FIVE WAYS TO EAT LOCAL
As the pressure of climate change mounts in our minds, it might be time to rethink the way we eat. Rhiannon Morris offers five tips to help you avoid the supermarkets by eating and buying more local food.
RESEARCH YOUR LOCAL RESOURCES
More than half our food comes from abroad – mostly from the EU, South America and south-east Asia. But the further it travels, the bigger its carbon footprint. Foodinnovation.wales provide a database of local food and drink producers based on your postcode. Read up on food fairs and farmers’ markets on farmshop.uk.com. Most fairs advertise on social media, but Visit Wales provides a comprehensive list of those taking place across the country. Most festivals provide a list of their exhibitors on their website, which is a great way to discover the independent food providers near you.
WELSH IS BEST
Most of us remember baking Welsh cakes at school, but how many of us turn to Welsh recipes on a daily basis? It’s a great way to utilise the ingredients we have in abundance. Your local butcher can provide a shoulder of the finest Welsh lamb, or your greengrocers can stock you up on leeks for a warming bowl of cawl. Watch Hafod cheddar bubble and melt over toasted bread for the perfect rarebit. Swap your hash brown for the salty, sea-flavoured taste of oat-mixed laverbread cakes.
GET OUTSIDE
You can’t get much more local than picking the food yourself, surrounded by fresh air. Start small with berry-picking in the summertime for jams and tarts. Pickyourownfarms.org.uk finds nearby farms that encourage families to pick their fruit before buying. Foraging is also a fun, immersive method of collecting organic ingredients. Books like Adele Nozdar’s The Hedgerow Handbook and Daniel Butler’s Fungi Forays are good for the basics of foraging wild herbs, garlic and mushrooms. Adele also offers courses with Brecon Beacons Foraging, whilst Daniel leads wild mushroom safaris in Rhayader.
GROW AT HOME
If you don’t fancy wandering in the woods or rummaging in hedges, then bring the wild inside. For those without a garden, all you need is a windowsill, some containers, soil and seeds to grow microgreens like basil and parsley. Or you can easily purchase grow-your-own herbs at most supermarkets. If you have a garden or allotment, you can use the seeds from fruit you’ve bought locally to re-plant and grow. Rhubarb, apples, plums and pears are also perfect for gardens, automatically growing back each year. Growing your own is ideal for saving money, though be prepared for a lot of trial and error.
STAY IN SEASON
Sourcing local ingredients limits you to what’s in season. No more Spanish strawberries in winter! This might not help your food cravings, but it will help you vary your diet. BBC Good Food’s Seasonality Table tells you which months you can expect to get the freshest fruit, veg, meat and fish, so you can plan your meals with the best quality produce for optimum flavour. Try and use the same ingredients for more than one recipe, as well as checking the shelf life of your produce and whether it can be frozen. This will reduce waste and save money.
