Local Produce - The Best of Northumberland

As do many guest houses, we make the claim that we source as many of our breakfast ingredients as locally as possible. I was thinking about this the other day and wondered (to myself) what is 'local'? Does it mean it comes from a 5 mile, 10 mile, or 50 mile radius? Or perhaps it means regional? Whatever it means, I thought it would be a good idea to explain a bit about some of the produce we use on our breakfast menu.

The eggs come from a farm about half an hour's drive up the A1. They are properly free range and delicious. The yolks vary in colour, which I think is a good sign, and they cook beautifully. The yolks have body and the whites are firm and tight showing their freshness. Supermarket eggs tend to have yolks of exactly the same colour - achieved by giving the chicken feed with a colourant added.

The bacon is home cured by the local butcher, who also makes the sausages and black pudding. The sausages are full of meat and have so little fat that I usually brush with olive oil before cooking them.

The bread is wonderful. It is comes from an artisan baker on the Ford & Etal Estate, near Berwick - www.greatnorthumberlandbread.co.uk. The bread is made using natural long term ferments and sourdough and is then baked in a home built, woodfired oven. It is proper bread and it tastes like nothing you can buy at the supermarket. The oven is now fired entirely by wood from the estate, and virtually all the flour used is from the local farm(s). The great thing about this bread is that you know it is made in the traditional way, which has a lot of health benefits - and the taste is fantastic. It doesn't contain the additives and improvers and 'enhancers' that a lot of bread does, some of which never make their way onto the ingredients label! Traditionally made bread is also less likely to cause wheat intolerance, although for those with coeliac disease, wheat-based bread is still not suitable, however it is made.