HUNGRY commuters, schoolchildren and visitors decided to start the day the proper way with a Moorland farmhouse breakfast last Tuesday. Locally produced sausages, eggs, bacon, granola cereal, preserves, honey, fruit juice and tea and coffee made up the breakfast served up at the Moorland Farm Shop, at Whiddon Down, organised by Taste of the West as part of Farmhouse Breakfast Week. The week is the Home Grown Cereals Authority?s profile-raising initiative to highlight the importance of healthy breakfasts and the abundance of breakfast food producers and processors in the region. Julie Harvey, from event organisers Taste of the West, said as well as enjoying a healthy, hearty start to the day, customers were also learning about how the food got to their table. ?The breakfast food being served is raised or grown on or around Dartmoor, a landscape that has been influenced by centuries of agriculture and where farmers are helping to preserve the very character of the moors which is so significant to the region,? she said. The Moorland Farm Shop hosted the local producers who were cooking and serving their breakfast fare from 7.30am and talking to customers about their products. Vicky Sargent, director of the Moorland Farm Shop said: ?When people think of South West food they may consider meat and cheese but many people just aren?t aware of locally produced breakfast cereals, preserves and fruit juices which are readily available. ?There is so much good food in the South West it is important that people know it is here and have a chance to enjoy it.? Among the local producers supporting the event were Dartmoor Happy Hogs, serving its bacon and traditional breakfast speciality, Hogs Pudding, produced from pork raised at Whiddon Down, and the Fishleigh Estate, near Hatherleigh, which served up organic sausages and eggs from its own farm on the estate. Others inlcuded Vivians Honey, also from Hatherleigh. Preserves from Hogs Bottom Garden Delights in Tavistock, sweetened up the morning while thirsts were quenched by Westlake Farm, from Chilla, providing fresh, organic apple juice, and Drewsteignton-based Dunns Dairy?s, own pasteurised milk.
