There are few regions of England which still have so many traditional foods as the Lake District - for even without much thought - Cumberland Sausage, Cumberland Ham, Cumberland Sauce, Rum Butter, Windermere Char, Grasmere Gingerbread, Hawkshead Whigs, Kendal Mintcake and more latterly - Cumberland Farmhouse Cheeses, Cumberland Mustard, Lakeland Liqueur, Coniston and Hawkshead Ales, Damson Gin, Sticky Toffee Pudding and Borrowdale Teabread - spring to mind - to name but a few!

They conjure up wonderful images of Lakes and Fells. I hope that in years to come we are included in these well loved traditions and Lucy's becomes a place where you can sample and purchase the best that the Lakes has to offer and continue to do so, long after I'm pushing up daisies!

Regional foods arise from the products of the Landscape, along with other factors, such as trade routes - Rum Butter, Cumberland Rum Nicky - for example - Nowadays the world is a very small place and we are able to eat almost anything all the year round - however, I still get excited over the first strawberry, spears of English asparagus, Lyth Valley Damsons, Windermere Char, Turkey at Christmas etc. and whilst we can eat foods in profusion, we are becoming a little more discerning about where it comes from and how it has been produced - I hope that we won't allow European Legislations to destroy the likes of knobbly potatoes, misshapen courgettes, samphire grasses... Tasting a food in the region it was made creates a connection that echoes in your mind wherever and whenever you eat that food again - for me, it's Penrith Fudge, Cumberland Rum Butter melted onto spiced bread pudding, Trout fresh from the becks, Waberthwaite Bacon, Westmorland Dream Cake etc. Whilst you enjoy the many and varied foods of the Lake District, remember the Lakelanders of the past and support those of the present who uphold these splendid traditions creating a future for our children and their children after them.

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