Buy local and get good quality

Jul 10 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

In the bustle of life, we grab a limp sandwich or pie, but a new guide tells us of the gorgeous food from the North West that we should be eating. David Charters reports

YOU know we all need it. But much of it isn’t very nice and that shows in the way it’s served – slabs of unprepossessing gristle and fat soaked in chemical spices and decorated with leaves from a salad which has abandoned all hope – slapped together in a bun steamed to the consistency of washing powder.

You can see people with swollen tummies eating such fodder on the streets every day.

Yet food should be one of the great pleasures in life – a joy to rival sex and laughter, dressing-up for an elegant ball or dressing-down for a lazy weekend.

Here, in the North West, we have enough flavours to rinse your hair roots in anticipation while teasing your tongue. Thousands of people producing food that is good, wholesome and full of natural flavour – the best in the country, according to some experts.

But gaze around any office and you will find high-paid executives, listlessly lifting funereal sandwiches to their mouths, without turning away from the computer screen for a moment.

This is eating reduced to consumption – a routine, no more exciting than growing hair, if you still can.

Instead, we should recognise that food is a regional asset as important in its own way as our coasts, moors, hills, rivers, and those fine towns and cities with their grand buildings.

Now a book has been published about “the finest food and drink in the North West of England and where to lay your hands on it”.

This is an effort to prise business away from the supermarkets and give it back to the small producers on whom our ancestors depended.

The NW Fine Food Lovers Guide 2007 is being promoted by Samia Smith, 25, from Eccles, Greater Manchester, who plays Maria Sutherland in Coronation Street, and is photographed under a range of fruits, vegetables and loaves.

It is published by the North West Fine Food Technology Management Centre, West Lancs.

Simon Rimmer, the TV chef and writer, is the book’s patron. “Like many chefs, I am passionate about the ingredients I use and you too can become a better cook overnight by simply using and supporting the many great regional food producers that we have in the North West,” he says.

“The taste difference is clearly evident. Take time to source local and regional food. By doing so, not only do you get to eat good food that has a traceable origin, but you get back in touch with farmers and food producers in your locality, just as our ancestors did.”

North West Fine Food is owned by just over 200 producers who each have a £5 share in the company. The membership fee is between £200 and £250 renewable every year for producers, £120 for food services using local products such as cafes and £38 for food lovers.

“They must come from the North West and use no artificial colouring or flavouring in their products,” says Sue Nelson, NWFF chief executive, who edited the guide.

Sue, 46, brought up in south London, is married to David Biwater, a human resources director with a water treatment company. They have two daughters, Katie, 18, and Jo, 16, and live in Altrincham. What does her research tell us about food here? “As far as I am concerned, undoubtedly (and she repeats undoubtedly for emphasis), it is the best region in the UK for food. It is because of the geography.

“Around Lancashire, we have got more cheese-makers than anywhere else in the country, again because of the geography. On the coastline, we have got Morecambe Bay potted shrimps. All of it adds up to the fact that we are blessed.

“Merseyside has some great pig breeders, cheese shops and great bakeries. People just think about Liverpool, but it’s a huge rural area. Something like three quarters of it is rural with wonderful growers. We have got some great farm shops.

“Our research shows people want to buy local food. But they want to know how and where.