Scottish Taste Buddies  Food and drink can be merely consumables necessary to sustain the holidaymaker or can be carefully chosen to be savoured and remembered as part of the whole enjoyable Scottish holiday experience. Scottishfoodguide.com is dedicated to the latter and happy to be associated with other enterprises, initiatives or ideas of like mind. To this end we have created Scottish Taste Buddies as a showcase for kindred spirits.

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Enquiries		Scottish Cheese Trail Cheeseboard				Comments
		Edinburgh,   Tel:				This attractive cheese tile is one of a limited edition commissioned by Wendy Barrie to celebrate the craft of the artisan cheesemaker and to support small rural enterprises in Scotland. Ideal for that wedge of handmade cheese and an excellent reminder of where to look for that charming place to eat and stay. A perfect gift for the foodie friend. £5 incl p&p (UK). Available through SFG.

Enquiries		UKTV Local Food Hero 2008				Comments
		contact online Edinburgh,   Tel:				UKTV Local Food Hero 2008 UKTV Food discovers Britain’s ultimate food champion - now’s your chance to get involved, nominate and vote for your favourite regional food business. There’s an impressive £40,000 for the winning business. Log onto www.uktvfood.co.uk before14 July for more information and terms and conditions. THIS WEBSITE IS NOT PART OF SFG BUT HAS INVITED US TO PARTICIPATE. CLICK ON THE WEBSITE LINK IF YOU WISH TO VOTE.

Enquiries		Farmhouse Breakfast Week				Comments
		For further information on Farmhouse Breakfast Week please contact: HGCA, Caledonia House, 223 Pentonville Road, London. n/a,  N1 9HY Tel: 020 7520 3968				Farmhouse Breakfast Week will be back in late January 2009. Farmhouse Breakfast encourages everyone to Get Active with the theme ‘Make Time for It’. Organised by the Home-Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA), the campaign flags up the benefits of a healthy balanced breakfast: Not only is it a great way to kick start mind and body for the day ahead, but it’s a fantastic excuse to sample the wealth of delicious high-quality regional breakfast products which are produced in this country, from local bacon and sausages to speciality breads and morning bakes. In the meantime let's celebrate the farmhouse sausage and the speciality breads all year round!

Enquiries		Eider Cottage				Comments
		Hawkcraig Aberdour,   Tel:				Experience Wendy Barrie's unique seaside studio cottage with panoramic views. Built & equipped to exceptionally high standard. Ideal base to explore the fine foods of Fife with excellent train links to Edinburgh. Sleeps 2.

Enquiries		Pots Pans and Pixels				Comments
		Contact via website Edinburgh,   Tel:				Great things sometimes come in small packages and Wendy Barrie’s light-hearted cookbook will strain neither purse nor coffee table. Nor will it endanger the rain forests. What this practical little book will do, well above its shipping weight, is amuse and inform. ‘Pots, Pans and Pixels’ is a cheery kitchen companion, a soufflé of favourite recipes served with a sprinkling of tales from the files of a working ‘foodie.’ Wendy’s creative input teamed with talented Scots photographer Alan Donaldson’s full colour food shots will appeal to all who like to see the ‘one made earlier’ before trying out new recipes. Others may be surprised at how interesting the life of a ‘scone maker’ can be! Cover price £6.99 available via website. (P&P £1.50)

Enquiries		Scottish Field				Comments
		Craigcrook Castle Craigcrook Road Edinburgh,  EH4 3PE Tel: 0131 312 4550				Scotland's quality lifestyle magazine, now over a century old yet as contemporary as ever, with articles reflecting town and country; people and places; gourmet food and wine.

Enquiries		Soil Association Scotland				Comments
		Tower Mains 18 Liberton Brae Edinburgh,   EH16 6AE Tel: 0131 666 2474				Soil Association Scotland campaigns for locally produced, GM-free, organic food to be available and affordable throughout Scotland. We provide an organic food and farming information service for members, schools and the general public.

Enquiries		Catering in Scotland				Comments
		45 Queen Street Edinburgh,  EH2 3NH Tel: 0131 220 3852				An excellent trade publication for Scottish catering, tourism and hospitality markets , the magazine is ideally placed to keep abreast of the latest news and views. Teamed up with chartered accountants, nutrition specialists, property consultants and, on occasion, MSPs, it brings you the best advice and opinion available. In an effort to recognise and reward the high degrees of creativity, excellence and innovation in Scotland 's catering, hospitality and tourism industries, CIS asks YOU annually for entries and nominations for the CIS Excellence Awards.

Enquiries		Scottish Food Fortnight				Comments
		Nicola Chalmers Watson Scottish Countryside Alliance Education Trust Rural Centre Ingliston Edinburgh,  EH28 8NF Tel: 0131 335 0200				The deadline for nominations in the Best Rural Retailer competition this year is this Friday, 6th October, so please take a moment this week to nominate your favourite rural retailer, or someone who goes against the odds in their community to promote all that is good about rural Scotland. The annual contest, organised by the Scottish Countryside Alliance, celebrates the skills and traditions of rural Scotland and the fundamental link between rural communities and food production. Scotland produces some of the best and healthiest food in the world and it is our rural retailers who bring it to the market place. They are the people who promote the traditions and skills of rural Scotland and are at the heart of vibrant rural communities. If you know of a retailer who is an ambassador for the community, then it is vital that you nominate them! Categories are: Best Local Food Retailer Best Village Shop/ Post Office Best Diversification Daily Telegraph Best Traditional Business Nominations can be made at: www.bestruralretailer.co.uk Scottish Food Fortnight is an annual September celebration of Scottish produce which has been backed by some of the country’s leading culinary names. Food columnist and cookery experts Lady Claire Macdonald and Wendy Barrie, along with Michelin star chefs Martin Wishart and Gordon Ramsay have all voiced support for the two week long event.

Enquiries		Royal Highland Show				Comments
		Royal Highland Centre Ingliston Edinburgh Edinburgh,  EH28 8NF Tel: 0131 335 6200				The 'Highland' is the pinnacle of the Scottish showing year, but its appeal stretches well beyond Scotland’s borders to make it not only one of the UK’s premier agricultural shows but also a great day out for all the family, featuring many other activities including food, crafts & flowers.

Enquiries		Healthy Living Award				Comments
		Scottish Consumer Council Royal Exchange House 100 Queen Street Glasgow,  G1 3DN Tel: 0141 226 5261				The healthyliving award is the sign of healthier food when eating out in Scotland, whether that be in your workplace canteen, local sandwich shop, café or restaurant. This exciting new award rewards good practice and highlights businesses that are making it easer for their customers to eat healthily when eating out.

Enquiries		Gardening Scotland				Comments
		Rural Projects 2 Ingliston Gardens Ingliston Newbridge Edinburgh,  EH28 8NB Tel: 0131 333 0969				Scotland's National Celebration of Gardening and Outdoor Living Gardening Scotland is the gardening and outdoor event of the year and takes place in early June each year at the Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh. The Show includes inspirational Show Gardens, the BBC Beechgrove Theatre where visitors can meet Scotland’s gardening celebrities, dozens of exhibitors selling everything you could ever need to make your own garden grow and a huge Living Garden area, complete with fruit cages, hives and honey bees. Food & Drink in the Exhibition Hall has daily cookery shows from Wendy Barrie with guest appearances from selected Consulates in Edinburgh including spicy hot Thai and Japanese sushi.

Enquiries		Slow Food Edinburgh				Comments
		Edinburgh,   Tel:				‘Cometh the hour cometh the man’ could well be said of Carlo Petrini who started the Slow Food movement in the ‘80s as a rallying call to all food loving Italians who were concerned at the relentless march of the ‘fast food’ culture. Not only did he articulate the misgivings of his own countrymen but encouraged like minded people around the world to come together in local convivia to make a stand. Sometime in the ’90s I was invited by a friend to a charity dinner to mark Slow’s arrival in Edinburgh and immediately recognised a cause close to my heart. Since then, as Education Convener for the Edinburgh Convivium, hundreds of youngsters have attended my workshops to learn about the food we eat and about Slow Food. For those still to be converted, Slow Food is a movement supporting biodiversity and small producers world wide. It values ecological production of high quality food with primary producers receiving just rewards for their dedication and hard labour. Many will use skills passed down through generations and may be safeguarding rare breeds or old varieties, above or below ground. While Slow ‘foodies’ share the core values of the movement they will, perhaps more conspicuously, share a love of good food, cherishing its consumption as a pleasure rather than an essential fuel!