Food around Preston and the North West region

Travel a mile or so beyond the borders of Preston and you're in agricultural land and the soil is good.

To the south west is the West Lancashire Plain a flat area with rich soil between the Ribble and Mersey, loads of veg and market gardens.

To the north west is another flat area, the Fylde for cattle, sheep and pigs.

To the east are the hills and valleys of the Pennines, Bowland Forest and Ribble Valley all prime agriculture for mainly cattle - hence Lancashire cheese. Sheep as well. Lovely mellow, green area.

Also in the Ribble Estuary are shrimps, Morecambe Bay; cockles. Fish was once a major activity in Fleetwood but not any more.

Then there are local specialities which tend to be heartwarming working mans fare like the Lancashire Hot Pot and Chorley Cakes pictured on the right from my lunch at the British Commercial Vehicle Museum, served through the busmans hatch.

We once returned from a spell in a hot sandy place and when I saw the green of England from the plane it seemed unreal, how could it be so beautifully green. I won't take it for granted again.

Latest Page: Tatton RHS Show 2009 report

Businesses and Local Specials

Organic Food Grower; links to>

Growing with Nature Ltd, Pilling

Link to my photo's and notes

For local home delivery box scheme. Link to their website:

link to http://www.growing-with-nature.co.uk/

Mr Alan 'growing with nature' Schofield making one of his many points about organic growing. Alan is a great guy who has a mission. In 2008 the weather and economics are turning against him so join his box scheme. It's 2010 and he's starting organic vegetable growing classes on Saturday morning. We went and learnt a lot.

tel 01253 790046

Robinsons Mammoth Onion, Forton, Nr Preston

Suppliers of seeds, specialist growers and major medal winners at RHS Tatton and other major shows.

W. Robinson & Son (Seeds & Plants) Ltd
Sunny Bank, Forton, Nr. Preston, Lancs, PR3 0BN
Tel: +44 (0)1524 791210  Fax: +44 (0)1524 791933

Link to their website

We like to buy our seedlings from here but they have limited opening hours due to their show work so check.

Their display at Tatton RHS Show 2009. Gold Medal Award.

More Tatton RHS pictures

Their display at Tatton RHS Show 2007.

Below is their display at Tatton RHS Show 2006

Local Supermarket and Wine Merchant; E.H.Booth & Sons Ltd

Places like Booths are ones to support. Local, quality, a bit up-market, selling local produce and, in my opinion an excellent range of beers and wines at prices that compete with anyone.

Recently opened a new flagship store in Lytham. Combined with smart eatery, art gallery and Stringers Homelife. Quite smart. Not too far from Lytham centre. The gallery mainly features paintings by Richard Ansdell an artist who set up for a time in Lytham, making a big impression, and had the district called Ansdell named after him. One of the paintings was presented by the Booth family, they are mainly owned by Fylde Borough Council.

Edwin Henry Booth was born in Bury and moved to Preston, aged 15, to work at a grocers. He had a very poor childhood with little education but worked hard and at the age of 19, in 1847, persuaded his employer to lend him money to sell vegetables in Blackpool. This started the company so it is 160yrs old. The main store and HQ used to be where Waterstones is on Fishergate. Upstairs was a prim cafe with waitresses dressed in aprons, from recollection. The biggest stores, I think, are in Windermere and Highfield Road in Blackpool although the Lytham one is probably as big. In total there are 26 stores. A lot of the above has come from the label of Booths 160th Anniversary Ale bottle, brewed by Daleside Brewery, Harrogate. Edwin worked hard and was obviously a smart lad, can you do that? If so, Preston needs you.

Being a male I only buy nibbling stuff and drink. I think my favourites at Booths are - for those with simple tastes;

Pattersons made with Olive Oil Oatcakes. Welsh Cakes and Greenhalgh's Potato Cakes are good as well. Greenhalgh's potato cakes have more potato in them than many and to me that makes them better.

There's also a good bread from the Village Bakery, organic wholemeal made using a lengthy technique that gives it body, quite expensive though, that is in relation to a light airy rubbery standard loaf of no pedigree.

Booths have recently brought out an own range of ready meals and the quality is good.

Three beers: Black Sheep, Summer Lightning Beer, Golden Promise are favourites. Although I don't usually buy foreign beers when there are dozens of good British ones, a bottle of German Wheat Beer is a treat. We bought a good English wine as well; Chapel Down, Tenterden Vineyard, Flint Dry NV, I guessed it was a French sauvignon if that's a compliment.
Link to Booths website

Local Shop for pies

We were recommended to go to a shop called J.L.Bean on Victoria Road in Cleveleys for a pie. This was good advice, apparantly if you live there it's a legend, and it was very good. Meat and Potato, nicely spiced bit like a good Melton pie. Wide choice of locally made pies, piping hot; potato and onion for example. Lots of cakes and things as well including your big occasion cake.

Lancashire Cheese (protected name)

Lancashire cheese is said to have developed from Cheshire cheese. It is more difficult to make than a lot of cheeses as it uses curd of different ages to give it a crumbly texture and more tang in the taste. There are several types; creamy, mild, young, sharp, aged and acid.

I always thought crumbly was the genuine Lancashire but apparantly its a relatively new version and now I know, a well matured is favourite though my wife likes it milder.

Creamy doesn't crumble and is said to be perfect , ideal in some opinion, for melting and use as toasted cheese.

In the Forest of Bowland area there are said to be 7 Lancashire Cheesemakers, (but I found 8?), these are;

Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses

Dew-Lay

Greenfields Dairy

Mrs Kirkhams

Leagram Organic Dairy

JJ Sandham Ltd

Singletons Dairy

Proctors

Walks to taste different cheeses have been prepared and are about 6 miles long. There are 3 leaflets. I picked one up for tasty Lancashire cheeses at Garstang Tourist Information.

The walks can be downloaded from;

http://visitlancashire.com/food-and-drink/lancashire-food-trails/lancashire-cheese-trails

Information can also be found on;

www.forestofbowland.com

Also there is a Lancashire cheese website;

www.lancashirecheese.com

My own comment is that these walks are likely to be in dairy areas and after being chased by bullocks at Malham Cove in 2006 I've never liked going into cattle fields. So we'll stick to the roads.

Cranks Vegetarian Food

Many years ago we used to go Cranks vegetarian cafe in Covent Garden and we also ate in their restaurant in Marshall Street next to Carnaby Street. In those days Cranks was a big name in vegetarian wholefood. I'd forgotten them until I saw a Cranks vegetarian pasta sauce in Booths and looking closely noticed it was made in Chorley. Still veggie but not organic. So trying a couple they are good.

Their website isn't that clear about how they got from London to Chorley. They still talk about their restaurant in Dartington which I think we also visited a long time ago.

http://www.cranks.co.uk/

Preston Farmers' Market

Every Fourth Sunday Of The Month - 9.30am until 2.30pm

Large Outdoor Covered Market. Seems that this is a bit on and off, so check before you go.

www.prestonfarmersmarket.com

Chorley Cake

A flat round cake best with thin pastry. Any left over pastry can be made into a Chorley cake by putting currents and / or raisins on top and placing another piece over them and flattening it a bit. Put into the oven on a tray with the quiche or whatever you made the pastry for. Best with butter on but great without when fresh from the oven. Best a foot wide as well. Some call it 'dead fly pie'.

Chorley is a small town south of Preston. I used to live not too far away but never went there for some reason. A recollection is that some Chorleyians called it Charley and some would travel by buzz. You can travel 3 miles in Lancashire and everyone knows where you're from, often anyway.

Eccles Cake

A puff pastry version of a Chorley cake covered in sugar. Usually not as flat, as the fruit is free standing in the middle and usually not as wide, say 3 to 4 inches wide and three-quarters inch high.

Acknowledgement to an excellent site for regional food information; Click here

Barm Cake

A plain bun for making sandwiches. Many people, outsiders, don't know what you mean if you ask for a 'barm', so just do it.

Goosnargh Cake

A small richish pastry type cake, about 4 inches diameter and half an inch high containing coriandor or caraway seeds and covered in caster sugar. Although I only vaguely remember.

Goosnargh is a village / suburb north east of Preston. Sounds a bit Nordic.

Lancashire Hotpot

A mixture of potatoes, meat and veg with some juice / gravy (thin liquid of some kind, I'm not a chef) sometimes with a pastry top. Veg done nicely so its soft but not too soft. Usually in a pot bowl from the oven.

Butter Pie

A potato pie with no meat in it for eating on non-meat days such as Friday. Preston having a large Roman Catholic population. Someone told me they used to call them Catholic pies although I've never heard the expression used.

A gathering of Butter Pies photographed as found on 11th February 2009 near Preston. As it was close to St Valentines Day I bought one for my wife, but she's not keen so I ate it. Grand as anything. Wonder how long those gorgeous things lasted although I must admit to prefering a meat and potato. Even the minute piece of meat seems to add something far out of proportion to its size.

Beech's Chocolates - Preston

Boxed chocolate made in Preston. Booths sell it. Beech's page.

Fox's Biscuits Factory at Kirkham

A sign, the home of Rocky Bars, (or words to that effect) is on the wall of the Kirkham factory facing the railway the line.

Fox's originally, 1853, from Batley bought the factory in 1966 from Parkinsons Biscuits. In the mid-70's Northern Foods bought Fox's. 500 people work at the Kirkham factory which is one of three Northern Foods Biscuit factories.

It was originally the Phoenix Cotton Mill and in 1957 Parkinsons Biscuits bought it.

Parkinsons also had a factory in Crown Street, Preston. (I thought it was near the docks. There was a fire in 1960ish that burnt it down, need to check, if anyone can add anything, please let me know). We used to get broken Parkinsons biscuits as my mother worked an occasional evening shift there.

Fox's Biscuits Website

Blackpool Rock

Coronation Rock Company, Blackpool

Rock for every occasion. Hard, brittle sticks of sugary toffee that soften nicely in your mouth and sometimes if they're a bit old they aren't hard - it never bothered me whether they were hard or soft. To have that amount of toffee was all that was necessary.

A standard stick is about a foot long, just over an inch diameter, red on the outside, white on the inside with Blackpool written in red right throught the stick, wrapped in sellophane. If you go to Blackpool and come home without one, you havn't been and are a miserable type.

Pizza

Dr Oetker Large employer in Leyland for Chicago Town Pizza, formerly Schwan Food Company but bought out in March 2009.

Fleetwood - Fishermans Friend

Tablet size losenge - hot. Made in Fleetwood in a little factory owned by the Lofthouses, Fishermans Friend. Fleetwood was once a major fishing port and these losenges would have been just what you need far out at sea on a cold night. Although those guys were tough bobbing about in wild seas to bring home your tea. Fleetwood is now known for its market and Freeport Outlet.

Wigan - Uncle Joes Mint Balls

Very hard, oval sweet, clear brown - hot. Still made in a little factory in the middle of Wigan, Uncle Joes. You know you're near from the smell. Those Wigan miners were tough as well, people don't know they're born nowadays :-).

Scouse

Every day in Liverpool someone is eating scouse. I've only eaten it once and it was at Speke Hall in their cafe. It's a sort of hotpot, sometimes called blind if there's no meat in it. The one at Speke had a lot of meat in it, but that's the National Trust for you. Those Liverpool dockers were tough as well, people don't know they're born nowadays :-).

Biscuits

Everton Toffee

My grandfather used to make this for when I arrived. A big tray of Everton Toffee made with syrup broken up with a small hammer, that was my job. It was good but my teeth suffered. The closest now to that is Thorntons Special Toffee. That's good as well.

Myerscough Agricultural College

North of Preston. They have a garden centre and there are others nearby as well as Guys Thatched Hamlet and Eating Establishment next to the canal.

Manchester Tart

A tart with jam and custard sprinkled with coconut. Some say bananas can be used instead of jam. If it's an old recipe bananas and coconuts don't seem that likely, but maybe. When I was at school we got it a lot. It was good.

Kendal Mintcake

Everyone knows the sweet, strong mint, cold on the tongue, hot in the stomach of Kendal Mint Cake. There are a couple of manufacturers in Kendal - Quiggins and Romneys. There is the sweet white version and the less sweet brown version. A chocolate covered version is now available - this is like a large crunchy After Eight mint and I found it a very worthwhile experience.

Grasmere Gingerbread

Next to the church where Wordsworths grave lies is a small building, a cottage, where the smell of cooking Grasmere Gingerbread emerges. It's good, large slabs of square gingerbread individually wrapped. Take some home if your car can take the weight, eat it immediately if not and walk around a bit. I'd recommend Baldry's cafe in the centre and a wander into the Heaton Cooper Gallery, to let the gingerbread digest a bit before travelling or you'll be asleep.

Hawkshead Relish Company

In the middle of Hawkshead is a shop selling locally made, broad range of excellent relishes, jams, chutneys etc. The Hawkshead Relish Company. Their produce can be bought in many shops in the North West and probably elsewhere. I bought a hot chutney in Windermere and it cost quite a bit but it helped the local economy in an off-peak time. The shop in Hawkshead is in an old white house in the square, they're all old and white and seem to be arranged round squares, so that's not much help.

That all this is in the beautiful country so close by.

You might think I'm saying everythings a bit expensive, it is, but my wallet has spiders webs on it.

Food LinksEnglands Northwest Fantastic FoodsGreen Chronicle (not Preston)