GREAT FOOD

The beautiful scenery of Cumbria, the Lune Valley and the Yorkshire Dales has always provided a feast for the eyes � but there is also plenty to feast the tummy with too.

Here are some of the most notable speciality foods that have helped put the area on the national and international culinary map.

Air-dried mutton

Air-dried mutton produced from the Lake District's Herdwick sheep is proving to be an increasingly popular food, attracting favourable attention from meat experts as far away as Italy.

Prince Charles is said to be a particular fan of the air-dried mutton produced by Andrew Sharp, from Lindale-in-Furness, who has been championing the cause with his �love Herdwick' campaign.

The mutton is air-dried using traditional techniques, just like how Parma ham is produced.

Cumberland sausage

One of the most distinctive bangers on sale in Britain today is the Cumberland sausage.

Its origins are obscure, but the sausage probably evolved from those introduced into the country by the Romans 2,000 years ago.

Handed down recipes are usually kept as closely-guarded secrets within families, but in general terms the Cumberland sausage is made from a coarse cut pork blended with perfectly balanced herbs, spices and black pepper. The Cumberland is also one of the most visually distinctive of the country's sausages, being presented in a long curl rather than twisted into links.

Cumbria cheese

Cumbria's pedigree as a cheese-making county has not been very auspicious in the past.

From the early 1800s most milk was used to make butter, although some surplus was used to make a very hard, unappetising cheese, which none but the farmer and his family would eat.

However, in the last 25 years, cheese-makers in the county have revolutionised processes to produce a range of hard and soft cheeses. So good is the result, Cumbria has now been recognised as a quality cheese producer.

Indeed, the recently formed Cumberland Dairy has scooped a number of awards for cheeses such as the Brie-like Keldthwaite Gold and blue-veined Blengdale Blue.

Damson

Surplus fruits have long been used to make jams and a particular Cumbrian speciality is the damson, a member of the plum family known locally as �witherslacks'.

The variety of produce that can be made using just this one fruit is truly staggering � especially if you enjoy a liberal tipple of damson gin, damson wine or damson beer.

The fruit is capable of popping up in any lunch or dinner course. It adds, for example, a wonderful dimension to a beef and redcurrant terrine, goes succulently into pork sausage or steak pie, and is delicious as a syrupy accompaniment to ice cream.

Cumbria Tourism promotes the Damson Valleys Trail.

Grasmere gingerbread

Sarah Nelson's gingerbread, made today by the Grasmere Gingerbread Company, is still wowing food lovers after 153 years. The celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has declared it �the best gingerbread I've ever tasted�.

Herdwick mutton

It is generally believed that Herdwick breed of sheep were originally introduced to Cumbria by Scandinavians more than 1,000 years ago, but whatever their origins, this hardy breed of sheep has long been a key feature � and shaper � of the Lake District landscape.

One of the remarkable things about the Herdwick is that it is not known for its lamb, but its wonderful flavoursome mutton, which generally requires slow cooking. The animal's natural diet of ling, heather and bilberries ensures it has more unsaturated fats than any other breed of sheep.

Holker salt-marsh lamb

Allowing sheep to graze on vegetation growing on the salt marsh of Morecambe Bay, close to Holker Hall, produces a unique-tasting lamb, which the TV celebrity foodie and hairy biker, Dave Myers, describes as �naturally self-marinading�.

Cumberland hotpot

The main ingredients which distinguish Cumberland hotpot from other hotpots are the inclusion of black pudding and Cumbrian lamb.

Kendal mint cake

Arguably the most travelled confection in the world, legend has it that Kendal mint cake was created by accident after a confectioner in the town made a mess of an attempt to make glacier mints. Its most famous consumers were Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who ate the �energy bar� on the summit of Everest when they conquered the peak in 1953.

Lancashire cheese

There are 10 dairies making Lancashire cheese, all situated within ten miles of the Trough of Bowland.

This is the second great cheese of the North West, after Cheshire, although it is only just becoming better known outside the region.

Traditionally, this buttery cheese has been made on a fairly small scale because of its unique method of production (combining curds from one, two or three days' milk to produce different textures). It is available as �creamy', which is moist, mild and young, �tasty', which is strong, sharp and aged and �crumbly', which speaks for itself.

One of Lancashire cheese's distinct features is that it doesn't separate on heating, making it especially good for melting on toast.

Lancaster kippers

Kippers produced by Lancaster Smokehouse have been voted the best product for 2007 in the annual North West Fine Foods Awards.

Limestone beef

A recent innovation in the Yorkshire Dales is the marketing of beef from hardy cattle which graze the unique limestone uplands.

The Limestone Country Project aims to restore this diversity on over 1,500 hectares of habitat by encouraging farmers to return to mixed farming using traditional breeds of cattle such as Blue Greys and Belted Galloways that can survive the harsh winters living off the rough grasses and do not graze so intensively as sheep.

Morecambe Bay � seafood larder

Morecambe Bay, the second largest bay in Britain, is a veritable seafood larder. Fishermen have been harvesting such culinary delights as flukes (flounders), shrimps, cockles, mussels and whitebait from the bay for centuries.

It is, however, a dangerous occupation, as the Chinese cockle pickers' tragedy bears testimony.

Traditionally, horse-drawn carts were used to harvest the bay's riches. Now tractors do the job. Even so, the swift-moving tide can sometimes overtake even a tractor if the driver finds himself in the wrong place.

Morecambe Bay is particularly renowned for the quality of its shrimps, which are small, brown and generally agreed to be more flavoursome than their larger pink cousins.

They are a popular dish when preserved in spiced butter and potted and are known to be a particular favourite of the TV food lover and Hairy Biker Dave Myers, of Roa Island near Barrow-in-Furness, who describes the little creatures �the tastiest you can get.�

Pork from outdoor pigs

To keep their outdoor pigs relaxed and happy, Carnforth pork producers Tony and Ben Holland play them Radio 2 all day.

This was just one of the innovations introduced after the 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic forced them to rethink their pig farming business. The future, they decided, was dependent on keeping control of pig and pork production all the way down the line �from conception to table�, as Tony puts it.

Nowadays, Tony rears their Bowland outdoor pigs and is in charge of selling the resulting meat products while Ben, his son, takes care of the intermediate butchering and packing processes.

Real ale

Microbreweries are thriving in Cumbria, north Lancashire and the Yorkshire Dales, often as one-man bands.

Brewing ales and beers dates back centuries and was not just for partying. Brewing is effectively a water purification process and all the family, including young children, would drink ale to avoid diseases such as typhoid.

To improve keeping and add flavour hops began to be added to the brew and that's when ale became beer.

In Cumbria, the burgeoning brewing industry has attracted such interest it is fast becoming part of the tourist scene with visitors encouraged to join the Cumbria Ale Trail, a tourist attraction which checks out the country's 14 (at the last count) real ale breweries.

Rum nicky

Cumberland rum nicky is a pie with a rich sticky filling of dates, ginger, brown sugar and rum.

Sticky toffee pudding

Cartmel has achieved renown as the original home of sticky toffee pudding, one of the most popular sweets on offer in cafes, hotels and restaurants in Britain and beyond.

The pudding, which has become a particular hit with discerning diners in the USA, is made from free-range eggs and cream and smothered in a lusciously rich toffee sauce.

Traditional flour

Little Salkeld watermill near Penrith is one of Britain's few working water-powered corn mills, producing a traditional nutty tasting flour using original French stones to grind the wheat.

The watermill was restored in 1975 thanks to the enthusiastic devotion of Nick and Ana Jones, and is now worked by their son-in-law Dave Harris-Jones.

It produces a range of biodynamic and organic stone ground flours milled from specialist Leicestershire and Kent grain.

Wensleydale cheese

Thanks to its association with the animated film characters Wallace and Gromit, Wensleydale cheese is now one of the most famous British cheeses around. Only milk from cattle which graze the northern Dales valley is used to make this distinctive cheese. The biggest maker, Hawes Creamery, is currently lobbying the European Union to get protected status for the brand to ensure only cheese made in Wensleydale can use the name.

Yorkshire curd tart

This tart, which uses the fresh curds left over from cheese making, has been a particular feature of the Yorkshire Dales for around 250 years. The tarts are filled with currants and baked to a rich brown on top and have a drier, crumbly texture. They can be made as a single large tart or as individually-sized ones. When it is made into a rectangular shape, it becomes Yorkshire curd slice.

And finally . . .

If you're not full yet, here are some more culinary specialities from this area:

Butter bean hotpot, Buttermere biscuits, Cartmel cream cake, Cumberland apple pudding, Cumberland sauce, Cumberland sand cake, Egremont cake, Ennerdale cake, Honister cheesecake, Honister toffee, Lakeland lemon cake, Lakeland tatie scones, Lardy Johns, leek and bacon savoury, Lonsdale scones, nutty dainties, turnip pie, Westmorland dream cake, Westmorland parkin, Westmorland tatie pot.