Checkout your weekly guide to local food and drink (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Checkout your weekly guide to local food and drink

2:00pm Friday 3rd July 2009

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HAVING just returned from our annual grand tour of Scotland in Bessie the motorhome, I can't emphasise enough the importance of supporting local economies while you are on holiday.

One of the first things we always do after having set up camp is find a good local butcher, usually not a problem because the Scots like their meat. But, only if we are lucky, do we manage to track down a really good deli (Ullapool Bakery on the seafront has a scrummy choice of local cheeses, eggs, breads and cakes) or greengrocer (the village convenience store is usually the only place for fruit and veg).

So I must confess to being very envious of those campers who stay at Templand Farm at Allithwaite which, as regular readers of Checkout will know, has its own shop run by farmer Brian Jackson (open Friday and Saturday). As well as being able to stock up on his home-grown veg, visitors also have access to a quality range of meat including his own-reared Aberdeen Angus beef and Gloucester Old Spot pork.

To help me with this week's indoor - outdoor theme, Brian suggested his extra special sausages including pork and Stilton, pork and apple, and traditional Cumberland (from £3.45 / 500g).

If the sun is shining, the sausages would obviously be good on the barbecue, but, if it's raining, try cooking them on the stove with tinned tomatoes, chopped peppers, courgettes, and onions and serve with pasta - or roast the sausages in the oven, replacing the tinned tomatoes with some of those gorgeous sun-blushed tomatoes in oil.

Other 'all weather' suggestions include burgers from Watson & Woollard in Kendal - pork and apple (69p each), Porterhouse beef and venison and apple (75p each) - which can obviously be barbecued outdoors or grilled inside; mini pork roasting joints from Higginsons butchers, Grange-over-Sands - this meltingly delicious shoulder meat comes from free range outdoor-reared pork which will naturally baste on the barbie or in the oven (£3.49 / 500g); and, from butcher Peter Hutchinson at Greenodd, for foul weather, best braising steak £3.40 per lb (Farmer Case, Plumpton, near Ulverston), or for fair, shoulders of Peter's own-reared lamb (£2.75 per lb), which can be boned out to lie flat on the barbie grill, or on a rack in the oven.

Try serving with a delicious salad from Baba Ganoush, Kendal - eg: spiced couscous, waldorf, fruity curried coleslaw (all £1 per 100g); and wash it down with some Carr House Farm organic elderflower cordial from Low Sizergh Barn (£3.99 / 75cl).

And for pudding, what could be more perfect than a new line from Hazelmere Bakery at Grange-over-Sands, flourless, chocolate cake (£1.45 a slice) made with ground almonds, which you could serve with fresh strawberries and a dollop of cream.

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