The Cheshire Show: Local flavour is always best

Jun 10 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

Cheshire Show Executive Director Nigel Evans _320

The Cheshire Show aims to prove nothing beats the freshest ingredients. Emma Pinch reports

FORMER This Morning chef, Kevin Woodford, will be calling on visitors to the Cheshire County Show to wake up to the world-beating natural store cupboard on their doorsteps.

The top celebrity chef will perform live demonstrations of how using local meats, vegetables and cheeses can create dishes that are far fresher and more flavoursome than anything imported.

The key theme running through the show this year is the delicate relationship between rural communities, the environment and the local populace.

Kevin, who is also a mainstay of Ready Steady Cook, says: “It’s great that local and independent producers can have a platform, such as the Cheshire Show, to promote their hard work and exquisite produce.

“Shopping locally and supporting local food producers is becoming more and more important to sustain rural economies. Cooking with local fresh produce is much more fulfilling as you can relate to the ingredients you are using, rather than cooking with something that has travelled thousands of miles.”

While Kevin performs live demonstrations of what you can do with local produce once you’ve got it home, a show in the Agri-Centre will be devoted to tracing the journey of local foodstuffs from the farm to shop shelf in a display entitled From Plough to Plate.

Visitors to the Tabley Showground, near Knutsford, on June 17 and 18, will be able to find out about every aspect of local food production, from beef farming to milking and cheese-making demonstrations. Cheshire Show executive director Nigel Evans says: “As the county’s agricultural organisation, we have a duty to inform visitors to the Show about the importance of the countryside and agricultural industry.

“Some people might not realise that their milk, meat, cheese or cereal comes from a farm down the road.

“They see it on the supermarket shelves and don’t know about the journey of how it gets there.

“We want to educate our visitors so they appreciate the importance of where their food comes from, the hard work put into the food chain by local farmers, and how they can help the local economy by buying local products.”

Show hosts, the Cheshire Agricultural Society, was founded in 1838 by the landowning gentry of the county to improve morale and farming methods.

Tickets for this year’s show, at Tabley Showground near Knutsford, are available by calling 0845 124 9822 or from Tourist Information Centres and libraries throughout Cheshire.

FOR more information, visit www.cheshirecountyshow.org.uk

emma.pinch@dailypost.co.uk