As I have said many times I am a great believer in supporting local farmers and food producers. Today I have been over to Denbigh to collect the magazine from the printer and took the opportunity to purchase butter and cheese from the creamery at Llandernog. In conversation with the girl in the "factory" shop I learned that the Llandernog village butcher makes his own sausages and pork pies from pigs farmed about 5 miles away. Unfortunately they have to be taken down to Anglesey for slaughter but that is another story. The porkers are to all intents and purposes "local" and the pies and bangers are made at the back of the shop. So I thought I'd give 'em a go. Just eaten half a pie with mustard. Best damn pork pie I have tasted in years.
It's a personal thing I accept but I just don't like the jelly in pork pies, tho' I do understand why it is there and I know many actually like it.
Today's pies have NO JELLY!
But to get back to the point ~ en route I missed at least a dozen fine fat pheasants, mainly due to the screams from SWWLTBO every time I spotted one on the lane and put my foot down a bit. Landrovers just don't have the instant get up and go necessary to hit the sods before they take flight ~ at least not when SWWLTBO is alerted by the diesel engine roaring as I try to accelerate without her realising what my plan is.
Sorry another digression there. The question is this ~ A farmer at Halkyn (about seven miles from here) has a herd of Water Buffalo and sells the meat. It isn't cheap but it is most excellent beef (and has never carried Mad Cow Disease) ~ so as Water Buffalo are not native to the Principality does this counts as "Local" produce?
I say it is as he grazes these beasts on good Welsh mountainside grass, they are slaughtered on Anglesey (our local abattoir specialises only in Halal meat for the Asian market in Liverpool and Manchester) and the carcasses are returned to his farm for butchering. Others claim that since the beasts are not native to the UK they are not really local produce. I have argued that the cattle in fields around here are basically Fresians (there are some farms with Welsh Blacks but not many) and certainly the pigs are a continental hybrid thus neither are truly "local" but it seems that some have got it into their heads that Water Buffalo belong in Asia. What does the team think?
