A NOSTALGIC start to this week’s Checkout thanks to Helen Todd at Bowland Bridge Stores.

When she recommended new season Majorcan new potatoes (£1.30 per kilo) my first thought was bacon. That’s because when I was little I used to love mum’s minted new potatoes (with a knob of butter on the side), crispy grilled bacon, and peas (frozen, of course).

Helen and I were obviously thinking along the same lines because her next suggestion was…bacon (back bacon at £5.99 per kilo, and smoked back at £6.29 per kilo). BBS’s frozen peas come in 450g packs and cost just £1.09.

For pudding, Helen suggested Marion Clarke’s chocolate brownies, made at her Cartmel Fell home (90p per large square), which are excellent warm or cold.

And on the subject of Marion’s home baking, ten out of ten to those readers who weren’t thwarted when BBS sold out of Simnel Cake after it was promoted in my Easter column.

“They tracked Marion down via the phone book to see if she could make some more,” said Helen.

Returning to blasts from the past for a moment, I was delighted to learn that shortbread is one of Grange Bakery’s best-selling lines. They come in 400g rounds (£2.45) – without tartan!

Bakery boss Paul Hughes also recommended his best-selling Empire Biscuits (spot on for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations). For those not in the know the biscuits (80p each) comprise two shortbread layers sandwiched with jam and topped with icing and a glace cherry.

Also, Steadmans of Sedbergh recommended ‘bacon pieces’, an absolute snip (pun intended) at only £3.99 per kilo. When was the last time you made a bacon and egg pie?

Butcher Chris Holmes’s other suggestion this week was his award-winning ‘super six’ 6oz burger at £1.45 each – why not serve with home-made oven chips (2 kilo pack Nadine washed potatoes only 90p at Greenbanks, Kendal); and either a seasonal green salad (Growing with Grace own-grown butterhead lettuce, £1.20 each), or steamed spinach (Growing with Grace, own-grown spinach, £4.50 per kilo).

I would also recommend that same spinach with a fabulous new season Lyth Valley lamb leg steak from Richardsons butchers at Bowness (£19.95 per kilo) – simply pan-fry and serve with damson sauce; or what about an economical roast lamb shoulder (£12.50 per kilo).

Plumgarths farm shop at Kendal (back in the swing after the roadworks) is the place for this week’s special deal – any four items for £12. Choose from chicken fillets, sausages, burgers, gammon steaks, stewing steak or mince.

Finally, I came across a new breakfast combo by the intriguing name of a ‘smuesli’ – a fusion of smoothie and muesli eaten with a spoon not a straw. Sadly, Strawberry Start, Berry Boost and Pineapple Pickup are only available at London’s healthy eating outlet Tossed, unless, that is, you feel like getting creative with your favourite smoothies and mueslis. Probably cheaper too!

And last, but not least, among Olive magazine’s 2012 trends are – the rise and rise of the craft brewery (Cumbria must surely lead this particular field); and continued interest in food provenance and heritage, which explains why the Birmingham Balti is now looking for similar protected status to our Traditional Cumberland Sausage.