A Big Welcome to July

What an absolute whirlwind June has been...I was glancing back through my photos this week and it helped bring home what I have crammed in to one short month.  As per usual with my photos, I have more of food & drink than I do of my kids (I can imagine them having therapy when they are older as a consequence!).  This month is slightly unusual in that Lymm Festival has made a big appearance too.  What did you manage to book from the huge choice of activities? 

Foodfest
Low Carbon Lymm were part of the festival from the start at Foodfest 2014.  It was no chore to share some great local food and drink with you all on a sunny evening.  I was a little hesitant about how the samples would be received, but you were complete stars...even guessing the identity of the rogue supermarket Cheshire cheese.  We moved our local food roadshow to Statham the week after for their annual summer fair.  There we spoke to more great people about local produce.  The overwhelming message was positive.  People want to eat more local food, and in many cases just didn't know where to buy it.  If that applies to you, check out our interactive map:  http://bit.ly/1re6lal

Local Summer Food
I think eating seasonal local food it a breeze in summer in any culture because of the prevalence of tasty fruit and vegetables, and Cheshire is no different.  I have had some melt-in-the-mouth new potatoes from the farm on the junction of Weaste Lane and Halfacre Lane over the last few weeks.  The farmer grows his own, so you know they have only a couple of food miles to arrive on your plate.  We currently eat them by the pan full - hot or cold.  My favourite idea is using rocket or broad bean pesto on them (put some rocket or blanched young broad beans with walnuts, strong flavoured cheese, rapeseed oil, seasoning and lemon juice in a blender).  This is a brilliant way to use up a glut of vegetables in a mostly UK pesto (it is possible to buy Yorkshire rapeseed oil in Tesco now at a reasonable price) and yet another excuse to eat Cheshire spuds. Yum.

Lisa Reid