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CALENDAR Sunday 3 July: Fourteenth Sunday of the Year (Year A) Monday 4 July: Feria or St Elizabeth of Portugal Tuesday 5 July: Feria or St Anthony Mary Zaccaria, Priest Wednesday 6 July: Feria or St Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr Thursday 7 July: Feria Friday 8 July: Feria Saturday 9 July: Feria or Sts Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs Sunday 10 July: Fifteenth Sunday of the Year


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Independently audited certified average circulation per issue of THE TABLET for issues distri buted between 1 July and


31 December 2010 is 21,858. Volume 265 No. 8902 ISSN: 0039 8837


THE ETHICAL KITCHEN


Farm fair ROSE PRINCE


WHEN NOT sneaking off to watch the ten- nis on the telly, I have spent the last few weeks updating a guide to good food shopping that is now in its third edition. Designed like a restaurant guide, it is a regional listing of 1,200 independent food producers – not a supermar- ket in sight. Many sell via the internet. The 2012 edition will have nearly 1,500 pro- ducers because the growth of the artisan food business has been phenomenal. The prolifer- ation of farm shops in rural areas has me emitting a little sigh of pride in our food cul- ture. For those who opt to rent that Norfolk seaside cottage or a bothy in a Highland glen, a nearby farm shop stocked with home- grown and locally sourced food adds distinctive flavour. Yet the update has not been altogether


smooth. Searching the prairies of the British countryside for new places, I have met a few cowboys who want to ride on the back of gen- uine artisan retailers. A farm shop, as defined by the government-backed National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association (Farma), sells food that is in part or wholly grown on the farm. Farma inspects farm shops and mar- kets to make sure they are the real thing, but that has not stopped the impersonators jumping aboard the trend.


Garden centres, not content with selling use-


less gadgetry and patio furnishings, have twigged the potential for profit and many now run “farm shops” on their premises. Yet none so far will be included in the guide because they produce none of the food they sell, only buying in (supposedly) local food. In 2007 Tesco bought the garden centre chain Dobbies, some branches of which have “farm food halls”. The farm food hall at the Ayr branch of Dobbies admits that no vegeta- bles are grown on site, and that the meat sold


is not home-reared. The dubious use of the alluring word “farm” to attract customers is not confined to garden centres, however. I am coming across rural “farm shops” all over Britain that are nothing of the sort. It should, ideally, be possible to see either livestock or produce growing within full view of the shop, or visible testimony (or Farma certifi- cation).


According to the dictionary, a farm is a tract of land cultivated for the purpose of agricul- tural production or rearing livestock. The authorities demand “traceability”, so why do they allow misuse of the word to go unpun- ished? Here is a hot-weather meat dish that reminds me of my local, honest farm shop.


Summer vegetable salad with black pudding Serves 4


1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar 1 clove of garlic, crushed 6 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons water 4 medium potatoes, boiled in their skins until just tender, and diced


4 rashers smoked streaky bacon 500g black pudding skinned and chopped 4 handfuls of salad leaves or baby spinach


Put all the dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake together. Season with a pinch of salt, pepper and sugar then set aside for 15 minutes. Dry fry the bacon until crisp; remove from the pan and sauté the black pudding; put in a bowl with the bacon, potato and salad leaves. Finally, pour over the dressing. Mix well and serve immediately.


Glimpses of Eden


NOBODY WITNESSED the crime, nor saw the perpetrator flee, but the attempted felony can’t have occurred that long ago


because when we reached the scene, the evi- dence was still fresh. Grass flattened as though a Shetland pony had slept the night there; exca- vated earth dark and moist; red-tailed bumblebees still buzzing agitatedly around the hole. Badgers usually eat earthworms, but like the rest of us they’ve got a sweet tooth to indulge. Passing up the lane towards dawn, the forag- ing animal must have smelt the honey in the bumblebee nest, even though it lay under the ground, and stopped for a bit of ram raiding. Some of the bee colony lay dead, having encoun-


36 | THE TABLET | 2 July 2011


tered a hide too thick for their stings; but these guardian bees, with rich sunset tails, hadn’t die in vain. The thief didn’t get his honey. As the marauder had dug down with sharp claws, a few direct hits must have stung his snout, driving him away. Walking past the nest a week later, we saw bee business being conducted as usual. This badger obviously has real cravings: only 200 yards down the same lane, we found another raided red-tail nest. This one had been fully ransacked. All that was left was the small mouth organ of its smashed honeycomb. Naturalists are agreed that badgers don’t affect the over- all population of bumblebees; they also agree that badgers go to any lengths for something sweet.


Jonathan Tulloch


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