Local FoodBuying local food is great for the local economy and community as well as the environment. ‘Every £10 spent on local food generates £25 for the local economy. The same £10 spent in a supermarket generates only £14.’ (New Economics Foundation) Markets and Farmers Markets
Markets are a great source of fresh fruit and vegetables and locally sourced dairy products, fish and meat. Products are often cheaper, have travelled less and have much less packaging than supermarket alternatives. Farmers markets give you a great opportunity to meet and buy your food directly from the producer. Lancaster Indoor Market is open 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Saturday and Morecambe Festival Market is open Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday from 9.00, offering a wide range of stalls, with everything from fresh fruit and veg, quality meat and fish and cheese. Lancaster Farmers Market is held on the second Saturday and Wednesday of every month in market square and Morecambe Farmers Market is held at Christ Church United Reformed Church, Broadway on the fourth Thursday each month from 9-2pm. Both offers locally reared meats, freshly baked bread, pies and puddings, dairy produce, pickles and preserves, seasonal fruit and vegetables and much more.
Box Schemes
A great way to get locally produced, seasonal, and often organic fruit and vegetables delivered directly to your door is to sign up to a box scheme. Growing with Nature, Pilling, 01253 790046, website Nature’s Garden, Rosendale, 01706 217832, website Green Organics , 01524 823788 Growing with Grace, Clapham , 01524 251723, website
Grow your own
The best way to get local, organic, fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs is to grow your own. You can grow your own food in whatever space you have available, from digging over a patch in your garden to pots in your back yard and window boxes on your balcony. There are lots of allotment sites across the Lancaster district that are cheap to rent and a very popular way to grow your own food. Contact the council for more details on 01524 582061 or
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This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it SupermarketsMost of the large supermarkets are starting to source more local, regional and British produce and Booths has lots of local and regional produce. You can look at labels as you shop to see where produce has come from and buy local and British rather than imported food. You can also ask your supermarket to stock more local food.
Eating OutMore and more restaurants are sourcing their ingredients locally providing great meals using the freshest, tastiest, seasonal ingredients.
The Meeting House Restaurant, 11/13 Meeting House Lane, Lancaster, 01524 848049, prides itself on using the best local fruit, vegetables, cheese, fish and meat from favourites such as Burt’s Butchers and Glasson Smokehouse. These ingredients are cooked to perfection and served in an understated and relaxing environment.
The Whale Tail Café, 78a Penny Street, Lancaster, 01524 845133, has a policy of sourcing food locally where possible and using seasonal ingredients. The food is always imaginative, delicious and vegetarian with a selection of vegan meals also on offer.
The Austwick Traddock was the Organic Restaurant of the Year in 2006 . Set in a Georgian Country house and renowned for charm and friendliness, it prides itself on using local and seasonal ingredients, and organic produce whenever possible. Austwick, Lancaster, tel: 015244 51224.
Search our food directory for places for more places that serve up great local produce.
Drinking out
There are several local brewers and lots pubs that sell local beer. Local breweries include Thwaites in Blackburn, Moorhouses in Burnley, Hawkeshead in Staveley and micro breweries such as Lancaster Brewery, Brysons in Morecambe and Dent Brewery in Dent. Search our food directory for places that serve locally-produced beer.
Farms and Farm Shops
Buying produce direct from farms and farm shops is an excellent way of keeping food miles to a minimum, supporting the local economy and finding out more about where the food you eat comes from Bellfold Farm, Moorside Lane, Woodplumpton, Preston, 01772 690387 is a family run organic dairy farm with an organic British Friesian Herd. Produce includes organic hen, duck and goose eggs, fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables, organic Lancashire cheese and preserves.
Cliftons Farm, Silk Mill Lane, Inglewhite, Goosnargh, Preston, 01995 640564 is a family run organic farm with a Jersey herd producing home made organic ice-cream in a variety of flavours and with their own organic fruit. Organic hen, geese and duck eggs are also available from farm gate sales as is fruit between May and October.
Keer Falls Forest Farm, Arkholme, Carnforth, 01524 221019 produces delicious organic lamb and beef, rare breed lamb, forest ducklings and herbs.
Search for more local producers according to postcode at www.bigbarn.co.
Eat Local Action Plan
The Sustainability Partnership has produced Eat Local, a local food action plan for the Lancaster District. For more information see the Council's website here
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