Over our fourteen years at the Allanton Inn (& a lifetime in & out the Borderlands) we have worked hard to source & promote the fabulous local produce we have on our doorstep from the richly agricultural & coastal Borderlands. We have developed some fantastic relationships with our local suppliers, with much of the tasty produce coming straight from the farm or supplier, we love to tell their stories & sing their praises.
Sourcing local means we get the freshest ingredients, with regular deliveries, with minimal packaging and that hasn’t travelled for miles. This was particularly beneficial during COVID times when we had no problem sourcing supplies. Agriculture is big business in the Borders, one of the main employers & financial economies.
The abundance of good food comes from the larder of the lowlands, the richly fertile land on both sides of the Tweed which are farmed and managed much as they have always been through time and life is still pretty much ruled by the seasons. Berwickshire is home to the modern style swing plough invented by James Small in 1779. We have some of the best farming land in the country. We are so fortunate to have direct access to so many tasty ingredients, it would be positively rude not to share them with our guests.
With much of our produce, it is not enough to be the best & tastiest food in the land, but also have a bigger tale to tell. The stories of the farms, producers or produce itself are interwoven into our heritage & culture, past & present and something we like to celebrate and showcase. However, not much of it is not well-known information or told, until now!
Take our pork suppliers for example, the Marshall Family. They have farmed Slighhouses Farm, Berwickshire since 1919. Previously, Slighhouses was the home of James Hutton, father of Modern Geology. James Hutton was the third generation of Hutton’s to farm at Slighhouses, his shift as farmer being 1750’s -1791, revolutionised Berwickshire Farming by treating agriculture as a science. After studying Maths & Chemistry at Edinburgh University, Hutton advanced the idea that the physical world’s remote history can be inferred from evidence in present-day rocks. Through his study of features in the landscape and coastlines of his native Scottish Lowlands, such as at Siccar Point, he developed the theory that geological features could not be static but underwent continuing transformation over indefinitely long periods of time. From this he argued, in agreement with many other early geologists, that the Earth could not be young. Hutton was one of the most influential participants in the 18th century Scottish Enlightenment and fell in with numerous first-class minds in the sciences of the time.
Our eggs are produced by the Runciman Family who farm in Edington Mains, just outside Chirnside. Edington Mains was the home of Jim Clark from 1942 to his tragic death in 1968.Aged 16, Jim’s education was cut short due to being called back to help on the family farm in 1952, following the sad loss of both his grandfather and uncle. Jim had always loved farming and wanted to be a farmer. He took control of the 1,242 acres of Edington Mains with its mixture of arable land, pedigree sheep and 500 bought in fattening Irish cattle. Jim started driving on the farm as soon as his feet could reach the pedals. His first tractor driving job was when he was just 10 years old, for sixpence an hour, at harvest time. At every opportunity, he was behind the wheel of a vehicle. In the early years of life on the farm, Jim showed great passion as a shepherd with only a little interest in farm machinery, however he liked driving, but had no intentions of becoming a racing driver. However, Jim went on to become one of the greatest & natural gifted racing drivers of all time. He was the first British driver to win the Indianapolis 500 and a world-renowned legend for winning two Formula One World Championships in 1963 & 1965, he still holds several Formula One records today.
In more recent years, Standhill Farm & Glasshouse near Hawick became the home of my sister when she married Jim Shanks in 2013. The Shanks are third generation dairy farmers at Standhill. Jim is extremely entrepreneurial and forward thinking. He decided to diversify his farming operations recently and build a four-acre glasshouse to become Scotland’s only commercial tomato producer. The glasshouse is heated by a biogas anaerobic digestor which is fueled by the cow slurry from the dairy (the waste product from the digestor is also taken to Borders Distillery where it is used in the process of making local whisky).The size, warmth & innovative eco systems of the glasshouse is quite something as the tomatoes they produce. We were all present when Princess Anne officially opened it in 2017.
Our fields across the historic Borderlands (many of which have been battlefields) are largely arable. Cereal & vegetable crops thrive due to the ideal climate & perfect soil type for them. What tales these crops would tell if these lands could talk! Most of the crops make their way to our tables for us to taste & enjoy.
Local barley is malted at Simpsons Malt in Berwick (home of good malt since 1862) for much of Scotland’s whisky & beer. Oil seed rape is processed by Borderfield Oils to make cooking oils. Wheat ground for flour is always one of our key ingredients in the kitchen. Local oats are milled by Hogarths of Kelso, millers of the finest Scottish oatmeal & pearl barley for over 100 years. Packed by Heatherslaw Mill, a 19th century water driven cornmill, we use these oats in our porridge & baking. We source potatoes that grow locally and are processed by Greenvale AP who also supply all major UK super markets. Many other vegetables enjoyed round the UK such as leeks, turnips, Brussel sprouts, peas, beans, onions, & cabbages start here in the fields of the Borderlands.
Honey from the Chain Bridge Honey Farm is a third-generation business with plenty beekeeping(amongst others) stories to tell. Game reared on local estates is supplied by Andersen & Sondergaard at Ayton. Stichill Cheese is made from the milk of Jersey cows who graze neighbouring the Duke of Roxburgh’s Floors castle. You can enjoy seeing many fields of livestock as you travel across the Borderlands (as you would have done over the centuries) such as cows, pigs & sheep, particularly on the higher grounds. Farmers round here take their livestock rearing very seriously and animals are treated exceptionally well. As with our local fisherman – a hardworking & grueling industry who skillfully supply our cod, haddock, herring, mackerel, St Abbs lobsters straight off the boats, fresh Eyemouth langoustines and crabs plus Lindisfarne Oysters from the coastal waters by Holy Island & Smoked Fish from Eyemouth Smoked House.
Ahlstrom (Chirnside Mill) just outside Chirnside makes, among other things, tea bags which are now plastic free and sold Worldwide. Incredibly at one point approx. 30% of the Worlds tea bag paper was made here.
References & tales of agriculture, food & drink appear frequently interwoven in our historical culture including art & literature. John Mackay Wilson while editor of our local paper the Berwick Advertiser, began publishing local short stories in 1832 after he saw the successes of Sir Walter Scott. The popularity of Wilsons stories led to him reprinting and extending them into a weekly broadsheet, the weekly soap opera of its day! By 1834 he published his first collection as Wilson’s Tales of the Borders, and of Scotland. These collections tell tales of the present time & past, many about the lawless countryside during the Borders Reivers period particularly. The stories regularly feature feasts, family gatherings around a table, Borderlands countryside roaming, trips to markets, ale consumption, enjoyment of wines, meats, Bannocks and in one of the poems he wrote himself, Bacon & Beans. It sounds like John Wilson has been on one of our Borderland Tours.
