Day 11. Steak and chips.

Buying local at Sargeant's in Stowbridge

This is my local butcher's, if you can call 5 miles away local. My nearest supermarket is 3 miles away though so a trip to Sargeant's doesn't add much time onto the journey and it's always worth it. Here I get helpful advice on the cut of meat, everything is trimmed and prepared just the way I like it and the provenance of all of the meat is known. Today we did a 'big shop' here, stocking up our fridge and freezer with steak, chops, sausages, burgers and a sizeable piece of belly pork. The pork skin was scored to make it crackle better in the oven and included the initials BH: for Bea Honeybone of course. When we can, we buy from independents, and we're lucky because Downham Market has so many on offer. Better for us, better for the local economy and hopefully better for the animals. Tonight's Desperate Dan sized steak was, without question, worth the extra couple of miles and as it came from one of Jeff's own cattle, from farm to fork the food miles associated with it will still be considerably lower than most pieces of steak you'll find on the shelves at Tesco or Sainsbury's. With chips and peas it was the perfect supper to end a very long week.