Food and Drink
There’s more than cakes and ale in Pennine Lancashire. Or indeed black pudding, hot-pot and Eccles cakes. Although all have their place.
Visit our annual Pennine Lancashire Festival of Food and Culture and you’ll see and taste for yourself the truth of our boast.
This year’s (2009) take place in August and September and there’ll be a vast and appetising range of foods to buy and sample from Lancashire’s finest local produce to exotic and international treats.
It has the distinction of being selected by Enjoy Engand as a top visitor attraction and is supported by HRH the Prince of Wales.
We pride ourselves on being home to breweries large and small from Thwaites to Bowland. Many of our finest pubs are proud to offer a selection of local beers to the discerning drinker.
On the food front this is England’s green and pleasant land with outstanding farm-gate supplies of locally reared beef, lamb and pork.
Wild boar and game are available too, as well as an almost unbelievable range of Lancashire farmhouse cheeses, thanks to the cheese-makers of Bowland and Ribble Valley.
There are farm shops, specialist food stores and delicatessens a-plenty – aren’t we fortunate?
Many of our traditional dishes are shaped by our farming, mining and cotton trade legacy. Many have been given a modern twist.
Get a taste of our finest foods now by finding out a little more:
Pennine Lancashire Farming Country
The Lancashire Milk Field
Liquid Refreshment
Black Pudding and Sausages To Savour
Farmers’ Markets and the Ribble Valley Food Trail
Deli Delights
Lush riverside pastures, hill farms and moorland provide the ideal habitat for successful dairy, beef and sheep farming.
Drive round the area and you’ll be heartened by the number of independent farming businesses providing food in abundance.
Our farmers are proud of their produce – and sell at farm gate, farmers’ markets and shop outlets, while also providing the raw materials for our local chefs to craft a truly delicious taste of Lancashire.
There’s beef and lamb, wild boar and even venison farmed here, not to mention pigs.
But let’s start with the Lancashire Milk Field – say cheese!
The Lancashire Milk Field covers more than 300 square miles and takes in the former royal hunting grounds in the Forest of Bowland.
Lancashire is the only county in Britain to produce three distinct types of cheese – Creamy or Mild, Tasty and Crumbly.
From a cheese making point of view the grass is certainly greener here – or should we say more lush and plentiful. Within a ten-mile radius of Bowland Forest there are at least seven traditional Lancashire cheese makers, using recipes passed down though families. Check them out via the Cheese Trail or visit the Cheese Museum at Leagram Organic Dairy.
* It takes between two weeks to two years for a Lancashire cheese to mature. Its distinct smooth flavour was developed in the late 18th century when farmers turned surplus milk into curd and stored it overnight at room temperature.
Two local companies – Ann Forshaw’s Alston Dairy of Longridge and Littletown Dairy of Chipping are amongst those making and selling delicious yoghurts.
Not surprisingly home-made ice cream is another favourite from Lancashire’s milk field.
It was a natural progression for the Dowson family, who farm at Clayton-le-Dale in the Ribble Valley to extend their business to include ice-cream making. They took up the challenge in 2002 and use real fruit and natural colourings to produce the popular Mrs Dowson’s Dairy Ice Cream.
Huntley’s Moo2You Ice Cream also prides itself on using the finest quality ingredients – again with fresh creamy milk from cows on their own pasture. With more than 80 flavours to offer Huntley’s of Samlesbury has won awards for their pistachio and chocolate ice creams.
The village of Chatburn is another place where you can savour home-made ice cream in seasonal flavours – guess when damson ice cream is a favourite! Hudson's is located in the village’s old toll house.
Meanwhile for the town centre visitor an ice cream from Slaters in Nelson is a treat to be savoured.
Our beer is the nectar dreams are made of.
There is ale for every taste crafted by household names like Thwarts of Blackburn and Moorhouses of Burnley to new microbreweries like Bowland Brewery at Bashall. Blackburn’s 3Bs and Darwin’s Hop Star Ales are also names to conjure with.
Even the names of the beers conjure up the glories of Pennine Lancashire. Bowland’s include: Sawley Tempted, Hen Harrier, Bowland Dragon and Chipping Steamer.
Meanwhile Moorhouses of Burnley is famous for its witch beers – the popular Black Cat, Pendle Witches and Black Witch.
It has six pubs of its own and supplies around 300 free trade outlets within a 50 mile radius of the brewery –where trips can be arranged.
In Clitheroe D.Byrne and Co is an award winning fine wine merchant – worth visiting to see its well-stocked cellar and get some advice on the perfect wine to complement your meal.
Meanwhile – on an alcohol free note - the Temperance Movement, started by a Lancastrian, gained much support in the Lancashire cotton towns. Moorhouses started life in 1865 as a manufacturer of bottled mineral waters.
Mawsons’ Sarsaparilla is another famous local drink - a soft drink made with herbal ingredients including liquorice, ginger and sarsaparilla root. Mawsons’ Dandelion and Burdock and Cream Soda provide popular refreshment too.
It’s still possible to find a Temperance Bar in Pennine Lancashire. Fitzpatrick’s in Rawtenstall – founded by a family of herbalists who emigrated from Ireland to Lancashire - has been making soft drinks for 116 years.
We have brilliant butchers – who will even create a sausage to special order for you.
These are butchers who know the importance of hanging meat and how best to cure bacon. You may even be tempted by the traditional black pudding –which will include pig’s blood, rusk/barley, herbs and spices and is traditionally served as part of a full cooked breakfast, grilled or boiled in its skin.
Andy Holt runs the Real Lancashire Black Pudding Company (vegetarian options provided!) and is one of Rick Stein’s food heroes. In another role he’s a member of the renowned Britannia Coconutters, a Rossendale based Morris Dance group!
We like variety in Pennine Lancashire.
Check out our fabulous delicatessens…full of local specialities and the best of international cuisine.
The Ribble Valley Food Trail highlights astonishingly good restaurants, inns, shops and delicatessens selected by an independent panel of foodies, including local Michelin starred chef Nigel Haworth.
If you can’t make it to the farm gate shops (and we have many) go to market instead.
Farmers’ markets are held the third Saturday of each month on the Market Car Park in Colne and on the first Sunday of each month at the Helmshore Mills Textile Museum in Rossendale from 10am to 3 pm.
In Clitheroe a Country market (formerly the WI market) is held every Tuesday from March to mid-December from 10.30am to 11.45 am in the United Reformed Church Hall. Home made cakes, jams and chutneys abound, along with plants and produce.