Where to Find Good Food
It is all very well reading about good food, why it is good for your health, how delicious it is and how much better the whole family will feel once you start cooking all these delicious recipes from scratch. But none of this is much good if you can’t get hold of it. So here is an ever-growing compilation of sources I have found of the kind of local, sustainable, seasonal, naturally-reared, sometimes-organic food that I like to eat.
All the producers you will find at the London Farmers’ Markets, even if they are not listed here, sell this kind of local, well-reared and unmessed-about-with food too.
MEAT and POULTRY
All the meat listed here is outdoor-reared and grass-fed with occasional winter top-ups. Some specialise in rare breeds and some are organic. The Farmers’ markets they sell at are listed too.
The Ginger Pig This lovely butcher at Borough Market and in Marylebone raises its meat on its farm in the Yorkshire Moors to the highest level of care.
Animal Farm: [email protected] (01494 757232)
(Markets: London Fields, Bermondsey, Brixton)
Berkshire based small mixed farm with a range of animals:
Beef: Dexter. Lamb: Suffolks, Blackface, Jacobs and Welsh Black Mountain
Pigs: Gloucester Old Spots, Saddlebacks
Poultry and eggs: Bantam, Turkey, Duck and Goose
Fosseway Organics 07891 522 451
(Markets: Marylebone, Islington & Bermondsey)
Pigs: Berkshire and Old Spot
Sheep: Border Leicester and Charolais
Poultry: Cornish Game Hens
Lee House Farm – Grant Roffey
(Markets: Twickenham, Milford, Cranleigh)
Organic Pork, Lamb, Eggs, Beef
Todd Cameron Clarke Old Hall Rare Breeds 01580 830 500
(Markets: Marylebone, Ealing, Parliament Hill)
Lots of rare breeds including Large Black, Berkshire and Middle White Pigs,
and Hebridian and Herdwick sheep.
Keith Bennett Stockings Farm, Amersham 01494 729418
(Markets: Swiss cottage, Blackheath)
Hebridian and Sussex Lamb
Pork: Oxfords, Sandringham Blacks, Berkshire
Muck and Magic Organic Farm
www.muckandmagicorganic.co.uk / [email protected] 07760 285 806
(Markets: Parliament Hill, Walthamstow and Brick Lane)
Tamworth Pork, Red Poll Beef, Norfolk Horn Sheep.
DAIRY: CHEESE AND MILK
Neals Yard Dairy Stunning farm cheeses from the British Isles and various other dairy products including Wooton Organic Dairy with its wonderful sheep’s milk yoghurt.
La Fromagerie Patricia Michelson’s wonderful shop full of English, Irish and European Artisan Cheeses. She also stocks Hurdlebrook products and French butters and yoghurts.
Hurdlebrook Farm 01458 223 229 [email protected] Unpasteurised milk, cream, crème fraiche, sour cream and yoghurt, farmhouse cheese and butter. (Check their website for London and country markets and Agricultural shows.)
Grove Farm ([email protected])
Delicious unpasteurised jersey milk delivered in London – soon to do butter and cream too. (Markets: Brick Lane and Parliament Hill)
Lincolnshire Poachers :07950372552 [email protected]. Excellent range of cheese, eggs and butter, Tim and Simon also produce unpasteurised milk in small quantities – it always sells out at market.
Alham Wood Organics Check website for Farmers’ markets and where to find these producers of Buffalo milk, cheese and yoghurt and unpasteurised cows milk. 01749 88 0221. [email protected]. Do email for direct supplies of authentic buffalo mozzarella if they have some in stock.
Hook & Son Raw milk and butter supplier that delivers nationwide
VEGETABLE BOX SCHEMES
Riverford Organic My favourite vegetable box scheme delivering weekly mixed boxes and also grass-fed, organic meat, organic dairy, bread and other items.
Abel and Cole Another good vegetable box scheme delivering mixed boxes and other items including meat, fish and dry goods.
OLIVE OIL
Olio Divino This is the best-tasting, best value for what it is, organic olive oil I have found.
A truly delicious oil used by the likes of Alice Waters Stephen Singer Olio available in this country at Sally Clarke’s
WINE
Good food tastes so much better with good wine. Here are a few of my favourite independent retailers of top quality wines at all prices.
SALT
I use either Maldon Salt or Cornish Sea Salt, never anything labelled ‘table salt’. If you need a finer grain, pound it in a pestle and mortar.
GRAINS AND FLOURS
Sharpham Park: Excellent spelt products: grain for risotto, wholemeal and plain flours for baking.
Gilchester Organics: Organic flours: wholemeal, spelt and white my favourites.
Shipton Mill: Good Strong White Bread Flour.
Doves Farm: Widely available range of British organic flours including Gluten Free.
