VH
VALLEYFIELD HOUSE
THE CRAFT OF GOOD
FOOD
Valleyfield
House Partnership, off 17 High Street, Penicuik
Now in its twentieth year.
Every week this organic and fair trade market is run
by volunteers on Saturday mornings
Valleyfield House is tucked away in the heart of Penicuik through a High Street archway.
Since 1990, every Saturday morning from ten till noon, organic and fair trade
supplies are brought together and taken away by people at Valleyfield
House. People join in for the fun of it,
there's no mark-up and everything changes hands at cost price, which makes a
big difference to family food bills. Our
organic breads are brought in
weekly, originally from Trusty Crust in East Saltoun
and now from the Engine Shed in Edinburgh, stacks of fruit and vegetable boxes
and other produce come in weekly from East Coast Organics at Pencaitland or nearby Whitmuir Farm,
organic milk & cream from Clyde Organics
and glass-bottled unhomogenised pints from Orchard Farm, organic eggs from Giles
Henry, organic cheese
from Connage and Lye Cross, with Peeblesshire grapes
and Penicuik honeys in season. Pretty
well everything else in the way of organic flours, pastas, tea, coffee, oats, chocolate, juices and
general groceries, is there to supply a household’s needs, brought every week
by wholesale co-operatives and local suppliers.
It’s a great chance to meet people, drop in on Le Tout P’ti, Penicuik’s well known High Street pâtisserie
and the other shops and galleries nearby, and check out upcoming local events and exhibitions.
Unlike Edinburgh and similar
recently-established farmers markets, everything here is at wholesale prices.
Valleyfield House is open from 10am
till 12 on Saturdays.
-through the vennel and down the drive at
17 High Street, Penicuik, EH26 8HS
01968
677854
also at Valleyfield House:
Penicuik Pottery Friends’ Meeting launching the
Jeanie Henderson
PENICUIK COMMUNITY FOOD PROJECT
Quiet
social enterprise
–a
Penicuik tradition on Edinburgh’s doorstep
-Weekly supplies
at Valleyfield House since 1990
revive a much older tradition. Marjory Cowan (1734-1819) had a no-nonsense
approach to social enterprise as far back as the 1790s. When living at Valleyfield, of which she was
very fond, she paid great attention to her dairy, poultry and garden, selling
with her own hands her spare milk to those who wanted it, and keeping cans set
in order, each labelled for its own customer.
Every egg laid was marked with the date and the hen's name. Marjorie had wry contempt for grand ways and
would-be grand people. One day she was
in the garden with a large lapful of cabbages &c., which she had been
cutting for the kail, when her husband Charles came
in with a strange gentleman. She walked
past him, dropping a curtsey, and saying 'your servant, Mr Charles', thus
sparing his blushes for a wife so employed.
She had a keen sense of humour and a high spirit of honour, and she
detested deceit. She knew Allan
Ramsay's works almost by heart. In her
cellars in those days she kept barrels of American apples, a barrel or two of
salted beef from Shetland and huge American cheeses as big as cartwheels. Read more about
Marjory Fidler Cowan here on the Penicuik Trust website
The Valleyfield House local provisioning tradition was
revived in 1990 at the prompting of Caroline McKerchar.
It was encouraged and developed by local support and the interest of Elva Allen
and Kay Oldfield of the Soil Association’s Lothians
group. In 1996 we helped start Edinburgh’s first organic vegetable box scheme with
grower Bruce Bennett of Pillars of
Hercules. Our friends Fu and Mike at East Coast
Organics in Pencaitland took over
Penicuik boxes when Bruce gave up deliveries south of the Forth. We
established early links with Dan at Trusty Crust
Organic Bakery, and the Crust’s new owner Peter Hamilton continues the
connection. Dairy supplier Clyde
Organics came to us first through Whitmuir Farm,
we’re also served by Pete’s Doorstep Deli who brings in
delicious organic Ettrick Valley eggs from Giles Henry and rare unhomogenised
glass-bottled pints from Orchard Farm in Hawick.
We’re grateful to Lucy who brings her succulent Peeblesshire grapes every year,
to Diana whose walled garden at Garvald once inspired
us, and to Belle and other local gardeners who bring in their produce.
Valleyfield House volunteer Saturday
market helpers 2008-9:
Mandy Manouvrier, Roddy Johnston, Tom Sydes, Roger Kelly, (we sing too -join us!)
(past- Kirsty Robertson, Rose Scott,
Johnny Barton, Tom Kelly, Katie Owen, Gus Fisher, Wouter
Modderkolk)
Valleyfield helpexchange volunteers 2008-9:
Mike Greer, Elizabeth Laudenslager,
Christina Suter, Sheila Nichols, Bill Nichols, Lauren
Williams, Dani Mazzotti, Simon Schiaratura,
Katharina Rehberg, Hannah Schlegelmilch, Kalina Suter,
Stephanie Poole, Hank Guterson, Maria Jesus
Villanueva Millan, Sergio Piñeiro
Hermida, Brad Beitscher,
Aimee Mossa
Valleyfield House Gardens:
Jill Hayward, Jane Kelly
(past- David Robertson, Graham Louttit, David Kinnen, Reuben
Crook, Matthew Watson)
Valleyfield House Honey:
(past: Margaret Nixon, Maurice Checker)
VH Magazine Exchange:
Rose Scott
Launching the Ness Yawl Jeanie
Henderson at
Valleyfield House
PENICUIK COMMUNITY FOOD PROJECT
PENICUIK HOME KOSMOID HOME
PENICUIK
CO-OP
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