VH
VALLEYFIELD HOUSE
THE CRAFT OF GOOD
FOOD
Valleyfield
House Partnership, off 17 High Street, Penicuik
Now in its eighteenth 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.
Organic breads are brought
in weekly by Trusty Crust from East Saltoun, 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
pints from Hawick, organic eggs from the Ettrick
Valley, 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 in Glasgow and Halifax. 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
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 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 local group.
In 1996 we helped set up Edinburgh’s first organic vegetable box scheme with grower Bruce Bennett of Pillars of Hercules. Our friends Fu and Mike at East Coast
Organics took over when Bruce gave up deliveries. We established early links with Dan at The 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 of
Gorgie who brings unrivalled Ettrick Valley eggs and hard-to-find glass-bottled pints
from Hawick. We are grateful to Lucy who brings her
succulent Peeblesshire grapes every year, and Diana whose walled garden at Garvald once inspired us.
Valleyfield House volunteer Saturday
market helpers 2008:
Mandy Manouvrier, Clarelynn Rose, 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 volunteers2008:
Mike Greer, Elizabeth Laudenslager,
Christina Suter, Sheila Nichols, Bill Nichols, Lauren
Williams, Dani Mazzotti,
Simon Schiaratura
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
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