Restaurant-Guide.com
hand picked restaurants

Whether we like it or not, and many of us recoil at the sight of those displays in supermarkets, where rather anaemic, twisted and generally sad looking vegetables lurk, waiting for somebody to take pity on them, there is an increasing burden of evidence that organic food is better for you, and the other sort grows more potentially dodgy as economic pressures are brought to bear. There is no pleasure in saying this.

So it is good to find that at the Village Bakery they are trying to put the joy into organic food, and very effectively too. When you hear that the cuisine is hearty, home cooking a spark is kindled and with luck it will light one of their wood-fired cooking ovens, all part of the artisan approach to food production and use here. So in the beautiful Eden Valley be prepared to take perhaps your first steps towards more healthy eating.

First, what does organic eating really mean? Think of ingredients that are grown without the use of synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides and without genetic engineering. Sound good? From that point on what most of us regards as normality reasserts itself, half forgotten tastes return and after a while the body readjusts.

Courses in this and that, from bakery to team development, are held. The Soil Association take a close interest in operations and when the history of food development comes to be written The Village Bakery and Bread Matters will have their place.

The Shepherds Inn at Melmerby is a very classical looking village Inn run by a husband and wife team of Andy and Ceri Webster. The Inn is set on the village Green and is just off the main trans pennine route across the north east. It is surrounded by the stunning countryside and views of the Eden valley.

With local Cumbrian suppliers knocking at the kitchen door, dishes are deliciously fresh and well presented, like the shredded honey roast duck, Asian spiced king prawns and home cured local salmon, served with crisp Lakeland oat cakes, cream cheese and balsamic vinegar. Next you could find a luxury Shepherds Inn shepherd's pie with mutton and pork topped with a rich wholegrain mustard mash and melted cheese, and there is a 10oz Askerton rib eye if you'd like to indulge in bovine pleasures.

Watching mountaineer Doug Scott's escapades in the Himalayas could bring much cheer to those with an adventure streak, and these individually signed photographs are up for sale as well.