Good Food For Life

Home » Posts filed under Cumbria

Showing posts with label Cumbria. Show all posts

Tebay Services

Posted by Unknown Monday, April 28, 2014 0 comments

I'm not very keen on motorways, and dislike most motorway services. However Tebay services (just North of Junction 38 of the M6 in Cumbria) are like no other (yet), and I love stopping here.

It's run by the Dunning family, who are also local farmers. Apparently the big boys weren't interested when it was opened in 1972, and their loss is our gain.

You can get papers, drinks, sweets, and some interesting and unusual gifts.

There's a large farm shop:

With a proper butchers

where you can still get a shoulder of mutton

and some very nice beef ribs:

They can tell you exactly where their meat comes from, if it's not from their own farm.

There's bacon and sausage from Slacks of Raisbeck and Kitridding Farm:

There's smoked ham or turkey, chorizo and salami :

and Scotch eggs - including a "Vegetabularian" one, made with chickpeas, cheese, tomato, onion and garlic!

There's a nice range of pies:

How about a duck pie with plums and armagnac?

Like all good food shops, there are tasters available:

There's an interesting selection of breads from More? at Staveley, including crusty ancient baguettes, overnight bloomers,German rye bread and all sorts of sour dough:

There's a good choice of cheese:

including Cotherstone, Dewlay and Mrs Kirkhams Lancashire, Swaledale and Wensleydale:

and, from further afield, Cornish Yarg, Hereford hop, Sparkenhoe Red Leicester, as well as some nice blue cheeses:

As we're in Cumbria, how about some damson fruit cheese to go with your cheeses?

There's also fresh fruit and veg:

and some non-food items including stylish clothing as well:

If you want something to eat, the café sells home-made dishes:

using locally sourced ingredients, where possible.

In this light and airy area you can look out across the fells, or admire the ducks on the pond.

I was going to finish this post by saying I wish there was more services like Tebay. But the good news is there soon will be!

The same company are opening Gloucester Services, on the M5, on Wednesday 7th May. Unlike the big 3 (Moto, Welcome Break and RoadChef) it won't be a clone of its sister (200 miles north). It will sell local Gloucestershire food, and I can't wait to visit.

I wonder if they'll sell a copy of Schumacher's Small is Beautiful?

Tebay Services
Westmorland Place
Orton
Penrith
Cumbria
CA10 3SB

Tel: 015396 24511

Web: www.westmorland.com/farm-shops

Kirkby Lonsdale - Lunesdale Bakery

Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 11, 2014 0 comments

The Lunesdale bakery and café has been serving locals and visitors to Kirkby Lonsdale for as long as I can remember.

They make proper artisan bread. I arrived a bit late in the day, so they were beginning to run out of bread:

Their loaves include multi seed, olive bread, 100% rye bread, spelt, sundried tomato bread, and walnut & stilton bread.

There's also a nice range of cakes:

They make savoury quiches (like broccoli and brie, cheese and courgette, smoked salmon, or wild mushroom) and fruit tarts:

These pecan tarts are always popular:

and I always like Japonais cakes - which you don't see too often these days.

Lunesdale Bakery
50 Main Street
Kirkby Lonsdale
Cumbria
LA6 2AJ

Tel: 015242 71296

Web: www.facebook.com/pages/Lunesdale-Bakery/105239746233918

Kirkby Lonsdale - Dales Butchers

Posted by Unknown Sunday, March 9, 2014 0 comments

Dales Butchers is a good old-fashioned (and that's a compliment), traditional butchers in the lovely town of Kirkby Lonsdale.

Inside the shop:

there's everything you could want from a butcher, from prime cuts to tasty offal:

and traditional items like home-made haslet:

They sell Reg Johnson's free-range chickens from Goosnargh:

and some amazing sausages, including their traditional Cumberland and their award winning pork, duck, orange and cointreau sausage.

But the most memorable thing for me is their pies. Butchers normally get the meat right, but sometimes the pastry wrong (and visa versa for bakers). Here both the pastry and the meat are spot on, and the pies have a generous filling:

They also do very good pork pies, with unusual varieties like thse pork and damson pies:

My favourite was their pork pie with Mr Vikki's chilli jam:

It starts nice and mild, then there's a chilli kick in the middle (a kick but not excessively hot) and it then calms down, as you reach the other side. It's perfection in a pie!

Dales Butchers
2 Market Street
Kirkby Lonsdale
LA6 2AU

Tel: 015242 71278

Web: www.dalesbutchers.co.uk

Kirkby Lonsdale

Posted by Unknown Saturday, March 8, 2014 0 comments

For some reason it's always raining when I visit Kirkby Lonsdale! It's an attractive town in South Cumbria, almost in Lancashire. It's a historic market town, with lots of independent shops, and if I'd visited on a Thursday the square above would have a market in it.

Instead I've come to the Sweet Shop:

They sell English Lakes Ice Cream, with flavours like Double Jersey or Thunder and Lightning (an explosive mixture of chocolate and cinder toffee).

Once inside the shop:

it's like stepping back in time, to when I was a young boy. There's a fantastic choice of old-fashioned sweets. Just what you need to share on a hike!

The Sweet Shop
5 Market Square
Kirkby Lonsdale
Carnforth
LA6 2AN

Tel: 015242 71570

Orton Farmers' Market

Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 12, 2013 0 comments

I'm sorry, this is not going to be a short review. That's because I love Orton Farmers' Market!

We were later getting there than I'd intended, and found that the lovely, sleepy Cumbrian village of Orton had its own rush hour!

Yes, the droves of visitors meant that it was very hard for two tractors to pass...

I always think good markets are colourful places. It's nicely illustrated by these tomatoes at Orton:

If we all had veg this fresh, I'm sure we'd eat more:

It's great to meet the producers, and learn more about what they do. This is Keverigg cheese:

from Winter Tarn organic farm, and it's named after a wood on the farm. Their butter won a 3 Star Gold in the Great Taste Awards earlier this year.

Dianne from Country Fare (who's based on a working farm in the Mallerstang Valley), was selling biscuits, cakes, gingerbread, and handing out samples J.

I'd already met Bessy Beck:

at Artisan Markets in Cheshire. So I know how good their smoked trout pâté is. Their farm and smoke-house are just seven miles away from this market.

Steve Dunning, is a fifth generation Cumbrian farmer and farms at nearby Raisgill Hall. His family had a stall selling their traditionally reared beef and Rough Fell lamb:

It was service with a smile, and a free recipe for Kashmir lamb (keeping up the Cumbrian tradition of combining good local ingredient with spices from around the world). I was interested to read in the Farmers Guardian about how Orton Primary School nearly lost its kitchen, but now uses local ingredients from farmers like Steve and makes a profit.

Next, another local farmer, John Noble from Stoneyhead Hall Farm. John was selling high welfare traditionally reared pork from Gloucester Old Spot/Saddleback pigs:

Leagram Organic Dairy were selling cheeses produced from cow, and sheep's milk, from the Forest of Bowland:

Elliot's Chutneys, from Milnthorpe, were selling home-made chutneys, jellies and piccalilli:

James, from Outreamer Homemade Foods, was selling zesty lemon drizzle cake and his award winning jam:

I'd met Paul, from Creative Seafoods, at The Merchant of Hoghton's Food Producers' Market. I told him I was disappointed he wasn't wearing his Sou Wester!

So he kindly put it on for me:

His fish is top quality.

Next to Paul were handmade chocolates from Annette's Lakeland Kitchen (in Shap):

These would make an attractive gift.

I must visit follow Prince Charles, and visit Kitridding Farm Shop:

Earlier this year they won Cumbria Life's Farm Shop of the Year.

There's more stalls, and refreshments, in the Market Hall:

So we bought some fudge and rum butter:

from Country Flavour in Kirkby Stephen.

Having tried Forest Pigs chorizo, I didn't think I'd find anything as good, but I managed that here:

I've wanted to visit Broughton Village Bakery, ever since I saw them on ITV's Britain's Best Bakery programme. They had a great display of bread, quiches and cakes:

We had to try one of their cinnamon & raisin scrolls:

It wasn't all food. I thought these cards, with local photographs from Alan Roberts Photography were beautiful:

There was also a lady playing a guitar, which added to the good atmosphere.

I then took a stroll up to the pretty All Saints Church. The tower is 16th century and other parts even older.

They also had a sale inside the church, and I saw some great second hand cookery books at bargain prices. Sadly my wife tells me if I buy any more, I'll have to through the same number of mbooks out!

The people in the church were really friendly, and gave me advice on some lovely walks and where the best places were to go birdwatching.

Back at the Farmers' market I had a long chat with David Knipe of Knipey's Free Range. He sells free range chickens, ducks, eggs & his famous chicken sausages!

Because his chicken are free range and mature, they've got more flavour. You can get a lot of tasty meat here for just 68p:

Now I've deliberately left one of my favourites to the end. I first came across Garth Cottage Nurseries a few years ago at Nantwich Food Festival. They are specialist growers of culinary herbs, including over 40 thymes, and over 100 varieties of lavender. Here they were selling herb-infused oils, vinegars, dressings, and garlic:

But what I was really after was some chilli plants. I'd bought some from them several years ago and was surprised how long I'd managed to keep them alive (I'm not the best gardener) on my kitchen window sill.

Their plants are very attractive, and best of all taste great:

I've grow chillies ever since, there's a wide choice of varieties in different colours/shapes/flavours and heat strengths. So I purchased two new (for me varieties) to decorate my kitchen and feed my family.

I've really fallen in love with this market. There's such a diverse range of sellers, all fascinating people, with great stories to tell. They're all passionate about what they do, and I'm passionate about what they produce. If you find food shopping a chore, come here and chill out!

Orton Farmers Market

Orton

Cumbria

CA10 3RU

Web: www.ortonfarmers.co.uk