A Warm Welsh Welcome in the Hills

To the Welsh eating is a function rather than a love affair and Welsh food suffers from an image problem – it doesn’t really have an image. That’s the problem. For many years there was only one fantastic restaurant, and that was in Abergavenny called the Walnut Tree, which we all made a bee-line for – now run by the great chef Shaun Hill (of Ludlow fame). Elsewhere during the last few decades it was still depressingly easy to drive into a Welsh town and stumble across nothing better than the local café or burger bar.

Yet I remember childhood holidays spent on my Auntie Joan and Uncle Hugh’s farm and the food was wonderful, based entirely on what could be grown locally. This meant that Auntie cooked oats, root veg, dairy products, and there was always honey – and when things were going well and the harvest was good – we had chickens, salt-fed lamb and Welsh black beef. Food was functional and helped satisfy the needs of manual labourers and the men who had been down the mines. Hearty and wholesome but definitely not haute-cuisine. Food was bartered with neighbours; any surplus was given to the farm workers. Have things changed in recent years? I went back to Pembrokeshire to find out….  If there is one word of Welsh that every visitor learns fast; it is ‘Croeso’ – Welcome – and it is definitely a warm one.

In spite of headlines such as ‘Austerity Britain’, ‘Times are going to get tougher’ and ‘The economy hits meltdown’ I found the phrase ‘Green shoots’ referred to fresh, local produce rather than financial recovery - and this was most encouraging.

In the 50s when I was a child there were no Farmers’ Markets, just noisy, smelly, huge, fascinating Cattle Markets where cows, sheep, ponies, ducks and chickens were auctioned off - live.  Sweets were still on ration in 1952, allotments thrived. We played with yo-yos and hula-hoops. We wore sensible Clarks shoes and dungarees. And we listened to Children’s Hour on the wireless. Today in Wales every reasonable sized town has a Farmers’ Market, food has become important, and Fishguard – where Uncle Hugh moored his yacht  - is no exception. Herring and mackerel were the traditional catch with oysters and cockles from the Gower. They still are. I remember Uncle Hugh winning the Cup for ‘Best Farm in Wales’ and Mrs Jenkins the Housekeeper putting on a gigantic spread in celebration. Set out on the table in the garden with the Cup centre stage was a huge slab of crumbly, salted Caerphilly cheese (now not even made in Caerphilly), hard-boiled eggs, homemade mayo and ‘little gem’ lettuce with local ham on slices of stone-ground bread. Bara brith – a spicy loaf made with tea and marmalade, moist fruit cake such as teisen lap or teisen carawe (made with caraway seeds) and Mrs Jenkins speciality – welsh cakes – fruity little griddle scones served warm with salty Welsh butter. All this and the smell of new-mown grass, bracken in the hot sun, warm creosote fences, and the farmyard smell of cows being milked. I remember the beauty of the coastal walks, the spectacular cliffs, salt-crusted pebbles and seaweed on the gloriously empty Pembrokeshire beaches. Did I find any of this in 2010? Well, yes I did.

Now many restaurateurs, hotel managers and even farmers have discovered the value of promoting quality Welsh food. Organic cheeses, succulent meats, Welsh rarebit, laverbread – not bread at all but seaweed mixed with oatmeal and served with bacon and toast – all feature in markets and on menus. Was it as good as Mrs Jenkins cooking? Not quite. Were the ingredients as good as Auntie Joan’s? Almost. Is the Pembrokeshire coast as spectacular as I remembered? Even better. Should you risk the Welsh weather and visit Aber Mawr or Ceibur, Pwll Cwn or Pwllygranant or any of the other unpronounceable Welsh places? Most definitely. Discover food in Pembrokeshire (Cyfoeth bwyd Sir Benfro)  and much, much more.

Mrs Jenkins Welsh Cakes Recipe

Landscape Photography by Jeff Brown