Slow Food
LOW FOOD MILES = SLOW FOOD!
SLOW FOOD - KEEP IT LOCAL!
LOCALLY SOURCED, BOUGHT and CAUGHT!
Please note that Lower Buckton is a multi-national, supermarket-free zone!! We do NOT shop in huge, 'out of town food stores' whose names I will not mention here! We prefer to spend our money within the local business community, with people we know and have a connection with the food they sell - also at a competitive price.
Apart from growing and producing our own Free-Range, rare-breed Berkshire Pigs which turn into the most delicious Pork, we keep a few hens for eggs, have fruit trees and an extremely plentiful vegetable garden.
Game, including venison, pheasant, partridge, quail and rabbit come wild from the forest, local estates and farms.
We love fish but don't serve a lot of sea-fish because we feel that it doesn't really sum up our 'local food' ethos. However, we do serve a lot of locally fished rainbow trout, brown trout (when we can get it), wild, organic or smoked salmon and make delicious home-cured gravadlax.
We take pride in all our food cooked at Lower Buckton, vegetables are served in season, the meats are top quality and the other ingredients carefully chosen. Obviously we use some imported foods - where would we be without wonderful pungent spices, coconuts and lemons for example? But our philosophy is to use what we can in season throughout the year. The anticipation of Seville oranges arriving for marmalade-making after Christmas, autumnal figs and September pineapples at their best, the best Hunza apricots are all examples of the Food Calender. Our style of cooking is simply Classic Country with a Twist. Let us know what you like and we'll devise a menu to suit from what's available at the time of you visit.
Our LOCAL SUPPLIERS are -
The Dairy House at Weobley - lots of organic yoghurts, try the Damson! Organic Jersey cream, curd cheese, crème fraiche, Cheddar cheeses and Herefordshire butter.
Bartonsham Farm Dairy, Hereford - Herefordshire Milk and Cream delivered to Leintwardine.
AH Griffiths, Butchers, Leintwardine - award winning sausages, traditional homecured bacon and locally reared beef, lamb and poultry - this butcher has its own slaughter-house at the rear of the premises)
Leintwardine Village Shop - for General Groceries and Deliveries of Swifts' Bakery Breads.
Leintwardine Garage Shop - "open all hours!" and good for general groceries, newspapers, magazines, petrol, diesel, plus it stocks all my favourite Dairyhouse products and Tyrrels Crisps!
The Mouse Trap, Ludlow - an amazing specialist cheese shop with loads of local ones including all the cheeses they make themselves at the Monkland Dairy which include Little Hereford & Hereford Sage. Ragstone, an unpasturised goat's milk cheese and Finn, an organic unpasturised cow's milk are from the Neals Yard Creamery, Dorstone, Herefordshire. The Malvern Cheesewrights Company in Worcestershire make a much commented on sheep's milk cheese, called funnily enough, Malvern! We're also very fond of Mrs Appleby's Cheshire cheese, confusingly made at Hawkstone in Shropshire using unpastursised milk from the family's herd of dairy cows. We normally have a good cheese selection which is served with our special homemade oat cakes and homemade chutney.
The Organic Smokery, Clunbury - fabulous smoked salmon & organic salmon & wild salmon - all things good and fishy from the best possible waters.
Tickmore Farm, Brimfield Common, nr Ludlow - home-pressed apple juices with NO additives!
Kirkennel Fruit, Nr Ludlow - for strawberries in season.
The Fruit Basket, Church St, Ludlow - for local vegetables & fruit when our garden's a little thin!
The Ludlow Nut Company, Ludlow Market - all manner of dried fruits, nuts and seeds including a fab mix called Fruits of the Forest.
Richard Swift, Bakers - shops in Ludlow, Clee Hill & Tenbury Wells - specialist bakers for all my bread supplies and they deliver to Leintwardine Village Shop. My favourites are an organic white with soya and sunflower seeds and Shropshire Brown, a sweet and delicious malty loaf - try them both at breakfast time!
Bacheldre Watermill, Churchstoke, Shropshire - artisan millers of exceptional flours - simply the best for all cooking and baking - the ONLY ones to use!
Tyrells Potato Chips, Stretford Bridge, Leominster - for crisps not as you know them! Try the hand-fried Mixed Roots or the salt-free Naked Crisps - we serve them before dinner!
Osmin Olives, Ludlow Market - specialist suppliers of all manner of marinated olives, peppers and award winning oils. A small, committed company based in Leintwardine - I just love them! Try some before dinner!
Shepherds Ice Cream, Hay on Wye - deliciously flavoured ices made from sheep's milk.
Tipsy Fruit Gins, Tipsage Farm, Tenbury Wells - the only alcohol for your hip flask!
Harry Tuffins, Knighton or Craven Arms - not really like a super-market, just a giant shop run by a local family for local people and very good at stocking local produce alongside the usual stuff - has a great £pound£ shop too!!
Penderyn Distillery, Breconshire - for Brecon Special Reserve Dry Gin which has been distilled in the Brecon Hills and just perfect for 'ice and a slice' and makes a fab refreshing G&T Jelly!
Poultry - our lovely friends, Ali and Chris raise poultry in their orchard just a few miles up the road. These chickens and ducks find their way to our Aga, pot and freezer. The taste is of something vaguely remembered from childhood - of what chicken used to be - true flavour long forgotten! When did you last see light and dark meat on a super-market chicken or even a supposed 'free-range' one? The stock obtained from the carcasses makes the most amazing soups too.
Farmers' Produce Markets - there is a monthly "Local to Ludlow" Farm Market in The Square, Ludlow and a regular Farmers' Market in Knighton - good hunting-grounds for local honey & jams (for if mine are in short supply!)