An interview in the spring garden, with three local market gardeners who are trying to change the fresh food offering in the Scottish Borders.

Almost all fresh produce in the Borders is bought in supermarkets. Although they are unable to compete on price, Kevin Banks, Jamie Smith and Cameron Dickie talk with me about the value and potential in growing our own for local sale.

The Plot Thickens, Earlston

Kevin Banks runs The Plot Thickens near Earlston, with his wife and volunteers. He is predominantly a plant nursery, but is expanding his produce offering.

Kevin sells at Leith, Moffat, Galashiels and Berwick markets. Find out where Kevin is going to be, on Facebook

The garden is open some Sundays at Carolside Stables Cottage , Earlston, and is well worth the visit if you would like to learn about ecological growing practices suited for our climate.

He will also be selling at Melrose Primary School on 2nd of May from 12:15pm, for their annual plant sale

Bucklands Garden, Hawick

Jamie Smith and Maria Young use no-dig and ecological methods to produce fruit, veg, honey and flowers at Bucklands Garden in Hawick.

You can buy their produce on Saturdays between 9-12pm from the end of May to the beginning of October, at the Common Haugh in Hawick.

Find them on Instagram @bucklands_garden

Bridgelands Farm, Selkirk

Cameron Dickie and his wife took on Bridgelands farm as first generation farmers. His career had been in the army, but after transitioning into a project management role he began looking for something more satisfying and took land management courses before taking on Bridgelands farm. They currently produce eggs, but have livestock and are looking to produce veg, alongside engaging ex-army personel to repurpose their skills and training towards food growing.

www.Bridgelands.farm

You can find them at Bridgelands Rd, Selkirk TD7 4PT, where they are soon to have a farm shop/honesty box.

Find them on Facebook and Instagram: @bridgelands_farm

Thank you to Kevin, Jamie and Cameron!

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The FoodScape Podcast explores how food shapes the lives and land of the Scottish Borders. It also asks the question; what more could food do for us?

From boosting local economy and creating jobs, supporting biodiversity and improving soil, to establishing a place as a destination; what would it look like for our place to thrive, and can food help us get there?

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Produced & Presented by Charlotte Maberly

Music by Iain Fraser from his album Koterana

Apart from at Easter, we don’t pay a huge amount of attention to eggs. They’re a food product largely taken for granted in the UK, alongside milk and bread. But if egg production stopped making financial sense for producers, we’d quickly notice their absence.

We consume over 36 million eggs in the UK every day, and they’re a vital product in many of our favourite confections and baked goods. The egg market contributes around £4.5 billion to the UK economy, but even the highest welfare eggs sold in Waitrose only make the producer £0.23p per egg, meaning you’d have to produce a lot to make a living.

I spoke with Guy, Philly and Hugo Lee at Sandystones farm near St Boswells, to learn about their organic egg production. But I ended up learning so much more; about the economics of food production, the dynamics of running a family farm, the importance of adaptability, and why a thriving local food market in the Borders is highly unlikely…

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In this episode:

Sandystones Farm, St Boswells.

Agrimart Magazine - www.agrimart.co.uk

Hugo Lee on X - @farmerhughie

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The FoodScape Podcast explores how food shapes the lives and land of the Scottish Borders. It also asks the question; what more could food do for us?

From boosting local economy and creating jobs, supporting biodiversity and improving soil, to establishing a place as a destination; what would it look like for our place to thrive, and can food help us get there?

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Produced & Presented by Charlotte Maberly

Music by Iain Fraser from his album Koterana

It’s a step of the food chain many of us would rather not think about, but it’s about much more than life and death.

As I learn in this episode, abattoirs are a vital link in the food chain, requiring skilled workers and deft navigation of huge amounts legislation to ensure our meat meets with standards. And although we may not like it, we need to pay them more attention because they are disappearing across the UK, with remaining services becoming bigger and more centralised. These larger abattoirs are much less accessible for small to medium producers, making production for direct, local sale a much more challenging prospect.

The closure of all abattoirs in the Borders - the last one closed in 2011 - as elsewhere, is seriously impacting local economies, the future of small and medium producers, the possibility for local food provision, as well as animal welfare.

I speak with Alison and Robin Tuke of Hardiesmill about what they undertook to open the UK’s first on-farm abattoir since BSE. I also chat with Jonny Williams, the Managing Director of Farmstock, about how the closure of our abattoirs has impacted the Scottish Borders most prized food sector, and the challenges and opportunities he sees moving forward. Also included are a few farming voices from a recent conference addressing the challenges and potential of local food in the Borders.

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In this episode:

Hardiesmill - www.hardiesmill.co.uk

Jonny Williams of Farmstock - farmstock.org.uk

Denise Walton of Peelham Farm - PeelhamFarm.co.uk

Lucy Wilson of Wilson’s Farm and Kitchen - wilsonsfarmandkitchen.com

“Growing the Local Food & Drink Economy” was a conference hosted by Propogate, Abundant Borders, SOSE and SSDA.

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The FoodScape Podcast explores how food shapes the lives and land of the Scottish Borders. It also asks the question; what more could food do for us?

From boosting local economy and creating jobs, supporting biodiversity and improving soil, to establishing a place as a destination; what would it look like for our place to thrive, and can food help us get there?

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Produced & Presented by Charlotte Maberly

Music by Iain Fraser from his album Koterana

“It can take years to make good beef, and seconds to ruin it.”

Since 2001, Alison and Robin Tuke have been raising pure breed Aberdeen Angus on 482 acres near Gordon. They’ve attracted significant attention from around the world, being included in high profile competitions, a Netflix film, and multiple documentaries. When the Japanese ministry of food turned up at their farm one winters day, they knew they must be doing something pretty special.

Hardiesmill beef is prized by triple star Michelin chefs, its been served on super-yachts and has been deemed the best steak in the world by some experts.

Their secret?

The Tukes share with me what it takes to create truly distinctive beef, but stress that even meticulous breeding, feeding and handling can’t ensure a perfect product on the plate. Consistency in the quality of flavour, say the Tukes, takes teamwork. People at every stage of the food chain have to work together to make sure the farmers work is not lost. We discuss this vision in the context of the Borders, considering what we could do as a region to honour our local produce. Alison says what we produce here is recognised as world class by some food experts, but barely recognised by ourselves.

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In this episode:

Hardiesmill - www.hardiesmill.co.uk

The Steak (R)evolution [2014] : documentary looking at some of the best beef producers around the world, featuring Hardiesmill.

The Kelso Farmers Market - Alison has been instrumental in developing and maintaining one of the last independent farmers markets in Scotland, right here in the Scottish Borders.

Wendy Barrie, a Scottish Food expert, has recognised Hardiesmill’s work and writes about them on her website.

A browse of the News page on the Hardiesmill website gives you an idea of their influence, with Royal visitors, high profile competitions, and features in some pretty sexy books about steak.

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The FoodScape Podcast explores how food shapes the lives and land of the Scottish Borders. It also asks the question; what more could food do for us?

From boosting local economy and creating jobs, supporting biodiversity and improving soil, to establishing a place as a destination; what would it look like for our place to thrive, and can food help us get there?

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Produced & Presented by Charlotte Maberly

Music by Iain Fraser from his album Koterana

If you were asked to serve up a meal that sums up the Scottish Borders, what would it be?

This is the question I put to Chef Roger McKie of Seasons restaurant in Gattonside. He didn’t have too hard a time giving an answer, because capturing the flavours of a place is a skill he has been working on for several decades.

Roger and Bea McKie have run restaurants in remote rural locations around Scotland as well as central Glasgow and have been dedicated to the ideas of local and seasonal food throughout their careers, long before the words ‘local’ and ‘seasonal’ appeared as standard on every restaurant menu.

They bought Seasons restaurant ten years ago, then called Chapters, and in that time have altered their business structure to suit the needs of the local and tourist community around them. Since Covid, they only open two nights a week, but have added an ‘At Home’ menu offering, a private chef service, and hampers made up of our regional food and drink.

We discuss the future of rural food businesses, how a restaurant can remain authentic while keeping relevant, a chef’s role as liaison between customer and producer, and how the restaurant can help reflect and shape the cuisine, and even the food systems, of a region like the Borders.

In this episode:

* Seasons Restaurant: seasonsborders.co.uk

* Ross Dougal - Fish Merchant, Eyemouth: Facebook

* Game from Johnny Rutherford at Burnside Farm Foods: www.burnsidegame.com

* Martin Baird, butcher in Melrose: www.martinbairdbutchers.co.uk

[images courtesy of Seasons.co.uk]

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The FoodScape Podcast explores how food shapes the lives and land of the Scottish Borders. It also asks the question; what more could food do for us?

From boosting local economy and creating jobs, supporting biodiversity and improving soil, to establishing a place as a destination; what would it look like for our place to thrive, and can food help us get there?

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Produced & Presented by Charlotte Maberly

Music by Iain Fraser from his album Koterana

In 2018, with the opening of the Borders Distillery in Hawick, our region finally rejoined Scotland’s most lucrative food and drink sector.

Today’s whisky industry looks very different to the more locally oriented businesses once found in Kelso and around the Borders almost 200 years ago. Whisky now makes billions for the country and is our biggest export after North sea oil. It markets itself as being deeply rooted in tradition, and millions of tourists flock to distilleries every year hoping to taste authentic Scotland in a glass.

With another distillery due to open near Jedburgh, and some predicting several more for the Borders in the next decade, I wonder how our whiskies will fit into this vast and well established industry.

I speak with John Fordyce of the Borders Distillery, about whether they will try to fit in, or forge their own style. We also discuss why the Borders, despite not having an unbroken whisky distilling tradition, is actually ideally suited for making a good dram.

Look out for some more whisky related discussions soon, as I delve into the world of barley with Simpson’s Malt, and speak with whisky expert Annabel Meikle.

In this episode:

* The Borders Distillery - thebordersdistillery.com

* Simpson’s Malt - www.simpsonsmalt.co.uk

* Famously Hawick - www.famouslyhawick.co.uk

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The FoodScape Podcast explores how food shapes the lives and land of the Scottish Borders. It also asks the question; what more could food do for us?

From boosting local economy and creating jobs, supporting biodiversity and improving soil, to establishing a place as a destination; what would it look like for our place to thrive, and can food help us get there?

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Produced & Presented by Charlotte Maberly

Music by Iain Fraser from his album Koterana

In the week before Burns night, one Borders butcher sells almost a tonne of haggis…

An interview with Louise Forsyth, livestock buyer and co-owner of Forsyths of Peebles.

I am shown the workings of a traditional butchery which makes everything from scratch, I meet Eric - guardian of Forsyth’s haggis recipe for 44 years, and enjoy a long chat with Louise about whether haggis still qualifies as Scotland’s national dish.

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In this episode:

* Forsyths of Peebles - www.forsythsofpeebles.com

* Louise Forsyth - The Butcher's Wife on Facebook

* More information on Burns Night Celebrations

* Is it haggis? - Macsween Haggis removes lungs from their recipe, in order to export to America - read the story

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The FoodScape Podcast explores how food shapes the lives and land of the Scottish Borders. It also asks the question; what more could food do for us?

From boosting local economy and creating jobs, supporting biodiversity and improving soil, to establishing a place as a destination; what would it look like for our place to thrive, and can food help us get there?

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Produced & Presented by Charlotte Maberly

Music by Iain Fraser from his album Koterana

Fancy a delicious trip around the world?

Join me as I tour Terra Madre; the world’s largest food festival, where representatives from around 120 countries gathered in October 2024 to share their unique food cultures.

The event has been running for 20 years and has gained some serious momentum, with around 300,000 attendees this year. Bringing people together like this, where the diversity of our planet is articulated in a cornucopia of flavours and foodways, is in and of itself a wonderful spectacle to behold. But what value does it have, beyond being a delicious day out?

Find out how this international perspective could help us think about our own food future here in the Scottish Borders.

I speak with delegates from Albania, the Philippines, Australia, Italy, Brazil, and beyond, to hear how rural communities elsewhere in the world have harnessed the power of food to transform economies, communities and ecologies where they are.

The FoodScape returns at the end of January 2025 with a new season of podcasts about how food shapes our lives and land in the Scottish Borders.

Featured in this episode:

Slow Food International - the organisation that created Terra Madre

* www.SlowFood.com

Terra Madre Festival - held every two years in Turin, Italy.

* visit the website of the 2024 event

The University of Gastronomic Sciences - the university founded by Slow Food

* www.unisg.it

Slow Food Presidia and the Ark of Taste

* visit the website

For more information and photos of the individuals featured in this episode, please visit the FoodScape Instagram account. I’ll also be posting a few more things about the event right here on the Substack.

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Produced & Presented by Charlotte Maberly

Music by Iain Fraser from his album Koterana