From Junk Food To Farm Food (Via Sainsbury's)

A guest post from my dad, living the River Cottage life (or trying to) in North Yorkshire.

I always said that when I moved up to Yorkshire I'd stop buying meat and vegetables in supermarkets and source my important food locally. I'd long since stopped eating take-aways, but I was still regularly buying food in supermarkets that I could have bought fresh in butchers, fishmongers and greengrocers. In truth, it was more of a romantic Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall wannabe statement than anything I really expected to happen. So you can just imagine how pleased I was when, just a couple of weeks after my relocation, I came home one day loaded up with pork products from a farm just a mile from my new house.

Not only did livestock farmer Norman Bell supply me with meat, but he welcomed me to Mire Close Farm with typical Yorkshire warmth, introducing me to his animals, his meat preparation room, chiller room, packing staff and family. Am I chuffed, or what? OK, the gluten-free sausages and leg joint were frozen, but that's only because I didn't phone in advance to order fresh. In a week's time I'm expecting a call to tell me that my half lamb order is fully butchered and packaged ready for the chest freezer. Norman's brother Harry owns the adjacent Low Laithe Farm, and I'll be sourcing my beef from him.

Much more difficult than locating a source of meat was finding a local supplier of fruit and vegetables. As hard as I tried, I couldn't find a greengrocer anywhere in the local villages. I'd satisfied my initial needs with a trip to the village Co-op, but their miserable selection of greenery made Sainsbury's and Morrisons in Keighley look like market gardens. Anyway, there were to be no more supermarket vegetables. The answer arrived, unexpectedly, last Sunday morning.

Although I'd been warned by farmer Bell that Skipton Farmers Market was mainly aimed at tourists and the real thing was to be found an hour's drive south in Ashton-under-Lyme, I thought I'd wander down to Skipton Canal Basin anyway. The scenery along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is simply stunning and I was looking forward to a good walk. In the event, I found a small greengrocery stall manned by Alan, a very affable stallholder. Alan explained that he was keen to dispose of the last of this summer's excellent broad beans, while at the same time offering me some delicious early winter cauliflower, kale and savoy cabbage.

Suitably impressed by the sign informing me that he was from Low Leases Organic Farm - some 40 miles to the north of me in Leeming Bar - I duly obliged by relieving him of a selection of his offerings.

Only when I got home and checked out the farm on the internet did I discover that Low Leases is at the heart of one of North Yorkshire's most successful organic food supply groups - providing farm boxes across a wide area of Yorkshire and the North-East. Less than a decade after they turned to organic farming, Rob and Elaine McGregor have expanded hugely and built a co-operative network with other local organic farmers to deliver fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, and eggs to individual customers and retailers across a large part of northern England. All the produce is grown or raised as locally as possible, by people with a passion for organic principles.

I've decided that the most sensible thing to do is to join with two or three other people so we can order the largest size farm box each week, with the greatest choice of produce. So I'll be advertising in November's parish newsletter for a couple of local foodies to join me. Low Leases also supply free-range organic chicken and eggs, so it's likely that we'll be adding a dairy order to the fruit, veg and salad box. In the meantime, I'm taking small weekly fruit and veg boxes.

What I simply didn't realise when I was engaged in my hectic life in London is that the producers are still out there, ready and willing to supply their fantastic fruit & veg, meat and dairy products. But there's been a huge breakdown in the relationship between supplier and consumer, with the giant supermarkets wedging themselves in-between and almost totally controlling the market, at the expense of both. I think it's time to fight back. I may only be able to make a small contribution, but at least I'm making a start. Sunday (and Monday) night's dinner was my first peg in the ground.

Postscript: The gluten-free sausages are absolutely fantastic, with an amazingly subtle flavour and a light, crumbly texture quite unlike the usual commercial bangers that are glued together with Fergus Henderson's leftovers. And that bacon tastes great with free range eggs and also makes excellent crackling in the oven (I wrapped a couple of slices around a new season guinea fowl last night).
Mike