Where to get the best produce

10:13am Monday 4th February 2008

Tomorrow is Sunday, the traditional day for a roast dinner and a family get-together. But how many of us actually bother to cook a roast these days? Or invite friends, family and neighbours over for a meal?

Henry Wormington, chairman of the Worcestershire Farmers' Market Group, launching their Celebration of the Roast Dinner week said: "We think it's important to bring togetherness back into family life. Families used to get together for at least one big meal a week to talk.

It was a weekly occasion and now it has gone by the by.

"Everyone's so busy, with both people in families out at work, that family meals just don't happen.

"It'd be good to get people back into cooking a nice roast, just once a week, and invite friends and family to join them for a relaxing meal."

Of course, the best place for great-tasting locally-produced ingredients for a roast dinner is your local farmers' market.

And any good roast dinner starts with perfect roast potatoes. Fruit and vegetable grower Liz Styan, of Styan Family Produce, recommends kestrel potatoes.

"Kestrels are great for roasting - particularly if you par boil them then rough up the outside before you put them in the roasting tin. They have a really crunchy outside and a fluffy inside," she said.

And Liz says that the late season sprouts taste better than those picked at Christmas.

There are all the vegetables you could want for a roast at the Vicarage Farm and Styan Family Produce stalls, such as parsnips, kohl rabi, purple-sprouting broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and superfoods' curly kale and cavolo nero.

You are spoilt for choice at farmers' markets when it comes to which meat to have for your roast.

You'll find a wide range of traditionally-reared as well as organic meats from small-scale local farmers.

Three-farm co-operative Golden Valley Organics, of Herefordshire, sell a range of meats perfect for roasting, including lamb, pork and beef.

The co-operative's Marian Parker said: "The meat is bred with the emphasis on quality and flavour from animals that have been reared under excellent welfare conditions.

"Our animals live a natural, stress free and happy life.

"We are so confident in the quality of our meat that we offer a 100 per cent satisfaction, money back guarantee on all of our produce."

With that kind of confidence you can be sure that you can cook a fabulous roast for all the family.

This weekend's farmers' markets:* Victoria Square, Droitwich, Saturday, February 2, 9am-2pm.* Royal Worcester Porcelain, Sunday, February 3, 10am-2pm.* Next weekend's farmers' market: High Street, Bromsgrove, 9am-5pm, February 10.

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