This year Scottish food and Drink fortnight runs from the 2nd to the 16th of September. It’s a chance to discover and celebrate the people and businesses who grow, rear, cultivate and produce the food and drink that we put on our tables.
The theme for 2023 is ‘Discover what’s on your doorstep’, so we’re taking this opportunity to introduce ten producers from across Scotland to show the talent and diversity in the sector.
READ MORE: Edinburgh restaurant Duck & Waffle launches new roast menu
Throughout the fortnight there are events organised by regional food groups: check out foodanddrink.scot to find out what’s happening near you.
CHOCOLATIA
Chloe Oswald is a Scottish chocolatier based in Forfar, where she runs her luxury chocolate company, Chocolatia. Chloe trained in Patisserie at City of Glasgow college, and then worked as a pastry chef at Inver, then Restaurant Andrew Fairlie. In 2020 Chloe decided to turn her patisserie training towards chocolate and launched Chocolatia. Chloe uses Valrhona couverture for its flavour and B-Corp ethical status, and then hand makes and paints all the chocolates herself. This year Chocolatia was awarded a constellation of Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards, including three gold stars for three different chocolates. Chloe says: “Imagine my delight when I realized as a child that I could build my career around something that makes everyone happy!” She describes being able to feed her family as “the happiest I’ve been. Feeding people is how I love.”
GREAT GLEN CHARCUTERIE
Jan Jacob and Anja Baak produce outstanding venison charcuterie in Roy Bridge in the Highlands. Deer population management is essential in Scotland, making eating wild venison an ethical and sustainable choice.
Inspired to do more with venison, Jan and Anja learned to smoke and cure, creating their well-loved range of products. All Great Glen Charcuterie is made by hand, and favourites include green pepper venison salami, venison chorizo and venison bresaola. See the website for stockists or to order a hamper.
BAD GAL BOOCHA
Kombucha is fermented tea: it’s fizzy, delicious, and good for your gut health too. Bad Gal Boocha makes small batch, unpasteurised kombucha in Fife from ethically sourced tea and locally grown fruit and berries (where possible). Owner Heather Blair is committed to making the most environmentally friendly kombucha too, with 95 per cent plastic free packaging, local refills and bottle returns, she’s even got rid of sticky labels. You can find Bad Gal Boocha in cafés and delis across Scotland, or sign up for a subscription. Flavours include ginger, spiced apple and yuzu and rosemary.
Caledonian Oysters
Judith Vajk, known as ‘the Oyster Lady’, farms oysters in the cool clear waters of Loch Creran in Argyll.
The Pacific oysters need warmer temperatures to spawn so they arrive as tiny baby oysters and are grown in mesh bags for at least three years before being harvested. Pacific oysters grow more quickly and are hardier than native oysters: and just as delicious. If you’re in the area, you can buy oysters from the honesty box, or enjoy them on the menu of many of Scotland’s top seafood restaurants.
GLEN LYON COFFEE
Glen Lyon coffee was started by Fiona Grant in 2011, and was initially a one-woman operation, roasting coffee in an unheated bothy. Today the company has moved to Aberfeldy where her team roast speciality coffee beans carefully sourced from farmers and cooperatives around the world: and sell them all over Scotland.
Glen Lyon has achieved B Corp certification for their commitment to reducing their environmental impact and ethical sourcing: developing relationships and paying coffee farmers far more than Fairtrade prices. The roastery also has a brilliant café which doubles up as a supportive community hub, and a training academy which mentors local school leavers. And crucially, the coffee is incredible.
THE EDINBURGH BUTTER COMPANY
Finalists in the BBC Food & Farming Awards 2022, the family-run Edinburgh Butter Company have churned up the butter market in Scotland, ousting French butter from the tables of many of Scotland’s best restaurants and hotels. Cream from a local dairy is made into cultured crème fraîche before being churned into butter, giving a deliciously complex flavour. It’s made into sheets for the country’s top pastry chefs, and into logs for your fridge which you’ll find in delis across Scotland.
www.theedinburghbutterco.co.uk
HOARDWEEL WAGYU
For 30 years David and Elaine Stebbings have been farming in Berwickshire with their family. They keep herds small to ensure high welfare with a lighter environmental impact. Hoardweel Wagyu produces premium free range, grass fed and sustainably produced meat: grass fed Wagyu beef and Rare-breed Berkshire pork.
AEMILIA
The best fresh pasta this side of Emilia-Romagna. Made daily by hard working couple Giada Betti and Kip Preidys and sold from their Portobello premises. The menu changes weekly to incorporate seasonal produce.
Favourites include ricotta and spinach ravioli, ‘nduja and ricotta agnolotti, and aubergine and scamorza tortelli. Along with your pasta, take home sauces, focaccia and Italian desserts, and enjoy restaurant quality food at home.
LITTLE TROCHRY FARM
When you see the same farm name continuously crop up on menus, you know they must be doing something special. Little Trochry Farm uses soil-friendly, regenerative farming techniques to produce an abundance of beautiful organic vegetables.
Kirstin and Iain sell their vegetables from a farmstand on the farm, in local delis and farmers markets in Perthshire, and to discerning chefs too.
SCOTLAND THE BREAD
This ‘Sourdough September’ discover the project that aims, “to grow better grain and bake better bread with the common purposes of nourishment, sustainability and food sovereignty.”
Across Scotland community bakeries are using Scotland the Bread flour. This ‘Balcaskie Landrace flour’ is milled from a blend of wheats including three Scottish heritage varieties rescued from extinction by Scotland the Bread. The grains are chosen for their genetic diversity, nutrient density, breadmaking quality and flavour. Scotland the Bread is based at Bowhouse in Fife where the flour is grown, milled, and sold.
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