fresh fish on the fly...

If you like fish and want really fresh produce you could try catching your own in one of Cumbria's well-stocked fishing venues. What a great way of spending an afternoon - outside catching your own food yourself. I recently visited Bessy Beck Trout Farm near Kirkby Stephen and have vowed to go back. They provide all the kit, keep a number of well-stocked pools and you can even try fly fishing. It's not just for experts, beginners are welcome and you can get tuition if you need it. If you don't manage to catch anything, there's a well stocked shop, so nobody goes away empty handed.

The owners also have a couple of Bradley smokers on the premises and produce some lovely products such as a trout paté which is smoked with a hint of lemon and lime or ginger and orange. They also produce fabulous fish cakes and great fish pies. Alongside their own products they have selected a number of other locally smoked foods, such as duck breast smoked in cherry wood, chicken breast smoked in oak or hickory and salmon gently smoked over oak. And if you thought you could only get trout at the farm, then you'd be wrong, they also keep a selection of other fish such as cod, haddock, swordfish, tuna, salmon, sea bass - not in the pools of course, but in the fridges and freezers. There is also a small farm shop stocking such goodies as venison and dexter beef from Deer'n'Dexter, jams and pickles from Just William, salad dressings and sauces from Wildon Grange and apple juice from The Apple Orchard.

If you can't make it to the trout farm, Bessy Beck also attend a number of the county's farmers markets - notably Barnard Castle, Orton and Rheged in the winter.

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