One of the things we'll be doing with this blog is putting together a random collection of places to buy nice food in the North Staffordshire area. A kind of Food Lovers' Guide to North Staffs, partly inspired by Henrietta Green's groundbreaking survey of Britain back in the 1990s.
It's slightly confusing getting to grips with the various farmers' markets - although it's been very welcome to find them at all! Some way south of here, there's a peripatetic farmers' market which travels between Stone (1st Saturday of the month), Stafford (2nd Saturday) & Penkridge (3rd Saturday). These markets presumably attract the same suppliers. When we were up here earlier this year we went to the Penkridge market, which was excellent. It clashes with the Leek food market, also on the 3rd Saturday each month. On the fourth Saturday (the weekend just gone) there's a market at Eccleshall, which seemed to have different suppliers from Penkridge, from memory - more from south Cheshire and towards Market Drayton in Shropshire.
It was a nice little market held in the car park of the Royal Oak pub. About 10-15 stalls, selling a good variety of produce. We didn't actually need that much, but fancied going along to see what it was like. So, we were very impressed by the selection from Park Hill Farm - we got a beautiful looking piece of brisket and some beef mince. The mature cheshire cheese produced by H.S. Bourne is fantastic and a real find. We also got some very good bread from the London Road bakery in Stoke and some lovely eggs under the name Ben's Eggs & produced at Loggerheads. The egg people on Cambridge market told us to look out for eggs from Black Rock hens, so it's nice to see that's the breed used in this case. We still miss the great sourdough from the Cambridge bread stall - it doesn't seem to be available round here, at least on current evidence.
2 comments:
Hi, its Henrietta Green. How very flattering that you still think so kindly about Food Lovers Guide.... and I hope my website FoodLoversBritain.com is proving as useful. What I also wanted to say is that I would be grateful for recommendations for any good food businesses - whether producers, shops, places to eat, learn or visit. Do let me have them at office@foodloversbritain.com and we can vet them and add them to the website. So please keep those recommendations coming - and who knows soon there might be another Food Lovers guide - off line! Henrietta
Hi - thanks a lot for leaving the comment. I'll put in a proper link to your website and let you know about the food businesses locally that we encounter.
We have particularly fond memories of using your Food Lovers Guide in 1995 when we drove from Sheffield to Wester Ross. I especially remember hunting out some lovely cheese in Northumberland and a hair-raising trip over the pass to the smokehouse in Achiltibuie.
Sandy
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