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 1990-2010:
current helpers: Roddy
Johnston, Roger Kelly, Michael Cook, Kate
Hayworth and helpex
visitors (we sing too -join
us!)
(past helpers- Kirsty
Robertson, Rose Scott, Johnny Barton, Tom Kelly, Katie Owen, Gus Fisher, Wouter Modderkolk, Mandy Manouvrier, Tom Sydes)
Valleyfield helpexchange volunteers 2008-10:
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,
Thomas Bru, James Romine, Christina Suter, Elizabeth Morgan, Janis Finn, Ciaran
Patterson Taylor, Sebastian Pohl, Sandra Liebram,
Maria Andres, Jai Larkman, Sindy
Burk, Samuel Rodríguez Cardeñas,
Eva Caballé Moreno.
Valleyfield House Gardens:
Jane Kelly and helpex volunteers
(past-
David Robertson, Graham Louttit, David Kinnen, Reuben Crook, Matthew Watson, Jill
Hayward)
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
HELP
TO SAVE JACKSON STREET SCHOOL
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