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

 

Penicuik Pottery at Valleyfield House    Friends’ Meeting at Valleyfield House

 

Launching the Ness Yawl Jeanie Henderson at Valleyfield House

 

PENICUIK COMMUNITY FOOD PROJECT

 

PENICUIK HOME    KOSMOID HOME

PENICUIK CO-OP

 

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