The Tracing Paper

Landscapes

Suffolk is a county of diverse landscapes, food and drink. To journey across Suffolk, from Newmarket in the West to Lowestoft in the East, is to travel from chalky hills to sandy heaths; from land to sea; from the best sausages to unbeatable fish; from Greene King country to the land of Adnam’s. Not to mention all that comes between.

Breckland

The rolling chalky hills of Newmarket soon give way to Breckland’s austere landscape of flint and sand, reaching down to Bury from the Little Ouse and Norfolk beyond. In contrast to the rich, black peat of the neighbouring Cambridgeshire Fens, this land is amongst the poorest in the country. The brecks are the area’s sandy, overworked and eroded heaths.

Early neolithic farmers prized this poor but light soil. Easily cleared and tilled, with a ready supply of flint tools, the brecks were amongst the first worked fields of England; nearby flint mines the earliest proto-industrialist sites. Cultivation further exhausted the land, leaving it fit mainly for sheep and rabbits. In the 17th century, John Evelyn described “travelling sands … rouling from place to place … like the deserts of Lybia”.

Modern farming methods have brought a wide range of crops back to the Brecks. Carrots, parsnips, asparagus and herbs all thrive in the light soil. Draining freely, the land is ideal for outdoor pigs.

Pigs, Sausages, Bacon and Ham

With a higher population density of pigs than any other county, it’s no surprise that Suffolk has a superb reputation for sausages, bacon and ham.

Newmarket has been famous for sausages since the 1880s, when two butchers started selling race-goers sausages made to secret recipes, each with their own distinctive blend of herbs and spices. Musk’s and Powters still vie to produce the renowned Newmarket sausage. Musk’s has a royal warrant, Powters their own loyal following and a string of awards.

The traditional Suffolk sweet cure for hams and bacon involves long steeping in treacle or molasses and beer, often stout, giving the meat an unusual dark finish and a deliciously sweet and aromatic flavour. Butchers such as JR Creasy of Peasenhall, FE Neave & Son of Debenham and Bramfield Meats still cure bacon and hams to traditional recipes.

The Claylands

South and east of Breckland is the large plateau of chalky boulder clay that covers most of the county – High Suffolk up to the Waveney in the north and South Suffolk down to the Stour. The land here is heavy but farms well and is mostly down to arable crops.

Wheat and barley cover almost a half of Suffolk’s farmland, but oilseed rape, potatoes, peas, beans and other vegetables are also grown. The British Sugar factory at Bury St Edmunds is a monument to another of the county’s most important crops – sugar beet.

Across Suffolk, brewers put the county’s barley to good use. Best known are the region’s two largest brewers, Greene King at Bury St Edmunds and Adnam’s at Southwold. Superb and distinctive beers are produced by the many newer, smaller breweries, from Nethergate’s coriander beer to St Peter’s spiced ale.

Most arable crops are grown for commodity markets, but farmers are increasingly finding ways to sell direct, often producing distinctive products. At Hill Farm, near Halesworth, Sam Fairs now cold presses his best oilseed rape to produce an extra virgin rapeseed oil. Intensely yellow, the oil has a subtle but distinct flavour and a high burn point – altogether the English alternative to olive oil.

Dairying and Beef

High Suffolk was once an important dairying area, producing butter for market in London. Daniel Defoe, touring East Anglia in 1722, observed that the area was “famous for the best butter, and perhaps, the worst cheese, in England”.

Today, the county’s dairy production is mostly confined to the pastoral river valleys that cut across the claylands. The Waveney, forming the border with Norfolk, is flanked by grazing meadows which are home to many beef and dairy herds.

Though not abundant, there are excellent beef herds across Suffolk, often grazed on the rich grass of river pasture or coastal marsh. Many of the county’s best butchers sell beef from local herds, properly hung for up to three weeks for tenderness and well developed flavours.

The Red Poll, Suffolk’s traditional breed of cattle, resulted from crossing of the Suffolk Dun and Norfolk Red in the early 19th century. Red Polls were popular until the middle of the 20th century, both as efficient milkers and good beef animals. A few farmers still raise them for the superb quality of their fine grained meat.

Till now, cheese making has not been Suffolk’s strong point, but Jason and Katherine Salisbury have set out to forge a new reputation. Using the milk from their herd of pedigree Guernseys on the Shrubland Park estate, they produce a range of three excellent farmhouse cheeses.

The Sandlings

Towards the coast, the landscape again changes dramatically, the heavy clay abruptly giving way to the Sandlings, an area of sandy heaths, coastal marshes and tidal estuaries.

Along the coast, a variety of fish are landed, from cod, plaice and sole to skate, turbot and shrimps. At Aldeburgh and Southwold, fishermen sell their catch direct to the public from their tarred sheds, while at Orford, the Butley-Orford Oysterage sells oysters from beds in the Butley River and smokehouses fill the air with a heady mix of oak smoke and fish oils.

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