The FoodScape

An interview with Fi Martynoga, co-author of A Handbook of Scotland’s Wild Harvests, and lifelong forager. We discuss why foraging is still relevant, even though it’s apparently unnecessary in our world of shop-bought abundance, and the practical reality of foraging in the Scottish Borders. Our conversation takes us from kitchen table to woodland, sampling and being surprised by the kind of weeds...

An interview in the spring garden, with three local market gardeners who are trying to change the fresh food offering in the Scottish Borders. Almost all fresh produce in the Borders is bought in supermarkets. Although they are unable to compete on price, Kevin Banks, Jamie Smith and Cameron Dickie talk with me about the value and potential in growing our own for local sale. The Plot Thickens, Ear...

Apart from at Easter, we don’t pay a huge amount of attention to eggs. They’re a food product largely taken for granted in the UK, alongside milk and bread. But if egg production stopped making financial sense for producers, we’d quickly notice their absence. We consume over 36 million eggs in the UK every day, and they’re a vital product in many of our favourite confections and baked goods. The e...

It’s a step of the food chain many of us would rather not think about, but it’s about much more than life and death. As I learn in this episode, abattoirs are a vital link in the food chain, requiring skilled workers and deft navigation of huge amounts legislation to ensure our meat meets with standards. And although we may not like it, we need to pay them more attention because they are disappear...

“It can take years to make good beef, and seconds to ruin it.” Since 2001, Alison and Robin Tuke have been raising pure breed Aberdeen Angus on 482 acres near Gordon. They’ve attracted significant attention from around the world, being included in high profile competitions, a Netflix film, and multiple documentaries. When the Japanese ministry of food turned up at their farm one winters day, they...

If you were asked to serve up a meal that sums up the Scottish Borders, what would it be? This is the question I put to Chef Roger McKie of Seasons restaurant in Gattonside. He didn’t have too hard a time giving an answer, because capturing the flavours of a place is a skill he has been working on for several decades. Roger and Bea McKie have run restaurants in remote rural locations around Scotla...

In 2018, with the opening of the Borders Distillery in Hawick, our region finally rejoined Scotland’s most lucrative food and drink sector. Today’s whisky industry looks very different to the more locally oriented businesses once found in Kelso and around the Borders almost 200 years ago. Whisky now makes billions for the country and is our biggest export after North sea oil. It markets itself as...

In the week before Burns night, one Borders butcher sells almost a tonne of haggis… An interview with Louise Forsyth, livestock buyer and co-owner of Forsyths of Peebles. I am shown the workings of a traditional butchery which makes everything from scratch, I meet Eric - guardian of Forsyth’s haggis recipe for 44 years, and enjoy a long chat with Louise about whether haggis still qualifies as Scot...

Fancy a delicious trip around the world? Join me as I tour Terra Madre; the world’s largest food festival, where representatives from around 120 countries gathered in October 2024 to share their unique food cultures. The event has been running for 20 years and has gained some serious momentum, with around 300,000 attendees this year. Bringing people together like this, where the diversity of our p...

With mince pie and a wee glass in hand, a special guest and I chat about why we love returning to the familiar at this time of year. We wonder what a traditional Scottish Borders Christmas would have looked like, and discuss which foods and traditions are essential to make the festive season taste right. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you for all your support o...

A day with the Royal Highland Educational Trust (RHET) and Field to Fork at the Hirsel Estate in Coldstream. Agriculture dominates the Scottish Borders landscape, but fewer and fewer people are choosing careers in farming and more of us want to know where our food comes from. Organisations like RHET and the Field to Fork programme at the Hirsel, engage children directly with the realities of food...

An interview with Jessica and Richard Keeling of Three Hills Coffee, at their coffee school and roastery near Gordon. Coffee isn’t exactly a local product, but here - as across the world - it has become integral in our daily routine. Many of us can’t countenance getting through a day of work, or even getting out of bed, without it. And in our rural region where the drink-drive limit is zero, meeti...

An interview with Anita and Ed Withers on their smallholding near Kelso.  The Withers raise Oxford Sandy and Black - a rare breed of pig, as well as goats, chickens, bees, fruit and vegetables. Being smallholders was never the plan, but as their operation grew they realised that being responsible for most of what they ate - from planting to harvest, and from birth to death - had changed the way th...

A day out at the Borders Organic Gardeners’ Apple Day , and an interview with Laprig Valley Apple Juices. For many, apples are the quintessential flavour of autumn. But if we do eat an ‘apple-a-day to keep the doctor away’, it often comes from a selection of just 5 varieties available in supermarkets, which are usually imports. At a local apple festival I peruse around 130 varieties currently grow...

An interview with David and Claire MacTaggart of Hallrule Farm, discussing their venture into venison farming and how this has also come to support their agritourism offering; Tiny Home Borders. We delve into the the differences between farmed and wild, venison’s reputation as a tough meat to cook, the long shadow of ‘Bambi’, why - given that we are overrun by wild deer - we still eat venison impo...

An interview with Lucy Wilson at Wilson’s Farm and Kitchen, discussing their transition from running a traditional Borders beef farm, to also becoming a food-focussed agritourism destination. We question why on-farm food experiences are so rare in the Scottish Borders, and whether the region could do more to celebrate its own produce. We mentioned: * GoRuralScotland.com * ScottishAgritourism.co.uk...

After four months of gathering food stories, sounds and flavours from across our region, it's time to step back and take a look out over our FoodScape. This episode is a tasting menu celebrating the people and places encountered so far, and the ways in which they are shaping our land and our lives through food.  And if it's your first time listening to the podcast, perhaps it will whet your appeti...

Looking for some holiday reading?    Seeing as it's the Borders Book Festival in the middle of this month, here are a handful of food-writing classics to whet your appetite. These are all fantastic reads into the politics, philosophy, science and culture of food.    Buon apetito! - - - - - - - - - - - -    The FoodScape Recommended Reads: 'How to Cook a Wolf' - MFK Fisher, 1942. North Point Press....

How we produce food around the world in the 21st century, is widely accused of being one of the main causes of climate change. Agriculture and nature are now seen as being at odds, and in the UK our government is putting pressure on farmers to change the way they operate and be more nature friendly. In some cases, this means ceasing to produce all together, planting trees or re-wilding previously...

It's loud, it's fast, and when the auctioneer begins his call you've got to have your wits about you!  I accompanied Mary Howlett of Going Native to the Newtown St Boswell's mart on one of her regular missions to buy native breed cattle. We experience the raw energy of the mart, discuss the importance of traditional breeds and animal welfare, and why these are vital in creating the tastiest steak....

Why is it so difficult, in an agricultural region, to get a good variety of local vegetables? Is it just because our soil won't produce them? Because we'd rather produce livestock? Or are we reluctant to grow and sell them? One way or another, shorter supply chains increases food security, local economic activity, and of course, the freshness of the food. And like many parts of the country, people...

Throughout history, people across the Borders would have expected to go hungry at this time of year. The time between March and May was known as the hungry gap, when larders were emptied after the winter, and the garden and farm hadn't yet started producing. This period of scarcity was part of the seasonal cycle, forcing people to rely on an essential and common knowledge of wild foods to keep the...

Sadly, episode 5 hit a few hitches, and will be delayed by a few days. In the meantime, have a listen to some of the past FoodScape episodes! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit foodscapepodcast.substack.com/subscribe

They're the places we go to celebrate, to work, to broaden our culinary horizons, or just to escape having to cook. Restaurants and cafes have become part of our everyday, but they're facing unprecedented challenges in the face of energy price hikes, staffing shortages, supply chain issues and more. Last year, hospitality businesses across the UK were closing at a rate of about 3 per day, and time...

Sheep are one of the most common sights in the Scottish Borders farming landscape, but with the exception of Easter weekend, we hardly eat their meat at all. This episode explores our relationship with sheep from field to plate, and includes conversations with farmers, a trader and a local butcher, discussing the joys, challenges, flavours and future of bringing lamb to the table.  You’ll be heari...