Cuisine of Carmarthenshire

Known as The Garden of Wales,[1] Carmarthenshire is a county of rich, fertile farmland and productive seas and estuaries, that give it a range of foods that motivate many home cooks and restaurateurs.

[3] Carmarthenshire has been described by The Daily Telegraph as a "worthwhile destination for foodies" with the county having a modest matter of fact excellence.

[4] Carmarthenshire has ambitions to become the premier food-producing county of Wales, based on its strong reputation for first-class products.

[1] Carmarthenshire's undulating land is prime dairy and mixed farming country, with lamb and beef both important.

In his 1726 pastoral poem "Grongar Hill" the poet John Dyer refers to the valley of the River Towy as follows: Old castles on the cliffs arise, Proudly tow’ring in the skies!

[9] Welsh Black beef is a speciality of Cig Calon Cymru at Cross Hands, where they have a state-of-the-art butchery linked to their own abattoir and farms.

[8] Dewi Roberts of Ffairfach, Llandeilo has his own premium range, which is connected with all the local farmers and draws customers from a wide area, and from internet sales.

[8] Ystrad Traditional Organics based in Brechfa, produces lamb, hogget, mutton and beef from some of Britain's rarest breeds and was a True Taste of Wales award winner in 2007.

[1] Faggots can be bought at Ettie Richardson's Home Baking stall, which sells them fresh every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

The meat is then minced with onions, sage and pepper and then, the liquor strained, and then the mixture simmered for about 15 minutes and then left to cool.

Fresh herbs, often winter savory, was grown near the back door so that it could easily be picked and added to the cawl.

[16] Welsh anglers claim that the Tywi yields more sewin over 10 lbs than every sea-trout river in England and Scotland put together.

[4] Sewin has a more delicate flavour than salmon and is best cooked simply: grilled or baked gently with plenty of salty Welsh butter.

To tell if a whole sewin is of good flavour, the colour of the flesh should be examined by requesting the fishmonger to make a tiny incision with a knifepoint in the middle of the back of the fish.

However, Les Parsons, a native Laugharne, started his own shellfish business on the Carmarthenshire side of the estuary after returning home from military service in India in 1947.

[21] The company now operates out of Burry Port and produces cockles, mussels, shellfish and pickles, to traditional recipes and European Union accreditation standards.

Away from the cool scrubbed cobbled kitchen with the Sunday-school pictures on the whitewashed wall and the farmers' almanac hung above the settle and the sides of bacon on the ceiling hooks, and goes down the cockleshelled paths of that applepie kitchen garden, ducking under the gippo's clothespegs, catching her apron on the blackcurrant bushes, past beanrows and onion-bed and tomatoes ripening on the wall towards the old man playing the harmonium in the orchard, and sits down on the grass at his side and shells the green peas that grow up through the lap of her frock that brushes the dew."

Vegetables that could be stored and eaten during the winter included leeks, parsley, cabbage, swedes, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and nuts.

[24] Walled kitchen gardens were usually constructed for larger Carmarthenshire houses and here fruit, flowers and vegetables would be grown.

In 2011, Carmarthenshire County Council Policy & Resources Scrutiny Committee noted that concerns regarding food origin and quality, coupled with the current financial pressures, are some of the main causes for increasing demand for allotments and that the council wished to identify suitable plots of land for new allotments.

Sometimes a cawl would need to be prepared quickly, and in this case the vegetables (and meat if added) would be cut into small pieces and boiled together.

[33] Apples were also used for medicinal purposes, with the Physicians of Myddfai prescribing them for ague (intermittent fever), jaundice, and eye water.

[34] The orchards at Dryslwyn Castle were well enough known to be recited in a poem by Lewis Glyn Cothi:[35] Iddaw fo mae neuadd falch Ac yn wengaer gan wyngalch, Ac o gylch ogylch i hon, Naw o arddau yn wyrddion, Perllanwydd a gwinwydd gwyr, Derw ieuainc hyd yr awyr.

He holds a proud hall And a white fort, whitewashed And all around Nine gardens green Great orchards and vines Young oaks touching the sky The Farmhouse Cheese Shop, run by John and Patrice Savage-Ontswedder, can be found in Carmarthen Market.

[36] Savage-Ontswedder also produce Celtic Promise, a modern vegetarian surface-ripened cow's milk cheese with a semi-soft texture and a moist orange-red rind with a dusting of mould.

[9] Pencae Mawr Farm Foods of Llanfynydd, Carmarthen, produce home-made chutneys, preserves and other condiments and are True Taste Award winners winning a gold medal for best organic product (beetroot relish) and a silver award for speciality product (blackcurrant and vanilla).

At Pobdy Stephens Bakehouse, also art Carmarthen Market, can be found Welsh cakes, sultana pancakes, chunky pasties and Victoria sponges.

[13] All the milk comes from a 15-mile radius of his dairy, including the Nant-y-Bwla pedigree Jersey herd, and the Gwendraeth Valley's Cwmheidir Farm, gold medal winners at the Royal Welsh Show.

[13] Mario points out that cheap ice cream is full of air and vegetable fat, he believes the reason that his business has grown is because people are willing to pay more for quality.

[43] Box schemes are provided by Organics to Go, based at Golden Grove near Llandeilo, which includes specific items to order and delivers throughout South and West Wales.