Summer in Lancashire

Written on August 2nd, 2013

The taste of a great Northern summer varies from place to place. This month we’re proud to highlight fresh food and drink from the county where Edwin Henry Booth opened our first store: Lancashire. Many of our suppliers are based here, and some of them go to extraordinary lengths to send us their best produce.

Lancashire’s potato crop is harnessed by two of our suppliers of sunshine food. Our much-loved Dug Today potatoes are harvested near Tarleton in the early hours and in our stores by 8am the same day. And, made with potatoes grown on the family farm near Ormskirk, Fiddler’s Lancashire Crisps even have county flavours: Lancashire cheese and onion, sea salt and malt vinegar (from Ellsey’s of Wigan) or Lancashire Sauce. You can read more about the Fiddler family’s longstanding crisp ambitions in our profile here.

For something more exotic, how about Lancashire chillies? Ours are grown by the Johnsons at their nurseries near Southport, and heat up this month’s summer recipe: chilli beef burgers with Lancashire cheese. Make them as punchy as you like, and barbecue, grill or sear on the griddle to suit the weather.

Lancashire cheese is also among the products you’ll see celebrated in store this month. Mrs Kirkham’s Smoked Lancashire is smoked over oak and beech while it’s relatively young, so the smoke complements its creamy, buttery flavour. Our Special Reserve Tasty Lancashire, made especially for us in Garstang, is also a perfect summer cheese, with a good tang that works well in fresh green salads. To drink, we’ve got Moorhouse’s Premier Bitter (3.7%), a smooth, creamy bitter with plenty of zest from Burnley’s historic brewery.

We think Edwin Henry Booth would have been delighted with the month of fine eating and drinking we’ve got from Lancashire. But he’d also have enjoyed the summer line-up from the next of our counties. Cheshire, here we come.