Fine food from Fife

A Fife marketplace with a reputation for providing some of the best produce in the country is in the running to win a top accolade in the prestigious Great British Food Awards.

Bowhouse in St Monans, Anstruther has been nominated as a finalist for best Food Market, the only Scottish outlet of its kind to be included in the category.

The Great British Food Awards were launched in 2014 to celebrate the country's finest artisanal produce, as well as the hard-working people behind the scenes. This year, the awards have been expanded with judges including Raymond Blanc OBE, Masterchef's Monica Galetti, Olly Smith, Eric Lanlard and Miguel Barclay.

As a region, Fife has an unusually high number of nominations with Ardross Farm Shop, Balgove Larder and The Buffalo Farm all up for the Best Farm Shop in Scotland category. Winners of the UK wide competition will be announced in October.

“I’m delighted to see Bowhouse named as a finalist in the Food Market category among some of the most established markets in the world. I’m equally pleased to see the number of other local businesses included in line-up. It’s clear that this area of Fife is excelling at local food and that this culinary landscape is starting to be recognised more widely. Food from Fife is cleary doing a great job,” said Toby Anstruther, founder of Bowhouse.

Since it first opened its doors in 2017 on Balcaskie Estate, Bowhouse has drawn more than 100,000 people to its popular Market Weekend events.

Taking place once a month over two days, the Bowhouse Market includes a changing line up of Scotland’s best food and drink producers, a dedicated street food area, live music and plenty of hands-on food and drink activities and workshops.

However, Bowhouse is more than a market - it has developed a reputation as a place for making. The hub of local food and drink producers and traders based at Bowhouse includes a miller transforming grains grown in the fields nearby into wholemeal flours; a butcher working with farmers on the estate; organic vegetable farmers; a shellfish producer; and an organic brewery.

In the wake of the Coronavirus crisis the usual weekend markets have been put on hold but Bowhouse has launched an online food market which continues the connection between local producers and their customers.

The Bowhouse Link brings together selected producers and allows shoppers to order the food and drink for either contactless pick up or local delivery.

New producers will continue to be added and Bowhouse Link will be expanded even after the current lockdown has come to an end with the aim of making local produce more available to the public.

The online market opens every Monday morning at 10am and is open for orders until Wednesday afternoon at 1pm. On Thursdays and Fridays the orders are produced and packed ready for delivery across the East Neuk of Fife and collection on Saturday.