Eating local is top of menu

Feb 14 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

MORE than 140 people have put their name to The Journal Taste North East England pledge to buy local, use local, eat local.

And yesterday Berwick Lib Dem MP Alan Beith took the total to 143 when he added his own moniker to the growing roll call.

Mr Beith was visiting Steve Oldale of Northumberland Mussels based in Spittal, Berwick, when he signed-up to the charter calling on consumers, producers and businesses across the North East to show their support for the production, retail and enjoyment of the wealth of regional food and drink on offer between the Scottish Border and North Yorkshire.

Mr Beith, whose constituency covers a vast rural and coastal area, said: “I very much welcome The Journal’s campaign. The Journal has been a firmly established part of the countryside for generations and it is in that tradition that it is campaigning for the food that our countryside and coast produces.

“Local food is good for the environment, good for the local economy and good to eat – and north Northumberland is a great place to have a local food campaign where we have such a rich diversity: quality meat, quality fish, quality potatoes and quality dairy produce.”

The North East is home to some of the UK’s best small and large craft food and drink producers. Yet this area has the lowest number of established artisan food and drink companies of any English region, and is the poorest performing in terms of annual turnover.

“It is this that prompted The Journal to launch The Taste North East England Campaign two weeks ago to encourage not only more shops to stock produce from our region, but to urge more restaurants and hotels to use local food and drink, and persuade more people to buy what’s on their doorstep.

Mr Beith said considering the amount of beef and lamb produced in Northumberland, it was surprising the North East was performing so badly. But he added: “I think it shows we have a great deal more potential.”

That didn’t necessarily mean creating more interesting foods, but concentrating on quality that would lift the area into a must-visit culinary destination. “I think Northumberland is getting that reputation now. There are some things that have always been famous, like Craster kippers, but other things are beginning to get known too,” Mr Beith added.

The charter is at the heart of The Journal Taste North East England Campaign.

The pledge – which can be found online at www.journaltastene.co.uk or you can post in the form on this page to register your backing – is a simple statement that signals to others you intend to support local food and drink by buying, using and eating more of what’s generated within this region.

Early adopters of the charter include individuals, producers and shop, hotel and restaurant owners that are already championing local food and drink.

They include David Carr, who runs Longframlington Village Store in Northumberland, and was voted the Countryside Alliance’s national Rural Retailer of the Year 2006. He said: “It’s the only way forward, for a small village operator to promote as much local produce as they can. That is where we can score over the supermarkets as they can’t stock as much local produce as people like us.

“Twenty years ago you were scratching your head trying to find local produce, and now we have a good selection and it’s getting better. The quality is top notch, as you would expect. It’s fresher and it tastes better.”

Mr Carr stocks at least 30 local food lines. Other businesses who have taken the buy, use and eat local pledge have been Jenkins & Hustwit who make award-winning farmhouse cakes and puddings in Bishop Auckland, County Durham; Jane Torday and Mike Winstanley of The Garden Station at Langley, near Hexham, which uses regional produce in its cafe, and the Malmaison hotel on Newcastle quayside which features a restaurant menu where all the foods come from within a 30 mile radius.

Individuals who feel passionately that North East food and drink is the best and have signed up include broadcaster, writer and retired university lecturer in agricultural marketing, Bill Weeks, from Seahouses in north Northumberland.

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Mussel man needs muscle

ASKED if he makes a decent living, Steve Oldale gives a wry laugh and exclaims: "Do I heck."

Mr Oldale is the only person licensed to harvest wild mussels between the Wash and Aberdeen. From September to April he can be found plying his back- breaking trade in the waters around Holy Island off the north Northumberland coast.

It’s cold and brutal work. But Mr Oldale, who runs his one-man operation, Northumberland Mussels, from Spittal, Berwick, is adamant he can’t think of a better job. "All I’m looking to get is more money for what I do."

Because he can only provide small orders – and can’t always guarantee repeat business because of the erratic nature of mussel harvesting – he often feels he is being thrown around like the flotsam he watches being washed up on the seashore.

The 53-year-old says rope grown mussels are no substitute for harvested. "For around four days harvested mussels will retain their unique salty sea taste," he says. "After that they taste just like any other mussel. But that salty taste is one to savour. And the quality of the meat is far superior."

Mr Oldale sells wholesale to the likes of Ridley’s Fish & Game at Acomb near Hexham, and direct at farmers’ markets in Darlington, Tynemouth, Hexham, Morpeth, Alnwick, Kelso and Peebles. He would like to extend his mussel harvesting season – if he could find the money to buy the chilling equipment he needs to see him through the warmer months.

At the moment he is harvesting around three-and- a-half tonnes of mussels a year but is licensed to take 10 tonnes.

He said: "Farmers’ markets are great, but I have to pay for my pitch and for transport. It would be good if more restaurants took the mussels, but they want them at the trade rate.

"If I could find one restaurant in Newcastle prepared to take 50 kilos a week it would be a great flagship for the chef’s reputation and would make all the difference to me.

"All I want is to make a fair living. People like me need to be supported.

"If we aren’t, then mussel harvesting around here will die out."