The River Path
Food & Drink
Food
Rivers are favourite places to eat by from picnics to pubs. Any restaurant overlooking water tends to have an advantage. But food from rivers is not as abundant as it could be, rarely is it ecologically produced and locally distinctive products are few. Many fish farms are too intensive and polluting and organic watercress production is rare (but see Watercress Beds).
Eel fishing seems to be depleting declining stocks still further. Unsatisfied with our own white clawed crayfish, the bigger American Signal Crayfish has been bred here for eating. Its escape into our rivers has passed on a plague which has devastated local crayfish populations especially in the south. Salmon and trout are much depleted and while coarse fish may be plentiful they are not valued as food.
For centuries people converged on Eel Pie Island on the Thames for fishy fairs and a fine day out. The Thames through the capital used to be alive with the creatures, making jellied eels a longtime cockney favourite. Dorothy Hartley (in 'Food in England', 1954) quotes a fifteenth century recipe for Eel Pie "Grease a pye dish and rub it well with garlic. Break off pieces of the ele, and roll them in powdered mace, pepir and salt and, if you would have it golden, a little saffron rubbed in a spoonful of water, pack very close, and press down in the cranies mashed apple", add verjuice or vinegar to the dish brim and after some baking add the pie crust and finish in the oven. The spices arrived in the warehouses of Deptford after a longer journey across the world than the eels. Imagine also being able to enjoy baby herring and sprat whitebait caught in their millions in London. In July in Victorian times, especially in the reaches by Greenwich, freshness was all, the celebrations took place in the riverside taverns such as the Old Ship and the Trafalgar which entertained the Opposition and Ministers respectively at the end of the Parliamentary year.
Perhaps one indicator of living better with nature - of sustainabilty - which we should aspire to is to create the conditions for the return of so many fish in the Thames, Severn and all of our other rivers, that we can all go down to the river to enjoy the spectacle and the eating once more.
Drink
Springs /sources/risings/issues/seepages/wells, especially those by the roadside are often marked by stone troughs or shallow bowls to allow animals to quench their thirst, and often used to have a chained cup for the traveller. Small reminders of our deep understanding of the most basic need.
Breweries were always built where abundant potable water was easily found beside rivers or by dependable wells or boreholes. They gained fame where the qualities of the water made for particular flavour. At Burton on Trent the breweries made use of the calcium sulphate in the water which produced strong flavoured beers. By the 1870s brewers had analysed what made the beers taste good and were able to manipulate the chemicals in the water so liberating themselves from geographical dependence, but the importance of some centres and individual breweries still persists.
Much has been lost of the particularity of beers since many takeovers have drowned out small breweries, but the work of CAMRA, local people and businesses is keeping the spirit alive, small breweries such as Hall & Woodhouse in north Dorset and Adnam's in Suffolk still serve their local area, and new micro breweries are emerging to begin a new cycle of experiment with potential for local distinctiveness.
Over 200 years ago, the makers of Plymouth Gin were attracted to the softness and purity of the water which they used for distillation. It differentiated their gin from the London Gins, and so proud were they of the clarity and purity of their gin that they were the first company to use clear glass bottles.
Following the example of Perrier, bottled water is now big business in Britain, in the mid 1990's we were spending £1 million a day on water of 200 different brands. Malvern and Buxton waters have been bottled for centuries and, with the rest, are paradoxically distributed far and wide.
Common Ground prepared special labels (see left) for Blandford Forum's tap water, as part of their Water Market - a day dedicated to river water, products associated with water and devices to aid water conservation - in 1999. Read more on Common Ground's web-site
Keeping food cool, prolonged its freshness and usefulness to us. Ice houses were the preserve of the rich, but in Devon, stone shelved structures were made around some springs in which to keep cream and butter cool the temperature of spring water remaining constant winter and summer.
From Rivers Rhynes and Running Brooks -
Local Distinctiveness and the water in our lives
Common Ground, 2000.
You can order a copy from Common Ground.
See our publication pages for details.
Read more about local food on
Producing the Goods
