Do you know what
• the food of England is?
• the hooks, the chimneys, and brick ovens in cottages were for?
• the Southdowns, New Forest and Lake District, other than recreation, can provide?
• goes into your daily bread?
• the pasteurization, homogenization and standardization of your milk involves?
• differentiates a York ham from a gammon, or prosciutto; a red herring from a bloater; Evesham, Bath, and Lincolnshire asparagus; a damson from a bullace?
Do you know when
• to expect the first broad beans, and the last tomatoes?
• to pick hedge garlic, St. George’s mushrooms, and Dorset Moss?
• to buy the finest watercress, clotted cream and laver?
Do you know where
• breeds of livestock, types of cheese and varieties of fruit come from?
• fish and shellfish are landed, by whom, and how stocks are doing?
• to find oatcakes, mazzards, filberts, and rusks?
Do you know that
• while the number of books, articles and programmes on cookery continues to rise, the number of people who can cook continues to fall?
• while the cases of heart disease and food poisoning continues to rise, so does the consumption of allegedly ‘health’ foods, and amount of regulation?
• the quantity of ingredients in low fat spreads (two in butter, one in lard) can be up to twelve?
• cheap food and eating habits have had a greater effect on animal welfare, the bird population, wild flowers, conservation and SSSI than subscriptions to good causes?
• Kyoto in Japan has over two hundred historic shops, complete with fronts and interiors, many of which are devoted to food, and the flagships of the English heritage industry (Salisbury, Winchester, etc.) may have two?
Supermarkets
Do you know
• how many small shops and businesses existed in your area before one or more supermarkets rolled into town?
• how supermarket 'contracts ‘are terminated?
• how 'free ‘offers operate?
• how much the supermarkets spend on advertising and packaging compared to the cost of the goods?
• how much of the supermarkets' food is wasted?
Do you know
• what you pay for a product like milk?
• what the supermarkets pay?
• what that means for suppliers, future supplies and national security?
Do you know
• where English apples go for waxing?
• where in store bakers obtain the dough for their bread?
• why, in cases of animal cruelty, profiteering and duplicity, the supermarkets are not accountable nor 'available for comment'?
What you can do to help safeguard finite, endangered and historic resources, which other countries would be proud of
• buy food in markets or shops.
• link a place on the map and a time of year to the food you obtain.
• ask in restaurants and inns for Sussex beef in Sussex, Shropshire lamb in Shropshire, Tamworth pork in Tamworth, the sole in Dover, the crab in Cromer, the kippers in Craster, the wildfowl in winter, cherries in summer, plums in autumn, and cut rounds or splits with a proper cream tea – until you get them.
• consider your roots. Ask your antecedents what they cooked, and cook it too. The local economy will benefit as well.
• read: A History of the Countryside by Oliver Rackham; Country Life by Howard Newby; The Englishman's Flora by Geoffrey Grigson; Death of Rural England by Alun Howkins; Food in England by Dorothy Hartley, English Recipes and Others by Sheila Hutchins; Eating England by Hattie Ellis; Traditional Foods of Britain by Laura Mason with Catherine Brown. Also: Lavengro by George Borrow; Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thomson; As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee; An Innkeeper's Diary by John Fothergill.
No then buy the book below