Food and Foraging

To get a real sense of a place, it’s a good idea to explore its native food, and the South West offers one of the richest arrays of home-reared, freshly harvested, clotted-cream-smothered bounty that you will find anywhere on our island.

Provenance here can be measured in metres. Honesty boxes filled with overspill from veg patches line the little lanes of Devon and Cornwall, so fill your basket with shiny courgettes, pots of jam, eggs with deep-yellow yolks and some scented flowers for your camping table. Buy fish straight from the fishing boats in tiny harbours and head for the growing number of farmers’ or village markets that offer a lifeline to rural, artisan food producers. Their hand-made, traditional foods, free from additives and made with love, will make you want to throw away your supermarket loyalty card.