Most of us can’t survive on grow your own fruit and vegetables and to be frank, I wouldn’t want to. There are too many glorious food experiences out there in the world to limit what we eat to what we can grow on the allotment or in the garden vegetable plot. I also love meat, fish and cheese but have to rely on others to supply them (although I do fish a bit and a freshly landed Bass is hard to beat). I truly believe that there’s not a single supplier who can match the freshness and flavour of something picked from the plot and eaten within minutes but in the real world, where we have to rely on job commitments to survive, we have to shop for at least a percentage of out food.

 

The question then is where do we shop for what we need? Current thinking appears to make the answer simple. You buy local produce from local suppliers. But this raises three obvious issues; your favourite foods are quite likely not produced locally, local production may result in fresher foods but can’t guarantee quality, and what exactly does local really mean?

 

Downers, the butchers in Crocker Street, Newport sell very fine free range chickens. They’re plump, have clearly done a bit of running around, have probably had a pretty good life out in the sunshine grubbing about for their favourite tit bits and, by the time they arrive on the butchers slab, are extremely tasty. But they are not from the Isle of Wight. Downers can’t get enough stock locally to meet demand and so have had to look further afield for a supplier. They are there to make a living so you can’t blame them for that. Their chickens come from a free range farm in the New Forest.  Does that mean they are not local? I would suggest that, because we live on an Island with obvious watery boundaries, it’s too easy to fall into the trap of saying that if it isn’t produced on the Isle of Wight, it isn’t local. In terms of food mileage, those chickens are extremely local. If you could drive a van across the Solent you could be over to the New Forest, pick up your chickens and be back in two or three hours. Go to a Farmers market in somewhere like Winchester and you’ll see produce from much further afield than that!

 

Does the badge of local guarantee quality? Well often it does and it’s fair to say I think, that local produce is nearly always pretty fresh. I have however, seen local produce for sale that I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. The moral here is to take a good look at what you buy. Don’t make assumptions about quality based on the fashionable and romantic preconception that because it’s produced down the road it has to be good. Trust your senses when you make the decision and if it’s a wrong one, well learn from the mistake.

 

The great thing about local produce is that you’ll find foods that are not available elsewhere. That’s the fun and exciting part. You can find some real gems. Take for example, pork pies. I love them, but finding a good one is more difficult than you might think. They are often filled with minced up bits and pieces of what might be pork but could be almost anything, and have all the nooks and crannies filled with pretty revolting jelly that appears to have been harvested from one of Sigouney Weavers alien friends.

 

In Gurnard however, in the Two Fishes Deli in Church Road, you will find a very fine specimen indeed. They are made locally and filled with real, large pieces of very tasty pork. They’re simple but delicious and you can’t ask more of a pork pie than that, especially when served with a spoonful or two of beetroot chutney, the recipe for which you can find on The Plate section of this website. The Teo Fishes also sell a good range of cheeses, including a range form the Isle of Wight Cheeses company, along with the fantastic Ericas' preserves, also producedon the Island, and many quality products form both Great Britain and the Continent.

 

For me, the important factors when buying food are quality and source. If a food is good then it’s good no matter where it comes from. My absolute favourite cheese at the moment is Mrs Kirkams Lancashire. It’s full flavoured but not hot, leaning towards blue without being blue with a maturity that makes you think of a fine aged red wine. In short, it’s a stunner. But you can’t buy it locally. The good thing about local suppliers however is that if you ask, they’ll sometimes try and get you your heart’s desire. The Two Fishes are going to try and get some Mrs Kirkhams. If they succeed, buy it – you won’t be disappointed.

 

We also need to know where our food comes from, whether it’s from a small producer such as Mrs Kirkham, or one of the supermarket suppliers. If we know where it’s from we can make an informed judgement about whether or not to buy it. Food mileage is extremely important. I’m not an eco-warrior by any means but it makes no sense to eat a Sunday roast that has travelled several thousand miles to reach your plate. So eat as locally as you can. Best of all, eat from plot to plate.