Enviable pedigree gives flavour of bygone days

Aug 9 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

TEATIME cake recipes passed down through the generations of one Northumberland farming family are proving a recipe for success for keen cook Trish Charlton.

Since trialling her home baking company, This Little Farmer Went to Market, at the Kelso Border Union Show on July 25, orders have been flooding in to her Alnwick home from north of the border from sweet-toothed fans of her peach fruit cake, old-fashioned gingerbread and almond fruit slice.

Now the 34-year-old is getting set to introduce her fellow Northumbrians to her great-great-grandmother’s recipes when she officially launches her fledgling business at The Journal Taste 2 food and drink festival in association with Tesco on August 30.

The one-day event at Macdonald Linden Hall Hotel, Golf and Country Club at Longhorsley, near Morpeth, Northumberland, promises to be the biggest and best local food and drink festival ever held in the region.

And lifelong Journal reader Trish says she couldn’t think of a better platform to introduce the world to the delights of This Little Farmer Went to Market.

A keen supporter of The Journal Taste North East England Campaign – launched at the end of last January to encourage shoppers, retailers, hoteliers and restaurateurs to buy, use and eat local – she says: “I’m from a farming background and I want to know what I am eating, where it has come from and at the same time support local businesses, all of which the Taste campaign is doing.

“I’ve been working on This Little Farmer Went to Market since March and decided to go to the Kelso Border Union Show to test the water. The response from the public then and since has been fantastic. Now it’s time to launch on my home patch, and when I heard about Taste 2 I couldn’t think of a better place to do it than Linden Hall.”

Trish learned to cook on the family farm at Trewhitt Steads, Thropton, near Rothbury, where her parents Denis and Sylvia Thompson still live.

“I think nine times out of 10 farmers’ wives are good cooks. My mother is certainly a fantastic cook and I was inspired watching her as I grew up with my sister Lynne. Mum used to make all these fantastic cake recipes that had come down through the family, and she always used to make a real meal of Sunday tea with everything freshly baked. It was always an enjoyable occasion we all looked forward to.

“I suppose I am hoping to recreate some of that through This Little Farmer Went to Market. I couldn’t tell you how many years the recipes I am using have been in the family, but I know the gingerbread one is at least 100 years old.

“All of the recipes have been well tried and tested.”

This Little Farmer Went to Market is a family business in more ways than one. The enterprise is being sponsored by Wreighburn Texels – the registered flock name of the pedigree sheep Denis farms at Trewhitt Steads.

Trish, who lives with husband Simon, 39, initially worked in catering after leaving school, but then joined a travel agency. After suffering a slipped disc which kept her off work, Trish again fell in love with home baking.

“I’m not one of those people who can stay at home and do nothing,” she explains. “I’m not happy unless I’m fiddling around.” Her repertoire includes five family favourites ranging in price from £2 for the almond fruit slice to £6.50 for a large peach fruit cake.

All the cakes are made using the freshest ingredients possible. “I have never liked bought cakes packed full of E-numbers and other ingredients I can’t identify,” Trish says.

The peach fruit cake is proving the most popular. “It’s a very moist cake, but it can still be frozen without impairing its flavour. It’s very different from anything else you will find.

“It is my great-great-grandmother’s recipe, but I’m not sure which side, although I am presuming my father’s as all the women seemed to be great cooks.

“The gingerbread is another old recipe that is totally different from anything you will find now. It shouldn’t be eaten immediately and has to mature over a few days, with the result it has a very strong ginger taste.”

Trish believes many of the recipes are Northumbrian in origin. “My great-great-grandfathers are buried at Bolton, near Alnwick, so we have a long association with the area.

“I see myself as carrying on a proud family tradition.”