Further information You will also find our directory in the local produce section of the website, visit www.forestofbowland.com If you discover producers who you think should be included in this directory, please contact us A TASTE OF and we will add them to the database [email protected] will include producers at our discretion, they must be in the AONB itself or within 2km of the boundary, BOWLAND or mainly serving people and businesses in Forest of Bowland AONB Local Food Directory the AONB. For details of producers in other parts of Lancashire, please contact Made in Lancashire at www.madeinlancs.co.uk For details of producers in other parts of North Yorkshire visit www.northyorkshirelocalfood.co.uk or www.deliciouslyorkshire.co.uk/dy We do all we can to make sure the information in this directory is correct. However, we cannot be responsible for the accuracy of this information or the way in which you use it. 32 Local Food Directory Introduction Introduction Welcome to the Forest of Bowland Local Food Directory. In this publication you will find information about local businesses, both within and close to the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which produce food and drink. Buying local products is important for many reasons, not only because it supports the economy, but also because these products are part of the fabric of our distinctive landscape. Buying local… Reduces food miles and congestion and Helps us to understand how and where Supports the local economy by supporting pollution on our roads food is produced farmers, distributors and processors Food miles are the distance which food travels Buying local, often face-to-face at the farm shop It’s not only farmers who depend on local from ‘farm to fork’. Evidence shows that this or farmers’ market, helps us to reconnect with produce. Others in the supply chain – the distance is increasing both internationally and on the land and its farmers. It helps us to find out distributors, processors and retailers – are also UK roads. how and where food is produced and when it is involved. Buying local helps to keep all these best to buy certain products, and to buy our people in employment and, importantly, keeps Food miles create road congestion, noise, favourite delicacies with confidence. the money in the local area too. disturbance and pollution.They also increase the need for refrigeration, packaging and processing of our food. Supports the farmers who manage our precious Supports the social structure and local landscape and protect the environment distinctiveness of an area Improves the freshness of your food and causes Local producers are often farmers looking to Over-centralisation of food has meant the loss of less stress for livestock develop a niche market by creating value-added regional and seasonal variety, local crafts and a produce which will allow them to carry on sense of belonging in the community. It has led to Local food is less likely to need processing, farming.This often involves stocking rare breeds a decline in small family farms, local abattoirs, preservatives and packaging, so it should arrive and using traditional methods and small shops and more – all of them unable to on your plate fresher and healthier than food environmentally friendly farming practices. compete in today’s global market. which has been transported for many miles. Livestock suffer stress when transported and this So buying local food helps farmers to preserve can affect the quality of their meat.This means our special landscapes, protects and increases the locally butchered meat tends to be tastier as well range of plant and animal species in the area, and as fresher. provides a long-term future for farming. 2 Local Food Directory www.forestofbowland.com 3 The Forest of Bowland AONB Local produce in Bowland The Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covers The Forest of Bowland is gaining a reputation for fine food and local 312 square miles of rural Lancashire and North Yorkshire. It is a nationally produce, so why not seek out some local producers and try it yourself? protected landscape because of its unspoiled and richly diverse landscapes, Use our directory to find the food you’re looking for and visit the suppliers wildlife and heritage. It stretches from the wooded cloughs of the Lune Valley and retailers.There are also several farmers’ markets around Bowland in the north to the majestic sweep of Pendle Hill in the south, and from the where you can meet the producers and try and buy their food. quiet lanes of Eldroth and Lawkland in the east through the pastoral Ribble Valley to Beacon Fell and Abbeystead in the west. The primary purpose of the AONB is to snipe and redshank.There are also valuable As the Forest of Bowland is a sheep and Without food production our countryside would conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the wildflower meadows, woodlands and geological cattle-farming area, you’ll find delicious local lamb look very different. Farming methods have area, whilst meeting the social and economic features within the AONB. and beef, as well as pork and even wild boar! shaped our land – creating field patterns with dry needs of landowners, farmers and communities. The area also offers classic and modern varieties stone walls and hedgerows, farmsteads, barns and The AONB has a secondary duty to cater for AONB status has helped the area to maintain its of Lancashire cheese, milk and ice cream and working villages. By supporting the farmers who recreation and tourism, but only if this is special qualities. Its beautiful scenery and pretty supports several organic farms and choose to carry on farming, you can help protect consistent with protecting the natural beauty of villages are some of the area’s key attractions. market gardens. this living landscape. Several farmers are rearing the area. It is for this reason that we are traditional breeds (White Park cattle and The Forest of Bowland AONB is a very special promoting sustainable tourism in the Forest of Herdwick sheep, for example) and using place for wildlife, and the moors are an especially Bowland: tourism which depends on the area’s traditional methods (for example, heather-reared important breeding ground for upland birds. environment, and which will conserve and lamb) to bring you the very best flavour and Bowland is one of the few remaining breeding improve that environment, not detract from it. freshness – try it and buy it! sites in England for hen harriers (a nationally For example, Bowland offers wonderful threatened bird). It is also the home of the opportunities for quiet enjoyment such as bird- peregrine falcon and Britain's smallest bird of watching, cycling, fishing and horse-riding. And prey - the merlin.The damp unimproved upland with newly opened access land, the area now pastures attract large populations of wading birds offers some of the most remote and rugged in spring and summer including curlew, lapwing, walking in the north west. 4 Local Food Directory www.forestofbowland.com 5 Farmers’ markets Food outlets Farmers’ markets are an increasingly popular way You can purchase much of the local produce to buy local. People like them as they are a way listed in the directory direct from the producer to meet several producers face to face, and or by phone or mail order. Some producers there is always the opportunity to chat and to however do not have the facilities to sell from find out more about how and where the food site and sell their produce to local delicatessens, is produced. farm shops, butchers or at farmers’ markets, markets and supermarkets. Many quality local Markets usually take place once or twice a butchers serve as retail outlets to meat month in some of our market towns and producers and farmers across Bowland, who are gateways to Bowland. Our cheese, meat and selected for their skill and expertise to provide vegetable producers are usually well represented. cuts of the finest quality. The focus for many of Bentham – High Bentham Market Hall – the producers is to put quality above volume to 1st Saturday in the month, 9.30am to 1.00pm enable the creation of an excellent meat product with traceability from farm to fork. When visiting Fence – the Sparrow Hawk pub – your butcher, why not ask what local meat they Last Sunday of the month, 9.30am to 2.00pm have available? Grimsargh – Village Hall There are several high quality farm shops in and 3rd Saturday in the month, 9.00am to 2.00pm around Bowland. The farm shops mostly stock Lancaster – Market Square – their own produce including meat, dairy, eggs, 2nd Saturday in the month, 9.30am to 3.00pm vegetables and fruit.To provide a full range of fresh Settle – Market Square – quality produce, farms also buy in from other local 2nd Sunday in the month, 9.30am to 3.00pm and regional producers. Huntley’s at Samlesbury, Fairfield Farmshop at Clayton le Dale,Taste Skipton – Canal basin – Delicatessen & Cheesie Tchaikovsky in Clitheroe March to September, 10.00am to 4.00pm and Old Holly Farm at Garstang are all good There are also regular markets at Longridge, examples and are located just outside the AONB, Garstang, Bentham, Settle and Clitheroe. but stock a wide variety of local produce; on-site cafes also provide an opportunity to sample some Northern Harvest also delivers to homes in the of the quality produce the area has to offer. area. For more details visit www.northernharvest.co.uk. Image credits Pages 4-5 & 14 © Countryside Agency • Charlie Headley Page 3 © Countryside Agency • Tessa Bunney Cover, Pages 3, 9, 11, 19, 21, 23, 25, 29 & 30 © Made in Lancashire 6 Local Food Directory www.forestofbowland.com 7 Key Listings A-B The following symbols are used to highlight the various food Alston Dairy 1 Bashall Barn 2 types available from each producer: Longridge, PR3 3BN Bashall Town, Clitheroe, BB7 3LQ Tel:01772 782621 Tel: 01200 428964 Web: www.alstondairy.co.uk Web: www.bashallbarn.co.uk Baking Fish Poultry & Game Ann Forshaw's dairy is a long established dairy Bashall Barn has developed a reputation as a farm, rearing pure breed Friesian cows for centre for excellence in the Ribble Valley for over 40 years.