Aug 28 2008
Food in East Anglia - Fruit, Vegetables and Oilseeds
 The Yellowing Countryside Flowering rape colours the April countryside |
 Golden Oil of Yellow Fields Rich gold cold-pressed rapeseed oil |
 Harvesting Rapeseed Black seeds for golden oil |
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Mostly cereals
Almost half East Anglia’s farmland is given to cereal production but an enormous variety of crops are grown besides cereals, from onions to oilseed rape, from strawberries to sugar beet. One Suffolk farmer is now cold pressing extra virgin rapeseed oil; the region’s answer to olive oil.
The right soil
Market gardens and orchards were once concentrated within easy reach of London, particularly in fertile areas such as Hertfordshire’s Lea Valley. The Fens are now a leading area for production of cabbages, celery, lettuce and many other vegetables. The light sandy soil of the Brecks and the Suffolk Sandlings is well suited to carrots and asparagus, while peas are much grown on the East coast.
Small but beautiful
Fruit production remains a small but important part of the region’s agriculture, with a particularly rich heritage of apples and orchards. From the scattered wild fruit of the hedgerow to the commercial Bramley orchards around Wisbech, the countryside everywhere is enriched by fruit.
Traditional cider, made with dessert and cooking apples rather than the West Country cider varieties, is widely made in Suffolk and Norfolk. Jams and preserves capture fleeting seasonal flavours, whether from the smallest cottage industry or the world famous Wilkin and Sons of Tiptree in Essex.
