishviewpoint.com

Galloway Country Fair aturday 18th and Sunday 19th August sees the Galloway Country Fair return to its new home at Drumlanrig Castle. As well as displays, demonstrations and rural activities, local food producers will be showcasing their tasty treats.

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Food for Thought ward winning ice cream producer and popular visitor centre Cream o’ Galloway has been inviting visitors behind the scenes to hear the story of how their food is produced for years, with their Ice Cream Experience and Rainton Farm Tour events taking place every day. 2012 sees the launch of a brand new project firmly aimed at foodies – Food for Thought is a series of monthly lunchtime events which give an in depth look at different aspects and issues of food production.

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Themes such as Rainton Farm itself, cookery demonstrations, ice cream making and local wildlife will all be explored and each event will include a delicious lunch using seasonal, locally sourced ingredients.

The aim of the events is to provide a relaxed and friendly atmosphere for visitors to explore foodie topics.

Food for Thought events will take place on 29th June, 7th September and 5th October. Cream o’ Galloway also holds ice cream tasting sessions and farm tours daily, as well as ice cream making events during July and August. For more information about foodie events at Cream o’ Galloway phone 01557 815 222.

Agricultural Shows umfries & Galloway’s agricultural heritage is evident at agricultural shows across the region during the summer, and local food always plays an important part in those events.

Stranraer Show on 25th July is the first big show of the season, but it’s the first week in August that sees a run of three major shows all of which are supporting local food. Wigtown Show takes place on 1st August, Stewartry Show in Castle Douglas on 2nd and Dumfries & Lockerbie Show on Saturday 4th August. Moffat Show, on 25th August, also normally boasts an interesting range of producer stalls.

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Castle Douglas Food Town sually taking place on the last weekend in May Castle Douglas Food Town Day is a delicious celebration of the food retailers in the Food Town, and the producers surrounding it. Castle Douglas is also one of six communities taking part in the Day of the Region weekend, on 6th and 7th October, and as CD is the Food Town, their activities are certain to include a foodie slant.

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Kirkcudbright Food Festival he brainchild of chef Tom Kirkpatrick, this two day food festival on the third weekend in October brings together local chefs and around 20 food and drink producers from Dumfries & Galloway.

This year’s Kirkcudbright Food Festival takes place on the 20th and 21st October in the Town Hall. Local chefs will go head-to-head in a Ready, Steady, Cook event on the Saturday morning with two demonstrations scheduled for the afternoon, and more demos on the Sunday.

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www.scottishviewpoint.com

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Landing the big one at Moffat Water Foods’ Open Day Jam & Jazz at Galloway Lodge Preserves

25th August to 9th September

Above: Proof is in the Palate starter at Hullabaloo in Dumfries Far Left: Solway scallops prepared at Annan Harbour Festival

Plating up at The Laird’s Inn in Creetown

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Above: Tom Kirkpatrick demonstrates at Loch Inch Food Festival Below: Smoked Salmon Journey at Barony Country Foods

weeping across Dumfries & Galloway in late summer, Flavour Fortnight is a delicious celebration of local food and drink.

Dumfries & Galloway’s regionwide food festival is now recognised as one of Scotland’s most exciting food festivals, bringing together a huge variety of foodie experiences in one delicious programme of events.

This year there are more than 100

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listings in the tempting programme promising 16 days of fascinating foodie experiences, delicious dining, thriving markets and accommodation that puts quality food and drink right at the heart of holiday experiences.

You can discover how salmon is smoked and how cheese is made, go on a fascinating forage or indulge your taste buds with fine dining, learn how to make artisan bread or luxury

ice cream, take in a tour round a deer farm, a brewery or a bakery, tuck into a tapas or a mezze created with local produce and much, much more.

Pick up your copy of the Flavour Fortnight 2012 programme or visit www.flavourfortnight.co.uk for full programme details.

Left: Parasol mushroom stealing the show, part of The Art of Fungi in Dumfries

Visit www.flavourfortnight.co.uk for the latest information on Flavour Fortnight 2012 www.savourtheflavours.co.uk

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8

A76 A713

THORNHILL

A702

9

B729

A713

ST JOHN’S TOWN OF DALRY

5

A714 B7027 A77 A75

STRANRAER

10

A77

PORTPATRICK

SANDHEAD

11

A747

NEWTON STEWART

A714

WIGTOWN

A702

A762

B729

A712

A713

A712

12

B796

A75

A75 B794

B727

B727

A711

NEW ABBEY

DALBEATTIE

A75

4

GATEHOUSE OF FLEET

A709

DUMFRIES

CREETOWN CASTLE DOUGLAS

2

A701 A76

B7000

MOFFAT

1

B793

3

LANGHOLM

7

LOCKERBIE A74(M)

B725

6

A7

A75

ANNAN

GRETNA

A710

M6

KIRKCUDBRIGHT A711

PORT LOGAN

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second interview

Margaret Vaughan of By Heck! in Lockerbie

Real People, Real Food armers’ and Community Markets across Dumfries & Galloway are thriving. Whether you consider them a wonderful excuse for a day trip, an essential part of your regular grocery routine or an undiscovered pleasure that you’ve yet to enjoy, markets are an opportunity to speak directly to the people behind the produce, to try samples and to enjoy quality food and drink that is genuinely different from what’s stocked in supermarkets.

From the large farmers’ market at Dumfries to the weekly Wigtown Market where local food sits side by side with crafts, arts and other stalls, markets offer a diverse range of enjoyable experiences. Moffat and Langholm markets

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regularly include inspiring demonstrations, refreshments are on offer at Lockerbie, Gatehouse proves that small is beautiful, the New Cample Charity Farmers’ Market raises valuable funds for a project in the Gambia, the proceeds from Glenkens Market supports the refurbishment of the town hall, while the markets in Colvend, Sandhead and Portpatrick provide a monthly foodie focal point for their communities.

Twelve markets across Dumfries & Galloway have come together to produce a guide to the markets of our region. Pick up your copy in Visitor Information Centres, visitor attractions and accommodation providers across the region, or use this handy summary to find a market near you.

1. Colvend Produce Market Colvend Public Hall, Colvend, Dalbeattie DG5 4QD Time: 9am-12.30pm Dates: 22 Jun, 27 Jul, 24 Aug, 28 Sep, 26 Oct, 23 Nov, 14 Dec.

7. Lockerbie Farmers’ Market Lockerbie Town Hall, Bridge Street, Lockerbie DG11 2HE Time: 10am-2pm Dates: 21 Jul, 18 Aug, 15 Sep, 13 Oct, 17 Nov, 15 Dec

2. Creetown Produce Market Adamson Square, Creetown DG8 7JQ Time: 10am-3pm Dates: 8 Jul, 12 Aug, 9 Sep, 14 Oct, 11 Nov (Christmas Market on 9 Dec at Gem Rock Museum)

8. Moffat Farmers’ Market Town Hall, High Street, Moffat DG10 9HF Time: 10am-3pm Dates: 8 Jul, 12 Aug, 9 Sep, 14 Oct, 10 Nov (11am-3pm), 9 Dec (11am-3pm)

3. Dumfries Farmers’ Market Tarff Valley Town and Country, Lockerbie Road, Dumfries DG1 3PF Time: 11am-3pm Dates: 1 Jul, 5 Aug, 2 Sep, 7 Oct, 4 Nov, 2 Dec 4. Gatehouse Country Market Main Car Park, Gatehouse of Fleet DG7 2HR Time: 9am-1pm Dates: Every Saturday throughout the year 5. Glenkens Community Market Dalry Town Hall, St John’s Town of Dalry DG7 3UT Time: 10am-1pm Dates: 14 Jul, 11 Aug, 8 Sep, 13 Oct, 10 Nov, 8 Dec 6. Langholm Producers’ Market The Buccleuch Centre, Thomas Telford Road, Langholm DG13 0AW Time: 9am-1pm Dates: 7 Jul, 4 Aug, 1 Sep, 6 Oct, 3 Nov, 1 Dec

9. New Cample Farm, Charity Farmers’ Market New Cample Farm, Thornhill DG3 5EY Time: 11am-3pm Dates: 24 Jun, 29 Jul, 26 Aug, 30 Sep, 28 Oct, 25 Nov, 30 Dec 10. Portpatrick Farmers’ Market Portpatrick Village Hall, The Harbour, Portpatrick DG9 8TU Time: 1pm-4pm Dates: 15 July, 19 Aug, 16 Sep, 16 Dec 11. Sandhead Farmers’ Market Sandhead Bowling Club, Sandhead Time: 1pm-4pm Dates: 29 Jul, 26 Aug 12. Wigtown Market The Square, Wigtown DG8 9JH Time: 10am-4pm Dates: Every Saturday Mar to Oct (inclusive)

Edited by: Lorna Young Designed by: Ian Findlay Design

Describe your products in five words.

Traditional, unusual, old recipes and fruits Describe your typical day. Busy! 3 to 4 hours cooking, 1 hour labelling/stock control, then office work, delivery, purchasing or gathering of raw materials, feeding family, dogs and cat, writing minutes for various committees or attending assorted committee meetings. If I’m really lucky I might manage to sit down with my spinning wheel or do some weaving.

What makes your products special? I use very old recipes which I modify to suit modern tastes. There are also some original recipes – some of which were originally my mistakes!

What’s been your biggest achievement so far? To make a profit! I have also learned not to work seven days a week, five is quite enough.

Why is it a good idea to buy local? The local economy benefits, not some supermarket with headquarters in another country. Local jobs may be created to stop the drain of our talented youngsters from this region. We grow good kids in this region as well as good food. We should make the most of both these assets.

What do you most enjoy about farmers’ markets? I really enjoy meeting customers and other traders. The market community is tight-knit and very friendly.

Your favourite D&G product (other than your own)? Glebe House Winery Rhubarb Wine, with Gooseberry a close second.

Eating out recommendation? Hightae Inn, five minutes away in Hightae, near Lockerbie.

You’ve got five minutes to rustle up a tasty (local) bite to eat – what would you make? Annanwater Organics lamb burger with By Heck! Crab Apple and Chilli Jelly.

Any future plans? I plan to complete my own commercial kitchen at home and enable more streamlined production – everything in the same place would be a good start!

Do any celebs like your products? Who & why? Gilly Fraser loves the Apple Orange and Chilli Jelly.

Where can people meet you? Langholm Producers’ Market, Dumfries Farmers’ Market, Moffat Farmers’ Market, Lockerbie Farmers’ Market and New Cample Farmers’ Market.