A CELEBRATION OF THE HARVEST
September was harvest month. Many of you will have been busy or noticed the hard work our farming friends have been doing to get food to our plates this year. With this in mind, it’s most timely that in September we also celebrated Scottish Food and Drink fortnight followed by British Food Fortnight. We recently attended a conference hosted by The Scotsman at the National Galleries in Edinburgh where we were very interested to hear about how a new strategy for Scottish Food & Drink was being formed looking toward 2030. Obviously at the heart of this was a focus on arguably one of our greatest natural resources – our food!
As many of you know we at the Orde Food Company are quite simply passionate about food. Our location in the Scottish Borders means we have a wealth of fresh seasonal produce right on our doorstep. We have partnerships with fishermen, farmers, growers and artisan producers galore. The purpose of both the Scottish and British Food fortnight is to celebrate and promote the people who grow, make, cook and sell our food. So we thought it was entirely suitable to focus on one of our suppliers, which is, Burnside Farm Foods run by Johnny And Susan Rutherford.
The Rutherford Estate stands on the banks of the River Tweed just outside Kelso. This family run estate has a prestigious history running back to the 12th century and the surname Rutherford is one of the oldest Border names and synonymous with the area. Johnny Rutherford combined the family traditions and heritage with his passion for food and in 1986 set up Burnside Farm Foods. Today Burnside Farm Foods are arguably Scotland’s leading Game and Fresh Food specialists supplying local produce to many chefs across Scotland, the UK and abroad. This includes our Head Chef Craig Gibb who won the coveted Banqueting and Events Chef award this year using the Roe Deer Venison from Burnside Farm Foods in his winning dish along with glazed figs, beetroot and hazel nuts with a Grand Veneur Sauce. Johnny is passionate about local food providence and is a great supporter of local food initiatives including Framers Markets and is a great supporter of the Kelso Farmers Market. You can also buy Burnside meat direct from Johnny including his Roe Deer Venison, Gourmet Burgers and sausages and game direct from Burnside Farm Foods website. We asked Johnny why he believes that initiatives such as Scottish and British Food and Drink Fortnights are so important to local producers.
“I think this initiative is excellent at focusing customers’ minds on the wonderful indigenous products that are on our doorstep, in our case at this time of year it is the amazing Wild Scottish Game, the highlight being of course Grouse, but also Woodpigeon, Partridge and Roe deer, it is a celebration of finishing Harvest that provides our bountiful food supply for the game and the beginning of the traditional Game season.”
We are delighted to note from the British Food Fortnight organisers that 65% of us are now actively buying locally produced food. It is wonderful that we are now nurturing a renaissance in the pleasures of eating d cooking British Food.
Christian and I would like to thank all our suppliers who like Johnny allow us at Orde Food to be part of this important celebration of British Food.