Sue Prince Interview
Wife of organic dairy farmer in the Peak District, Sue is currently consultant to Food from the Peak District project, linking local food production and tourism, she is proud to have initiated "Peak District Foods" a group of independent producers. She is the instigator and development leader of the on-going Peak District Dairy Wagon project, an exciting concept to enable a co-operative of small dairy farmers to learn to make high value dairy products on their farms.
With husband Terry, Sue provides farm accommodation: bed and breakfast and award winning self catering and wheelchair accessible cottages. She is an artist and book illustrator creating 'organic' art works celebrating country life in egg tempera, winner of 2003 Gold award for best tourism website in England. She sits on the Peak District National Park Authority, the board of Advantage West Midlands and the National Trust Estates Panel and was awarded an OBE in 2004 for services to farming and tourism in the Midlands.
What is your most memorable childhood 'food' memory?
I have good and bad childhood memories of food, there are lovely buttery boiled eggs with toast, my first taste of curry, my mother's delicious chicken casserole (which she still makes and I still can't make) but also I remember refusing butter beans and broad beans and sitting for what seemed like hours at a lonely dining table as they got colder and more repellent! I learned never to force food on anyone! Now I quite like both!
What's your favourite food or ingredient 'on your doorstep'?
I can't have only one! I love our own Beechenhill organic milk, creamy, fresh and delicious. I love our own Beechenhill organic lamb - tender, slowly grown and to a larger size than you'll find in the supermarket. I also love the wildflower honey that Daisybank Apiaries produce from the hives on our farm - it's translucent, pale and delicate. (Mark Dennison of Daisybank even does "Meet the Bees" trips for our guests). As a country person I am lucky enough to have access to the best of local produce - I hardly ever go to supermarkets - I am very keen to help others to find their way to this bountiful harvest!
What is your favourite food secret?
How to make Beechenhill creamy organic porridge - if you want to know – you'll have to come and stay!
What food would you travel for (within the UK)?
Fish and chips, to Longnor, a Peak District village in the Staffordshire Moorlands. The best fish and chips I have ever tasted are to be found in a tiny fish and chip shop on the corner of the square, there are check table cloths, fresh, crisp batter, moist, tasty fish and perfect chips, to say nothing of hot mushy peas, curry sauce and a proper cuppa.
What is your favourite seasonal food?
I love the seasonal nature of food, so I can't decide on one - each new appearance in the vegetable garden is a joy, new potatoes, fresh runner beans, crisp peppery radishes and maybe best of all shiny black damsons for jam, pies and crumbles. I sit obsessively stoning them with a cherry stoner to make a dense flavourful pie that won't break your teeth, I also stand for hours over the jam pan capturing stones with ice tongs as they pop to the top in the "full rolling boil!"
What is your favourite local food shop?
Well, technically, my favourite food purchasing method isn't a shop. It (she) is Ruth Dennett of Peak District Fine Foods, a delivery service, she gets yummy local products onto the doorsteps of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, with a cheery smile and great efficiency, she even puts the stuff away in fridge and freezer if I'm on the phone. As for an actual shop - The Original Bakewell Farmers' Market Shop, in Bakewell, has to be the best - packed with delicious produce from local farms and businesses, but there is also New House Farm Shop, Over Haddon where I get smoked and green bacon for my B&B - always excellent standard and so reliable and so funny!
What is your favourite eating place?
My local pub The Watts Russell at Hopedale near Alstonefield. The menu is quite different from your average "pub grub" - there is Six Hour Belly Pork, New York Style Salt Beef, Chicken and Artichoke Casserole, all mouth-watering and different and all from the local suppliers I know and work with. But I also love The Robin Hood at Bramshall near Uttoxeter, consistent high quality, memorable meals and welcoming folk.
What is your favourite UK pub?
The Yew Tree at Cauldon Low, near Waterhouses in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Run by Alan, a dapper and delightful man, this pub is one of the wonders of the Peak District. It is an ancient building crammed with antiques, curios and pianolas. The beer is cheap and good and you don't go there to eat although you can sample pickled eggs, pork pies and cockles.
What is your favourite dish or recipe?
Delia Smith's Rhubarb Crumble Ice Cream, cooked by my friend Julie Little, using the first forced rhubarb from our garden - pink and tender. I also love a good old roast - lamb, beef, pork, I'm not fussy but it has to have all the trimmings and be followed by homemade rice pudding with sticky brown skin on top. But recently, while staying at The City Inn in Birmingham, I had a sublime experience, Celeriac Soup with a drizzle of Avocado Oil - only it didn't last long enough.
Name an inspirational food or drink person? Why?
Patrick Holden CBE, director of the Soil Association. I am depressed by the direction UK farming is going with farmers being paid subsidies to be park keepers. Man's relationship with the land has always been about producing food. Now we are told that farmers are no longer required, as the land is for recreation and biodiversity and food will be imported.
Patrick has a vision of how food could and should be produced. Organic farming has been proved to be better for the environment than conventional - it produces high quality, pure and wholesome food without routine antibiotic and chemical use. When he speaks I get a glimpse of how things could be, with innovative, enthusiastic producers being paid what it actually costs, the landscape treasured and shared by extensive farmers, people respecting the natural world and working with it not fighting against it.