Small Wonder

IN MY quest to support Scottish produce, I fancied taking the family to Lochmuir this summer. As the home of Marks & Spencer’s Scottish salmon range, the packaging makes it look a lovely place. Even the name sounds enticing.

Unfortunately, Lochmuir doesn’t actually exist. The name was apparently chosen by a panel of consumers because, in these days of customer concern when we all seek to know the provenance of our food for reassurance, “it had the most Scottish resonance”.

In reality, the fish comes from five sites north of the border operated by Scottish Sea Farms. Doesn’t sound quite as dreamy, does it? This isn’t just clever food marketing, this is clever M&S food marketing …

Of course, the high-street giant isn’t the only offender, treating food provenance as a moveable feast. It seems as though every major supermarket is jumping on the bandwagon, eager to convince Scottish consumers it is more friendly and local than the next.

It all comes down to who you trust, and that’s why more Scots than ever are turning to farmers’ markets and farm shops. The difference is proved in the eating. During this year of trying to survive on Scottish produce with my wife Sheila and son Jack, we’ve shopped less and less in the big retailers and more in the places where flavour really matters.

Walk into every Scottish supermarket at the moment and you’ll be faced with the piles of Scottish Elsanta strawberries – probably on special offer. Sainsbury’s marked their supplies as being half price before I even knew they had been full price. I took a punnet home, washed them and left them on the kitchen table.

“These taste rubbish” said my son, delivering the kind of decisive critique that would leave even Gordon Ramsay quaking. He was right: they had texture but no taste. Contrast that with the punnet of strawberries I bought recently in a village shop in Dumfries and Galloway. They had no fancy packaging or clever marketing, but they’d been grown in the next village and had never seen the inside of a refrigerated lorry or storage depot. As a result, they were delicious – summer encapsulated in a single fruit.

That same tiny shop also stocked local honey, oatcakes and bread from the nearby town and cheese made just a couple of miles away. All of it is fabulous local produce, but how do we bridge the gap between small-scale rural production and large-scale demand in the towns and cities? The supermarkets are notoriously inflexible when it comes to dealing with suppliers but there are other options.

Farmers’ markets are part of the answer, but only if you are pretty organised on a Saturday morning. For the rest of us, a new breed of retailer seems to be emerging, eager to bridge the gap between supply and demand. Filming the queue at Ardross Farm Shop near St Monans in Fife on a recent Thursday morning, for STV’s five thirty show, the high demand for local produce from alternative sources was obvious.

The Pollock family have farmed in the East Neuk for a century, but gave up supplying the supermarkets last year after being messed about once too often over three-for-two offers and other retail tricks. Now they simply sell what they grow direct to the public.

The day I visited, the shelves were piled with soft fruits and delicious vegetables, all picked that very morning. When stocks run out, they just pick some more. As well as broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, beetroot and courgettes, the family sell their own traditionally grass-fed beef. I took home some minute and rump steaks. They were tender, full of flavour and definitely the best beef I’ve eaten all year. With expansion plans on the table, they deserve to thrive.

You don’t even have to leave the city to experience good food. In Edinburgh, The Store brings fantastic produce from an Aberdeenshire farm to hungry shoppers in Stockbridge. On the Southside, Earthy has also opened, offering an indoor market experience with a great range of meat, vegetables, cheese and bread. And if you can’t be bothered to leave the house, a range of box delivery schemes will bring Scottish seasonal produce directly to you.

Our weekly delivery from Damhead Organics is now at a peak, brimming with beautiful, fresh, local food. Recent highlights have included radishes, carrots, broad beans and peas in the pod. The potatoes taste almost as good as my home-grown spuds, but I must take some lessons from them in staggering the planting process – 15 baby gem lettuce all ready to eat at the same time is a bit of a challenge. I’m just hoping that come the autumn, lettuce soup from the freezer will still seem the good idea it was the other day.

• www.eatingforscotland.com

WHERE TO GET TASTE OF THE COUNTRY…

The Edinburgh Farmers’ Market takes place every Saturday from 9am-2pm at Castle Terrace, with more than 70 specialist producers attending. As well as organic bread, veg, beef and poultry, favourites include wild boar, ostrich and water buffalo meat, organic beer and chocolates.

• Tel: [phone] or visit www.edinburghfarmersmarket.com

• Try Aberdeen Country Fair, held on the first and last Saturday of every month in the city, for everything from Aberdeen Angus beef to fish landed at Aberdeen and Peterhead harbours. Located on Belmont Street, it is one of the largest markets in Scotland.

• Tel: [phone] or visit www.aberdeencountryfair.co.uk

• Perth Farmers’ Market was the first of its kind in Scotland. Located on King Edward Street, it takes place from 9am-2pm on the first Saturday of each month, offering red meat, oysters, home-made cakes, pies and wines among other things.

• Tel: [phone] or visit www.perthfarmersmarket.co.uk

• Fife Farmers’ Market holds monthly markets in four locations: St Andrews on the first Saturday of every month, Dunfermline on the second, Cupar on the third and Kirkcaldy the last Saturday. Sample everything from meats and cheeses to fresh berries, jams, flowers and crafts.

• Visit www.fifefarmersmarket.co.uk

• There are two farmers’ markets held in Glasgow. The first is at Queen’s Park on the south side of the city and operates on the first and third Saturday of each month. The second currently takes place at Dowanhill Primary School, Partick on the second and fourth Saturday of each month. Each market is held from 10am-2pm. Around 40 stalls sell everything from oatcakes to organic soaps.

• Tel: [phone] or visit www.glasgow.gov.uk