WHERE DOES OUR FOOD COME FROM?

Our children’s menus are based around the Mediterranean Diet; a diet rich in vegetables, sunflower and olive oils and moderate consumption of protein. The Mediterranean diet was declared by UNESCO in 2010 as the “Intangible Cultural heritage of Humanity” and is still recognized today as one of the most healthy diets in the world as protection against obesity.

At Willow Cottage our meals are freshly prepared on a daily basis using choice ingredients that promote healthy eating and are unlikely to create dietary problems.

We choose locally sourced and low mileage food as far as possible using organic, home-grown, and locally produced food, in preference (subject to availability and pricing). We grow, and prepare with a little help from the children, a variety of our own seasonable fruit and vegetables like apples, rhubarb, plums, spinach, runner beans, courgettes, marrows, grapes and blueberries. We grow some of our own fresh herbs. We use unusual and adventurous recipes from the different continents and cultures around the world. On celebration days, children will often bring in traditional cultural foods to share. Below are some of our low sugar muffins with fresh blueberries.

Our bread and breadsticks-We make our own bread rolls, breadsticks, bread, and tea-breads daily from scratch.
Our home-made puddings, cakes and biscuits are made from scratch and are low sugar. Even our Chocolate Semolina is low sugar!

Our meat is traditionally farmed and purchased from a local butcher. It is meticulously chosen and cuts used are very lean and low in fat. The origins of our meat can be found on our food notice-board.

Our fish is mainly frozen for ease of storage and full confidence in its quality. We choose responsibly fished wild salmon and tuna in preference. We also use canned oily fish like mackerel.

Our eggs are free range.

We grow a variety of our own seasonable fruit and vegetables like apples, rhubarb, plums, grapes and blueberries. We also grow some fresh herbs.

For our groceries we use Tesco Supermarket. We find Tescos the most reliable and their policy is to buy responsibly. They help us to keep our costs down, even with organic produce, and deliver exactly what we order. We believe that Tesco’s are working responsibly and with integrity to reduce their carbon footprint, trade fairly, and source locally whenever possible, thus meeting local & regional needs to reduce food miles and respect the environment.