Thirty Miles

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Thirty Miles

A Local Journey in Food

Category:	Travel
Author:	Ian Walker
Publisher:	Matador
Price:	£8.99
ISBN:	1-905237-64-2
Pages:	310
Reviewed in issue:	3

Ian Walker has written a fascinating book – in effect it is really three books in one.

Firstly, it is an insight into the dedicated folk who work hard, often for little reward to provide really good organic food. Secondly, It is a critical commentary on the domination of the UK food market by the large supermarkets – far more so than any other country in Europe. Thirdly, and not least, it has mouth-watering recipes using the ingredients he found on his quest to find good food in a thirty mile area of North Wales.

Throughout the book he poses questions to make us think of the way we live. For example, can it be right that our Sunday lunch could collectively have travelled over 30,000 miles to reach our table – and at what cost to the planet?

Ian is also passoinate about the English Apple. In Britain there are over 2000 varieties of apples in the national collection – yet at the height of the season, supermarkets import over 60% of apples from abroad – over 400,000 tons. It is not a coincidence that over half of our apple orchards have been lost since the 1970s.

This book offers so much – from arming us with facts about where our food comes from, to offering a gentle travelogue of his journey to source local food, and the people he meets along the way.

Overall, Thirty Milles tells us that if we appreciate healthy food, it will cost a bit more, and the author offers the stark warning that if we do not support our local producers and farmers’ markets they will disappear, to our great loss.

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