[Rosemary]

"Unfortunately, the big negative from the show, also comes from the food sector. If Scotland really does want to be portrayed as the Land of Food and Drink, then crappy burgers in dry rolls at around a fiver a time must be consigned to the history books."
The quote above is from the editorial in The Scottish Farmer last week.
How does the catering rate at your local livestock market and local agri show? Does it actively support quality, local produce and producers?

[shygirl]

im sure iv seen angus beef in a roll, quite pricey but popular.

[Bionic]

At the Royal Welsh Spring Festival there was quite a bit of local produce. I had sausage in a roll (acutally 3 sausages) they were locally produced and lovely. Oh well, back to the diet 

[SallyintNorth]

We're as likely to choose an auction mart to eat out at as any café or restaurant.

Most of ours do proudly use local produce, yes.

The best (in our opinion) is Mitchells (Lakeland) Auction at Cockermouth 

The biggest and best breakfast is at Longtown

The best fish and chips in the north of England (that I've discovered so far) is at Hexham Auction Mart.

The teeny atmospheric mart at St John's Chapel has a wee van outside.  The bacon butties are awesome.

[honeyend]

I used to do catering at shows and festivals. The good ones charge a reasonable pitch fee, some can be upwards of a £1000 or they put the lot out to contract out to a big supplier that will cream off the burger van as that makes the most profit then sell pitches on to other caters often at huge fees so they have to charge high prices to cover their costs.
 I did a big farming show two years running, I was booked to do healthy food but our biggest seller was always the free range Norfolk Black bacon served in a fresh bakers roll from our local village bakery. I managed  to make a profit although I was next to a bigger operation as we concentrated on quality and good service and if anyone asked about where the meat came from I had the wrappers to show them.
 Using local producers takes effort and some although they produce good quality products they may not be suitable for fast food service, its just so much easier to go to Bookers and buy a cheap mass produced sausage that is full of grease and little else which probably costs them 10p.
 The East of England show ground used to have policy that to obtain a pitch you had to prove your supplies were sourced locally which is a good idea but I think the pitches should be priced on takings with a smaller booking fee.

[john and helen]

The sad reality is, profit will be king...I think most people are conditioned (sadly) to expect just a burger or just a sausage at out door events
where as if you have a little regular spot pitch ,(roadside lay-by)  where the customer will return time after time, it would pay to make yourself a good name, using quality produce.

[Ina]

I have no idea... As a vegetarian, I always take my own food. Don't want anything with sugar, either, or white flour - well, nothing with wheat, really - so there's nothing left to eat! Except, sometimes, strawberries.

I do find that they often overcharge on drinks, too. £1.50 for a teaspoon full of instant coffee with some hot water is a bit much. So I take my own flask, too (should have decaf, anyway - and try getting that anywhere...)

[shygirl]

free range Norfolk Black bacon

is that turkey ham? 

[Fowgill Farm]

free range Norfolk Black bacon

is that turkey ham? 

No  i think he means bacon from Large Black pigs kept in Norfolk   well i hope they do.
Mandy

[Victorian Farmer]

well i do lots of shows marts etc and this does need sorting the best i would say is lanark by far there is no other worth the effort .The festival is at lanak so there wont be a problem with food very clean and nice .I have apps to stop asda is fave rd with marks and Spencer top for sand wighis

[Daisys Mum]

Wasn't too impressed with Lanark, don't think that the sausage had ever heard of a pig let alone contain any.

[honeyend]

My bacon came from these people, http://www.scottsfieldpork.co.uk/ rare breeds black pigs.
I always went for quality as on a two to three day event you always will get repeat custom from exhibiters. Its a very tough market and the bigger outfits I have seen could not care less about their customers, on the standard burger in a bun the burger and the bun have probably cost less than 50p.
 The funny thing is I do not eat meat and my original concept was vegetarian food, which at the bigger festivals sells well but at some shows you do very little sales and still have to pay the same amount for the pitch so I broadened my range.

[Raine]

 
I find that you have to search at the big shows for decent, local produce.  It's always there, but often at a high price.


I find the food is often better at the small agricultural shows, where you have a 50/50 chance of buying decent local food.  Lincolnshire is pretty good for food though.

[Greenerlife]

Best ever catering at a show I went to was a portable (in a van) wood fired pizza oven!  Choose your topping, it was rolled, covered and baked in 90 seconds and tasted awesome!  I usually find as someone else said, that the big pitches go to ghastly caterers, and the smaller shows have local independent ones who always provide better food. Round here, some of the smaller shows have really top notch locally sourced food - local venison, boar and rabbit burgers for example, and good vegetarian options including caribbean and curries.  Mind you, we are lucky enough to have a very developed food culture here.  i think the journalist in your case is bang on the money - it's up to people to stop buying expensive rubbish food and demand more.  Sadly, you will probably have to go rough a stage of having crappy burgers before people stop buying them, then these largemoney driven bids for pitches will stop and encourage new smaller local businesses in.  You might have to pay extra for it though!

[Rosemary]

Hmm, yes and some of the big boys seem to ba able to buy a monopoly